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Buy online or bargain over the phone?

N

nina

macrumors member
Original poster
May 27, 2004
75
0
Hello, everybody!

I'm a virtual switcher... I'm going to purchase a new 12" iBook G4 after the WWDC keynote (just in case any deals pop up). I'm also a university student, so I qualify for the Educational Pricing from Apple's site.

My question is, has anyone been successful in getting a better price from a sales rep over the phone than from the Apple.com educational store? As I said, I'm a student, and money is VERY tight! Any deals that an Apple rep could make me (on top of the Educational Pricing) would seal the deal for me.

I just want to know if someone else has been successful in bargaining over the phone - if so, I'll keep calling until I get a sales rep. who will give me a deal I like.

Thanks! (and yes, I'm a cheap girl :p )
 
good luck, but i don't think they will cut you a deal. they are already giving you an edu. discount. and it sounds rather silly that 20 GB increase in HD is an absolute necessity that you cannot live without - which is what you are implying by insisting that you are a student and money is very, very tight. come on, let's get one thing straight - most of us are tight on the money one way or the other and i don't see what extra 20 GB has anything to do with it. you are just trying to be cheap and see if you can get away with it - being a student hasn't got much to do with it.

in the last year, i've bought an airport card, an airport extreme card, 12" PB, an eMac, an iPhoto picture book, QT Pro, an iPod, extra AC adapter, iPod case, panther and iLife. that's a heck of a lot more than what you are spending and apple is yet to send me a "thank you for being a great customer, here's a coupon for $50 to spend at apple.com" :rolleyes: :p
 
They won't budge on price. I was in the PA apple store and I talked to one of the dudes in there because I wanted to get my mac in the store so I didn't have to wait for it to be shipped. I was concerned that if I bought the same product on the website that I woudln't have to pay tax, and in the physical store I would. I wanted to see if they could adjust it for this fact. They wouldn't, mostly because you have to pay tax online anyway if you live in a state where there is a physical store.

Point being, jxyama is right, even if I didn't use a great example to make the point. You are already getting a discount since you're a student, and you're dealing with a company that won't budge on issues like this to set precidents. For instance, you can have up to 5 dead pixels on your screen and not have it be defective. You could be sending your iBook back to be repaired every other week, and they'll just keep fixing it and racking up their own shipping costs instead of just giving you a new one. I think we all deal with this because when stuff works, it's awesome. I'm a recent convert myself, and my brand new 12" 1.33ghz powerbook has spent as much time with apple as it has with me, in two different trips to fix a broken latch. You'd think I'd get a stick of ram for it since it took them about 2 weeks to get it back to me the first time, and they didn't even fix the problem. But such is not the case. However, I will say that I love the thing so much that I didn't want to give it up for the time it was being repaired, even if it meant that I would get it back in working order.

With apple you may just have to deal with some higher prices and some customer service problems because it's the way they operate.

On your particular configuration there, 30 bucks doesn't seem bad to go to 40 gig, I'd do that. Unless you plan on copying a bunch of dvd's to your hard drive you're not going to need that much anyway. I have 60 in my powerbook, and I've put every cd I ever listen to on to the hard drive at 312kbps with a whole bunch of programs and games and junk and I've still not quite broken the 20 gig mark. And I'm a voracious Garageband user. Those files suck up a lot of room. Get a refurbished air port card, and install it yourself. You're going to save a little bit there.

Good luck to you. By the time you get that thing on your lap, you're going to forget all about the money you spent anyway.
 
I received the education discount that was combined with a $30 coupon I received over the Internet. The person on the phone originally offered me an additional $50 off if I made the purchase on that day, but later said she could not combine it with the education discount.
 
Check this out

This is a link to the ADC webstore:

Apple Developer Store - Click on the "United States" link and then click on the HARDWARE PURCHASE PROGRAM STORE (U.S.) link. It will take you to the store.

For all those that think that Apple can't give bigger discounts, you have to check out those G5 prices. Of course you have to be a member of the Apple Developer program but still, if they aren't losing money on these, why can't they offer educational customers these prices? :confused:
 
Thanks for pointing that out! This ADC is exactly what I was looking for - it shows that the prices still have some room to move. I know Apple is notoriously rigid in their pricing. I'm just wondering if it's at least worth it to TRY and get a better deal - maybe a little (or a lot) of sweet talking is all it'll take? :eek:
 
dbauer said:
This is a link to the ADC webstore:

Apple Developer Store - Click on the "United States" link and then click on the HARDWARE PURCHASE PROGRAM STORE (U.S.) link. It will take you to the store.

For all those that think that Apple can't give bigger discounts, you have to check out those G5 prices. Of course you have to be a member of the Apple Developer program but still, if they aren't losing money on these, why can't they offer educational customers these prices? :confused:
Click to expand...

geez, ADC discount is for developers. apple is doing DEVELOPERS a favor since they are developing FOR apple. how hard is that to figure out? :rolleyes: it has nothing to do with how much lower the prices can be, etc. it's very possible that apple's barely breaking even on those machines, or even take a loss for all we know. their take is that if developers make something of great use for Macintosh, then that might inspire others to buy Macs - so the net will be gain for apple.

if you are not a developer but take advantage of this then you are being a cheat.

being a "poor starving student" is not an excuse for being a liar. :mad:
 
Hey, there - not trying to make anyone angry, just trying to save money for more Apple hardware!

I can't (and won't) take advantage of this price - I'm not a developer. Yes, I am a student, so I'm entitled to the already discounted Education Pricing (which I appreciate). I'm just wondering if there are any extra incentives Apple can throw my way to make the deal sweeter. Case in point: just a tiny bit of harrassing on Dell's phone lines will net you a free Lexmark printer.

I'm not saying I EXPECT this from Apple, but it'd be nice. I'm totally prepared to pay the price on the website, but I'd be that much happier with my purchase if I knew Apple went that extra bit for my business.

Please don't think that I'm trying to 'cheat' Apple. But hey - maybe if you are a repeat, valued customer, simply asking for a discount on your next order may actually work! I don't think there's anything wrong with asking! I'd like to think that Apple has some flexibility in their pricing, especially seeing the prices listed on the ADC site (which, as dbauer stated, they aren't losing money on).

Sorry if I offended you; just trying to get the most 'bang for my buck'!
 
Let us not forget another 2 important facts about the ADC. Firstly, if you're a student it costs 100 dollars to join (non student is 500!!). This is probably barely going to cover the extra savings that one would get on a 12" iBook over a regular educational discount. Perhaps if she were getting a dual G5 that's another matter. Second, you only get ONE purchase from that store ever, no matter how long you are a developer. So you would want to make it count. In other words Cinema Display and a dual G5. However, you'd also be pretty stupid to get that right now if we're making a wish list.

Not too much longer until some better stuff comes around in both of those areas....
 
nina said:
Hey, there - not trying to make anyone angry, just trying to save money for more Apple hardware!

I can't (and won't) take advantage of this price - I'm not a developer. Yes, I am a student, so I'm entitled to the already discounted Education Pricing (which I appreciate). I'm just wondering if there are any extra incentives Apple can throw my way to make the deal sweeter. Case in point: just a tiny bit of harrassing on Dell's phone lines will net you a free Lexmark printer.

I'm not saying I EXPECT this from Apple, but it'd be nice. I'm totally prepared to pay the price on the website, but I'd be that much happier with my purchase if I knew Apple went that extra bit for my business.

Please don't think that I'm trying to 'cheat' Apple. But hey - maybe if you are a repeat, valued customer, simply asking for a discount on your next order may actually work! I don't think there's anything wrong with asking! I'd like to think that Apple has some flexibility in their pricing, especially seeing the prices listed on the ADC site (which, as dbauer stated, they aren't losing money on).

Sorry if I offended you; just trying to get the most 'bang for my buck'!
Click to expand...

no, there's nothing wrong with asking - so you should call and ask. you asked us if any of us have been successful with asking for more than what's advertised and most of suggestions here are pretty much ways to cheat the system. so the answer seems to be, no, we haven't really been successful in asking, without cheating.
 
I bought my G4 Powermac at a reseller and it was $50 cheaper than apple and every other store. (in Canada... we don't have apple stores yet).

I bought it from a great shop with great customer service and couldn't be happier...
 
Just out of curiosity:

Do you have to be a developer to order from the developer store? I was able to add the item to my cart and proceed to checkout without having to enter anything but my account name and password...could I have entered my credit card number and clicked "Confirm" and placed the order that way? Would they call me or could I just *lie* about it? And if they find out that I'm not a developer, do they just charge your credit card the additional money or do they take legal action :( .
 
they will check your developer status and if you are not a student who can verify his or her student status with and ID and schedule. or if your not in a regualr developer program you won't get a discount. I wish people would stop taking advantage of an honest program that works on the honor system.
 
nina said:
Hello, everybody!

I'm a virtual switcher... I'm going to purchase a new 12" iBook G4 after the WWDC keynote (just in case any deals pop up). I'm also a university student, so I qualify for the Educational Pricing from Apple's site.

My question is, has anyone been successful in getting a better price from a sales rep over the phone than from the Apple.com educational store? As I said, I'm a student, and money is VERY tight! Any deals that an Apple rep could make me (on top of the Educational Pricing) would seal the deal for me.

I just want to know if someone else has been successful in bargaining over the phone - if so, I'll keep calling until I get a sales rep. who will give me a deal I like.

Thanks! (and yes, I'm a cheap girl :p )
Click to expand...

hey

no one will give you a discount unfortunately... this is the way apple works; every store charges the same prices for products.

a great website, though, which is worth checking out if you are trying to conserve money is www.smalldog.com. they have great prices on refurbished equipment. my dad and a friend of mine both have bought 12" powerbooks from them, and theyve been great.

there are other websites too that sell refurbished stuff, i havent used them at all though.

best of luck

heres a link for a pbg4: http://www.smalldog.com/product/12652338
 
Maybe not all stores the same price

While I agree with the other users here that Apple will not budge on their prices and it is a waste of time to try and call them, not all stores always charge the same price. Apple does make them all have the same list price, but sometimes you will be able to find a deal through a mail in rebate. When I bought my powerbook about a year and a half ago, I bought it through Amazon.com for $2250 after rebates when they were selling on Apples website for $2500. That price was even about $100 cheaper than the education discount. I think these types of deals are rare, but they do come up if you are willing to wait.
 
FuzzyBallz said:
What? Why would you buy refurb from some 3rd party company when you can get the same refurb from Apple?
Click to expand...

Smalldog is a very good seller. Their refurb machines come with the standard Apple warranty. They often have refurb models in stock that Apple isn't currently listing. Also, unless you live in Vermont (I think that's the state they're in), you don't pay sales tax. This can amount to an additional $200 or so savings on a high end machine.

Why not?
 
You should consider an older machine or an eMac. Obviously, the eMac is not terribly portable but examine your needs. Is the lack of cash greater than the need for portability?
 
Uhmm...yeah, they will

I don't know why nobody else has had this experience, but whenever I call the Apple Store (not a local Apple store, but the 800 number) and say "I was told that if I bought it with a phone rep, I could get a discount," they say "Sure."

I have ordered 2 computers for 2 of my friends this way and in one case (a 12" PB) I saved them $200, and in the other case (iBook) I saved them $100.

It should be noted that neither of these were educational purchases, so I doubt they would add to the existing edu discount for students.

It should also be noted that if you buy from Amazon, etc. you often pay no tax, which could be a better deal. Unfortunately, if you want special BTO options, you have to go through Apple - just tell the sales rep on the phone that your friend got $200 off and you'd like the same. Those guys work on commission and they can and WILL give you a bit of a deal.
 
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