Apple Evergreen Walk — Establishment and electronics store at 401 Evergreen Way, South Windsor, Connecticut.

Estimated service times were about 50% longer than quoted. Otherwise nice store and helpful employees

I called the Evergreen Walk store’s local number to confirm if they had batteries in stock for the iPhone battery replacement program. After being connected to AppleCare numerous times instead, I finally figured out that I could get to the local store by telling the automated service that I wanted to speak to a manager. The employee I was eventually connected with confirmed they did have them in stock, and he explained the process could take about an hour, but that I could leave it and come back to pick it up.

When I arrived, I was asked if I had an appointment. I did not, so I was referred to another employee to begin. He told me that it would be at least an hour before they could even look at my phone. Then he said they require that I stay onsite during the process (even after I explained the phone had been wiped/reset and there was no personal info on it). I didn’t have an extra hour to wait... and had not planned on staying there throughout the experience either. Why didn’t the employee I spoke to on the phone tell me this? I would have planned my day very differently. I had to walk out and will have to try again another day as I didn’t have the time today to go through all this.

I am already pretty upset about the battery situation to begin with. The only reason I upgraded my phone last fall was because it had slowed down so badly. I thought it was just because iOS had evolved too much for my old iPhone 6. To find out AFTER upgrading that I could have kept my old phone and improved the experience by fixing the battery (and saved hundreds of dollars in the process) is ridiculous. And now that I want to fix the battery and gift my old phone to someone else, they’re still not making it easy. Apple... you need to refocus on the basics and earn your customers’ business by respecting them. At the local level specifically, work on respecting your customers’ time. I would have been first in line to get a HomePod... but I think you and I are done for now.