Apple Axes 'No Cash' Policy for iPad Sales

[G58]

I thank you for your response. I guess the very nature of my question/comment was of a judgmental tone. Clearly, that wasn't my intent, as I was merely curious.

Perhaps you can think of a way to rephrase my initial question in a way that won't come off sounding.. as it did.

I mean that completely seriously.

Thanks.

Okay, the charge is a beer of my choice should we ever meet.

"You know, when I first saw this video I had to double check to make sure it wans't TheOnion."

Okay so far.

"This is almost too silly to be real."

Yeah, but that's what's so great about real life - it's better than fiction... right?

"I mean, its great that she got a free iPad and all, and it was a great gesture on Apple's part,"

True.

"but what made me think this video was a satire was her/the reporter saying that she had been like carefully saving up her pennies for an iPad."

And here's were you can't imagine someone needing to save up to buy something that costs $500. Make that two beers.

"Clearly, she doesn't have a lot of money."

Okay...

"Not to be offensive,"

Yeah, but I have a feeling you're gonna be...


"but what in the HELL does this woman need with an iPad?"

Let's just take a moment and celebrate two things here:

This woman is about to get connected to the net.

She Chose an Apple device.

I like her already. I'm not going to judge her. I'm just happy for her. She is where you were the first day you got connected. If you can remember how that felt, you know your words shouldn't include: "what in the HELL does this woman need with an iPad?"

"Am I missing something?"

Oh yeah baby.

"This report makes it sound like she was denied the purchase of some essential house-hold product.. not an arguably luxury product."

I really don't think you meant to be mean here, but you were anything but generous. I can't really write the words for you. But I do want you to close your eyes and picture a senior female member of your own family as the subject of this story, this scenario. Are you going to employ snobbery in relation to her aspirations?

I have no idea why Diane Campbell wanted an iPad. And no, this is not, as I suggested earlier, a Rosa Parks moment. That comment was flippant and itself unworthy. But I can imagine a daughter away at college or uni with whom she may want to keep in touch. In fact we can all imagine a million reasons.

I like real ale.

Have a good evening

 

[Max(IT)]

Why does a nice gesture by Apple lead to do many negative comments? This has nothing to do with the need for a checking account, a computer, or other things she could/should have purchased.

It's a simple story of a company with an outstanding product trying to keep people from buying and reselling them thus keeping them from honest buyers. Faced with a real example of unintended hardship their policy caused, they came up with a workaround and offered up a free iPad to the woman whose story prompted the change.

Good for her, and good for Apple.

Absolutely right, but you know: this forum is full of Apple haters, ready to bash Apple on EVERYTHING

 

[andy721]

god for bid if they ever get some publicity stunt with their policies. People are so dumb when it comes to getting stuff for free their attitude changes 360 in seconds.

 

[netdoc66]

Jeez...

Some of the ignorant comments on this thread are hilarious. I've heard more ignorance on this site than on a street corner. Maybe this woman doesn't want a debit card? Maybe within her existence she really doesn't need it? Maybe she'd prefer to maintain a simple lifestyle without those bits of paper they send you in the mail every month from a bank. She could have done way more with a netbook? I guess she'll need the ability to terminal into her remote server to repair some disk permissions. Just because you may have good jobs and education doesn't mean your smart. Yes I'm talking about you.

 

[kevinuaa]

why would you assume she's on welfare? fixed income does not equal welfare (afdic). Perhaps she is on social security, or private disability? or is it b/c she's black, she's on welfare?

why would you want to do away with cash? do you really want the government to track your every financial transaction? or a company? what if someone decides to take that away? what if there is a power outage? how are you going to pay your friends off when they win a bet? are lawn boys and lemonade stands meant to get merchant accounts?

crude science fiction notwithstanding, cash will never, ever go away.

1. It's 2010, cash needs to go away in general..

2. At least our taxes took care of the rest of her living expenses so she could save up for an iPad.

 

[el3ktro]

**Or maybe she is isn't the brightest bulb in the box...** she thought an IPAD would be a great choice for her first computer. ITs like saying i want a computer that i can edit movies...excuse me sir, can u show me where the netbooks are? lol

iPad as first computer? Why not? Somebody who hasn't had a computer before, probably won't do much beyond browsing, e-mailing and casual gaming anyway. And for THAT, I can think of no better computer than the iPad.

 

[el3ktro]

You are missing the point. She can spend her money on whatever she wants. However if she does not even have a checking account at this point she might be misapplying her focus at this time.

Yeah, probably. But how is that your our our business? She can spend her money on whatever she wants. Right, so stop complaining about that she spent it (or wanted to spend it) on an iPad. Perhaps she didn't have any luxury in her life for a long time, and needed a computer at the same time to stay in contact with distant relatives or whatever, and now saved her money to buy an iPad, because she just wanted to buy something she just WANTS and not NEEDS once in her lifetime. We all know how good that feels!

You can clearly see she's truly happy, so I'm happy for her.

You're all just jealous that you didn't get an iPad for free!

 

[benhowe]

Couldn't she have just bought a gift card?

And used that to buy the ipad?

 

[stanislas]

Hey, look, in the U.S. it's illegal to charge for use of a public restroom, but not in many European countries. Priorities I guess. I'd rather be refused an iPad b/c I'm using cash than the bathroom b/c I don't have any on me.

And I can't understand why FORCING a private company to accept cash should be a law anywhere. For one, it's cash is a giant security risk for companies b/c of 1) employees w/ sticky fingers and 2) increased opportunity for robbers. Sure, it may be inconvenient for customers, but ultimately if a business annoys its customers too much it won't be in business.



The real lesson is that most companies are ******* when they should stand up (Apple) and idiots when they should stand down (BP).

Well, it should be a law because
1/ Not everybody has payments means other than cash
2/ It is the LEGAL CURRENCY. It is the currency printed out by the state. It has legal value in all the land. If one shop refuses to accept its value, then what else? Can they say that they'll take $500 bills and accepts them as $10 bills? I know I'm making it absurd, but do you see what I mean? Shops aren't supposed to decide whether paper money is receivable or not. It's not up to them, because it is the currency that has legal value.

In any case, as someone pointed out earlier, in the USA you apparently have to accept cash once you've signed a contract with someone. But you may refuse a "contract". In France for example, you wouldn't be allowed: As long as the purchaser has the money, it's illegal to refuse to sell.

(btw: I don't see what the bathroom issue has to do with anything. Why do you feel immediately attacked and threatened when I mention something I see a a problem in American law? Do you think your country is perfect? I don't think mine is. Good stuff, bad stuff everywhere, so what?)

 

[fjfjfjfj]

Wow.

 

[kingtj]

re: no checking account, etc. ?

Well, several things:

1. If you're receiving social security or welfare benefits in many states in the US, they give them to you as funding on a VISA debit card now, vs. mailing you a check. (Direct deposit into a checking account is usually an option as well, but one you have to fill out special paperwork for and request.) If she was using one of these cards, she probably already used its balance up with things like food and paying utility bills. It sounds like she was scraping together cash on the side towards the iPad.

2. Our society is so accustomed to doing everything with debit/credit cards, people rarely carry cash anymore. In a way, we're all suckered by the banking cartels in that respect. They keep shaving their fees off the top of our transactions, and subjecting people to big charges for exceeding account limits or balances. I often think the SMART ones are really the people who still find ways to get by with plain old cash instead!

3. This policy just wasn't well thought-out by Apple at all. When I waited in line to get my 3G iPad on launch day, they informed all of us of the "no cash purchases" rule, and many of us were left confused by it. (They wouldn't explain why ... and I honestly just assumed it was to lessen the risk of theft, at the initial product launch. If too many people paid with cash, that'd be a lot of money just lying around the Apple store until someone could get free time to go deposit it -- and getting that free time was probably impossible that evening!) I was surprised to hear the policy continued on after that. My cash says right on it, "Legal tender for ALL debts, public and private" - so I'd want to know why a U.S. based retailer wasn't accepting it for a transaction!

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

Or maybe she is isn't the brightest bulb in the box...

Help me think of a way to illustrate an Apple policy as bad so I can get a free product!

 

[JAT]

why would you want to do away with cash? do you really want the government to track your every financial transaction? or a company?

You mean....besides Google?

 

[Pigumon]

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.

Ask ALL OF JAPAN. They are a cash society, and not paying ridiculous fees for checking accounts or credit cards. They would be saying "How can a company not accept cash?" and I agree.. it's CASH, REAL MONEY!

(and yes, all the employers there pay either cash or direct to a savings account, not checking)

 

[CFreymarc]

Great attitude there. May you get strip-searched on every flight, audited every tax year, and pulled over at every sobriety checkpoint for the rest of your life, since you love investigating people so much.

You are beautiful when you are angry!

 

[Bocaj]

Some of the ignorant comments on this thread are hilarious. I've heard more ignorance on this site than on a street corner. Maybe this woman doesn't want a debit card? Maybe within her existence she really doesn't need it? Maybe she'd prefer to maintain a simple lifestyle without those bits of paper they send you in the mail every month from a bank. She could have done way more with a netbook? I guess she'll need the ability to terminal into her remote server to repair some disk permissions. Just because you may have good jobs and education doesn't mean your smart. Yes I'm talking about you.

Simple lifestyle and she wants a tech device?
Something inherently ironic in that statement.

 

[BigJimmyC]

iPad as first computer? Why not? Somebody who hasn't had a computer before, probably won't do much beyond browsing, e-mailing and casual gaming anyway. And for THAT, I can think of no better computer than the iPad.

For somebody who's living on a fixed income, how about a $300 desktop? The ipad is nothing but a luxury, and certainly not something that this woman needs.

 

[lPHONE]

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?

yes, the fact that no one gives a ****.
In the spirit of Apple's new decision, you're going to stand behind Apple, right?

 

[Southern Dad]

For those that say she isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer... She did get a FREE iPad, did you? Gift cards, pre-paid VISA cards, etc. will not work. Once activated the iPad does not need a computer to work. Actually, connecting it to a computer after it is already activated really doesn't do anything you can't do from the iPad itself.

I sync contacts over Mobile Me. I download apps right from the iPad. Podcasts? Download them from the iPad.

 

[diamond.g]

For those that say she isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer... She did get a FREE iPad, did you? Gift cards, pre-paid VISA cards, etc. will not work. Once activated the iPad does not need a computer to work. Actually, connecting it to a computer after it is already activated really doesn't do anything you can't do from the iPad itself.

I sync contacts over Mobile Me. I download apps right from the iPad. Podcasts? Download them from the iPad.

You still need a computer to save any data. Especially since they don't fix your iPad they just give you a refurb unit (even to change the battery). With no backup all your game saves and settings and such are wiped out. Plus you need a computer to get the latest OS (since they are too big to be done OTA).

 

[charlituna]

You still need a computer to save any data.

you assume she will have data that needs to be saved. From what she was saying, her primary desire was to watch videos on youtube. no saving there. she can get a user account to save her favs which also gets her a gmail account, which is web based. so no saving there.

even if she gets apps if they are free there's no biggie over having to 'buy' them again.

Plus you need a computer to get the latest OS (since they are too big to be done OTA).

genius bar. they will be more than happy to restore your ipad or whatever to the newest OS. In fact if your whatever breaks that's the first thing they will try.

 

[SeaFox]

For those that say she isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer... She did get a FREE iPad, did you? Gift cards, pre-paid VISA cards, etc. will not work. Once activated the iPad does not need a computer to work. Actually, connecting it to a computer after it is already activated really doesn't do anything you can't do from the iPad itself.

Except add music files your ripped from your own CD collection.

 

[futuremacuser82]

you assume she will have data that needs to be saved. From what she was saying, her primary desire was to watch videos on youtube. no saving there. she can get a user account to save her favs which also gets her a gmail account, which is web based. so no saving there.

even if she gets apps if they are free there's no biggie over having to 'buy' them again.


genius bar. they will be more than happy to restore your ipad or whatever to the newest OS. In fact if your whatever breaks that's the first thing they will try.

Actually, she wouldn't even have to buy the apps again all she'd have to do is go to her itunes account and look at her previous purchases and download them again.