iStore Brooklyn - incompetence, reluctance to be of assistance

I went to the iStore in Brooklyn, Pretoria to upgrade my current iPhone 6 Plus to the iPhone X.

I have done MTN upgrades countless times, so I am totally fami**** with the procedure: I need a letter from my company, authorizing me to do the upgrade, and attach a certified copy of my identity document.

The iStore Brooklyn has the iPhone X in stock. However, when i informed the store assistant that it is on a MTN contract, I was immediately informed that the iPhones X's they had in stock, were for Vodacom an Telkom contracts, and not MTN.

I asked whether the iStore Menlyn perhaps had in stock, whereupon the assistant attempted to phone Menlyn iStore. He could of course not get through to the iStore in Menlyn, as it is impossible to get any response via telephone from any specific iStore, as anyone who has attempted this foolish errand, can confirm. It is easier to get hold of Donald Trump via the telephone than the iStore.

The shop assistant then said he wanted to ask the store manager something, and voila, suddenly they were able to assign a Vodacom and Telkom iPhone X's to an MTN customer, which was great. Although I could not hear what the store manager said to the shop assistant, from her expression she seemed amazed that the shop assistant had asked her such a stupid question in the first place.

I gave the shop assistant the letter of confirmation and a certified copy of my id, which he gave to the consultant that dealt with MTN contracts. She was busy with another client, and looked over at me with that long-suffering look that lets you know what you were just bothering her: she was going to have to complete another form! And this on a Saturday morning!

From her long-suffering attitude, it was immediately clear that she did not want to assist me: completing forms was definitely not on her to-do-list on this Saturday morning. And, to confirm this, she immediately said that the letter that I have used for at least the past 10 years, was not in order. I amended the letter, as I am the director of the company in whose name the contract is.

When this was handed to her, she then decided that she needed a further document from the company, confirming the address of the company, despite the address being clearly stated on the letterhead of the confirmatory letter.

By then it was totally clear that she did not want to assist me at all, as it was just too much extra work. And I was definitely not going to do business with a company that is clearly reluctant to do business with me.

I there and then decided that I was moving over to Vodacom and was rather going to get the new Samsung S8, which gets better reviews than the iPhone, in any event.

In general I find it extremely unpleasant to deal with any iStore: getting someone to assist you is extremely difficult. You usually have to stand around for quite a while, before someone will condescend to reluctantly drag their feet over to you and ask you why the **** you were doing in the store to bother them.

And, it is also quite apparent that most of the people working in iStores, have absolutely no technical knowledge of the products they sell.

The other day, one of them told me it is impossible to upgrade the ram of the iMac. Apparently the ram is soldered in the motherboard! I have owned a few iMacs, so I know that this is factually untrue, and it is also untrue of the latest iMac: it is a simple procedure that you can do by simply un*****ing a little cover, and pulling out the module and replacing the ram chips.

On another occasion I asked for a digital optical cable for my iMac. I was immediately , rather patronizingly, advised that the iMac does not have such a connection. I told the shop assistant to go and get a manual and then proceeded to show the idiot in the manual where the digital optical output is located! I had to teach the imbecile how to do his own job. I should have given the iStore an invoice for services rendered!

It appears that the iStore does absolutely no training, neither technical nor in customer relations.

The only reason I gave the iStore one star, is because they do not have -5 as a choice.