JZ
Jenny Zhang
Dec 26, 2025
During Black Friday, I bought an iPad Air 13 for my son at Polo Park as a Christmas gift. Yesterday, on Christmas Day, my son excitedly opened his present and was absolutely thrilled. The story should have ended there—but instead, that was only the beginning.
While my husband was helping him set up the iPad Air, he noticed a scratch, approximately 0.5 cm long, located on the inner side of the metal frame near the screen. This detail is very important, because under normal circumstances, drops or impacts would leave marks on the outer metal frame, not the inner side. Anyone who has used Apple products understands this basic fact.
We originally planned to go skiing on Boxing Day, but because of this scratch, we canceled our trip and decided to go to the Apple Store to request a replacement.
At the Apple Store, the regular staff could not resolve the issue and called over a woman who said she was the manager. She told us that the iPad could not be exchanged. She said she had worked at Apple for 10 years, and based on her 10 years of experience, she could guarantee that the iPad did not have this defect before it was put into the box. According to her, the scratch must have occurred after we purchased it, and therefore it was our responsibility. Apple would not replace or refund it.
My husband and I explained that we had only opened the box the day before, and we pointed out the location of the scratch, explaining that it was impossible for us to have caused damage in that specific area. This is when the “classic” response came. The manager said:
“I’m not saying you caused the scratch, but based on my 10 years of experience, I can guarantee that the product did not have this defect when it was packaged.”
She never explicitly accused us, but she repeatedly implied that we were responsible. No matter how much we explained, she remained firm and continued to suggest that the damage was our fault.
We asked to speak to her manager. She told us that she was the manager and that the matter was closed—no exchange, no refund.
At this point, I was extremely upset and raised my voice. She then accused me of yelling at her and tried to have us removed from the store. She even called the Polo Park security officers to escort us out.
In the end, I turned on the voice recorder on my iPhone (which felt rather ironic) and said, “Please repeat your ‘guarantee’ statement one more time, and I’ll leave.” She refused to repeat it and asked me to turn off the recording.
When the Polo Park security arrived, more of her colleagues showed up. One of them said to my husband and me, “You can’t treat my manager like this. Look how nice she is.”
What a nice colleague—protecting his manager—yet no one seemed to care about how the manager treated her customers.
Later, my husband pulled me aside and calmly explained the situation to another male manager who arrived afterward. This manager was eventually convinced that manufacturing defects can occur and agreed to exchange the iPad. However, he said we would need to pay back the $140 Black Friday discount in order to do the exchange.
In my understanding, if a customer purchases a defective product, the store should replace it unconditionally. But given the earlier refusal, the aggressive attitude, and the exhausting confrontation, we felt we had no choice but to accept this outcome. That said, we absolutely refused to pay an additional $140 to buy a “new” iPad.
In the end, the result was this:
We bought a defective product, were treated with suspicion and contempt by Apple Store staff as if we were trying to cause trouble, had our original discount forcibly taken back, and were refunded instead.
In short, I paid money just to buy myself a problem.
Throughout the entire process, no one apologized. No one said “sorry.”
It was truly a terrible shopping experience.