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Using family member's student ID # for educational discount?

fistful

fistful

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
So my sister gave me her student ID # so I can use the educational discount, which will save me $250 Canadian on a 15" pb. I was just wondering is there anything I should know before I do this? Would it be better to create a new account under her name, having it mailed to her? or would using my existing account, having it mailed to myself work? The only reason I ask is I'm not sure if they would reject it for using a student ID # that does not match the name of the purchaser.

so if you have done this or know how I should go about this I'd appreciate it.
 
i really hope people don't help u scam apple to much. If she is buying a computer she should be buying it, if she violates her agreement and gives it to you then thats her problem.
 
Kwyjibo said:
i really hope people don't help u scam apple to much. If she is buying a computer she should be buying it, if she violates her agreement and gives it to you then thats her problem.
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The SCAM is with Apple's pricing policies. EDU, GOVT (local and national), and CORP discounts cover a good number of people. Depending on the item, it pays to shop around Apple to see what the best price is.

If there is a family member that can get the discounts, why not let them have use of it? Even if they are not the end user? You can't say that Apple and others are not making a profit by charging less for students (or other "special" groups) than their retail customers.

To me this is more "legit" than those that try to scam out of paying sales taxes....
 
I was actually asking her if she thought this is right, if she felt doing this was unethical, a scam as such? she said " if someone can benefit from the amount of money I spend on my education then I'm all for it." and I actually offered to give her the $250 I'd save, she said no well because I've helped her out a few time before, buying plain tickets so she could come home for x-mas when she couldn't afford it.
 
FistfulofAngst said:
I was actually asking her if she thought this is right, if she felt doing this was unethical, a scam as such? she said " if someone can benefit from the amount of money I spend on my education then I'm all for it." and I actually offered to give her the $250 I'd save, she said no well because I've helped her out a few time before, buying plain tickets so she could come home for x-mas when she couldn't afford it.
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Glad to see that you have a good relationship with her....
 
Isn't this a democracy where exploiting loopholes is the norm? It's not like I'm hurting apple, I'm still giving them $2500. Besides I'm sure they get some sort of tax break providing educational discounts.
 
HUH?

why would a business get tax breaks for charging lower prices to some people? they do that cause they want to increase their business to certain groups. Just because there is one student in the family doesn't mean the entire family should be able to have everything the student does. Do you get to use her id number at sporting events? can you register for classes under her name? of course not, and why should pricing policies be any different?
 
appleretailguy said:
why would a business get tax breaks for charging lower prices to some people? they do that cause they want to increase their business to certain groups. Just because there is one student in the family doesn't mean the entire family should be able to have everything the student does. Do you get to use her id number at sporting events? can you register for classes under her name? of course not, and why should pricing policies be any different?
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well why wouldn't they? Apple is doing a service to the educational community by providing them with a discount, the government may give them a tax break as incentive to continue providing the discount. I'm not a business major so I really don't know or care. I'm not asking anyone if it is morally right, that's up to the individual to decide, I'm asking advice on the way I should go about this, if you don't like it you don't really have anything to add now do you? 🙄
 
ok... give her the money in the amount of the cost of the laptop as a gift... have her buy the laptop with her credit card. when she gets the laptop, she will give it you as a gift. all legal.
 
there is nothing stopping her from buying the laptop and then selling it to you. i've had them twice ask for a copy of my student id card and credit card. when i used my mother's credit card they went to a lot of trouble to confirm with her the she knew i used it and that i was infact a student.
this is australia though.
 
To answer your question, if you're buying it online, I'd register an account under her name if you're using her credit card just to save yourself the possibility of a hassle, but I honestly don't think it matters at the end. As a student, would it be extremely extraordinary if my mother were to buy this laptop for me using her credit card? 😉

And yes, what about getting tax breaks for making charitable donations and such. Are they donating because of the kindness of their heart, or is it because they get a tax break? I guess we'll never know with any certainty, but I'm sure we'd see a decrease in charitable donations if they eliminated tax breaks. Hmmm....I wonder why?

I'm a student, but because I graduated last May (2003) and was waiting to begin my Masters program in Australia in mid-Feb (2004), there was a gap of 9 months where I couldn't take advantage of the discount from Apple. I used my brother's student# instead. My student# from Oz wouldn't have worked on the Apple Canada website, and Apple Australia was more expensive, so it made little sense to buy through them. Was I wrong? At times, I thought "yes"; at times I thought, "no"; but it never would have stopped me from doing it anyway. They don't care about me, and I don't care about them. They offer the discount as a way to improve sales to students, not because they genuinely care about Ian's (ie: my) education. I'm not doing anything illegal. I was just bending the rules a bit. I AM a student. Your sister IS a student who's bending the rules a bit to help her bro. 🙂
 
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