No, a credit is a credit. Still has to be used at the same place, for an item I have to buy there. Cash is a refund. Money in my pocket i can take to a competitor.
Okay...I'll say this slowly so you can understand the concept.
A
credit
is
equal
to
cash
because
it
has
the
same
value
.
I've already demonstrated that.
Now that said, I'm glad that some of you think that it's perfectly acceptable to (not) use a machine for 4 months. To suffer the aggravation of a machine that fails to do it's job. To no longer have faith that what you bought is capable of doing it's job. To take 8x 120mi round trips to an Apple store for service. then take a loss on a return. There's clearly a business model there that Apple has you firmly entrenched in. Enjoy.
Actually, I don't think anyone has said it was acceptable to go without your computer for months. It is unreasonable to have that happen. However, as has already been stated, the business model you should be complaining about is Best Buy.
They sold you the defective product.
They have your money.
They were the party with which you entered the transaction.
Apple's obligation was to repair the product under the terms of the warranty. That is all. Other than the warranty, you don't have any contract with them - meaning you don't have obligations to them (except as outlined in the warranty) and they don't have obligations to you.
Best Buy would have handled the repairs on your behalf most likely, accepting the product and shipping it off for repair. No need for you to choose to travel 8x 120mi for trips to the Apple Store. That was apparently something you chose to do instead.
Apple offered to replace, instead or repair. They offered to ship you a new computer. You declined that offer, asking instead to pick up something else from the Apple product range. Fair enough.
As I've said already, the Apple rep certainly could have done a better effort to explain the terms of a retail credit, however it does not take away the fact that a retail credit is not going to get you the same value as a merchandise exchange. As previously explained, you're comparing the retail value of merchandise (let's say a $1699 computer) that has a retail markup (profit) of - for demonstration purposes only - $200. That means although you are getting $1699 of value (what you would normally pay for the item) although it only costs the retailer (or Apple, in this case) $1499 to provide that $1699 value.
Now, if they give you credit for $1599, it is costing them (and remember, they don't have your money...Best Buy does) more than it would to give you a brand new, replacement computer. If they give you a $1699 it is costing them even more.
The $1599 - which, as I have said several times, could have been better presented to you - has a higher value (when comparing wholesale to retail) than the replacement computer. And the replacement computer was equal to or greater than Apple's obligation to you under the terms of the warranty.
You got a defective computer. It happens. It wasn't intentional on Apple's part. Kinda like sometimes 747s get defective hydraulic lines. No level of quality control is going to pick that up.
Apple presented you with a reasonable option, and they went beyond that by allowing you to get something else instead - even though your transaction was with and your money was given to another company.
You just need to stop looking that gift horse in the mouth.
