Apple Walks Back UNiDAYS Verification Requirement for U.S. Education Store

[-BigMac-]

America is a nation of bargainers. My partner, who is not American, was surprised when I would ask what kind of discount I could get on large purchases, and often get one, since that is simply not done where she is from. Sometimes simply offering to pay cash will get one.

Given the number of "I'm traveling to the US, how can I get an XXX since it is cheaper there than where I live," posts I have seen over the years, Americans are not unique in wanting a deal.

Yes but there is bargaining and then there is overtly implying you have been ripping off Apple for years using their educational discount when you dont even meet the criteria. It’s an integrity test.. and some people are clearly showing their true colours

 

[Spock]

What luxury! My first university (who hosts their own email) deletes student accounts 6 *weeks* after graduation, with no arrangements for alumni.

Meanwhile, my other university (who hosts with gmail) allows for alumni email for life.

We send out warnings right after graduation and then months, weeks and days and we still get students call the day it’s going to be shut off to request an extension. One person used it to sign up for a bunch of services and lost access. They ended up signing up for a class to get the email account back so they could change it, they then dropped the class and got a refund but then had another year and half of uni email. I thought it was pretty smart.

 

[BF1M]

Like pet food, or discounts for veterinarians and other health professionals / first responders?

Haha. No, you still have to prove you are a veteran to use their military discount. Seems sort of insulting now….

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

GOOD! To go through so much for so little of a discount is ridiculous.

And: 'asking customers to upload a student ID with an expiration date'? Seriously? My university ID had a sticker that had to be stuck on, and often came off. The student news paper joked about a student having an ID with 2 inches of stickers on it. Those stickers also, unbelievably, fell off over time. The admin announce they were going to enforce the rule that everyone on campus had to have a 'valid ID', and got hit with pictures of ID's were stickers had slid, or fallen off, plus many students and staff didn't pickup their stickers. DOH... I'm sure it's easier to print new 'valid ID cards' every term/semester now but I'd bet many institutions don't...

 

[JosephAW]

Bummer. My EDU email account was closed shorty after finishing.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

We send out warnings right after graduation and then months, weeks and days and we still get students call the day it’s going to be shut off to request an extension. One person used it to sign up for a bunch of services and lost access. They ended up signing up for a class to get the email account back so they could change it, they then dropped the class and got a refund but then had another year and half of uni email. I thought it was pretty smart.

Mine was 'lifetime' too, and mysteriously disappeared. I talked with a few that I knew who went there, and they still had theirs. I figure someone hacked mine and it was closed down or something. The office in charge of alumni emails took it so seriously I never heard back if they fixed it. People still have 'lifetime email', but some don't. They don't care, and neither do I. It would be nice to have a 'burner address' though. One that I don't have to pay for... *shrug*

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Bummer. My EDU email account was closed shorty after finishing.

I'm sure if I had access to mine, it would be like Facebook: 'Are you still alive?', and then being ghosted when they find out I am. Hah!

 

[ingambe]

I don't really see the point of trying to game this system. If you want a deal on any of these items, they can be had for the same or cheaper than EDU pricing at other retailers. I got my M1 Macbook Air at Best Buy for $800, I earned BB rewards credits for the purchase, I put it on my Best Buy credit card with no interest for 12 months. I feel like I got a better deal from Best Buy than buying from Apple.

These retailers deals often appear far after the release of the product
If you buy it just after release, EDU is the best deal you can often find

Also, buying directly from Apple can have some advantages, especially return policy.

 

[bradl]

Many K-12 don't have .edu but use .org. They used to just have you pick from a list when buying online.

And that’s the problem. Most public K-12 school districts use .org. With UniDAYS, all faculty and staff from those districts were shut out.

Actually, K-12 students do not qualify, per Apple:

Available to current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers of all grade levels.

My guess is because a large % of their customer base would qualify if they did.



They can, just not at an educational discount from Apple.

Again, as mentioned previously, this was another change that was made when Apple rolled back UniDAYS. Before UniDAYS, K-12 students were eligible.

BL.

 

[jlc1978]

I blame the school district in issuing staff ID’s that have no expiration date since that sounds like a security risk.

Considering in many schools you do not need an ID for access that is not much of a risk compared to others.

Yes but there is bargaining and then there is overtly implying you have been ripping off Apple for years using their educational discount when you dont even meet the criteria. It’s an integrity test.. and some people are clearly showing their true colours

True. I've used the edu discount but then again have always been eligble or had a spouse who was.
OB Nothing: When I was a grad student I was ~20 years older than most of my classmates. I gt some funny looks when I asked for student discounts and occasionally got asked for ID...

Mine was 'lifetime' too, and mysteriously disappeared. I talked with a few that I knew who went there, and they still had theirs. I figure someone hacked mine and it was closed down or something. The office in charge of alumni emails took it so seriously I never heard back if they fixed it. People still have 'lifetime email', but some don't. They don't care, and neither do I. It would be nice to have a 'burner address' though. One that I don't have to pay for... *shrug*

Gmail makes a good burner address, especially since it properly recognizes address like first.last+addendum@gmail.com I then use mail rules to sort and filter incoming mail. Keeps junk out.

Again, as mentioned previously, this was another change that was made when Apple rolled back UniDAYS. Before UniDAYS, K-12 students were eligible.

I'm not so sure that is correct. Apple may have honored it but they clearly limited eligiblity for educational deals as evidenced by this 2020 BTS promotion:

QUALIFIED PURCHASERS: Those eligible for this promotion include faculty, staff, students, and parents as follows (each a “Qualified Purchaser”):
K-12 - Any employee of a public or private K-12 institution in the Qualified Country is eligible, including homeschool teachers. In addition, school board members who are currently serving as elected or appointed members are eligible. PTA or PTO executives currently serving as elected or appointed officers are eligible.

Higher Education - Faculty and staff of Higher Education institutions in the Qualified Country and students attending or accepted into a Higher Education institution in the United States are eligible to purchase. Purchases from the Apple Store for Education Individuals are not for institutional purchase or resale.

Higher Education Parents - Parents purchasing on behalf of their child, who is a student currently attending or accepted into a public or private Higher Education institution in the Qualified Country, are eligible to purchase.

 

[alexandr]

Years and years ago an apple store rep asked me if I was a student when I was buying a MacBook pro. I told him that I no longer was, but he insisted on giving me the discount still if I had an old student id, which at that point I still had in my wallet

 

[alexandr]

All this reminds me of this movie. If you guys haven't seen it. Y'all should check it out. The verification process does not seem reliable at all. Sadly!

I loved that movie!! Nowadays they could all get free AirPods when purchasing an iPad, or whatever ))

 

[4jasontv]

For seurity reasons schools should put the expiartation date as the end of the current school year and issue a new ID if they attend that same school next year.

How does that help with security? You don't need an ID to be on campus, and most universities I have been to you don't need an ID to enter the building during business hours. With the exception of Berklee College of Music, I have never seen a human actually look at a student ID. The only exception might be at the gym. Most places just scan/swipe the ID to see if it's valid.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I never knew that Apple did not ask for verification. So now that they announced it many people who never tried to cheat the system will begin to.

You think that's unfair? I offer that all "student deals" are unfair. Are all students the stereotypical kid who struggles financially or are there students that are actually well-off going to very expensive colleges that get to take advantage of student deals? Why do they get exclusive savings? What about your average consumer that works hard, multiple jobs and still lives paycheck-to-paycheck? How are they different from students, financially?

 

[deeddawg]

Remember - the Apple EDU discount has long been offered to K-12 staff/teachers in the US, as well as homeschooling parents.

Most of those folks don't have a .edu email address -- unless it's some legacy from when they themselves were students.

@drlamb I'm curious what part of my above comment you disagreed with? I didn't see any comments from you in the thread. Was something I wrote incorrect?

 

[bradl]

You think that's unfair? I offer that all "student deals" are unfair. Are all students the stereotypical kid who struggles financially or are there students that are actually well-off going to very expensive colleges that get to take advantage of student deals? Why do they get exclusive savings? What about your average consumer that works hard, multiple jobs and still lives paycheck-to-paycheck? How are they different from students, financially?

How do you know that those same consumers who works hard, multiple jobs, moving paycheck to paycheck aren’t students themselves?

The difference is that if the above aren’t students they would not be using their Apple products for any educational use, whereas those who are those same hardworking people who are also students will be using their Apple products for educational purposes.

BL.

 

[appleArticulate]

I’m so happy Apple has decided to remove it. It was a total waste of time in the first place. Maybe Apple VP saw the sales have started to decline.

Honestly, A 3 trillion-dollar company is relying on some third-party website for verification? That’s wrong! ??

It was there for 3 days. Your commentary is consistently phony propaganda.

 

[unsynaps]

Not sure why they can't just require the purchaser to have a university E-mail address from an approved list. That's how other sites have been verifying university affiliation for years.

Where I work when you graduate you keep your .edu address even after leaving the school.

After the UNiDAYS requirement rolled out, there were complaints from some MacRumors readers that suggested the UNiDAYS site was broken for staff member verification, as it was asking customers to upload a student ID with an expiration date. Staff members were prevented from obtaining discounted products, which could be why Apple has nixed the requirement.

Our ID's are so basic they have no expiration date directly printed on them. Its just a sticker which always rub/fall off. I think the sticker on my ID says it is valid till 2018 or something yet still working there.

 

[mi7chy]

Even with giving edu discount to everyone Apple is giving up just a thin layer of frosting on the fat cake of profit. For example, $999 base MBA M1 should include 16GB RAM and 512GB storage instead of 8GB/256GB. $200 premium for upgrading from 8GB to 16GB RAM is fat profit when you can often buy Crucial 32GB DDR4-3200 for ~$90.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

These retailers deals often appear far after the release of the product
If you buy it just after release, EDU is the best deal you can often find

Also, buying directly from Apple can have some advantages, especially return policy.

However, my experience has been that availability for edu purchases is spotty, and on new products, can take a while. Some things, they are *BOOM*, you want it, you got it, but other things it's 'Hmm, 30 days, etc.'. I mean, I hope things have gotten better since I was in university. I placed my order, paid the bill, and waited. They did have some really low end models of what I wanted, but I was looking for a slightly larger memory model. Then I had to wait for the cycle when they ordered, as it went through university purchasing. It added a few days on I'm sure.

 

[jlc1978]

Even with giving edu discount to everyone Apple is giving up just a thin layer of frosting on the fat cake of profit.

Sure. It's why the can afford to give it. Good PR for a small hit in profit.

For example, $999 base MBA M1 should include 16GB RAM and 512GB storage instead of 8GB/256GB. $200 premium for upgrading from 8GB to 16GB RAM is fat profit when you can often buy Crucial 32GB DDR4-3200 for ~$90.

Why? Apple sells plenty at that price point so there is no reason to add to their costs and not collect a premium. Any smart business does that; we as consumers may not like it but unless we stop buying their products they won't change.

 

[fhopper]

We Veterans have to use a verification site for our 10% discount. It is a site that is used by other web sites as well so it is no big deal and once registered it is easy to use.

 

[44267547]

We Veterans have to use a verification site for our 10% discount.

Good. Because if there was little-to-no verification for veterans/military, then you would have people taking advantage of that system. That’s the one verification I think that needs to be more stringent, is for veterans, because people are shady, they’ll try to get a discount anyway they can, even if that means lying about never having any affiliation with the military.

 

[BF1M]

We Veterans have to use a verification site for our 10% discount. It is a site that is used by other web sites as well so it is no big deal and once registered it is easy to use.

All I know is cheap iPhones was the primary reason I enlisted in the first place. Patriotism a distant second…

 

[baypharm]

UNiDAYS is a pain in the back.

Not any worse or better than ID.me or Sheer ID