“I felt lied to,” an Apple customer told the Jewel City Times. When this customer purchased his AirPods nearly a year ago, the Active Noise Cancellation feature (ANC) was a deciding factor. “I was living in a dorm with multiple people at the time, and I really needed the noise cancellation so I could sleep in peace and quiet,” the customer told us. So when ANC seemingly degraded months later, he decided to use his active AppleCare+ plan to get it repaired.
“When I got to the Genius Bar, they ran some tests and told me that the system was showing that the AirPods were working fine, and all they could do was replace the ear tips. I asked them if the tests that they ran showed how much notice cancellation degraded over time, and the employee said that they don’t test for ANC. So I essentially paid $30 for AppleCare+ and when it came time for them to do their part, they gaslighted me.”
This customer’s frustration was shared by other customers, who also reported toxic interactions with Apple’s Genius Bar employees. A user on Reddit’s r/AppleHelp community said that he went to an Apple Store to get his girlfriend’s Apple Powerbeats Pro repaired, and was also faced with gaslighting.
“She took them to run some tests and came back 10 minutes later asking for the original case they came in. I replied, ‘What? This is the original case. They came in this one when she bought them.’ She responded, ‘No, this case is black, and these are pink, which are sold exclusively with a pink case. This is not the original case. You should get in touch with the store where you bought these because this is not the correct case.’”
As it turns out, certain Powerbeats Pro earbuds do not match the color of the case.
“Immediately, I pulled up a bunch of unboxing videos and showed her that every single one of them displayed pink Powerbeats Pro with a black case. At this point, another associate joined the conversation and clarified that the new models come with a black case.” Even when proven wrong, the employee did not back down, “she insisted that the earbuds didn’t belong to that case because the serial numbers on them didn’t match the one on the case.”
The Jewel City Times verified that the case and the earbuds do not share a serial number. The case has its own serial number and each earbud (left and right) has its own serial number.
“I was baffled by how unprepared and unprofessional she and the entire team involved were.” the user said.
Months later, another Reddit user shared their experience with the Genius Bar. The user said that “the Genius Bar just sent me home after their iPad showed 4-5 green checkmarks diagnosing my in-warranty AirPods Pro 2. First I was asked to test them after they were reset. I verified the rattling behavior, but I’m not sure why—the Genius conveyed when the iPad goes [checkmark], the customer must be crazy.”
The complaints are not isolated to Reddit. One user, leaving a one star review for the Apple Store location at The Grove in Los Angeles, shared that she spilled water on her laptop, and brought it to the Apple Store to be repaired for charging issues.
“I brought it in to this Apple Store thinking it would be an easy fix but they told me that it would cost so much to fix it that I should just purchase a new laptop ($999 in price). I was skeptical so I brought my laptop into a different laptop repair shop (not Apple related) and turns out the charging port just needed to be cleaned and only cost $90 to have my laptop good as new again.”
Apple’s quality issues are not new. In February, MacRumors reported that Apple might drop its iPhone display manufacturer over issues with meeting quality standards.
In October of 2024, Apple started rolling out “Apple Intelligence” on their devices. Despite the big promises, the feature left many users disappointed.
According to a report by Cybernews, users were disabling Apple Intelligence on their devices due to the software producing inaccurate results and being “no different from regular Siri” according to some users.
The customer we interviewed at the beginning of this article told us that he ended up canceling his AppleCare+ after Apple refused to repair his AirPods, and Pre-Ordered new earbuds from a different brand.
“I walked into that Apple store thinking I was dealing with a company that cared about their customers, but Apple doesn’t care. Not about me, not about you, not about loyalty.”
