Four benjamins will no longer get you an iPhone, now that Apple is requiring credit cards for all iPhone purchases. The new policy, which is billed as an anti-piracy initiative, also prevents customers from buying more than two iPhones per visit. Apple claims the policy went into effect this Thursday, however we received the following tip more than a week ago:
I witnessed a distressing situation at my local Apple Store this morning: a customer who wanted to buy 2 iPhones (for her and her husband) was denied the sale, because she wanted to pay with cash. One employee claimed it was due to “the registration system”, stating “it requires a credit card” which is totally bogus. Another employee said it was part of an attempt to prevent people from buying several and unlocking or exporting them. They also said that checks and gift cards are no longer accepted for iPhone purchases, and that he credit card has to have the customer’s name on it.
Apple disclosed this week that up to a quarter-million consumers may have unlocked their iPhones, some with the help of resellers. Apple previously allowed individuals to buy up to five iPhones at once.
Apple Limits Sale of iPhones: Two Per Person and No Cash [AP]
(Photo: Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten)
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This kind of garbage is why I stopped buying Apple computers years ago. Apple just tries to take all of the control away from the consumer.
As for credit cards, I don’t want any of them and, if I do have to have one, I don’t want to use it. I’m tired of paying a outrageous tax to use my own money.
To all the people getting outraged about this, do you really think there are lots of legit customers paying cash for iPhones? I never carry more than $100 in cash, and I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything that cost more than that with cash.
And for the record, the iPhone is a fantastic device. It’s not perfect, but it’s much better than any other phone or PDA I’ve ever used. I didn’t buy it to be cool, I bought it because it’s very well designed and lets me do things that were either impossible with my previous phone, or were too difficult to use in real life. Does that make me an idiot?
@darkclawsofchaos: @Bay State Darren: The iPhone has the best UI of any mobile web browsing device out there. For some people, that’s worth $400 and a contract.
Not for me right now — I’ll probably be buying a FIC Neo1973 when the next generation of them comes out, and setting that up run its wifi in host mode (current generation doesn’t have wifi, that’s why I’m waiting) so I can use an iPod Touch for the web browsing. I pay a little more that way, but I get a phone where the creators want me to write my own software, and a separate device with the excellent mobile web experience.
I’m fairly certain that this is illegal. A retail establishment can refuse to accept various amounts of currency, such as 500,000,000 pennies for a payment but the cannot refuse to accept cash.
This really makes me feel alienated from Apple. I’m in college and I don’t feel like I’m ready to get a credit card yet. (I’ve seen too many people ruin their credit.) I wasn’t planning on getting an iPhone or anything, but it kind of sucks to be told that that I’m not allowed to buy one.
A lot of people say that it is suspicious to pay in cash, but I feel like it helps me control my spending. Seeing my (hard-earned) cash exchange hands makes the purchase sink in more.
That’s funny, my money says it’s legal tender for ALL debts, public and private
@b-real: You can, but you need identification. You can’t rent a car in most places without cash, unless you purchase an ungodly amount of insurance and put down a 500 dollar deposit.
As for money, it is legal tender, but the right to refuse service trumps the right to use cash. If they make the sale and you owe, cash can work. If they refuse the sale, as long as its not discrimination against a nationally protected category, it’s perfectly acceptable (state and local laws may apply, this is not legal advice, etc.)
*with cash.
That being said, I love the Iphone for features but the price scares the crap out of me. 400 bucks for a phone. gotta buy insurance on it in case I lose it.
@meneye: Yes but that just means that it can be used to pay debts, not that your allowed to use it. Apple is a private company and thus doesnt have to accept cash, check, or credit cards depending on how it feels.
What I find funny is this is very common too, so I dont understand the furor. Most cellphone and car rental companys now refuse cash for various reasons. Why its it perfectly fine for them to, but god forbid Apple do it and the entire freaking world goes into a furor for what is common elsewhere.
Hey, how’s about changing the name of this little blog to “The Conspicuous Consumerist “?
I would like to politely suggest that you assholes that are chasing after this stupid little toy like Pavlov’s dogs are the very reason that they can get away with telling you where,when and how you can buy the damn things. In fact , if Steve Jobs decreed that you would have to sing “I’m a little teapot” in a crowded mall to get one,you’d be practicing the lyrics in front of a damn mirror. Wake UP you people ! This is a fucking telephone ! It won’t change your life,it damn sure isn’t making you any smarter and more popular. This is the grown up version of how the “in” crowd in high school told you what to wear,what to watch and what to eat so you could be like “them”.You apparently haven’t learned a thing since.You deserve to pay $400 (plus a two year assfucking from A T & T) for the right to make the same calls that the rest of us can make for almost nothing. This is a rechargeable Cabbage Patch Kid that comes with a two year contract and you can’t wait to get one because, um, “they” told you to.When the nice men come to repossess your house and car because you couldn’t keep up the payments because of useless shit like this,you can at least call your mom on your Iphone and beg her to let you and your hungry kids move in with her.You’ll damn sure do that before you tell Steve Jobs to stick this thing where the sun don’t shine. Yes, “Buffy” (or “Biff”), the reason that you are shocked to read stuff like this is because you need someone,sometime to tell you truth about how easily these companies manipulate you.
BTW,I would like to apologize for that second sentence. I meant “stupid assholes”
@icruise:
I’m probably in that obscure and rare camp of legit consumers that doesn’t feel comfortable with a credit card. (I’m a college student, I try to avoid temptations like one.) While I don’t carry a lot of cash on me, I can and will go to the bank to withdraw whatever sum is needed for a big purchase.
I thought the iPhone was kind of neat when it first came out, but didn’t want to be one of the early adopters for something that pricy. Now I apparently can’t ‘adopt’ at all, though maybe that’s a good thing with how they’re behaving.
I think instead of buying an iphone… my motorola q does just fine. I’ll buy the new lower priced ps3. Take that apple!
I thought US currency had to be accepted by US Law, however apparently not: [www.ustreas.gov]
However note that it says:
(emphasis added).
So there could still be state laws in play here.
hate credit cards, have big stack of cash. getting prepaid cc just for online purchases, but I will now never use it to buy from apple. I’ve actually been considering one of those shiny new macbooks as my next god awful expensive toy, but not now.
dear apple, you have officially lost your god damned mind and when i say apple i mean you steve. looks like you’ve been swallowing too much of bill’s gerbil juice and figured if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. so please feel free to be the whore you need to be, but don’t expect me to wipe the jizz off your fohead when i get done milking my apple stock and tell you to get the fuck out. it goes without saying that you won’t be paid for your services, as i only pay my whores in cash.
1) I agree that the iPhone is a artifact of rampant consumerism. I still think it looks cool. Do I want one? Nope, it doesn’t do what I need a phone to do.
2) Apple does have the right to refuse cash, although I wonder if maybe the no-cash rule might have a disproportionate affect on a minority group, and it occurs to me that AT&T is a public carrier…. so, maybe there’s a lawsuit in this?
3) Plenty of legitimate customers don’t use credit. In fact, I question a society in which people who buy on credit are the legitimate customers. Hmmm… I doubt my grandmother even had a credit card.
Uh, there’s precedent for refusing cash. Try buying a DirecTV system retail without a credit card, unless you pay absolutely full price (i.e., $200 for a receiver instead of $50).
paying with cash is PIRACY???? alert teh police!
Anti-piracy initiative? When did buying something with cash become piracy?
i love that cat!
Waiting for the G-phone.
It has to be better than this.
What is to stop people from buying visa gift card with their cash? And i’m fairly certain they have to take the apple gift card, otherwise it would be against the TOS of the card.
@royal72: wtf? how do you compare not taking credit cards to bill gates? I don’t recall ever not being able to use cash to make a MS purchase. Not to mention the fact that you are bascially saying you don’t like his actions but are ok with it since you will make money…Im pretty sure thats the definition of sellout, which give you no right to comment.
Um… just to inform the Consumerist, there’s actually a number of errors in this report, as far as I know.
First of all, on the positive side, the policy isn’t that you need to pay the entirety of it on a credit card. Just that a credit card is part of the purchase. Meaning you could pay a dollar on a card and pay the rest in cash. Apple keeps copies of all of it’s credit receipts for your convenience, meaning if you lose it, Apple can retrieve the transaction later for a return or exchange.
Second of all, on the negative side, you misinterpreted the limit. It’s not two per transaction or day or even month. It’s two EVER. In a lifetime. Period.
So, I hope that clarifies some things for the Consumerist. I respect the blog. I just wish you’d fact check a little bit more.
And how is this any different than a hotel or internet service requiring a credit card to ensure payment? Apple is ensuring their corporate investment in the phone market by limiting mass resellers. They’re trying to make money.
Isn’t that the essence of capitalism?
If a consumer doesn’t like it, or can’t afford it, then they don’t buy one. And if they do like it and can afford it, then they go ahead and buy one.
Isn’t that the essence of consumerism?
How is this even an issue?
@RottNDude: Precisely, those who want multiple ones will do that, wow……they may also ask for a reissued credit card.
Wait a moment, I sure hope Apple doesn’t store the credit card number, I don’t think they can by law (is it even legal to do that?). If they store the name, there’s a chance there may be a duplicate too?
apple should have just made the iphone work for CDMA…this way, they would have bypass the whole unlocking situation.
“The visual voicemail feature required support from AT&T to implement.”
I’m always impressed at how verbatim some people can repeat Jobsian propaganda as if it’s actually natural law. “Visual Voicemail” is pretty simple to implement and was around way before the iphone. One good way to get VV currently is through Google’s GrandCentral phone service – if your phone has a browser you’re good to go. This works on any suitable phone on any carrier.
Other VV systems are SimulSays, CallWave or GotVoice. Citrix has been selling it and calling it “Visual Voicemail” since 2004. Really, it’s not a herculean implementation unless, apparently, you are Apple, or you want to believe every word of Apple’s marketing.
Well here’s one person that won’t be buying one if I can’t use cash. Yeah that’s right Apple, I won’t allow you to put me further into debt than I already am.
@icruise: Just because you don’t like to pay for things with cash doesn’t mean the rest of us think the same. I’d ten times rather pay for something with money I have than money I don’t have. Besides, with cold hard cash in hand at a retailer there’s no disputing weather or not your payment is legitimate (well, so long as you have a counterfeit pen). But hey, it is Apple’s right as a private business to deny sales to anyone paying with cash. It’s my right as a private citizen not to buy their crap. I like my MotoQ more anyway…oh yeah, it does everything the iPhone does too, except for Wi-Fi, which wasn’t a deal-breaker for me.
@MYarms: I do not get your mentality. You make no sense, just like every other ignorant tool who acts like credit cards are the work of the devil.
How does merely putting something on a credit card put you in debt? Is it the credit card company that forces you to not pay your bills and put you “further in debt”? Here’s a tip. Buy on credit card. Write a check to said credit card when you get home. Drop in mail. Difficult? There is no reason in the world that a credit card should be any more debt-incurring than a cash transaction. It’s strictly up to the purchaser.
Sorry you have no self-control. No, this is not “illegal” – a phrase on currency that an armchair lawyer interprets incorrectly is not the law of the land. YES, the Iphone is overhyped and overpriced, and Apple’s restrictions on it are stupid (but understandable, if you look at how they organized the whole damn deal. Bad business, oh no, did I just criticize His Jobsness?)
As for the comments about “protection”.. Yeah, there’s no dispute, until you leave the store. People who make a large purchase without the protections of a credit card are fooling themselves into believing cash is “safer”. It isn’t.
Anything involving the operations of a credit card is separate from your ability to be responsible and pay for it. Sure, credit companies (shock!) make a profit off pf people who don’t pay their cards off. Who’s fault is that?
Wow…*way* too much vicious hate in this thread. Oh, well, it’s Consumerist, gotta have some boogeyman to play Internet Tough Guy about, right?
Did it ever occur to any of you that maybe the reason I bought an iPhone for $600 (yes, I bought back before the price drop) is that…horror of horrors…I like it? I’ve wanted a device like this for years- phone, media player, and WiFi web access in one device with an non-retarded interface. (Windows Mobile…I’m looking at you.) So when Apple brought it out, I bought one.
If you don’t like the iPhone, here’s a clue: DON’T BUY ONE!
Apple’s doing this to keep people from buying iPhones en masse, unlocking them, and selling them for a huge profit. Most stores don’t take kindly if you decide you want to resell their products like that.
TCP100 has already well dispatched the “OMGEE!! CREDIT CARDS R TEH EVIL!!!!11!” people.
Man alive…what is it with the comments on the Gawker blogs? Here, Gizmodo, Jalopnik…they’re all going to hell.
I love the outraged harrumphing and hilarious assumptions every story on the iPhone bring out. Even more than that are the idiots screeching about how it “must be illegal” for Apple to refuse cash even though it’s been pointed out FIFTEEN FUCKING TIMES ALREADY that they’re free to do so. No wonder companies have no respect for consumers, as a lot we’ve got the savvy and knowledge of a moldy cantaloupe.
Although I’m fairly certain a DEBIT card would work just as well for such a purchase. Though God forbid, I suppose, since that would call out the banking paranoids who, for the past eleven years, keep insisting that doom and drainage of my bank account are right around the corner.
@sidescroller: Save your breath. At least 95 percent of the people oinking out I WILL NEVAR BUY AN APPLE PRODUCT!!!11 never had any intention of doing so in the first place. But the oinking makes them feel good in their tingly places, I guess.
@icruise: No, but the fact that you think using cash is somehow less legitimate than using credit makes you an idiot, though.
Screw you apple you just insured I will never buy one of your products. I imagine a few thousand Dave Ramsey listeners will agree.
Am I the only one that thinks that the big issue here is not accepting gift cards? If you’ve already given them the money for a purchase, how can they limit what items you can buy with it?
Take your cash, convert it to a Visa, MC, AmEx gift card – problem solved.
Is that even legal? “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”
@MacPrince:
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@Morgan:
Again, for clarification.
I just spoke with an Apple manager yesterday. You only have to pay for at least part of your transaction on credit card. Meaning the store would take a gift card, or even cash, as long as you pay for part of it on a credit card.
Unless the manager is mistaken, which may be the case, given how retail works, this is the nationwide policy.
@vladthepaler:
As already established, this is legal. They can refuse service to you, they can refuse cash. Unless your state has a local law prohibiting it, then it’s perfectly legal.
@meehawl: If iPhone customers had their own, separate voicemail system, that’d be true. If it’s going to integrate with the voicemail provided by the telco (which it does), it needs support from the telco.
Duh.