Apple Store Closures Block Customers Picking Up Repairs

Prepare to wait several weeks if you dropped off an iPhone, iPad, MacBook, or Apple Watch to get repaired. Apple's retail stores are closed indefinitely.
Apple closed its retail stores indefinitely due to the coronavirus outbreak, but it did alert customers to pick up their devices left for repair prior to the closures. Some customers just didn't appear to retrieve them, however, an Apple spokesperson told Business Insider. Now, they're left waiting until the Cupertino-based company reopens locations in the United States and around the world. It could take up to several
 months for these retail stores to reopen.

Customers should've received a call or email before March 16. Apple shut down its retail operations on March 14, but it still let customers visit to pick up their devices for two days after that. While many customers did retrieve their devices in a timely manner, others didn't show up and are currently stuck waiting for the retail stores to reopen.

If you're a customer whose device got sent out to a repair center, Apple should get in touch to coordinate a return. Apple will not distribute them back to the customer's local retail store for pickup.

Apple first announced the closures on March 13. Since then, it transitioned the expected reopening date from March 27 to an undetermined timeframe. All retail stores outside of China are to remain closed until further notice. Corporate offices are also limited, and Apple introduced expanded leave policies covering illness, mandatory quarantining, and childcare. It appears that Apple has continued paying both salaried and hourly employees during this crisis.

No one knows when the coronavirus outbreak will get controlled and allow businesses to resume their normal operations on all fronts. Apple isn't completely offline, though. It'll still sell products, including the new MacBook Air and iPad Pro models, through its online store as long as couriers can ship them.