APPLE STORE ALBUQUERQUE UPTOWN

Going here is always a miserable experience, any time of day or week. But, it is sometimes worse, sometimes a little better. Today's experience was the absolute bottom. I walked in, put my name on a list for help and waited 35 minutes to buy things. Am I nuts? 35 minutes to buy stuff? I wouldn't wait 35 minutes to eat on the top of the Eiffel Tower! I will say that I asked the guy taking names (of course on an iPad) for the oldest salesperson they have. Several folks around laughed. Twenty minutes later I went back to the guy with iPad and said that it had now been 20 minutes. He said, well you made a special request. At 35 minutes, a man came up and said: I'm the manager. I said: "I've been waiting 35 minutes to buy things and now my neck is a knot." He said: "That's your fault." I asked for his name and left. No one dealing with customers ever says that legitimately. (I'm actually hard pressed to think of when that sentence is ever helpful in any situation.) Either keep a customer and make him as happy as you can, or call the police. In one sense he is right, thought. I was a fool. I bought a temperamental MAC that can be dealt with only at that one place. It is like buying a BMW when I should have bought a Jeep or a Ford truck. The Apple store is a "concept" place, no prices on anything, nothing written, nothing clear. It is always full, but it is like a grim party -- chaos and intensity, but no pleasure at all. Unless you are 1. desperate to be trendy 2.under 30 with computers in your blood or 3. a born masochist, go elsewhere. Btw, everyone in my age group -- over 50 -- hates the place(s) wherever they are located.

My husband and I have purchased a macbook, imac, and two ipods from the apple store and have been very satisfied with both the products and the service. My husband's ipod touch had four or five pixels that were not working, and with no questions asked, the apple store replaced it with a brand new one. Apple rocks!

Being the only official Apple retail store in the state of New Mexico, we HIGHLY recommend scheduling an appointment with a personal shopper, or their genius bar if you have technical questions- otherwise go in the off hours. We went to the store on two separate occasions and it is always packed. That said the staff did seem very knowledgeable and took the time to explain things. The only down side is the other customers, everyone was very pushy and rudely trying to interrupt the poor staff who did their best to get everyone some attention.