Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Best Buy Selling iPhone X on Installment Plan Only After Criticism Over $100 Premium
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Call in and ask if they’ll refund the $100. At least two posts said they were successful without hesitation.
We live ina day where online “news” pages make maintains out of molehills for views. Just look st this page? People are legit freaking over something that should be a non issue. What’s the most amazing thing to me is they’ve been doing this for at least half a decade now lol. All of the sudden there is a great public outcry.
Best Buy is not the only retailer to do this, by the way. 3rd party retailers don't make a penny off of devices paid in full.
Yeah I'm going to call them right now and see if I can get the iPhone price-matched. Doesn't hurt to try.
Yep - anyone see the prices of AMD RX VEGA GPU cards lately? They're $200+ over MSRP at retail...
Best Buy has the right to do the same for any product (they do that for GPU cards).
With that said, I worked for them last Holidays and they were really great, they kept me then in February, things turned really bad for the newer employees (the older ones they like they still treated well).
They kept track via monitors of "people we failed to go up to in the store" to sell stuff. They expected us to sell an entire Home Theater to someone who just came in for a $5 DVD.
Happens to me even now, last time I walked into one 5 people came up to me "to help" and when I said "just looking" they turned sour... I know why, but I hate being hassled... I don't go there anymore.
Lost me and my Friends/Family as Customers...
Could it be that Best Buy has to pay different fees to Apple in order to sell Apple products? For instance, the carriers "get something" out of selling the phone, specifically a customer who pays for a monthly phone plan. Whereas Best Buy is just a store selling a device.
what it is is, if best buy sells you an unactivated iphone, they break even or lose money. so that $100 is there to allow them to make profit from it.
businesses have to make money. it has to do with what apple charges them for the products. apple controls what they can or can't do with apple products.
businesses have to make money. it has to do with what apple charges them for the products. apple controls what they can or can't do with apple products.
Let us know how it goes
Nope, got a straight,"Sorry we do not price match the iPhone Ex..." They said all the representatives got a notice from corporate to not price match the iPhone preorders.
Well that’s a shame. I wonder if that is something that changed since they stopped selling it outright altogether
I’d still try calling another couple times though haha.
[doublepost=1509480607][/doublepost]
That is exactly what it is. Best Buy doesn’t make money selling full price iPhones.
I’m not sure what the problem is. If you don’t like the price, don’t buy it. No one is forcing you. There’s 3 Toyota dealerships near me and they all offered me a different price for the same RAV4. Down with those more expensive dealers!
Supply and demand. I’d go after the eBay scalpers before worrying about Best Buy.
Supply and demand. I’d go after the eBay scalpers before worrying about Best Buy.
I find such a statement ironic given it's being posted on a web site devoted to a company which became the largest, by market capitalization, in the world by gouging its customers.
You need to get a handle on what is considered gouging. Setting your prices at a premium isn't gouging. By your definition every luxury car, fashion, etc. company is gouging their customers.
Exactly. We don’t say convenience stores gouge people compared to big grocery chains.
It’s irrational to have an expectation that a retailer should sell a product for what the manufacturer charges for it.
Last edited:
It's not my definition but rather Mr. Walters. I don't have any issues with Apple charging what they do for their products. I'm a free market kind of guy. If you don't like the price you don't have to buy it.
All that said it's well known Apple's profits are well above the industry average. I can assure you Apple's profit on the iPhone is more than Best Buys even if Best Buy is adding on $100.00.
Yes, they've cut costs by closing a lot of stores. Their profits haven't changed much either over that time, they're essentially treading water. For one, stock prices rise and fall with the market, so it's just not that simple. Stock prices aren't a real indicator of how well a business is doing, they're an interpretation of others' projections for a business.
When Best Buy commits a huge amount of capital to pre-ordering iPhones, they deserve to price it any way they want. If you criticise their policy, buy from someone else and wait and wait. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.
"..., selling it that way cost more money, causing some confusion with our customers and noise in the media,"
it doesn't cause any confusion until you made up some BS explanation of why you are selling more.
they could've just said "We are a piece of **** and just trying to get some extra profit for a rare product."... and I'd be okay with that excuse
it doesn't cause any confusion until you made up some BS explanation of why you are selling more.
they could've just said "We are a piece of **** and just trying to get some extra profit for a rare product."... and I'd be okay with that excuse
The problem (which really isn’t much of a problem) is that there’s now one less place where people can buy an unlocked iPhone. I’m sure many people can wait until supply catches up.
Edit: many dealers will also gouge when selling limited edition cars. I think Dodge dealers where charging ridiculously high prices for limited edition Challenger. Or was it Ford for a Mustang or Chevy for a Camaro? I forget which one.
That's a fair point, but I remember when there were news articles predicting BB's collapse within a year or two. Instead they've held revenue flat against the Amazon onslaught. That's quite good news relatively speaking, and IMHO Best Buy shouldn't be lumped in with Sears like the post I was responding to.
Sears on the other hand is on borrowed time. Literally "borrowed" because they'd already be bankrupt if the CEO hadn't repeatedly rescued it with gigantic loans from his hedge fund money.
How did you convince them to refund you? Everytime I call they say they cant refund or price match on a pre order....
Agreed - but quoting flat revenue isn't the whole story either. That was my only point.