Purchased Macbook Pro, left Apple Store a little bewildered

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prelag

macrumors member
I consider myself to be a pretty easy going guy. I have simple tastes, and I'm easy to please.

I walked into the Apple Store a day or two before Christmas Eve, and there was quite a line, which is understandable given the time of year. I got in que, and thirty minutes later, I was being helped.

First, I asked if the Apple Store would price match Micro Center, and was told no. When asked to why, the woman helping me said it was because there is no Micro Center in Las Vegas, NV. I asked why I have been reading on slickdeals and other forums about people getting the pricematch in States with no Micro Center and I was told "sorry." I didn't push the issue further, as I know she just works there and does what the manager tells her too. I can't help but thinking, that it is all still somewhat illogical, considering I could drive down to California in three hours and get a price match there.

Anyhow, I was told that since I am a College student, I would get $100 off anyway, and that this would not have stacked with the Micro Center price match. So, I was only paying an extra $100 or so. Again, I was a little confused. Why wouldn't it stack on a price match? I didn't want to railroad this girl, so I just kept my mouth shut.

Alright, so things aren't so bad.

I tell the lady helping me which Macbook I wanted, and asked if I could also pick up an iPhone 4. This is where I got a little bit pissed off. I was told that if I wanted to purchase an iPhone 4, I'd have to get back in que, and wait another 30 min. :confused:

I said no thanks, purchased the Macbook Pro, and left.:rolleyes:

Few things,

-I would have purchased from Micro Center, but I was using the 12 months no interest card from Barclay.

-I have opened my Macbook Pro, and I am having a little buyers remorse. Not because I don't like the product, but because I have read on numerous forums how people have gotten the Micro Center price match in States with no Micro Center. I guess it's just the principle eating away at me. If it were not for the 10% restocking fee, I'd return it on principle.

-I also think it's because this is my first "Apple" computer, and I really could wait out until the revision.

Thoughts? Should I just take it back, and take the 10% restocking hit? Or should I stop crying and enjoy my purchase? :D
 
that seems right, why would a store price match another store thats not even located in the state? those other people are justy lucky they got price matched or the employee was new.

that being said, the waiting in line all over again thing was ********. she could have just sold it too you without requiring you to wait in line all over again.

But, Enjoy your mac!!!
 
eawmp1 said:
Apple Stores don't price match. They don't have to.
Click to expand...

Not sure if they have to but my local store did.

My local store priced matched the 999 price of microcenter for a 13 macbook pro with no issue. Now the microcenter store is about 15-20 miles away so that may factor in their decision.

I don't think the stores will stack promo's so I am not surprised about this.

To the OP..with the MC store being 3 hours away I would just enjoy your laptop and move on. Spending 6 hours in a car with gas and tolls eats allot into the $100 savings.
 
Enjoy it and be happy. Education discount never (AFAIK) stacks with a pricematch; after all, the match is against the lowest price available nearby. Since there's no EDU discount on top of the $999 price at Microcenter, the best you could reasonably hope to have achieved was an even match of $999.

I don't know the sales tax difference between NV & CA, but there's that to factor as well as the gasoline and time cost. It's what, 500 miles round trip between LV and Orange County? That's $60 to $100 in gasoline alone not counting the cost of other wear and tear.
 
Why didn't you just buy a refurb?

You would of saved even more and gotten the same build quality/warranty as a new one. You then have 11 months and 29 days to save up the money for the extra 2 year warranty with a student discount @ $183 for the 13" and $239 for 15"/17" models.

But honestly, having to spend $1900 just to get an i7 is a bit much:
screenshot20101227at.png

I wouldn't spend $1k for a Core 2 Duo either... Let's just hope the 13" MBPs March update comes with at least dual core hyper-threading.
 
deeddawg said:
Enjoy it and be happy. Education discount never (AFAIK) stacks with a pricematch; after all, the match is against the lowest price available nearby. Since there's no EDU discount on top of the $999 price at Microcenter, the best you could reasonably hope to have achieved was an even match of $999.

I don't know the sales tax difference between NV & CA, but there's that to factor as well as the gasoline and time cost. It's what, 500 miles round trip between LV and Orange County? That's $60 to $100 in gasoline alone not counting the cost of other wear and tear.
Click to expand...

Good points, but you can order it online. With free shipping at the time, and California sales tax, it was still $100 cheaper then what I paid.

Again, no biggie, just a bit frustrating.

Maybe I am just more pissed off about the iPhone thing. Who knows.

Anyhow, this is my first Macbook Pro. Any suggestions for a first time user?
 
pooprscooper said:
Why didn't you just buy a refurb?

You would of saved even more and gotten the same build quality/warranty as a new one. You then have 11 months and 29 days to save up the money for the extra 2 year warranty with a student discount @ $183 for the 13" and $239 for 15"/17" models.

But honestly, having to spend $1900 just to get an i7 is a bit much:
screenshot20101227at.png

I wouldn't spend $1k for a Core 2 Duo either... Let's just hope the 13" MBPs March update comes with at least dual core hyper-threading.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Like I said earlier in my post, I can actually wait out for the new revision, I just wonder if it's worth eating the 10% restocking fee cost? :(
 
[QUOTE Anyhow, this is my first Macbook Pro. Any suggestions for a first time user?[/QUOTE]

Some of my favorite apps are

Handbrake
Skype
Coconut battery
Rip it or Mac the ripper
Fastest free youtube downloader.

Being a college student as well, some great apps for organizing research are endnote and scrivener.
 
buckwheat987 said:
To the OP..with the MC store being 3 hours away I would just enjoy your laptop and move on. Spending 6 hours in a car with gas and tolls eats allot into the $100 savings.
Click to expand...

Bingo, the fully burdened cost to operate a typical vehicle is now ~$1.00 per mile. So it would have cost you significantly to drive to microcenter to purchase your computer...

Enjoy the mac it is a great machine...
 
prelag said:
I tell the lady helping me which Macbook I wanted, and asked if I could also pick up an iPhone 4. This is where I got a little bit pissed off. I was told that if I wanted to purchase an iPhone 4, I'd have to get back in que, and wait another 30 min. :confused:
Click to expand...
That sucks.

At the Apple Store I worked at, during the crazy rushes right before Christmas, they "zoned" the employees -- positioning them at specific areas of the store, for specific duties (i.e. selling notebooks, selliing iMacs, selling iPhones, etc).

Any time other than Christmas, you could buy a Mac and an iPhone from the same person. But since buying an iPhone typically takes 15+ minutes (verifying your AT&T account status, checking your upgrade eligibility, having you select the plan features you want (even if you don't want to change anything, you have to re-select everything), grab your signature for the terms of services, etc), during the Christmas rush, they have specific employees setup to do iPhones and wouldn't let us get tied up in one of those transactions if we were zoned elsewhere. And if the iPhone folks already had a queue going, ... blah.

IMO, Apple's sales method doesn't always scale smoothly during the pre-Christmas rush. I don't think the employee was trying to give you a hard time on purpose or anything.
 
Most stores I have shopped at will only match if the other store is nearby. Won't do it online.

You saved $100 be happy.

Considering the wait. Why not get the most use out of it until the next update, which no one knows will be, nor consist of.
 
I would install the following:

The Unarchiver - decompression utility for almost all compressed formats
TrashMe - application uninstaller
Perian - codec pack for DivX, Xvid, MKV, and more
Flip4Mac - codec for WMA/WMV
XiphQT - codec for Ogg Theora/Vorbis
Growl - unified notification system

You also might want to check these out:

Burn - media burning utility
NeoOffice - free office suite compatible with MS Office
Jumpcut - clipboard utility
Caffeine - system sleep prevention utility
Adium - instant messenger client with support for multiple services
Seashore - basic image editor

Check out the Safari Extensions. Turn ON the Firewall for peace of mind.
 
There are several Apple Stores where I live and they are all quite happy to price match.

It's easy since they make so much profit, they have lots of room to discount.
 
The education discount isn't treated as 100 dollars off, it's treated as a different price. Therefore, they already would be changing it to the cheaper price if they price matched, would you want them changing back to the more expensive price?

As for price matching, I could easily see them not price matching a store 3 hours away. Most people aren't going to drive that far for the cheapest price, so they aren't really competing with them cause of distance. The point of price matching is to convince people not to go to your competitors. On top of that, you are talking about the Apple store which is there to increase sales... Apple still gets your money if you go to microcenter.

I agree with some one else, the only bad/wtf thing there was them making you wait in line to buy an iphone4. And it's not good business sense to try to make it harder for you when you want to give them more money. The one thing I would say in their defense is because it is something that has to be activated with AT&T, they may have to have you deal with certain people to get it sold/activated and unfortunately those people would have a different line (and ticked of customers if they pushed you ahead of them).
 
Just enjoy it. It is an electronic item, not like you bought a new house. :p
In a year or two, you'd probably want the next new thing out. :D
 
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