Any advantages when purchasing from apple.com?

[billyergs]

I'm planning on a PM purchase very soon and I'm wondering if there are any advantages purchasing direct from apple.com rather than macmall or amazon.

Seems like I would not be charged sales tax if purchasing from macmall.com and they offer 12 months of interest free credit. Am I missing something?

 

[macbaseball]

The only advantage that I see from ordering from apple.com, is that you can do a lot of customizations to the machines. You might be able to do that at macmall.com also, but I'm not sure, as i have no experience with them.

 

[finalcoolman]

The only advantage that I see from ordering from apple.com, is that you can do a lot of customizations to the machines. YOu might be able to do that at macmall.com also, but I'm not sure, as i have no experience with them.

And edu discounts

 

[Mechcozmo]

And discounts on Final Cut Express and possibly .Mac (don't remember if you can also get that in-store).

 

[MacManTexas56]

yeah i was in the same boat when i bought my powerbook. even @ the student discount from apple.com PLUS tax, it would be like $50 more than if i just ordered from macmall.com since they have no tax unless you live in CA. so i would just say if your a student find out the discount on a pm, i know it will be more than on a powerbook so it might be a better deal if you order from apple.com if it's cheap through student discount plus tax compared to no discount and no tax.....JUST remember this though. if you buy from macmall you CAN'T return it so you're pretty much screwed if you don't want it anymore. i hate that company for that bc they aren't clear in their policies.

 

[weg]

yeah i was in the same boat when i bought my powerbook. even @ the student discount from apple.com PLUS tax, it would be like $50 more than if i just ordered from macmall.com since they have no tax unless you live in CA. so i would just say if your a student find out the discount on a pm, i know it will be more than on a powerbook so it might be a better deal if you order from apple.com if it's cheap through student discount plus tax compared to no discount and no tax.....JUST remember this though. if you buy from macmall you CAN'T return it so you're pretty much screwed if you don't want it anymore. i hate that company for that bc they aren't clear in their policies.

AFAIK you can't return you PB either if it is BTO. And, at least in Europe, it often takes them more than a month to ship..

 

[newapple71]

is there any other place on the web where you can buy BTO besides Apple.com? i'm not looking for anything fancy. just upgrading VRAM and hard drive and maybe Bluetooth.

and do i understand correctly that you can NOT return a BTO machine to Apple.com?

 

[Bear]

...
and do i understand correctly that you can NOT return a BTO machine to Apple.com?

You cannot return it for a refund. However you can get it repaired or replaced if something is wrong with it.

 

[Bear]

Two advantages from getting it directly from Apple. The first is being able to get the exact configuration you want and the second is you know where the machine has been - sometimes machines from other places have been opened up and such.

 

[kjwebb]

Another advantage (which seems to be only at Apple Australia's store) is free shipping. If your local Apple site starts offering this, then it's a good thing to take up. It was good getting iLife 05 for the education price (seeing as I am a full time student) without any additional cost. Even came a day or so early.

 

[840quadra]

Apple will also have you on the "List" for news, information, and sometimes valuable promo codes that save you money on Apple hardware and software.

Being a loyal Itunes customer, and recently purchasing a G5, I hope I get a few codes to use when I need my next item on the list.