As loyal readers already know, Apple doesn’t accept cash for the iPhone — a policy they say is designed to discourage resellers from getting their grubby little hands on the precious cellphone. This policy does have a tendency to backfire every now and then when a legitimate customer wants to purchase an iPhone with cash. Meet Alex Palen– he was refused an iPhone because he doesn’t have a credit or debit card and was escorted from the store when he asked another customer to accept cash in exchange for charging the phone to their card.
From The Buffalo News:
“She looked at my money and said, ‘We don’t accept cash as a form of payment for the iPhone.’ When I asked why, she would only say it was the store’s policy that I use a credit card,” Palen said.
Since he doesn’t have one, Palen asked another customer if he could give him the $499 plus tax to charge it for him. Store staffers said that was against the rules, and then escorted him — and his pocket full of bills — from the store.
“I was so outraged. I was so humiliated. I just sat in the mall and couldn’t even talk for half an hour. I was so surprised this could happen in America,” Palen said. “I’ve never been told that U. S. currency isn’t enough to buy a product.”
Legally, neither Apple nor any other private company in New York State is required to accept cash.
Apple responded to the news story with the following: ““We require a credit, debit or gift card as payment to discourage unauthorized resellers,” said Teresa Brewer, Apple spokeswoman.” We wonder if they couldn’t have asked him to buy a gift card rather than resorting to tossing him out of the store? Oddly, Alex says the experience hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for Apple… “I still want to buy the iPhone,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s the best phone on the market. Nothing else compares.”
What can cash buy? Not an iPhone [Buffalo News](Thanks, Craig!)
(Photo: hanapbuhay )
More From Consumerist
-
Elderly Person Drives Into Chicago Apple Store, Unclear Whether He Was Using Apple Maps
-
U.S. Airways Passenger Arrested After Saying She Has "Surgically Implanted Device" Inside Her
-
Have You Finished Buying All Your 'National HP Toner Month' Gifts Yet?
-
![([F]oxymoron)](http://consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/bluewallet.jpg?w=100&h=100&crop=1)
Smart Move Or Bad Service? Restaurant Calls Cops On Diner Who Claims He Left His Wallet In Hotel Room
-
Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Would Love To Have iTunes On His Android Devices
You were humiliated by Apple? You humiliated yourself. Who walks up to a stranger and asks them to purchase you an iPhone with their credit card and you’ll reimburse them with cash? You may have been sincere, but look at it from anyone else’s point of view. To everyone else that would sound like a scam. If I were the stranger, I’d assume you were trying to give me fake money. Apple’s actions were to protect the other customer from potential fraud. You should have just come back with your debit card later.
Retarded! Why would anyone want spend 500 bucks on a phone that they don’t own?!!!! Apple says it is used to discourge “unauthorized resellers” which presumably means if you try to sell the phone, they will come after you in some form using your CC data. 500 bucks, better spent on investing in stocks, something you actually own and resell, possibly even for more money!
there are no good non-Apple mp3 players.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
A couple of months ago I went to go buy the iPhone at the Apple store. I have a credit card, but I’m young so the limit is pretty low. So basically I go to buy it and there like “sorry, you need to pay with a credit card” and I was shocked basically. The guy was giving me a blank stare so I asked him if there was another way to get the phone. He told me to try the AT&T store. I walked over to it and told them I wanted the iPhone. They took cash for it and no credit card was involved. It was a pretty weird event to be honest. I think it’s dumb to not accept cash, considering how they lost a $400 purchase, plus if I had never been able to get it, they would have lost nearly $500 in other purchases I have made for my iPhone. If Apple is listening, they really should change this policy.
/me cradles his iPhone, which he paid for in cash.
@MrEvil: I can type ellipses (…) without 10 keystrokes
So when you’re typing an SMS message, you omit parts of quotations so often that the inability to type an ellipsis is complaint?
Perhaps Alex should grow some balls, get a life, establish some credit, or all of the above. Sitting outside an Apple store for half and hour after being kicked out for trying to get another customer to charge your purchase on their credit card strikes me as pathetic. And the fact that he still wants an iPhone is doubly sad.
@Michael Belisle:
He’s stealing from The Best Page in the Universe, don’t mind him.
What if Alex were to accidentally damage the iPhone– like opening the box. Will the iPhone then become a debt and he would legally be able to pay cash for it?
For all those suggesting the use of gift cards, when this policy came into effect, I believe both cash and gift cards were not allowed to be use to purchase an iPhone.
One easy way around this would be to just purchase a visa gift card and use that to purchase the iPhone.
@j-yo:
Perhaps he is a man of conscience. ANY kind of usury is a sin in all the major religions (even paying off a balance month-to-month).
@LibertyReign: I don’t even know why they care because they’ve already GOT your money when you walk out one way or the other and don’t have to pay a processing fee on the transaction.
@joellevand: They fired the guy for being assaulted!?!? I seriously would have been on the phone with the cops.
Lighten up Apple fans. You’re often far to amusing putting up with every flaw in every Apple product as if it’s assumed that Apple does what is best for you. You have to at least think twice about buying an iPhone after an experience like that.
@redwall_hp: Here’s why: because he wants to. Whether or not other people prefer other phones has NOTHING to do with this thread. This is supposed to be about how the store treated a customer, not about how he was supposedly wrong in his choice of phone.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”
@Buran: Well.. he said he would go back cause he really wants an iPhone saying it’s “the best phone on the market.” It’s a valid response to say “you should reconsider that for bending over.”
I still don’t get the ‘discourage resellers’ thing… if a re-seller buys an iPhone, s/he pays full price, right? Apple has their money, why do they care if someone re-sells it for cheaper or more?
@LibertyReign: oh yes please. sooner the better so hurry up already!
NOT WANT.
When Apple used to accept cash for the iPhone, we were logistically
overburdened. The resellers would come in, each buying 5 phones for 2162.07.
We would have to empty out the tills every 20 minutes, shutting down
registers all the time. Also, this dissuades resellers from buying their 5,
then coming back 10 minutes later and purchasing another 5. Resellers are
the culprit for the supply shortages throughout the Apple network. The
people at the store were within reason escorting the young man out of the
store. It would be madness if we allowed customers to harass other
customers. What if he had given the other customer fake bills? From a
liability standpoint, it is simply not right. If it is such a big deal for
him to pay in cash, he can do it at any AT&T store.
Note: This is by no means an official Apple response, but merely my personal
opinions.
what’s an I phone?
@catskyfire:
Exactly, I don’t understand how this would ever discourage resellers, especially if you can use a gift card to buy a phone. Apple arrogance/lunacy?
BTW, if I ever develop a mental disorder that causes me to spend $500 on an iPhone, I’m unlocking it. It’s bad enough Apple wants to dictate how I can even pay for the phone, but locking me in to a carrier is bullshit.
Has anybody mentioned Prepaid disposable CC’s?
Ya loose a few bucks in transaction fees, but what the heck the card is good until you run out of $ and then you throw it away.
I give them to my kids when they are traveling. Usually just $50 which is enough for some emergency gas and burgers, but what the heck you could buy a $500 card and avoid the whole Apple hassle.
@Scotus: I’m getting by just fine without credit. For the last four years.
@catskyfire: Can anyone explain how that policy would discourage resellers?
Cash can’t be traced to a reseller trying to flout the rules.
@catskyfire: I think it may be because reselling stuff purrchased with a cc is prohibited by many cardmember agreements.
I find it odd that I can buy my Macbook and AppleCare for around $1500, pay in cash, and yet you can’t get an iPhone for a fifth that in cash. Does Apple even police this credit card matching the user thing?
@Televiper: That’s probably true for him. It’s rather arrogant of any of us to think we know better than he does what he does and doesn’t want out of a phone and what he does and doesn’t like about the various phones he’s tried.
Federal law….money IS LEGAL TENDER. In some cases, a debit card OR money, etc., can be demanded. But this is a store. State law may let them slide on this but this is just one of the many reasons that I HATE APPLE.
“I was so surprised this could happen in America”
Seriously?
I disagree with Apple’s policy of not accepting cash, but let’s be honest, here, you were trying to complete a 3rd party transaction right inside the store in front of the employees!
I dont know a business on earth that would let 3rd parties do business inside their office. You should have gone outside before trying this.
I think the biggest point here is that apple made this man mute for 30 min!
At any rate, why not just go to your bank and get a debit card? I doubt this guy pays all his bills in cash and presumably has a checking account…
People here keep saying apple did nothing wrong, and that the State of New York has no law against this action. Well and good, but read the dollar bill. It is against federal regulations to deny currency printed by the U.S. mint when it is offered as compensation for any debt, private or public. Just a thought for ya’ll.
“Unfortunately, it’s the best phone on the market. Nothing else compares.”
thats a piss poor attitude!
It’s understandable that apple would prefer not to have to deal with cash: it’s easily stolen, you have to count it and store it, you have to drop it off at a bank or have an expensive security detail come and pick it up. not to mention, it totally breaks the design flow of the store.
@SacraBos: “Okay, what if I want to make the iPhone the standard phone for my company, and wanted to buy 50 of them.”
Well, then you’d have blown your budget on a phone that won’t work with your Exchange system, can’t send multi-recipient IMs or work as a Blackberry, and doesn’t handle attachments properly.
/You’re fired!
@mariospants: LOL! Not to mention that the form factor of registers with cash drawers is so aesthetically unpleasing!
@bonzombiekitty:
Stores do *not* have to accept cash if you owe them money. It is why companies can reject coins as a term of payment (i.e., paying in all pennies or dimes or nickels, etc).
Unauthorized resellers? Do they mean Second Sale retailers? The people they have no legal control over whatsoever?
It drives me crazy when I read these ‘I can’t buy an iPhone with cash’ stories.
Surprise! The rest of the world knew this months ago, along with the reasonable explanation that, since AT&T revenue is calculated into Apple’s business model, it is necessary for Apple to take action to discourage resellers, who are essentially unwanted partners.
Want an iPhone? Then play by the rules.
Oh, by the way, we landed on the moon in 1969, in case you haven’t heard about that either.