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Fake Apple Store Employee: We Just Want To Do A Good Job
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I'd take my own common sense over the wisdom of a snake oil salesman.
They aren't making Apple money, their making some guy who had a good idea money. If they are selling genuine Apple products, for the SAME price as Apple then something doesn't add up, Aka Profit.
Either A. They are buying Apple products from REAL Apple Stores and resellers and selling them for the same price, (which doesn't make sense financially.)
or B. They are getting these products through various nefarious means, their stolen, or being made by Foxconn on the downlow, someones hands are being greased.
The employees think their working for Apple, and the owner of the store is raking in cash on everyone's naivity.
Shady all the way around if you ask me. Its nice their making jobs for these Apple enthusiasts who probobly want to work for Apple, but in reality just being duped and used, and probobly for much lower wages then our 'suffering' Apple employees here in the US.
Haha, and the warranty of the sold products are...?
How can this store still exist? It can only be a matter of time.
In the land of the all the manufactured counterfeit products, comes the counterfeit stores.
I have mixed opinions on this. Obviously there are benefits to buying from an authorized reseller but if they're being up front about not being authorized, but still try to give an Apple-quality experience (and product) I'm not sure there's a real problem.
I think that some of the "idiots on this form [sic]" are concerned about the theft of Apple products at the manufacturing level, and possibly the negative feedback to Apple when and if those stolen products need warranty work.
They are liars and thieves at some level to be sure, and something about that doesn't sit well with those here who have a modicum of integrity.
I laughed so hard at the top comment.
"Oh God the day I expected, arrived: they are copying people"
Yeah, that too. We aren't in disagreement. Although I find most of the "cheaper cheaper cheaper" mentality comes from companies offshoring things - consumers then just adjust their consumption upwards as things get cheaper.
(Increased consumption isn't really bad - if the consumer gets value out of it, standard of living is increased. However, if the lower price only comes because the producer transferred a job from a place that has freedom, to a place where you can be thrown in jail for merely speaking your mind or worshiping as you please, then the free countries are cutting their own throat.)
Two of the regulations I'm thinking about are a) the NLRB attack on Boeing for wanting to open up a 787 factory in South Carolina, and b) excessive regulations that inhibit energy exploration and production (especially AGW-oriented regulations), as inexpensive energy is the lifeblood of manufacturing.
This is not one of those resellers that you mention. These are completely unauthorized, as confirmed by Apple http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...pple-store-China-convincing-staff-fooled.html
Like any authorised Apple reseller worldwide?
Who says they aren't part of a local chain of authorised resellers? Do Apple resellers have to submit the colour of their employees' t-shirts and the kind of tables they use to Apple before they become authorised resellers? I doubt that.
But there certainly comes a point when Apple says you have to change the appearance of your store otherwise we won't to business with you anymore.
You mean like Amazon selling genuine Apple products for the SAME price as Apple? That must be making some bozo err Bezos who had a good idea money.
The question is: Can you trademarkt a store design? In the US probably, but can you also trademark it in China?
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Big chance after this news spread, Apple going to give the store free license instead. It's a free promotion, and the store still sell genuine Apple products. So, there is no reason Apple would mad at them, or suddenly sue them.
And remember Kunming is located near the end of the world .. Apple would love to reach that part, and someone has done it freely for them. This gonna be another free marketing for Apple
And remember Kunming is located near the end of the world
.. Apple would love to reach that part, and someone has done it freely for them. This gonna be another free marketing for Apple
I guess this means you've never taken a trip from mainland China to Hong Kong where the tax rate variance varies by about 15%. Many people source products in Hong Kong and sell them back here in the mainland for cheaper prices. In fact I'm planning to go to Hong Kong tomorrow and I may just buy my new MBA there, it's cheaper than in the US by about $17 USD.
Not looking too hard at import tax laws, it's no where near as bad as what you are inferring. I've bought my friends a number of various products at below retail prices on my monthly visits to Hong Kong.
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As for those saying Apple could not sue them or close them down in China, that's just crap. It probably wouldn't be worth the trouble to sue them, as the costs would out way the money they would receive, but Apple could close them down for trade mark infringement easily.
The problem with pirated software is that it is so common, you can't close down every store there is, as you can buy the software almost anywhere for about 50c. It's not worth the effort. If they were selling fake products that were hurting Apple's image, I'm sure they'd be gone already.
You answered your own question already, theyre american.
What about C, getting their stock from one of the authorized resellers in the region against a small percentage of the subsequent margin.
As stated, reseller 1 obviously has margins on the products they sell. Thus, by aquiring stock from reseller 1, reseller 2 can sell legitimate products without making anyone really lose out. Apple makes the same amount as if it had been sold by reseller 1. Reseller 1 gets a small percentage for their services (outweighing any loss in sale from increased competition). Reseller 2 sells Apple products at a margin, generating a profit from their sales.
Not saying this is the way they are doing it, but its doable and proves that things could "add up".
p.s. big no-brainer that a chinese employee "probably" earns less than an american.
I'll give you $18... stay at home
Plus... You'll waste $2k on the tickets and accommodation... (or maybe not.. if you live near by
)I'll give you $18... stay at home
Plus... You'll waste $2k on the tickets and accommodation... (or maybe not.. if you live near by
I think you're missing the point here. It's $17 less than what you would pay in the US, but I guess I forgot to clarify that China is far more expensive than both Hong Kong and the US. Hong Kong is one of the cheapest places to buy expensive IT equipment in the world.
Using "13-inch : 128GB" as my example...
HK$ 9,998 <== Hong Kong
RMB 9,998 <== Mainland China
Now we'll convert HKD to RMB
HK$ 9,998 = RMB 8,282
Which is a 17% savings!
$266 USD discount.
Considering the short distance from the Mainland to Hong Kong and that 1,716 RMB (the 17%) is about 3 months of rent where I live in China at the moment, you can start to see why people would but them and resell them. You could see cheaper than apple by a large margin and still make quite good profits.
I'll take that... 20 days of dinner all paid up!I'll give you $18... stay at home
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Hope this explanation is a little more clear.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)
I never bought ac/macbook from apple store, street price usually 5-10% cheaper than apple store.
I never bought ac/macbook from apple store, street price usually 5-10% cheaper than apple store.
That's just the thing. The warranty is only valid if you have purchased the computer from an Apple Store or Authorized Reseller (unless we are talking about a used machine you purchased second hand). Any product these guys sell basically has no warranty. It's pretty common in many industries, so don't go all "evil Apple" about it, either. If you buy a "brand new" Mercedes from a Ford dealer for the same price as buying it from an Authorized Mercedes dealer, how far do you think your warranty goes? It's called grey market goods, people.