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Apple states NO CASH Sales for iPhones, plastic only

I just want to say that everyone's opinions are great. I didn't start this thread because I'm literally offended by this act, I got my iPhone through Amex and I pretty much live off of plastic.

I'm just saying that money is money, and yeah Apple is cracking down on the unlockers, but I think there are those people that choose to buy things with cash because they don't have to have to deal with a middle man


This situation reminds me of my favorite scene from Chappelle Show...


Reporter: Now that you've received your check are you going to quit your job as a truck driver?

Donnell Rawlings: Truck driver? I ain't a truck driver, I'm a janitor.

Reporter: A janitor?

Donnell Rawlings: Yeah I just bought this truck straight cash homie. Now I got enough cigarettes to last me and my family for the rest of our lives...

I'M RICH BIAATCCCHHHH!!!
 
mac-er said:
Apple's marketshare will never go above a certain point simply because you could go to the Dell Outlet website and get a dual core, 2MB, 320GB with wireless and Bluetooth desktop for $400.
Click to expand...

Sure, but then you have to put up with the poorly-written OS you're forced to run on it and the COSTS associated with that...unless you're savvy enough to run Linux.
 
mac-er said:
....Apple's marketshare will never go above a certain point simply because you could go to the Dell Outlet website and get a dual core, 2MB, 320GB with wireless and Bluetooth desktop for $400.
Click to expand...

Never say never. Your statement might only prove to be true with Apple's 'current' product offering. Where there's a market like the one you describe there is also a product to fill the demand. I don't see why Apple couldn't build a poor mans system to compete with Dell, if they suddenly became market share hungry and aggressive.


Kidding of course but they could re release "OS 9 improved" for that purpose. I wonder how fast that would run on today's systems :0
 
drater said:
Actually accepting cash and not accepting cash has nothing to do with ethics. Its the law that can accept what they want for goods sold. If they said they only wanted cash, that would acceptable. http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml
More proof, pull out a dollar bill, its for debts only.

Also, I work in a Department for Business Ethics at a college, and given what I see from many other companies, Apple is pretty darn ethical.

Finally, if you want to pay cash, why not just go to the local ATT store. Their souls have been long gone, could probably get it for cash there.
Click to expand...

"Pretty darn ethical". Is that like "small" nuclear weapons ? If you don't know your apple history i highly recommend the apple confidential book, might make you think twice about them being ethical. Don't get me wrong, i'm sure there are worse..........but baring in mind apple's position they should be absolutely spotless and they clearly are not. (IMHO!)
 
plumbingandtech said:
Did you even check what is and is not illegal before you posted this cr? stuff?


Walk into a liquor store and try to pay for a pack of gum with a 1000$ bill.

Then can refuse it. Upheld in a court case which I will let you look for.
Click to expand...

There are no $1000 bills in circulation.
 
Nope. This is illegal. Cash is legal tender, they cannot refuse it. If you see a sign in a store that says no bills greater than $50 or whatever, that is illegal.
 
Karpfish said:
Nope. This is illegal. Cash is legal tender, they cannot refuse it. If you see a sign in a store that says no bills greater than $50 or whatever, that is illegal.
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not true.

unless you were being sarcastic, but you never know on forums, they seem to be filed with people making ludicrous statements that could be taken as sarcasm.
 
Hardlight said:
If a companies policy (in this case taking card purchases only), disproportionally has a negitive effect on a minority group it could be considered to be indirect discrimination and unlawfull.
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let me guess. . . you're in law school right?

I would love for you to explain to me which minority group this is creating a disproportionate effect to? Hypothetically (and i'm not trying to be racist in any way) if you say that hispanics or african americans don't have good credit, and therefore are forced to make all of their purchases with cash, and now this law has a disproportionate effect in that they cannot purchase this phone, then that is one argument (but extremely week).

But you're nucking futs if you think anyone would actually sue over this (then again I thought the lady suing because apple dropped their prices was a retard too)
 
this is a really stupid move, and what does apple gain from making it....NOTHING.....unless....(starts conspiricy theory here)....Apple wants people to rack up credit card debt...so the credit card companys make money in intrest....and why would they want this?....oh yes because they are getting a kick back from the credit card companies...


AND THAT IS ILLEGAL


/ conspiricy theory
 
chris200x9 said:
this is a really stupid move, and what does apple gain from making it....NOTHING.....unless....(starts conspiricy theory here)....Apple wants people to rack up credit card debt...so the credit card companys make money in intrest....and why would they want this?....oh yes because they are getting a kick back from the credit card companies...


AND THAT IS ILLEGAL


/ conspiricy theory
Click to expand...

Someone. Call Reynolds Warp Headquarters we are running low on tin foil!!!
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C28 Safari/419.3)

I find it odd that hey are willing to accept cash in a MacBook pro purchase but not on an iPhone.

Buying an iPhone via credit card doesn't stop hackers either. Even if you purchase via credit card you are limited with the number you may buy at once anyhow.

They I bought mine with my debit and don't use AT&T and Apple can't do anything about it except deny me warranty help.

And its not uncommon to walk around with a couple hundred bucks in NYC. You would be surprised at how many small shops and vendors only accept cash
 
Something in the article that many people haven't mentioned is that Apple is also limiting the number of iPhones you can buy. It isn't clear (since transaction now can be tracked) whether the limit is per visit or overall. If it's a two-phone-per-store limit, can the person simply drive off to another Apple store or to AT&T or just go online and order more? Or will they track the credit card number and put two and two together?

This is another example of the delicate balance between security (Apple supposedly wanting to keep their phones out of the hands of hackers) and freedom. Yeah, Apple as a company can make any policies they want and I have a perfect right not to shop there. But I wonder whether their policies will actually work as intended or whether it's simply micro-management without results. I guess time will tell....
 
Hi Everyone,


Let me start by saying i dont think this is illegal :confused:, as in the UK the big Worldwide Supermarket Chain TESCO have recently opened a store somewhere in the UK that just takes Credit/Debit cards NO CASH ALLOWED, i wouldnt have thought of this as being illegal as i think tesco would'nt have taken this move.
 
seedster2 said:
I find it odd that hey are willing to accept cash in a MacBook pro purchase but not on an iPhone.

Buying an iPhone via credit card doesn't stop hackers either. Even if you purchase via credit card you are limited with the number you may buy at once anyhow.

They I bought mine with my debit and don't use AT&T and Apple can't do anything about it except deny me warranty help.

And its not uncommon to walk around with a couple hundred bucks in NYC. You would be surprised at how many small shops and vendors only accept cash
Click to expand...

It's not about stopping people so much as it is about creating a paper trail for every iPhone they sell.

Would they prefer no one hack it? Sure I guess.

But this is clearly targetted at people who come into stores with a wad of (untraceable) cash, buy a bunch of phones, unlock them and sell them.

Those same people will now have to use credit cards in some form. Sure they can set up straw buyers or use stolen CC #s, but there will still be a paper trail which can be used for investigation or prosecution as needed or desired.
 
villanova329 said:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071026/apple_iphone.html?.v=2

I did a search on the forums and didn't see this story yet. I can't believe this move.

Honestly, this discriminates against those that don't have a credit card, a bank account, have bad credit, or those that just dont wish to have credit. I know you need to have a phone, but not necessarily, you can pay a deposit or go prepaid.

I don't know, whats your take?
Click to expand...
Excuse me?

You say it discriminates against people who don't wish to have credit.

What's a cell phone plan? And even if you say it's a different kind of credit, what kind of phone company will let you setup a phone without a credit card on file?
 
Buschmaster said:
Excuse me?

You say it discriminates against people who don't wish to have credit.

What's a cell phone plan? And even if you say it's a different kind of credit, what kind of phone company will let you setup a phone without a credit card on file?
Click to expand...

In the UK........most of them.
 
A bit heavy handed

From what I've read, Apple is doing this so that hackers don't buy a lot of phones, unlock them and then resell them.

While I get why Apple wants to prevent that, this is one more example of how Apple has changed from the lovable underdog to the far less lovable corporate giant.

Every other cell phone out there is avialble in an unlocked form, as long as the consumer is willing to pay a premium. Apple wants it's cut from AT&T and is willing to refuse to sell to someone, who wants to pay with cash, no matter how innocent of any wrong doing they might be.

IMO, has lost it's rebel image and gone to the dark side.
 
The Consumerist is now reporting on this...

http://consumerist.com/consumer/no-...-enough-for-apples-precious-iphone-315923.php

So anyways, they're also adding the information that

A) No giftcards can be used to purchase an iPhone and
B) The credit card must have the purchasers name on it (e.g. you cant use one of those pre-loaded credit cards)

So they're working on ways to keep track of who is buying the iPhone.

I guess it really doesn't matter though, I mean if someone has a history of buying 10 iPhones a week, all Apple can do is flag them to not sell any more to this person. So that person will just go to an AT&T store or find people to buy for him and pay them in cash (and a little for their trouble).

The only legal recourse I think Apple has against unlockers is DMCA violations (which is kinda sketchy) as well as maybe tipping off the IRS on the person saying they're probably making good extra income off selling unlocked phones that they probably aren't reporting.
 
Yeah, Apple aleady has an estimated quarter of a million phone problem with UNLOCK/HACKED phones that may or may not upgrade their firmware properly. That's a mess. It's going to cause them to push back enhancements even further just to make sure hacked iPhone owners with possibly screwed up firmwares don't:

A.) Upgrade and brick their phone
B.) Upgrade and lose their non-authorised phone service

Either option is unacceptable for the owner's point of view, yet Apple basically is left to one or the other (A. being incidental, B. being more intentional). The only REAL option is just saying, "NO, WE WON'T UPDATE YOUR PHONE CAUSE YOU CHANGED IT". And recording all the phones IMEI's that call in, and will never get warranty service.

Man... crazy crazy.

~ CB
 
Buschmaster said:
Excuse me?

You say it discriminates against people who don't wish to have credit.

What's a cell phone plan? And even if you say it's a different kind of credit, what kind of phone company will let you setup a phone without a credit card on file?
Click to expand...

I don't know of a phone company that requires a credit card to start service. That is crazy that people are so willing to go into debt for things nowadays. I don't think it is discrimination but I do think it makes poor business sense to deny those with money but no credit to buy an item. Next thing people will suggest is Apple stop selling equipment to tourist.
 
diamond.g said:
I don't know of a phone company that requires a credit card to start service. That is crazy that people are so willing to go into debt for things nowadays. I don't think it is discrimination but I do think it makes poor business sense to deny those with money but no credit to buy an item. Next thing people will suggest is Apple stop selling equipment to tourist.
Click to expand...
Who says you need credit? Put your money in a bank account and get a simple debit card. I bought my first computer, a Commodore Amiga for $1,200 in cash withdrawn from my own checking account long before the debit card came in fashion. Check with your bank, but if you can't get a debit card and you have a checking account, seems a bit silly.

~ CB
 
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