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Apple refused to accept UK Student ID in America, any thoughts on what I should do?

N

Nun

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 1, 2011
30
0
Hey Guys,

I'm sure many of you will say that it's a completely reasonable thing for apple to not accept my UK student ID in America, however its rather frustrating for me as I wont be back in the UK for another three months and its pretty annoying to have to shell out an extra $200 when I am a student.

Do you think this was just luck of the draw and if I try again the shop assistant might give it to me? I think he went away to speak to his manager and then told me they could only accept student ID from an american uni.
 
Just buy it online from the education store. They don't (can't) check ID that way.
 
WiLLGT09 said:
Just buy it online from the education store. They don't (can't) check ID that way.
Click to expand...

Thats a very good idea, but dont I need to be inside an american university network to do that?
 
You can try again, or just have a US student accompany you to the store. Their ID, you pay, problem solved.
 
You could always try a different Apple store if you have another one near you. I don’t know about you, but I have 4 apple stores within 15 miles of my house.
 
Peteman100 said:
Nope. You can order it from anywhere.
Click to expand...

Wow, I just did this, and it looks like it might work (I've only gone as far as to see the prices). All I had to do was choose a random university and say I went there, what is to stop everyone doing this?

Mr. Pink said:
I find it hard to believe no one has provided the obvious answer to this.

...come on guys.
Click to expand...

Do tell.
 
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Nun said:
Wow, I just did this, and it looks like it might work (I've only gone as far as to see the prices). All I had to do was choose a random university and say I went there, what is to stop everyone doing this?
Click to expand...

Wrong. Dammit. The answer was move.

Sigh.
 
Mr. Pink said:
Wrong. Dammit. The answer was move.

Sigh.
Click to expand...

Seriously though, does the apple store have any mechanisms in place to stop me using the apple student discount thing, claiming I go to a random university, when I dont?
 
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Nun said:
Seriously though, does the apple store have any mechanisms in place to stop me using the apple student discount thing, claiming I go to a random university, when I dont?
Click to expand...

I really don't think so. I got my first Mac for college (university) before I was technically enrolled & didn't have my student ID yet. I bought it online with no problem. Some companies, like Adobe for example, require that you send proof of enrollment before you can buy discounted software, but I've never seen that on Apple's online store.
 
Nun said:
Seriously though, does the apple store have any mechanisms in place to stop me using the apple student discount thing, claiming I go to a random university, when I dont?
Click to expand...

random audits?

but really i don't think so.
 
Nun said:
Seriously though, does the apple store have any mechanisms in place to stop me using the apple student discount thing, claiming I go to a random university, when I dont?
Click to expand...

No, they don't. I used my gov't discount and they didn't check my ID (even though I did have it with me) so I'm assuming they won't put up a fuss if you don't have one either.

The only thing they definitely won't do is combine discounts with price matching. So choose which benefits you best.
 
Mr. Pink said:
No, they don't. I used my gov't discount and they didn't check my ID (even though I did have it with me) so I'm assuming they won't put up a fuss if you don't have one either.

The only thing they definitely won't do is combine discounts with price matching. So choose which benefits you best.
Click to expand...

Do they price match microcenter on the 13" MBP?
 
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

It's really on a case by case basis depending on which salesperson you speak to.
The main issue is that the Specialist has to look up the school you go to in order to apply the discount. Usually, they'll check the student ID for a zip code. Look up the the zip code of a nearby university and give that to them instead - say you're studying abroad or something.
Big issue: they need to see a driver's license or passport to track the discount. Make sure you bring that in. That is a much larger issue to side-step than attending a foreign university.
 
When I ordered mine over the phone with my discount, they made sure I was a student by sending an email to my University email address.
 
Find another Apple store or another Apple rep.

When i bought my first-gen MBP in Morristown NJ, i told them i was a UK student and the lovely lady didn't even bat an eye...she said "we can make that work", took my NUS card and rang the purchase through.
 
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