Apple Hilldale - Madison, Wisconsin

Todd

Well staffed and well stocked Apple Store. We had all of our questions answered and enjoy the experience.

Michael M.

Surprised my wife by bringing her here to buy her a new phone for her birthday. During our meeting, the team member persistently attempted to add on services and sell us a more expensive product than we wanted despite the fact that we told them we knew exactly what we wanted when we walked in. I understand that 'up-selling' is part of the gig.

He attempted to sell us on the Apple Care service by telling us an anecdote about him dropping his phone in the bathroom.

"So you dropped your phone. What does that have to do with me" I thought to myself. We declined the service.....or so I thought.

Apparently, we had too much trust in the team member as I just noticed a monthly bill appearing on my credit card from Apple. Turns out that they added the Apple Care service despite us declining it. Now, we have the painful task of dealing with their support team in order to be refunded the money for a service we explicitly declined.

We will not return to this store.

Dustin W.

Dealing with this store often leads to frustration due to lack of knowledgabe staff, and varying answers depending upon who you speak to on any given day. I recently upgraded my phone, and the store told me that they were unable to accept my trade-in at the store, and that I would be sent a trade-kit to return the old phone directly to Apple. It turns out this was untrue, and Apple is now refusing to send me the trade-in kit and requiring me to return to the store, which is a 40-minute drive each way.

I've had similar interactions in the past where blatantly incorrect information has been given to me or a family member, requiring several trips to the store to resolve. The staff is ever changing, and the environment is chaotic, which I'm sure doesn't help the situation.

I've been thinking of exiting the Apple ecosystem after nearly 15 years, and this store might have just made it much easier for me to make the decision to do so.

Samantha S.

Interacted with a handful of people at the store to assist with a battery replacement. Guillermo is the only name I remember, but everyone was incredibly helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly. I was impressed at how great the customer service was given how busy this place was. Someone was assisting me and another customer at the same time, and I was so touched by how patient she was with the other customer who seemed to be struggling with the technology. Excellent staff here.

Nandeesh P.

I still wonder that apple hiring people who doesn’t have basic knowledge about financing through AT&T, porting numbers. They are creating AT&T accounts with temporary numbers and having financing on that number instead of keeping the current number that customer wanted to continue.

John was the manager who doesn’t know anything and I wonder how he became manager. I had explained my issue couple times and he is simply suggesting to talk to AT&T. Why the apple creating accounts if they don’t know how to edit the process and not responsible of created accounts. Atleast they have to help until 14 days period. I am glad we met Christie who helped us and made us feel better!!

I am requesting apple to hire people like Christie and we don’t need people like John. He is very poor with communication and zero knowledge about his job and responsibilities!!!

E B.

The employee that helped us on 12/28 was incompetent. We were having trouble pairing my son's watch to his phone, and made an appointment. The store was unorganized and clearly set up to get you to buy things, not to receive help on products.
We were eventually told that it was not possible to pair the watch to the phone, which I thought seemed odd as they were compatible products.
The employee then looked at my child and said in a child-directed tone "maybe your mom can buy you a new phone." I said "no." The employee then said, "maybe you can do extra chores to earn a new watch or phone." We left. We eventually figured out, with help from a non-employee, that we just needed more storage space on the phone for the pairing to work.
No new purchases were needed, and everything works correctly. What a waste of everyone's time.
It's apparent that employees are only versed on the newest products and do everything to get you to buy and upgrade. What a wasteful way to live. What a horrible thing to teach kids.

It's sad that a so called "genius bar" employee did not know such basic info about the products they work with. Or they did know, and instead tried to get me to buy something newer. Either way, a horrible business model and employee training. Gross, Apple.

Gregory

This one is a long one so bear with me…
Went in today because my trusted MacBook Pro of 6 years was at the point where, while physically completely intact, wasn’t handling the needs of my business. As a photographer and videographer, I needed something that would be just as reliable. I was greeted by a kind woman who got another employee to help complete my trade-in and transaction. I, unfortunately, failed to realize that I needed to remove my stickers before the store could take it in. After about five or so minutes of struggling, the employee whose name I regretfully didn’t grab graciously offered to do it for me. While this should have been an easy process, these stickers were stuck on as strong as duct tape on duct tape. The very nice employee enlisted the help of another employee which ended up being the catalyst to the funniest in-store interaction I’ve ever experienced. These employees seemed to have the comedic timing of Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster wrapped in a gen Z package. While I was sad to let go of my most reliable computer I’ve ever owned when I got there, these two made me completely forget what I was trading in. 10/10 experience
The new Mac mini works beautifully thanks guys

Frances G.

Scheduled a Genius appt but didn't get a Genius; got someone else who did some diagnostics on my iPad and display screen issue. She didn't explain what she was doing or give me a definitive answer as to the problem and sent me right to sales. The sales person did not communicate well and seemed unsure of himself. I was disappointed in the entire experience and left the store.