UPDATED PREQUEL: Brother in law goes window shopping for machine; brings cute seven year old daughter along. He home schools and has documentation with him. Manager offers assistance and pulls up educational pricing online and constructs machine. We go to put games back on shelf, since educational pricing is only offered on web store. Manager, unprompted, offers to match price on website, if we commit to purchase in store – knowing we’ll buy the games we’re holding. We thank her and agree. Manager starts to check us out, gets radioed away, has another person do the transaction, gives directions, but in the confusion the sales person rings up the regular store price, not the offer the manager just offered. Honest mistake. Please be aware as you read this, we knew about the retail/online price difference. She had explained that. This is a happy story, not a rant – as evidenced by the category the post.
Had an interesting thing happen with the Apple Store — my brother-in-law recently purchased for his home school an iMac, but the educational discount wasn’t applied to the software as it should have been, the sales person had made a simple goof. And, being Apple and 14 days of purchase, I suggested we go back to get the problem fixed.
Unfortunately, we got someone who was fairly new working there, and he explained to us that the Apple Store didn’t have educational discounts on software. He wasn’t going to credit the amount. We asked if he was sure, and he ran off to ask his manager, and returned confirming that was the case.
We asked him to pull up the Apple Store online and quote us the price. He did. We were correct, the educational price still stood, but he refused to refund the $30. I could tell this was frustrating my brother-in-law, and I could tell our insistence was frustrating the cashier.
“What if I return the machine in the 14 day period, and re-buy it?”
The cashier asked if it was opened, we nodded, and he said there was a 10% restocking fee.
I had enough, and I asked him to get the manager. He said it wouldn’t help. And I insisted. He flagged the manager over.
“We’re confused. The Apple Site is telling us that we can buy software at an educational discount, but the cashier is telling us the Apple Store doesn’t do that.”
“That’s correct.”
“You’re both owned by Apple. It’s the same product.”
The manager insisted that that’s just how the store operates.
UPDATE CLARIFICATION: The iMac comes with a working 30-day copy of iWork, long enough for you to go home and buy the software online with the educational discount. To have purchased a machine with the educational discount and the iWork package from the store is illogical. It was very clear from the receipt what had happened. The sales person was new and didn’t know Apple’s managers would often override pricing to make a sale. He had asserted the policy, and a good manager will back his employees. The manager was acting exactly as he should have in this circumstance. We needed to get to the point where the manager knew we had dealt with another manager, and in such a way that the employee who told us it wasn’t possible to get a refund didn’t lose face or have his manager correct him in front of us. That’s good business on Apple’s part.
“That makes no sense. It’s illogical, inconsistent,” and with slightly raised voice, “so unlike Apple. Fine, I just have one question. Why on earth would I ever buy anything through the Apple Store instead of online knowing this?”
UPDATE CLARIFICATION: This wasn’t making a scene, it was putting verbal emphasis on the Apple’s policy. I have previously dealt with this manager before, on at least two occasions, and he has happily addressed the issues. There was no problem between us or the manager. It was a friendly discussion. The banter was jovial in tone.
“Because of our superior customer service.”
“Great. Show me some. We’re talking $30 here between being happy and unhappy. We were in the store looking at machines online, and the sales person talks us into getting the machine and says the price is the same.”
“Our sales person must have been mistaken.”
“You guys go through a lot of training, she was very confident and insistent this was the case.” I then proceeded to describe her and the date of purchase. The manager interrupted, “I know who you’re talking about, that’s the other manager.”
“She told us about OS X, helped us pick the machine and software, and handed it to the cashier — a lot was going on, and I don’t think that person followed her instructions.”
“That’s what it sounds like. She does have authorization to change the price. She should have followed the transaction end-to-end, that’s what must have gone wrong.”
“Make sense. Since you’re the manager on duty at the moment, please fix it.”
“I’d be happy to.” He starts punching buttons, and in a moment he announces, “I’ve credited back your $30, and an extra $10 for your trouble, consider it for time and gas of having to make the extra trip.”
We thanked him, shook his hand, and did what any happy, satisfied customer would do… we went over to the game area and bought something with the money we just had returned to us.
The moral of the story seems several fold:
1. It always pays to stay calm and be polite.
2. Order from the Apple Store online.
3. If you do order from the Apple Store in the mall, there is wiggle room in the price.
4. Make sure you’re dealing with the manager and not a regular sales flunky.
5. Politely ask the manager to see the sale through from end-to-end.
6. Apple will make good, and even go beyond the call of duty, but you have to realize the number of people who are constantly trying to scam them on a daily basis. (We watched some kid try to claim his iPod was under warranty after admitting that he stepped on it and cracked the screen. Warranties are for manufacturing issues, insurance is for user problems.)
While we did learn that educational discounts can be had, the easier route is the Apple Store online. Should you get a student version of some software, like Final Cut Express, note that you cannot upgrade it the next release cycle.
Additionally, one extra tid-bit. When one buys a Mac at the Apple Store in the mall, you often get a “free” printer with it. You pay $99 for the printer and get a rebate for $99 back that you need to submit. We recently learned that the rebate center does not honor rebates for printers when bought with machines via an educational discount. Most sales people don’t know this and sell the standard package, thinking they’re giving you a free printer, but are accidentally setting you up for an extra $99. Ask, ask, and ask again.
Finally, if you work for the government, a contractor, or a big company — you may have a special deal cut with Apple. Always have your work badge with you when you go to the Apple store. It may be worth 10% off, but without the hassles of the educational issues.
The license for educational software is different than the license for non-educational software, therefore it must be purchased through Apple’s online store. Microsoft allows any retail location to sell the student version of its software for the mac. Adobe lets a lot of places do it. Apple does not sell education priced software at its retail stores.
Your brother in law’s failure to read and understand the pricing of everything (and terms of rebate) before signing on the dotted line isn’t a retail store’s emergency. I’m sure his (and your) tantrums make most retail managers cave like a democrat at a UN meeting, though.
good job making a scene with your strong arm tactics and backing them into a corner for $30.
The issue, of course, was not that he wasn’t aware of the license — that was included in the blog for others that weren’t aware of the fine print.
The issue was that the manager of the store has the authority to cut deals, especially in terms of sales, and in this case we were getting ready to walk out of the store to buy the machine online. The manager knew the obvious, since she found us near the games section to start with — if we walked out of the store with a machine, we were more likely to buy them, but if we waited until online hours later, the impulse buy and excitement would be gone.
So, she made a command decision to sweeten the deal by selling the iWork package at the educational price, knowing that we picked up a fist full of games which were not covered and that we would not have purchased otherwise. Apple really did get the better end of the deal because they do understand sales so well.
The problem we were trying to resolve, however, was that a simple error had been made at checkout, and we simply wanted Apple to keep their word, selling at the price which they had already set. It was not about trying to weasel or strong arm Apple out of something. It was also fairly obvious that this is what had happened, because we knew there was a 30 day version of iWork on the machine, long enough for him to easily order the discounted version online. Our purchase only logically made sense in the context of something that they do fairly often. This is why Apple wanted to know who we spoke with, so that some schmuck couldn’t walk in and pull the same stunt after reading a blog.
We would have been happy with a reasonable explanation other than “that person told you wrong, you’re screwed, you shouldn’t listen to our sales people” that the new kid offered, or the $30 refunded. It turns out Apple went above and beyond. They explained the policy, the reasoning, refunded the money, went a little extra, and in the process got an ADDITIONAL sale and STRONGER customer loyalty.
Superior customer service pays off, and what Apple sees that Microsoft misses, is that the real money is made in the long term: do I want this guy’s $30 now, which could be justified, or do I want him coming back in and buying an iPhone and a laptop within the next 12-14 months.
Most retailers are too short sighted. This wasn’t about bullying Apple, but quite the opposite, Apple going to great lengths to make customers extra happy — one just has to understand they deal with a lot of people trying to take advantage of them.
While I understand where you are coming from, it was correct that you should not have recieved the discount on the software. As people above me have stated, certain offers are available online only for a reason.
I think people are missing the detail that we knew there wasn’t an educational discount in the store, the manager pulled the order up on the computer there for us, and on her own volition offered to match the price if he’d agree to the purchase then and there. During checkout, she got pulled away; the person who finished missed her instructions – we heard her give them.
Yes, normally it is not Apple’s policy to sell software at educational discounts in the store. She was doing something nice for us as the machine was for primarily his little girl who was present at the time.
No edu discounts in store on software.
apple.com/store—>education
Again, yes — everyone knew this already at time of sale. This isn’t in dispute.
They altered store policy because they wanted us to walk out with the machine and a larger purchase than we would have made online, so they matched their own website. We didn’t ask them to do this, they just did — great customer service on Apple’s part.
Can someone point out to me what about the blog entry makes this unclear?
More comments have been left along the lines of “the retail store doesn’t offer educational discounts on software” and “you weren’t entitled to the pricing” and “why did you get a manager involved.”
…all evidence that people are not reading the article in full and are knee-jerk reacting at some keywords. As such, similar comments will no longer appear here.
1) We knew.
2) We were – just not at the store, though the manager threw it in to sweeten the deal.
3) We got the manager because only a manager could complete a custom transaction set up by another manager.
So, If I bought a printer and computer with an edu discount (which I did) the rebate won’t happen? – Why and where is this stated on the reciept (contract) and how did you find out- Having a problem getting mine and they are saying it is because I was missing the UPC (funny thing considering I wrapped the form around them in an envelope- AND THEY GOT THE FORM. Was I duped- or is it corporate BS trying to scam me out of my $100? Please Help.
What’s not clear at first glance is that there are TWO kinds of educational discounts, one flavor you can get rebates, the other flavor educational institutions cannot. On some occasions, it is possible that the sales person mistakenly enters the wrong code. If you are a student or home educator, simply politely show your credentials to the store manager and they’ll make sure the right one was used.
The UPC issue, however is different; you need to provide the exact one from the box and it needs to be fully intact. The obvious reason for this is there are people out there that will claim they lost it or sent it, trying to eek out a rebate that they don’t qualify for. Unfortunately, that can make the case harder for when they really do get lost, which I suppose happens. Apple has no vested interest in scamming its customers; a happy customer that returns for more goods is worth far more than $100 any day.
The best precaution, when doing rebates, is to xerox everything or take a digital photograph and include a copy — that way you have a record of what was sent, as well as they recipient knows you have a copy.
Often boxes have multiple bar codes and its possible the one sent was not the one they needed. As I recall the hunk of cardboard was pretty substantial. Having been through a number of rebate processes with Apple, they’ve always made good.
If you have the original box (sans cut out), original receipt, proof of qualification for the educational discount, rejection notice, and ideally a copy of what you sent, you can always gently ask for clarification about which part to send in, showing all pieces of evidence — if it was a mistake made at corporate, they’ll usually take care of you there at the store.
The trick is not to get adversarial, confrontational, or accusatory – somewhere there’s either an honest mistake or a miscommunication – address that, and the problem usually solves itself.