This is one of the many reasons why I love Apple. Their customer experience is second to none.
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Apple Eliminating Restocking Fees at Apple Stores, Adding Personal Setup for Macs
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The Personal Touch that Does More
Apple is so very smart. So They now help you set up your computer so that you have no worries at all when purchasing a new Mac. But is there more to that?
Sure, now you will be set up on iTunes and the App Store where you will be introduced on how to spend more money
The customer service end of this is smart also as people will rave about the service of a worry free device.
Great job Apple!
Apple is so very smart. So They now help you set up your computer so that you have no worries at all when purchasing a new Mac. But is there more to that?
Sure, now you will be set up on iTunes and the App Store where you will be introduced on how to spend more money
The customer service end of this is smart also as people will rave about the service of a worry free device.
Great job Apple!
I agree. There are a bunch of people who see electronics purchases as "rentals."
its an added value service , which is a plus for prospective buyers . but once you bought it you'll soon forget about it
As others have pointed out, this has no link with the iPhone, Verizon or any other sort of stuff you want to dream about. This is plainly competition. Best Buy has no restocking fee meaning the incentive to go buy Apple gear at Best Buy definately is there over purchasing at an Apple store.
There is no ulterior motive or link to anything else. And 80+ million customers ? That's Verizon's entire customer base, I'm sure everyone at Apple marketing is quite aware that offering the iPhone on Verizon does not open them up to the entire customer base at all.
You mistook that statement. What I'm saying is any one of those customers could be a potential iPhone adopter. Yes, the "real" numbers are going to be much MUCH smaller, but they any one of those customers could hear about the iPhone and wander into an Apple store, or be one following it because of the news coverage, or just be one of us drooling over a Big Red iPhone. They can't discount any customer as a possible adopter, even if they traditionally don't have a Smartphone. The iPhone is a big hype machine for any carrier, and people who may not have been a target customer initially have picked up iPhones.
My aunt is a great example. Always had a dumb phone. Loved her run of the mill candybar style phones. Went into the Apple store w/ my niece because she wanted an iPhone and dug it enough that she's a huge Apple iPhone user now.
It gives them the potential to bring any one of them into the "Apple Family of Products". So from a standpoint of "how do we cater to these potential new customers" they would want to cover their bases, and make the experience even better. That's what I was saying. Not that 80+ are really actual customers, but that any one of them "could" be.
Apple is at their peak right now. They've got a huge following, their products are like gold to the consumer. I'm sure they're planning every possible way to keep breaking deeper into those markets. The iPhone is a HUGE HUGE tool for them to do that as it has been coveted by GSM users for so long, and now with as large as Verizon is, they are getting a whole new group who have years of friends, family, news, commercials, etc, telling them how great it is. It's unlike any other phone released in terms of user interest from all sorts of parties.
Hell even my wife, who is a DIE HARD RIM user, is interested to give it a look.
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Good. I couldn't believe that I opened my 27" iMac, then Apple refurb online offered the same Mac for $300 less. I returned the Mac and they charge me 10% restocking. Restocking fees are ridiculous and should have never existed in the first place.
Dear sweet god, the mandatory BS when you buy an iPhone is torture enough, they're going to make me sit through that every time I want to buy a laptop?
Release day for the iPhone 5 in Nashville, they had a giant line, that took some people close to 15 hours to get through because they insisted on taking at least 30 minutes with each person to show them how to use the phone. I begged them to just let me pay and go home, but they made me sit through the BS.
Then when I needed a new laptop, it was another ordeal. First you have to talk to this colored shirt, who instructs you to wait for someone in a different colored shirt. That mouth breathing hipster yaps at you for a bit telling you how great he is, before he wanders into the back to find a computer for you.
This is what I want in a retail experience:
1) I walk into the store, without being hassled.
2) I go over to the shelf and pick up what I want.
3) I take it to the CASH REGISTER, pay and go home.
On a good day, I can complete that experience without having to speak to any minimum wage employees.
Release day for the iPhone 5 in Nashville, they had a giant line, that took some people close to 15 hours to get through because they insisted on taking at least 30 minutes with each person to show them how to use the phone. I begged them to just let me pay and go home, but they made me sit through the BS.
Then when I needed a new laptop, it was another ordeal. First you have to talk to this colored shirt, who instructs you to wait for someone in a different colored shirt. That mouth breathing hipster yaps at you for a bit telling you how great he is, before he wanders into the back to find a computer for you.
This is what I want in a retail experience:
1) I walk into the store, without being hassled.
2) I go over to the shelf and pick up what I want.
3) I take it to the CASH REGISTER, pay and go home.
On a good day, I can complete that experience without having to speak to any minimum wage employees.
There was a front page story in the WSJ this weekend (Fri or Sat edition, not sure which) discussing the demise of the restock fee a chain stores. To no big shock they discovered that the restock fee annoys customers, hurts their brand, and consequently the long term bottom line.
Stores found that the restock fee was a barrier to sales and also that customers hit w/ the restock fee tend to 1) reduce their future shopping at the chain and 2) bad mouth the store to friends, further reducing potential sales. So it's "cheaper" for them to lose $30 on a camcorder than collect the $30 and never see the customer and maybe some friends too.
It's true the reason restock fees started was because some unscrupulous people used stores as free rental outlets. However, that was nearly a decade ago. Most stores have a way to track customer purchases throughout the chain so it's easy for them to discover "serial returners." They can and do ban or restrict returns of many of these customers -- I've seen managers at MicroCenter and Target do this.
No reason to punish real customers who occasionally get buyers remorse (happens to anyone who is human, notwithstanding many here who are superior beings in their own mind).
Wondering if you've ever bought anything at the Apple Store before. A) there is no iPhone 5. B) If you don't want help w/ set up its completely optional, not mandatory. Stop whining over nothing. It's meant to help those that do WANT help.
Stores found that the restock fee was a barrier to sales and also that customers hit w/ the restock fee tend to 1) reduce their future shopping at the chain and 2) bad mouth the store to friends, further reducing potential sales. So it's "cheaper" for them to lose $30 on a camcorder than collect the $30 and never see the customer and maybe some friends too.
It's true the reason restock fees started was because some unscrupulous people used stores as free rental outlets. However, that was nearly a decade ago. Most stores have a way to track customer purchases throughout the chain so it's easy for them to discover "serial returners." They can and do ban or restrict returns of many of these customers -- I've seen managers at MicroCenter and Target do this.
No reason to punish real customers who occasionally get buyers remorse (happens to anyone who is human, notwithstanding many here who are superior beings in their own mind).
Wondering if you've ever bought anything at the Apple Store before. A) there is no iPhone 5. B) If you don't want help w/ set up its completely optional, not mandatory. Stop whining over nothing. It's meant to help those that do WANT help.
This is a funny post to me.
That $300 'off' of the refurb? That is the 10 percent. Literally. They cannot charge the same price for an opened product, so the 10 percent was the difference.
...
Don't worry this won't hurt Apple. Yes there may be more returns however with their profit margins and the small discount on refurb product they still will have the highest margins in the industry even on their refurb goods. Also it will make it easier for us to find things in the refurb store which is great news for those looking to save a buck
Don't worry this won't hurt Apple. Yes there may be more returns however with their profit margins and the small discount on refurb product they still will have the highest margins in the industry even on their refurb goods. Also it will make it easier for us to find things in the refurb store which is great news for those looking to save a buck
What exactly IS a "restocking fee"? Is that to pay some flunky to put something back on the shelf? Isn't that flunky already getting paid to walk around, now we have to pay said flunky extra to actually combine doing something with walking around?
Some feedback that I have received from my business rep is that a number of the returns are people that are wishing that they would have bought a higher model such as someone goes in buys a MacBook uses it for a week and then decides that they would rather have a 15" instead. The store really loses nothing and gains a happier customer.
It's to pay for refurbishing a product and repackaging it and to pay depreciation since the returned product can't be sold as new.
Unfortunately, it's thinking like this that gave us the 10% restocking fee with retailers.
They do loose something. That product that was bought is now officially "used" and needs to be serviced, repackaged and sold as refurbished. They loose probably 20% right there off of the device returned.
They give us the stores so we can go in and play with them as much as you'd like so you can be confident of your purchase before you walk out of the store. No restocking fee will promote people buying with the intent of "trying it out" for a week and I think it will not take long before the policy is reinstated. At Apple and at Best Buy too.
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Great, even more Dorks will buy equipment they don't want and more Jerks will use macs for two weeks and then all this gets returned and we all pay higher prices because of the Stupids and selfish people.
I hope this gets abused so much that apple has to change it back.
I hope this gets abused so much that apple has to change it back.
This.
I can't remember how many threads I read of people who bought a 16GB iPhone or iPad and wanted to upgrade to the 32GB or the 64GB (iPad). They had to eat the restock fee but this would have been nice for those times where you want to actually upgrade and give the company more money. For example, a person upgrading from a 16GB iPad to a 32GB iPad pay Apple $100 more while Apple will sell the 16GB as a refurb at 10% discount of $50 therefore still making $50.
Seriously? There was never a fee for returning an unopened item (which are the only items that can be put back on the shelf).
Opened items that are returned can't be resold as new. Best Buy may tape the box shut and sell it as an "open box" at a discount, but Apple sends the returned product back to a depot where it's reconditioned (i.e. completely reloads everything back to stock for Macs, and if it's a iPod/iPhone/iPad, it gets a brand new shell and a brand new battery), and then it's sold at a discount (often 10% off).
Oh, you want a typical retail experience. Then yes, avoid Apple -- they pride themselves in NOT offering what you want. Fortunately for you, there's Best Buy (for Macs), and when it comes to iPhones, you get Best Buy, WalMart, AT&T, Radio Shack, etc.
Great Idea! It will make people more comfortable when first purchasing, especially if they are new to Mac.
Really? I don't know a single retailer who doesn't charge a restocking fee for an opened item that is returned as unwanted rather than faulty or not fit for purpose... You open and damage the packaging, 10% is about standard in my experience...
We had some substantial threads here by people who complained that they bought a device and it was not brand new (or they thought it wasn't brand new or whatever). If Apple paid some "flunky" as you call them to put a returned product back on the shelf, and then sold this item at full price as brand new, there would be major outcry (obviously) but also actually major trouble.
And, just wondering, who do you think you are you that you refer to people doing an honest job as "flunkies"?
Anything that the customer benefits from and betters C.S, I think is always positive. Being in business I feel C.S go's a long way, and it's when there is a problem, how it's handled and resolved is what will keep customers coming back! At least that's the way I feel and how we run our business and I've seen how this kind of C.S comes back to you.
The bad thing about this type of policy is of course the people who will abuse it, and you know who you are. I have never believed in a business having to give money back after a purchase and just changing your mind. That is not fair to a business, and unfortunately this practice happens daily, that's when a restocking fee should be applied. Personally if you buy it you own it, and unless something is wrong with it you cannot return it or you pay a restocking fee!
For the record, I believe Apple already has the best Customer Service of any business I've dealt with! At least for me they have been great!
The bad thing about this type of policy is of course the people who will abuse it, and you know who you are. I have never believed in a business having to give money back after a purchase and just changing your mind. That is not fair to a business, and unfortunately this practice happens daily, that's when a restocking fee should be applied. Personally if you buy it you own it, and unless something is wrong with it you cannot return it or you pay a restocking fee!
For the record, I believe Apple already has the best Customer Service of any business I've dealt with! At least for me they have been great!