Genius Bar battery replacement appointment not honored due to store hours

I am extremely disappointed with my recent experience at the Apple Store in CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Toronto, Canada).

I booked a Genius Bar appointment specifically for a battery replacement at 7:50 PM. I arrived early at approximately 7:35 PM and checked in, but I was told there was a long wait due to delays from earlier appointments. I was directed to a table, where I waited for approximately 40 minutes.

At around 8:30 PM, a staff member finally came over and told me that they would not be able to replace my battery that evening. More frustratingly, I was informed that even without the backlog, the replacement could not have been completed because the process takes approximately 1–1.5 hours and the store closes at 9:00 PM that they would never attempt to service my device no matter what.

If that is the case, why was a 7:50 PM battery-replacement appointment offered in the first place?

I did not need to wait 40 minutes for someone to confirm that my battery health was poor. I already knew that, and it was the reason I booked the appointment. After a long workday, I made time to attend an appointment that, according to the store’s own explanation, was never realistically capable of resulting in the service I had booked.

The staff member then insensitively suggested that I return some other time before 6:00 PM on a weekday because the store would be less busy. How sarcastic and disrespectful a solution for a working professional. Customers should not be expected to leave work early to compensate for an appointment system that offers service times the store cannot honour.

I have been a loyal Apple customer for years and have always appreciated Apple’s technology, service standards, and professionalism. This experience seriously changed my perception of how Apple values its customers’ time.

I called Apple Support immediately after leaving the appointment to file a formal complaint. I have little expectation that this will lead to a meaningful resolution or prompt the store to revisit its scheduling system/or the staff being reasonable or empathetic. The message I received was essentially that customers are expected to leave work early if they want their service completed, while the appointment system offers time slots that the store apparently never intended, or was never able, to honour, and the customers are supposed to know that. Under those circumstances, the appointment system feels like it exists merely for show, with no regard for the customer’s time.

An experience to share with broader Apple community.