[RickFLM4]

Has anyone completed the battery replacement at an Apple Store?

I made an appointment but then received an email to call customer support to order the battery. I did and they cancelled the appointment, telling me I would be notified when the battery arrived, at which time I could go in to get it installed without an appointment. I later received an email notification that the battery was at the store and went into the store.

When I got there I had no idea where to go so went to the back of the store where it looked like employees were tending to customer products and waited. When someone freed up they called a name so I asked if I was supposed to check in somewhere. I was directed to someone in the middle of the store to check me in (which I would have never figured out without asking). Anyway, after another 10-15 minutes, a third person found me to get my phone and to my surprise told me it would be about 2 hours so I would need to leave the phone. There was no notice of the 2 hours when I called Apple, got the email or checked in so I was a bit surprised and actually couldn’t leave my phone for 2 hours at that particular time, so I left, moderately annoyed about the wasted trip and time.

I was thinking of going back this weekend but started wondering if people are leaving their phones there unlocked such that Apple Store employees can access personal information. When the person was taking my phone, she wanted to check to make sure my phone was backed up so she took it out of my hand and started looking at settings before she was about to just walk away with the phone.

So, back to my original question, has anyone completed this process and, if so, did you just leave your phone there unlocked? Or did you erase it and restore it after getting it back? Seems odd they have access to anything they want on customer phones for 2 hours.