Best Buy and Advice

[jdubbaneh]

I'm a student looking to get the Macbook Pro. Now I know Apple offers the $100 gift card, $100 rebate towards printer, and $100 of laptop for being a student.

Now I know Best Buy will price match the gift card for $100 so i'd rather have a best buy gift card than the App store.

Now does anyone know from experience or from hearing about it that Best Buy will also price match the $100 of for being a student and $100 towards a printer?

Lastly is there any word on a new Regular Macbook coming out? Thanks.

 

[MartyF81]

Personally, I would buy it from Apple. My experiences with Best Buy is the reason I call them "Worst Buy". They are never helpful, they never know anything, and they always are trying to sell you crap you don't need. The fact that they open computers and "pre-install" more bloatware on to them and then call it a "benefit" which you get to pay more for is just insanity. Also the receipt checking at the door is madness. What a way to alienate your customers who are actually PAYING for stuff to try and catch a few who do not.

You can surely find $100 worth of stuff in the Apple App Store, and they won't even check your receipt at the door on your way out.

 

[Dark Void]

+1 for apple, it will be best for you as a student. not sure if BB will match the printer, but i'd stay away from them anyway.

 

[RedRaven571]

Personally, I would buy it from Apple. My experiences with Best Buy is the reason I call them "Worst Buy". They are never helpful, they never know anything, and they always are trying to sell you crap you don't need. The fact that they open computers and "pre-install" more bloatware on to them and then call it a "benefit" which you get to pay more for is just insanity. Also the receipt checking at the door is madness. What a way to alienate your customers who are actually PAYING for stuff to try and catch a few who do not.

You can surely find $100 worth of stuff in the Apple App Store, and they won't even check your receipt at the door on your way out.

If you know what you want walking in the door and get a new macbook in its original box (I don't think there is even such a thing as bloatware for a mac), what's the difference? Especially if the OP would rather get, say, a 1TB external drive for $100 (from BB gift card) to do backups rather than $100 of apps they may not want.

Lots of businesses check receipts on the way out the door; if you have nothing to hide, why is it offensive?

Personally, I like BB and conduct a lot of my business there; I admit some of the folks in the sales area are know-nothings but I've also heard that some of the "Geniuses" at the Apple stores are anything but.

Here's a perfect example:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1180709/

I think if your local BB will match what Apple offers, go for it; your new mac is covered by the same 1 year factory warranty from Apple and you can purchase Applecare from Apple later, if you want.

 

[crypticgeek]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Receipt checking is offensive because you're assuming that your customers are thieves. It's guilty until proven innocent by checking my reciept. I don't submit to reciept checks and I don't do business with retailers who perform such idiotic and insulting loss prevention techniques. It's not my job as a customer to prove I bought something. It's your job to prove I stole something and then call the police.

Also I don't think your Genius example is anything close to "perfect". The genius' answer a fair response. If it's a software driver issue how is he supposed to fix it? The customer was given a possible workaround until a software patch comes out. What the hell else can the poor guy do?

 

[MartyF81]

Lots of businesses check receipts on the way out the door; if you have nothing to hide, why is it offensive?

Yes and I walk right past them and tell them to shove it. They watch you walk right from the register after paying and check your receipt. I am not interested in basically being investigated for theft every time I leave the store.

They are checking for 2 things:
1. That you didn't steal from them.
2. That their employee at the register rang you out properly.

As far as I am concerned:
1. Theft is the cost of doing business, they should not treat their paying customers this way by alienating them because of a few bad apples. Its poor service. Talk about a marketing nightmare.
2. If you hire people who require you to check their work, then you shouldn't have hired them to begin with. Fix your hiring practices.

If you know what you want walking in the door and get a new macbook in its original box (I don't think there is even such a thing as bloatware for a mac), what's the difference?

The difference is that why would you want to give your money to a company that treats their customers like that? All that does is reaffirm that their behavior is ok and that they should continue it.

 

[motoracer1486]

My advice as both a customer and ex-employee of BB is to not give them a penny. Buy it from an Apple store or Apple.com.

 

[ViviUO]

They will probably give you the $100 off in exchange for buying their rip-off warranty.

 

[DWBurke811]

A app store gift card has a value of exactly $0.00, while a $100 gift card to best buy is prob worth $60-$75. If they'll still match the student discount price(I have no idea), then having to show your receipt at the door is a small price to pay to get a gift card thats actually useful.

 

[MartyF81]

A app store gift card has a value of exactly $0.00

Hmmmmm interesting that it is worth nothing. I bought applications and music with mine. When I completed my purchases they did have a price on them....

 

[ladytonya]

They will price match on the gift card but not the $100 discount. The only other thing about Best Buy is that you would get Reward Zone points for the purchase, which is a big incentive for me.

As for the receipt checking, I've never been checked leaving a Best Buy. Only store I've been checked at is Sam's Club, and that makes sense because of the amount of stuff that you have in your cart and how easy it would be to walk out with something. If you've got nothing to hide, why let it bother you?

 

[DWBurke811]

There's a competing App Store called the pirate bay; I don't know the details but you can buy any application, operating system, song, movie...from them, and they don't charge you anything; whoever runs that place is really nice, he could charge a lot of money for all the stuff thats available. That's why the app store gift card is worthless.

 

[dmccloud]

There's a competing App Store called the pirate bay; I don't know the details but you can buy any application, operating system, song, movie...from them, and they don't charge you anything; whoever runs that place is really nice, he could charge a lot of money for all the stuff thats available. That's why the app store gift card is worthless.

So you advocate illegally downloading software because it's free? Personally, I'd rather buy my apps and music. That way I know the artists and developers are getting paid for their work.

 

[mmduluth]

There's a competing App Store called the pirate bay; I don't know the details but you can buy any application, operating system, song, movie...from them, and they don't charge you anything; whoever runs that place is really nice, he could charge a lot of money for all the stuff thats available. That's why the app store gift card is worthless.

woooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I hope your just ACTING that ignorant.

 

[mmduluth]

Btw, I bought my MBP from Best Buy and I don't regret it. And I also bought there warranty because it covers accidental damage, though I'm hoping to never have to take advantage of it.

 

[imaketouchtheme]

I just skimmed over the few ignorant posts that I saw in this thread and wanted to point a couple things out.

First off, yes, they will give you a $100 gift card with a Mac if you are a student.

Second, the reason they check receipts is to make sure the EMPLOYEE rang out all of the items. It has nothing to do with assuming every customer is a thief.

 

[ddavid]

I'm really getting sick of "Apps!" Especially since Apple took a pro editing tool, Final Cut Pro, and neutered it into an "App" with the release of FCP X. I checked out the App store and it is filled with crApp and garbage. It reminds me of shareware sites, where 95% of the software is poorly written, useless crap.

Next all the "Apps" will have popup ads...

 

[ddavid]

Second, the reason they check receipts is to make sure the EMPLOYEE rang out all of the items. It has nothing to do with assuming every customer is a thief.

Yup, and the reason TSA shoves their hand up your @$$ is to make sure the agent got your ticket right.

 

[Nostromo]

Personally, I would buy it from Apple. My experiences with Best Buy is the reason I call them "Worst Buy". They are never helpful, they never know anything, and they always are trying to sell you crap you don't need. The fact that they open computers and "pre-install" more bloatware on to them and then call it a "benefit" which you get to pay more for is just insanity. Also the receipt checking at the door is madness. What a way to alienate your customers who are actually PAYING for stuff to try and catch a few who do not.

You can surely find $100 worth of stuff in the Apple App Store, and they won't even check your receipt at the door on your way out.

I agree. Inept sales staff and sleazy outfit.

They really install junkware (that's what I call bloatware) on Mac computers?

For someone who has a true interest in his computer the Apple store has the best buying experience.

 

[dmccloud]

I agree. Inept sales staff and sleazy outfit.

They really install junkware (that's what I call bloatware) on Mac computers?

Who, Best Buy? There is a Best Buy app installed on Windows machines (all the other bloatware/crapware is installed by the manufacturer. But my Mac I purchased at Best Buy (we don't have an Apple Store yet, and shipping to Alaska sucks) came with only the included software, no addons at all.

 

[mmduluth]

Who, Best Buy? There is a Best Buy app installed on Windows machines (all the other bloatware/crapware is installed by the manufacturer. But my Mac I purchased at Best Buy (we don't have an Apple Store yet, and shipping to Alaska sucks) came with only the included software, no addons at all.

+1

Best Buy had absolutely NO added software on my MBP when I bought it. They asked if I needed help from their "Geek Squad" in setting it up bit when I said absolutely not they didn't push it. Also, I suppose some Best Buy's are worse than others, but the Best Buy by my house never tries to push things on you that you don't want.

 

[DWBurke811]

So you advocate illegally downloading software because it's free? Personally, I'd rather buy my apps and music. That way I know the artists and developers are getting paid for their work.

woooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I hope your just ACTING that ignorant.

I'd never say to do anything illegal. I don't get what you mean, I was under the understanding that there was a group of people that distributed everything and they paid rather than the people downloading it? Im still Teton configure out why they so, I guess theyre just very generous people?

 

[Young Spade]

I'm really getting sick of "Apps!" Especially since Apple took a pro editing tool, Final Cut Pro, and neutered it into an "App" with the release of FCP X. I checked out the App store and it is filled with crApp and garbage. It reminds me of shareware sites, where 95% of the software is poorly written, useless crap.

Next all the "Apps" will have popup ads...

Meh, Apple's in it to make MONEY; your pleasure/entertainment is just a result of that. We all SHOULD remember that. Apple wants money.

But yea, the App store isn't really made for "serious" applications. Yes you can get Pages (which isn't that great), or the whole iWork package but if you want "real" software (Adobe's work, real editing software) then of course you're going to have to get that from their site.

it's an App store, it's supposed to be cute and quirky, just like the applications in it. Don't get me wrong I've bought quite a few apps from there but they're just that, apps, not programs. It's like fast food; great for helping you along the way but in no way a substitute for a real meal at home.

 

[bob99]

If theft is an option, why not just steal the computer too? Way better than $100 off - you get 100% off! Nothing is cheaper than free.

There's a competing App Store called the pirate bay; I don't know the details but you can buy any application, operating system, song, movie...from them, and they don't charge you anything; whoever runs that place is really nice, he could charge a lot of money for all the stuff thats available. That's why the app store gift card is worthless.

 

[Young Spade]

If theft is an option, why not just steal the computer too? Way better than $100 off - you get 100% off! Nothing is cheaper than free.

Technically you're getting way more than 100 dollars off as you have no limit. Download to your heart's content.

Stealing the computer leads to trouble. If you're smart you won't get caught online. Of course, if you're smart you could steal a computer as well, I'm sure you saw the tape of the 4 or so guys stealing like, 30 Macs from that one Apple store. The stupid one got shot.

Takes less work to click and download though.

And if you(whoever is reading this) aren't ignorant you won't jump to the conclusion that I'm supporting this either.