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Best Buy claims an Apple rep came and opened all their stock to update for iLife '11

djc6

djc6

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 11, 2007
946
741
Cleveland, OH
I'm helping my sister buy a MacBook Pro 13". She went to Best Buy and had them price match Micro Center's $999 price, which they grudgingly agreed to. However, she said the Best Buy salesman told her that an Apple representative came and updated all of their existing stock with iLife '11. Has anyone ever heard of this?

I just want to make sure she didn't just purchase a used laptop. It would be easy for them to claim it was opened because of the update when its actually an open-box return. I asked her to examine the laptop for signs of use - she claims it was still sealed in its plastic bag and that all of the accessories, etc.. were unused. Which also begs the question, how was it updated if the bag around the laptop inside the box was sealed?

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? I would think Apple would just have you use the Up-to-Date program instead of sending around people to update laptops at retailers.
 
No way. Just another case of a Best Buy employee knowing nothing.

Would Apple really send a rep around to every store in the world that sells Macs?
 
I agree, that sounds like complete BS.

I'd go back, talk to the manager and return it immediately.
 
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Apple would of just included a iLife '11 disk if those units were produced prior to iLife update coming out.... Frankly, that is BS; I would definitely go talk to a manager....
 
Ugh. All this because she'd prefer not drive to Micro Center (its like 50 miles round trip). I'd take her but I'm thousands of miles away.

I anticipated Best Buy might try and give her an older model for that price, so I had her match the MC374LL/A model numbers, but I never anticipated this. I knew there was a reason I never step foot in a Best Buy!
 
djc6 said:
Ugh. All this because she'd prefer not drive to Micro Center (its like 50 miles round trip). I'd take her but I'm thousands of miles away.

I anticipated Best Buy might try and give her an older model for that price, so I had her match the MC374LL/A model numbers, but I never anticipated this. I knew there was a reason I never step foot in a Best Buy!
Click to expand...

DO NOT!!!!! buy from best buy. I refuse to purchase anything from that store. Their return policies are HORRID, their knowledge is even worse. They are the epitome of a money hungry large chain who doesn't care AT ALL for it's customers.
 
Got a hold of someone at Apple Customer Relations, they confirmed its ********. Apple Up-to-Date is the official way of getting folks the latest iLife.
 
So she got home from Best Buy and I was able to remote into her machine to look around. I opened the Console application and the logs don't show anything prior to her having powered on the machine today. When she turned it on it was as if it was being turned on for the first time - Welcome screen, registration, migration assistant, etc..

I ran iLife - and its got iLife '09 installed, so the best buy rep was WRONG about it having been updated. However, she has a third disc in her box that mine did not come with - labeled "iLife CPU DROP-IN". She also has an official up-to-date disc which she ordered from apple and arrived last week from another recent mac purchase from amazon, which doesn't say CPU DROP-IN on it.

I'm starting to think this IS a brand new laptop, perhaps someone opened it to put in the iLife update disc? I mean, the bag around the laptop was sealed with the official apple software license agreement sticker.
 
djc6 said:
So she got home from Best Buy and I was able to remote into her machine to look around. I opened the Console application and the logs don't show anything prior to her having powered on the machine today. When she turned it on it was as if it was being turned on for the first time - Welcome screen, registration, migration assistant, etc..

I ran iLife - and its got iLife '09 installed, so the best buy rep was WRONG about it having been updated. However, she has a third disc in her box that mine did not come with - labeled "iLife CPU DROP-IN". She also has an official up-to-date disc which she ordered from apple and arrived last week from another recent mac purchase from amazon, which doesn't say CPU DROP-IN on it.

I'm starting to think this IS a brand new laptop, perhaps someone opened it to put in the iLife update disc? I mean, the bag around the laptop was sealed with the official apple software license agreement sticker.
Click to expand...

That's what it sounds like. As long as the plastic was totally sealed, I don't think there should be a problem.
 
Actually, when I worked at CompUSA, our Apple rep for the Apple store within a store slipped iLife 08 into the boxes of "older" stock. This is not BS, and that Apple customer relations rep you talked to only knows what they are told.
 
As long as the machine was still sealed in its separate plastic bag, I would not worry at all. I've bought 2 machines around OS transitions from the Apple Store on 5th Avenue, first with Leopard and the second around Snow Leopard, and both times the tape on the outside of the box was double taped - so you could tell someone had already opened the original tape.

Both times I was like whaaa, but both times, it was exactly as the store rep said - they opened the box just to put in the "drop in dvd."
 
I picked up a Mac Pro from Amazon about a month ago, and it had the "CPU Drop-in DVD" in the box.

I've been wondering what "Drop-in" might mean -- now I know.

Thanks.
 
Total misunderstanding. When the Best Buy rep said "update", they meant someone came in a provided a "drop-in" disc for iLife (never have I heard about that, thought only Apple stores did that).

Now that you cleared everything up, enjoy your new Mac!
 
ViviUO said:
Actually, when I worked at CompUSA, our Apple rep for the Apple store within a store slipped iLife 08 into the boxes of "older" stock. This is not BS, and that Apple customer relations rep you talked to only knows what they are told.
Click to expand...
x2, that's how we did it at the Apple Store I worked at.

People who bought Macs right before iLife is released pay $9.99 and use the Up-To-Date website to get the update shipped to them.

Any Macs we had in stock at the store when a new iLife was released got opened and the "drop-in" disc was inserted.

So yes, the box will be opened and resealed, but the wrapping around the actual Mac itself will not be opened.
 
Yep just like others said, Apple reps come and "drop-in" new iLife DVDs to existing stock, the rest is done before it is shipped to BestBuy and before they update the DVDs/Drive images for the products.

So this may be the first time ever, but BetBuy was correct!
 
skiltrip said:
I say that's complete BS. There's no way that is true. It defies all logic.
Click to expand...

Wrong, it's true. Apple does send rep's around to stores to drop in iLife upgrade packs (I work at an Apple authorized dealer, we had our rep come in shortly after the back to mac event).
 
This is legit. My new Macbook arrived yesterday and you could see the box was opened and then re-sealed.

Opened it up, and I had a new iLife 11 disk sitting on top of the machine. Someone opened the box, stuck the dvd in, and sealed it back up.

Purchase was from macconnection.
 
I purchased my MBP 13 from Best Buy (price match with Microcenter) in early November and had the iLife 11 CPU Drop-In DVD included in the box.

I do not agree with all the comments against Best Buy in this and other threads. While I have had issues with the store, they have all been resolved by Customer Care and Corporate. I find them to be a very responsive retailer.

I don't NEED their sales personnel to be completely, or even partially, knowledgeable on computer issues. Their website has reviews, etc. and personally, it is my humble opinion that anybody who buys a big-ticket item who doesn't do research on all the available brands, etc. BEFOREHAND deserves what they get!
 
My new MBP (3 days old) had Ilife installed, and there appears to be only one install disc in the box, so I assume it is included on that disc. But if the purchase was made close to the date of the Ilife 11 release, I could see the above situation occur.
 
My Macbook Pro from late '09 that I bought from Best Buy was opened with the sticker on the front replaced, since I bought it right when Snow Leopard came out and the computer was stocked before then. I'm not sure who, but somebody opened the box, and put in a Snow Leopard install disk. I wouldn't doubt if they did the same with the iLife 11 disks.
 
What I think that they are talking about is that they updated their demo computers to iLife 11. Apple does all of the rest before they are shipped out from the factories in China.

AppleTech22
 
AppleTech22 said:
What I think that they are talking about is that they updated their demo computers to iLife 11. Apple does all of the rest before they are shipped out from the factories in China.

AppleTech22
Click to expand...


Not quite.

Picked up a dozen MBP 13" in the past few weeks from my local Apple store...none of them had iLife 11 installed, however, each box had been opened, and the iLife DVD placed inside....
 
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