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Possibility Of Apple Store Selling Fakes?

V

Vick77

macrumors member
Original poster
May 5, 2008
68
0
Hi, I didn't know which part of the forum to put this thread in but I hope I'm not far off.

Anyways I recently purchased some Beats By Dre. Tour headphones from the Apple Store UK, however from looking online I realised that there are many fakes in circulation. I've looked at all of the clues to determine whether mine are real or not and honestly I can't tell.

If anybody has the tour headphones, do yours have an L-Shaped headphone jack, or is it straight? Mine has an L-Shaped, also mine have no serial number and the word tour isn't printed on the cable where apparantly it should be.

Apple is an authorised reseller of the headphones so I'm skeptical as to whether it's possible they're selling fakes without realising, or maybe I've got it all completely wrong, whichever it is, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Hah. Apple won't sell fakes, if yours are fake, then every pair ever bought from an Apple store will be fake, as they will have all come originally from the same place.

Don't worry... You're fine, if you're not happy with them return them to Apple.
 
Hey Vick,
How are finding the dre tour headphones??
Im seriously considering getting them and need to know if they are as good as people say..
let me know..
P......
 
Not to burst your bubble, but your specific pair could be a customer "return."

About a month ago, I came across a website where you could buy wholesale products from direct from Chinese manufacturers at pretty good prices. I saw the Dr. Dre beats and these Chinese manufacturers got it down to the last detail. Even the PACKAGING was identical (as far as I could tell) to the retail version.

At the point, it got me thinking. What if someone bought, say, a pack of 5 of these and returned one to Apple, one to Best Buy, one to Walmart, etc. You'd probably get store credit, but think about the profit...

Anyways, sorry about the rambling haha. Your 'phones are probably legit, but this kind of replicating ability makes me nervous...
 
guitargoddsjm said:
Not to burst your bubble, but your specific pair could be a customer "return."

About a month ago, I came across a website where you could buy wholesale products from direct from Chinese manufacturers at pretty good prices. I saw the Dr. Dre beats and these Chinese manufacturers got it down to the last detail. Even the PACKAGING was identical (as far as I could tell) to the retail version.

At the point, it got me thinking. What if someone bought, say, a pack of 5 of these and returned one to Apple, one to Best Buy, one to Walmart, etc. You'd probably get store credit, but think about the profit...

Anyways, sorry about the rambling haha. Your 'phones are probably legit, but this kind of replicating ability makes me nervous...
Click to expand...

That's interesting. If it becomes widespread then stores may soon ask for the original CC to cross check their records if you don't have a receipt. Its certainly opening up new channels for fraud.
 
flopticalcube said:
That's interesting. If it becomes widespread then stores may soon ask for the original CC to cross check their records if you don't have a receipt. Its certainly opening up new channels for fraud.
Click to expand...

At most major retailers, the return process is something like this:

  • They ask if you have a receipt
  • If yes, you get refunded. Otherwise, they ask if you paid with a credit card
  • If yes, they swipe your card and research the transaction. Otherwise, they'll usually take your driver's license # and give you store credit

Returns usually go through a company (I can't remember the name at the moment) for validation. This company keeps track of returns, and if things look fishy, they flag that person and the system will deny the return. If you look on the back of your store receipt, it usually says that the store can deny you of a return. ANYWAYS, I'm not sure if this company tracks returns across all retailers simultaneously or individually
 
Peruvian said:
Hey Vick,
How are finding the dre tour headphones??
Im seriously considering getting them and need to know if they are as good as people say..
let me know..
P......
Click to expand...

DO NOT buy the Dr. Dre beats. They are bad bad headphones. They have decent (repeat decent- not great) sound quality, not anything amazing. What makes them such bad headphones is the price. Go buy Sennheisers if you are willing to spend some money on headphones. They have phenomenal sound. You can get headphones by Sennheiser with amazing sound for 1/3+ the cost of the Dr. Dres.
 
NeuralControl said:
You can bet that Apple is not selling any fake products.
Click to expand...

It's one of those things where 99% of the time, that statement is true, but I'm sure Apple HAS sold a counterfeit product to a customer at one point in time.

I bought a case for my iPhone 3G over the summer. I really liked it until a piece of it cracked repeatedly and eventually broke off. It was a design flaw, so the manufacturer replaced it for me. When my original case was sent in to the company, I remembered how nice it was to use my phone w/o a case. I returned the (brand new in packaging) case they provided to Apple w/o a receipt.

At first, I thought everything would be completely fine until the employee noticed that the packaging didn't have Apple's price/product sticker on it. I got worried, but he just returned it like normal and it was hassle-free.

Again, I'm sure your headphones are fine, but with such popular products, you can never truly be sure.

I wonder how much the sound quality differs between the real and fake versions?
 
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