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Apple Axes 'No Cash' Policy for iPad Sales

Shotgun OS said:
This reminds me of a story where someone I knew tried to buy a new car with cash, straight up, and they called the police on him.
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Well, besides drug dealers, criminals, crooks, people who are trying to hide something and other questionable people, not too many people are going to walk around with thousands of dollars in cash on them and purchase a new car.
 
dukebound85 said:
I still don't get the reasoning

It will help when you ever buy a house, get a job, or get a car or if you are ever in a bind

Many companies run background checks prior to employment where credit histories are a large part. To willingly not have one for the sake of it makes no sense. You do realize you can treat a cc just like a debit card right and not incur any fees at all

Why shoot yourself in the foot? You can still have that mindset that you posted while at the same time building a healthy credit score.
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I don't see a great need for me to participate within this system. I do understand the benefits though.
 
evilgEEk said:
Okay, I thought the no-cash policy was stupid from the beginning, and I'm not going to pretend like I know this woman's financial situation...

But regardless, why couldn't she go down to Wal*Mart, or a handful of other retailers, and get a pre-paid VISA card?

We don't accept cash payments in our office for auto/home insurance, so those that don't have credit/debit cards or checking accounts we just get them an AAA pre-paid VISA card for $4.99, or direct them to pick one up at Wal*Mart.

Oh well, she got a free iPad. Good for her! :)
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Maybe shes just not a savvy consumer. Anyway heres to Boise going all the way next season.:D
 
FWW said:
^ this, at least to activate it...

Step one: Set ridiculous policy
Step two: Receive bad press
Step three: Reverse ridiculous policy, hand out free gadget to eldery, crowned as saints
Step four: ???
Step five : Profit
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Amazing it actually works time and time again.

Step one could also be: remove feature
 
Champ1 said:
Maybe shes just not a savvy consumer.
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She's savvy alright. She got an iPad for free didn't she?

Plenty of people before her tried to pay with cash and got turned away. I guess she used her situation to her advantage.

"Poor woman on fixed income walks into Apple store and Apple turns the poor minority woman away, telling her that they don't want any Ipads reaching the black market". Story gets reported on news, and Apple, sensing a PR disaster, revises their policy and gives the poor woman a free iPad!
 
A lot of elitist comments in this thread. Don't know why so many are sniping at the woman. Good for her, she got a free iPad. It functions perfectly fine as a computer for most people (i.e. web/email) and yes, even people on fixed incomes need computers to stay connected and just keep up.

It was a stupid policy to begin with and I'm glad Apple did away with it.
 
thatguysmells said:
Most people that don't have a checking account either are an illegal alien or have BAD CREDIT. When you have a bankruptcy or other types of bad credit banks can refuse to give you a checking account. Your employer pays you with a check, you pick it up, and you take it to a check cashing place. THE END. God, what planet are you from to not have known this?
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God I read all of these and I'm sad I did. There are many of us that are not illegal ( I won't even start at how dumb you are about who can get a bank account, here is a hint, banks don't care where your from). Some of us just want to take the money we earn to a store and buy stuff. I have GOOD CREDIT and own my own biz but telling me how I can give you money for your product which I'm going to have to have a credit card to pay for any apps seems silly. Good luck on your racist deal tho.
 
dukebound85 said:
I do question how one can even function in a society without a mere checking account? I mean, I can not think of a single employer who pays cash instead of checks....and if you get paid via check then you must have a checking account.
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Not true. If you get paid by check, you can take it to a check cashing place and get your money(minus their exorbitant fee, when you could get it cashed free, if you had a checking account at a bank).

Though, why you'd walk around with over $500 dollars in cash is beyond me--- easy way to lose it(mugged or just drop it). Why she didn't go to a US Post office and pay a dollar or so to get a money order is beyond me!
 
psingh01 said:
It functions perfectly fine as a computer for most people (i.e. web/email) and yes, even people on fixed incomes need computers to stay connected and just keep up.
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Yes, but if she is really on a fixed income, she'd have been better off getting either a netbook(if she wanted portability) or a refurb Mac Mini if she didn't care about portability. If she just wanted a computer(not Apple), she could've looked on craigslist, and got one for $100 or less.
 
Eidorian said:
I don't feel that it's necessary to explain my situation related to that subject on this forum.
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It certainly is not necessary at all. You can do what you want. But to be fair, you joined the discussion. Either way, it doesn't matter to me. Everyone's situation is different. And at least you recogize that credit is not evil and can have benefits, it just doesn't work for you. Just like me and exercise.
 
macrumorsMaster said:
Yes, but if she is really on a fixed income, she'd have been better off getting either a netbook(if she wanted portability) or a refurb Mac Mini if she didn't care about portability. If she just wanted a computer(not Apple), she could've looked on craigslist, and got one for $100 or less.
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I know of several local community organizations that refurbish old hardware (Mostly old Thinkpads right now) and will give them to needy individuals or families.

slu said:
It certainly is not necessary at all. You can do what you want. But to be fair, you joined the discussion. Either way, it doesn't matter to me. Everyone's situation is different. And at least you recogize that credit is not evil and can have benefits, it just doesn't work for you. Just like me and exercise.
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I don't think credit is evil. I understand its functions in our society.
 
dukebound85 said:
I do question how one can even function in a society without a mere checking account? I mean, I can not think of a single employer who pays cash instead of checks....and if you get paid via check then you must have a checking account.

Even if she did not have one, she could have gotten one for free with a debit card and been able to circumvent this
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I worked in banking for a few years when I first went to college. You'd be shocked how many people don't have checking accounts and get along just fine. The bank I worked at would cash checks for non-customers but would charge them a $5 fee. They had to be checks that were from our bank though so we could check funds availability. They also had to thumbprint the check. This one guy would come in and kept his life savings on him at all times. He showed me that he had nearly $15,000! Lol. In his interior jacket pocket.

Also there are literally boatloads of people who can't open a checking account because they are flagged in database called "check systems" or something like that. Basically if you had a checking account at another bank that got closed from being overdrawn (and I think if you've been bankrupt the last seven years too?) then you show up in the systems of all the banks and they will not allow you to open an account. When our bank decided to lift the restriction for a short time and allow people who were flagged to sign up (we were hurting for accounts at the time because our bank sucked), we had a flood of people who were desperate. The line out the door had us open way past close that week. It ended up being a real bad decision as everyone and their mom was bouncing checks and people were coming in complaining like crazy. Some people just aren't together enough to keep their checking account in check. But some other people get screwed by this system when they make some mistakes or because they were a stupid teenager and didn't watch their account at all. I'm sure there are several of you who know what I'm talking about!

Honestly I bet Jobs didn't even know about this policy. This kind of stuff isn't an executive level decision. He probably saw it on the news and phoned up some execs and was like "Really? Is this the best you can come up with? Make something better! [Expletive]! The goal is to have people actually buy our product. Did you get the memo?"
 
macrumorsMaster said:
Yes, but if she is really on a fixed income, she'd have been better off getting either a netbook(if she wanted portability) or a refurb Mac Mini if she didn't care about portability. If she just wanted a computer(not Apple), she could've looked on craigslist, and got one for $100 or less.
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No, she would not have been better off. She had never owned any computer before. The iPad is much easier for a novice to use than the alternatives you suggest.
 
I'm developing a real loathing for Apple's business practices. They seem to be getting too big for their britches, rather like the financial, military and energy industries.
 
Black Macbook said:
She's savvy alright. She got an iPad for free didn't she?

Plenty of people before her tried to pay with cash and got turned away. I guess she used her situation to her advantage.

"Poor woman on fixed income walks into Apple store and Apple turns the poor minority woman away, telling her that they don't want any Ipads reaching the black market". Story gets reported on news, and Apple, sensing a PR disaster, revises their policy and gives the poor woman a free iPad!
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You really know how to turn a pretty simple story of a consumer making some waves into a complex,sinister thriller full of danger with explosions and mangled bodies..... See i can exaggerate too.;)
 
Champ1 said:
You really know how to turn a pretty simple story of a consumer making some waves into a complex,sinister thriller full of danger with explosions and mangled bodies..... See i can exaggerate too.;)
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Call me cynical, but I think it's pathetic that this is even on the news, and even more tragic that the reported suggested to an African American woman in the USA that she has somehow contributed to changing a little bit of the world by ensuring that people can buy ipads with cash. As if this is a step toward greater equality in the world! An amazing new low in media. Nice of Apple, but really an amazingly inexpensive PR stunt that benefits Apple because people are suckers and believe somehow that it was done because Apple really cares about equality. If they genuinely did, they'd clean up their act in China!

Having said that, I am very happy for the lady that she got a free ipad. that's wonderful!
 
Xavier said:
So she wants to have technology... why not use a debit card?
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There are a lot of people that don't want to be "on the grid" for one reason or another. I don't want to judge them but I do know that they prefer to do everything with paper (cash). It seems kind of funny though that she would have only cash but wouldn't have a debit card to buy apps. She could buy iTunes gift cards with cash. Oh well.
 
poor woman fell for the marketing force of apple... "buying" a device made for consuming, not creating.
 
mastrorj68 said:
maybe someone should have stopped her from buying one as her first computer, bc u actually need a computer to use the thing. Atleast thats what a mac sales person told me. They said its in an agreement that u sign that u have to have a computer b4 buying an IPAD.

She has no debit card in her name...ok u can go to almost ne bank with bad credit and mine is bad still open up a checking account and get a debit card. In fact TD bank lets u do all of that including have the card ready in 5 min. Or **** go to the gas station and get a money order lol. Am i missing something here?
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I would suggest that yes, maybe you are missing something.
 
Personally this smells of corporations wanting to collect customer info and invasion of privacy via digital payments rather than a "one per customer" policy.

If a company is manufacturing products to sell TONS and make $$ who cares how many units per customer are sold. I'd be happy to sell 100 units to one customer if they so desire.
 
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