Colin writes:
I went into my nearest ATT store and there were two CSR’s behind the counter- I asked for an 8gig Refurb iPhone thats being sold for $249 and the kid said sure and walked me over to the desk. The next words out of his mouth “What is your social security number?” No “How are you today?” “Thanks for coming in” No, apparently they just want my credit report to see if I am “worthy”
Reader Matthew bought a new MacBookPro and an iPod from Apple. The MacBook was ok but the iPod came with a scratch on the screen. He decided to try to exchange it for an undamaged iPod. He sent it back to Apple and instead of a new iPod he got his old one back with an additional scratch on it.
Thomas writes:
If you don’t use your Juniper iTunes Rewards VISA (issued by Barclay’s) for an entire year, they close the card and report to the credit agencies that you requested to close it. I’ve learned that when I called to inquire about a lower rate on 2/26, the agent canceled my account.
Reader Anjela writes in wondering if a certain employee of the Apple store has has a rare disorder that makes women invisible to him. That might explain why the employee spent the entire AirBook shopping excursion talking to her husband instead of Anjela—the actual customer.
Last week we pointed out how Apple artificially inflates the discount of its refurbished units by using the original introductory list price as a comparison, even if the price has since dropped and the true list price is now lower. Now a reader writes in to say he caught Toys R Us doing the same thing on sale prices of Playstation 3 bundles and 30 gig Zunes. Our question: is this legal? New York City’s consumer protection law seems to imply that—at least for retailers doing business in NYC—it’s not, unless you clearly indicate the trail of price reductions, something neither company is doing.
Erin writes, “I was searching for an iPod Nano on Google Products and this link came up!” That’s one hell of a markup there, anonymous web store with no branding and an empty “Contact Us” page. Our favorite part: “NOT FOR RESALE”—don’t even think about buying this and marking it up for your own store.
Circuit City lied to Ian about giving him a discounted iPod Touch, but now he has a satisfactory resolution. He writes:
After writing a number of emails to Circuit City and after a making few more (fruitless) calls, I tried something new and posted my story to their public online customer service forums. The forum manager responded very quickly and promised that someone would call me back to resolve things. I received two calls last Thursday from Circuit City staff who wanted to help fix the situation;
Ian writes:
Last Thursday 2/14, I ordered a 32GB iPod touch from CircuitCity.com at $474 + tax for a total of about $514. After thinking about it for a bit, I logged back in and canceled the order – just a bit too steep for an iPod, you know? I figured I’d have to wait a while for the price to drop, and left it at that. Well, believe it or not, I received a call at work today from a Circuit City sales rep at corporate telling me he’d offer me the iPod at a discount, so CC could keep my business. I was baffled – nothing like this has ever happened to me before, but the price he gave me $420 + tax… was too good to pass up.
A reader noticed that Apple is selling refurbished 8gb iPhones for $349, and they’re listing the original price as $599. “Save 42% off the original price,” says the Apple Store. Gosh, that’s a huge savings! Wait… well sure, the original original price was $599, but we all know that Apple knocked that down fairly quickly, and now a brand new 8 gb model sells for $399—which means actually you’re only saving 12.5% off the Real World Price Right Now of a brand new iPhone, if you went and bought it today.
I wanted to inform consumerist that the manager from the Apple Store at Stonestown called me back to apologize about the incident and to invite me back to the store. She apologized for the employees making ID a requirement of purchase and that they were doing it to protect from fraud. She then mentioned that they understand they were not following the merchant agreements but will do so here on out. I will go back to make my purchase!
This poor guy is named Steve. Steve’s Macbook keeps trying to light his house on fire, so Steve would like replacement. He’s already sent the computer for repair several times, gotten it back, at which time it tried to light his house on fire again.
We received the following strangely awesome, if a bit strange, letter from a consumer who was not allowed to purchase something at the Apple store because he would not show ID. It was sent to Steve Jobs and William Rhodes (of Citibank.) Let’s listen in:
Yesterday we noted that our intern Alex Chasick was told by an Apple Genius that Apple will not automatically replace a defective laptop after the third hardware failure. Alex followed our advice and called Apple’s Executive Customer Service line for some official answers. Here’s what he found out.
../../../..//2008/02/11/whats-apples-replacement-policy/
What’s Apple’s replacement policy for hardware failure? Our intern is having ongoing problems with his MacBook, and thought that after three large hardware failures in a row, Apple replaced the laptop—but “some dude at the genius bar just told me that was absolutely not true.” Does anyone know the official Apple party line on this issue?
Some iPhone users are being told that they have to sign up for a new 2-year contract if they upgrade from the 8gb iPhone to the 16gb iPhone. Even though Apple’s website and AT&T’s internal official policy says this is not the case, some AT&T reps are insisting that customers have to extend their contract. Fortunately, they are completely misinformed. You just get your new iPhone, update your account through iTunes, and boom, you’re good to go, no contract extension.
Joshua’s MacBook was splitting along one side—you could push it back together, but after a few minutes it would start to separate again. When Joshua, who has Asperger syndrome, tried to get it repaired at his local Apple Store, he ran into all sorts of problems. First there was a two-hour wait to see an expert, then an assistant manager walked up and said, “I’ve seen you in here a lot with that laptop, what’s wrong?” Joshua explained, and pointed out that he had a meeting to attend that evening and needed his laptop to take notes, so he was hoping to have it looked at in person.
“I’m sorry if I seem on edge or anything, I just…. I’m born with this”… The assistant manager then says “It’s okay. It’s the Monday before a full moon. There will be plenty more freaks like you before close“. And tells me to calm down.
Dawn writes to tell us that she and her husband both received the $100 iPhone credits last fall, but when she tried to use them on December 4th she discovered one of the credits had a zero balance. An Apple CSR told her to go ahead and make her purchase without it, and the $100 would be credited immediately to her Visa. Unfortunately, she took his advice.
Zachariah no longer has to wonder about why AppleCare costs more in Canada ($199) than in the US ($169), he found a deal at L.A. Computer Company where he could get it for $119. They emailed him the agreement number, he registered the number online at Apple, and received his official AppleCare Protection Plan Certificate in the mail. So what’s the solution to the mystery of why there was a pricing disparity even though there’s parity between the dollar and the loony? We don’t know for sure, but we’re placing our money on that the prices were figured out when the dollar was worth more and they just haven’t been readjusted since.
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