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Apple Eliminating Restocking Fees at Apple Stores, Adding Personal Setup for Macs

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Apple retail stores held staff meetings this weekend to unveil a major new policy. 9to5Mac reports that Apple will be eliminating restocking fees at their Apple Retail stores.
Typically, when you return an opened product to an Apple Store you will be charged a 10% restocking fee. Well, come Tuesday, this will all be in the past as Apple is cutting restocking fees from their retail chain.
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Meanwhile Apple will also begin offering personal Mac setup.
When you purchase a Mac at an Apple Retail store an employee will help you setup your e-mail accounts, walk you through the Mac App Store, setup an iTunes account for you, and show you the basic pointers of owning a Mac. Some stores will even have dedicated Mac setup stations.
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Apple has previously offered personal setup for iOS devices, but is now extending this service for Macs, as well.

Both changes should help streamline purchasing and setup for new Mac owners. Apple has previously been charging a 10% restocking fee for Mac products. The changes are expected to kick on starting on Tuesday, January 11th.

Article Link: Apple Eliminating Restocking at Apple Retail Stores, Adding Personal Setup for Macs
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/10/apple-eliminating-restocking-at-apple-retail-stores-adding-personal-setup-for-macs/
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I don't think it's a good idea. Some people might take advantage of it.

Probably will be short lived.
 
No restocking fees is yet another wall taken down by Apple to further the customer experience in one of their stores. Bravo.
 
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Anyone find this coincidental that they are planning this the same day as the alleged 'VZW iPhone announcement' event? It's odd that they would do something like that the same day.

BL.
 
It's never going to be fair..

I like this move, but like others have said it might be bad for Apple. But, you know what, it's not a bad idea for a good company to take some hit for it's customer. I have had to return Apple product (iPhone) just within a day of purchase (long story), and I was charged the 10% restocking fee which I really wish they won't. It will be good for some and some will certain try to abuse the system....
 
Consultant said:
I don't think it's a good idea. Some people might take advantage of it.

Probably will be short lived.
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You don't think people constantly try to take advantage of even the 10% restocking fee? I don't see it really as that big of a deal. Every major retailer has no restocking fee on electronics hardware, there is no reason for Apple to have one.

Apple probably knows there are some idiots who take advantage of them but it's more important to make the customer experience completely awesome. If you have a no restocking fee, then people are always more happy about the purchase experience.

Customers come first, idiots come second, it's just the way of the world in retail.

Oh and it's really easy to stop scammers. Everything (expensive) that Apple sells has a serial number tied to it, so they can just look it up in the system and see when it was bought. There is no way that people can return an item that is not within the 15 day window.
 
Change restocking to "restocking fees."

Apple eliminating RESTOCKING?? AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
 
My guess is to eliminate the middle man, and sell the product directly. They have enough faith in the product itself now (iPhone)

They want you to come in for that fancy new Verizon iPhone, and then you see product X. You want product X. They want you to think this is the friendliest place on earth to the purchasing party, and buy from them. Then come back due to the support you got.

Smart move. Sure some will take advantage of it, but on the flip side it will bring others into their stores instead of Verizon (assuming the change rolling out the same day isn't just an odd coincidence)
 
Cinematographer said:
My thoughts exactly. And we, who think first before we purchase, have to pay for their stupidity. I hate that idea.
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+1

Costco learned the hard way by being too generous with their return policy. You're going to see a bunch of morons who don't really want the product start to abuse the policy.
 
They should give anyone that buys in an Apple Store a free 30 minute walk-through. It would be perfect for my dad who wants a Mac, but is worried he won't "get it" at first.
 
madoka said:
+1

Costco learned the hard way by being too generous with their return policy. You're going to see a bunch of morons who don't really want the product start to abuse the policy.
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But other places already offer a return policy with no restocking fees. I once bought a Mac Mini at Best Buy, for example, decided the performance just wasn't good enough for what I needed (this was a G4 back in the day), and returned it. No questions asked.

Were some customers abusing the policy? Possibly, yes. But if Best Buy can handle it, surely so can Apple. And this will help potential switchers out in a tremendous way. "Just buy, and try, and if you don't like it, bring it back!" I know I would have been hesitant to plunk down $1000+ on a Mac if I knew that if I didn't like it, I'd automatically be out $100+.

The problem with Costco was not that there was no restocking fee, it was that their return window was unlimited. So you could bring back your G3 iMac and say "I don't like it anymore" and they would have given you back the $1,499 you paid for it nine years ago. That was clearly abuse.
 
Cinematographer said:
My thoughts exactly. And we, who think first before we purchase, have to pay for their stupidity. I hate that idea.
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What if you were unhappy with a product?

Problem is, these restocking fees applied to all products, even those that didn't live up to expectations. It's one thing when a customer just "changes their mind," but it's another thing entirely if a customer is returning a product that didn't work as well as expected. ...And previously Apple would have charged a restocking fee in either situation, and that's not fair.

A few years ago I purchased an external HDD from Apple that was featured on their online Store's front page. But it was loud, clunky, and slow. I was able to talk myself out of the restocking fee, but that shouldn't have been necessary in the first place. I think it's great that restocking fees are becoming a thing of the past.
 
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Awesome. Apple really does do a lot for their customers.
 
levitynyc said:
They should give anyone that buys in an Apple Store a free 30 minute walk-through. It would be perfect for my dad who wants a Mac, but is worried he won't "get it" at first.
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They already do that. All you have to do is find a "Mac specialist" when you visit the store. They walk you through everything. One even went as far as to show my brother how to install the free-after-rebate printer before the purchase was made.

Personally, I think the Apple Stores need a "power user" express line where they avoid asking you dumb questions (Have you tried restarting your Mac? Are all your accessory connections secure?, etc) and just get to the point (product service, checkout, etc). In fact, let use check ourselves out like the local grocery store or Wal-Mart.
 
Great news. Although I've never had to pay a restocking fee there before when returning. I was aware that this policy existed, but I guess the employee that I dealt with at that time either forgot or just felt like ignoring it.

And, as others have said already, I'm curious as to why this policy would go into effect on Tuesday. Maybe I'm reading into things way too much with the iPhone. Might be nothing, but interesting that they chose that day.
 
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