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We've got to STOP the scammers/Scalpers

Supply and demand. Use your brain and order online from bed... in other words get a life. 3rd world problems.
 
Ridiculous....

This is CURAZY! Sad thing is people ARE going to buy them! Want a gold 5s shipped 1-2 days? Whoop here it is!
 

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Apple has already gone after this problem hard in Asia by requiring online reservations, one credit card per phone, etc. If they wanted to do it in other countries, they could do it as well.
 
First come first serve, whatever they do with the phone after that, is not your business.
 
Best we can do is just not buy these devices at inflated prices. I've got to wait a month to get a 5S because I need my Verizon contract to expire. So I'm waiting. iOS 7 gives me a nice upgraded 4S to use for a month, and Gazelle let me lock in a trade-in price of $160 until Oct. 31 (that's improved from Oct. 15 a week or so ago).

People do this with college football tickets as well. Police used to arrest scalpers. Now Stub Hub is the official fan-to-fan ticket partner of (insert school here). It's bad enough that tickets are $45 or so and extremely hard to get. Go to Stub Hub and the cheapest ticket to the Georgia-LSU game is $175.

I love going to games. Most I have gone to have been as a reporter in the past few years because it's TOO EXPENSIVE. But let me tell you that in my home with a 46-inch Samsung LED TV and DVR is NOT THAT BAD. It's especially not that bad compared to feeding that vicious cycle that doesn't get any better unless your team sucks for a few years.
 
The solution is simple, but it's up to Apple to actually build enough phones before launch.

People wouldn't be so quick to drop $1,500 on a phone over eBay if they knew their local store had the same one in stock for half the price.

It's Apple's shortages that's the problem, not the scalpers looking for a fast buck.
 
andymac2210 said:
When people that actually want the product are getting screwed over by profiteers then it's a problem.
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Wrong. Maybe if you were talking about items essential for survival, maybe. But a luxury smartphone? Not even close.

What you are suggesting is that YOU are more qualified to buy an iPhone on launch day than the scalper that's 10 places in front of you in line. That's BS. If you've got enough money to pay for an iPhone that's all that matters. If I want to shell out $850 for an iPhone just so I can take it outside and run it over with my car that doesn't make me any less qualified to buy one than you.

The solution? Dry up demand (get people to stop being so willing to pay ridiculous prices). Supply will follow suit.

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portishead said:
Resellers, or profiteers, or scalpers - whatever you want to call them - are the scum of the earth. Or pretty close to it.
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Yeah, and the people willing to buy from these scumbags are completely blameless. Because someone's holding a gun to their heads when they're forking over $1000+ for that phone you were supposedly screwed out of on launch day.

Blame the people who keep them in business. The scalpers are just taking advantage of an opportunity and buying low/selling high.
 
I agree.
Queued up 3am at lakeside and failed to get a 5S from there. When I arrived I was probably 40 or so people from the front. Surrounded by scalpers. At around 6am a van full arrived and all pushed to the front, no security around until too late.

At around 8.15 we were told all 5Ss had been sold out.
I went to the store anyway and complained to the manager, the two phones per person limit doesn't work. As the manager proclaimed purchases are indeed limited, a scalper walks past with TEN 5s units in an apple bag. The manager just shrugged his shoulders.

I used to enjoy the queuing experience but now it is terrible.
 
Kind of funny thread. Profiteering has been going on for centuries for any commodity or good that has more demand than supply.

It's the consumers who are to blame for creating this problem. Those that are impatient and a few more coin to burn will jump at it.

Last month I got two Chromecasts, both which I intended to use but my bedroom TV went out and I saw the prices they were fetching on eBay. So, I sold one of them for 85 dollars. While not an apples to apples comparison it's similar.

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darthbane2k said:
I agree.
Queued up 3am at lakeside and failed to get a 5S from there. When I arrived I was probably 40 or so people from the front. Surrounded by scalpers. At around 6am a van full arrived and all pushed to the front, no security around until too late.

At around 8.15 we were told all 5Ss had been sold out.
I went to the store anyway and complained to the manager, the two phones per person limit doesn't work. As the manager proclaimed purchases are indeed limited, a scalper walks past with TEN 5s units in an apple bag. The manager just shrugged his shoulders.

I used to enjoy the queuing experience but now it is terrible.
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I blame the store's policy more than the person with 10 iPhones.
 
meechy said:
Who are they "scamming"

Please elaborate.
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They take the phones and sell them on ebay for a markup or send them to areas where the phone isn't for sale and sell them for a markup

as for stopping them, there aren't really any guarantees other than requiring a legal id that is inputted into their system and cuts them off after two phones, but gets them in trouble for privacy reasons. requiring online orders only, which can still be fooled. Requiring they activate a service line, which might be illegal in some countries.

visual barring tends to run afoul cause as noted it's often asian, russians etc (at least here in Southern Cali) so you run into racism claims. so too with saying no cash or gift cards. There was a huge to do about a woman that was told no cash to get an ipad a couple of years ago. She was in the media saying Apple is racist cause they wouldn't like a black woman buy an ipad and they hate people on welfare cause they are elitist snobs. she had saved up for almost a year etc. Mind you almost every bank will give you an account with a check card or you can buy one of those gift cards that goes like a credit card at any convenience store so she had ways to deal with it. but she took to the local tv station instead.

i do rather like the way they deal in China. You register online and tell them what kind of phone you want. They random pick names and send you a link to actually place your order when your name comes up. Could be the next day or a month later depending on what you ask for. And rumor has it they watch for repeated email addresses, billing info, IP addresses etc to cut down on scammers.
 
Simple solution....1 iPhone per customer or per cell line.

If some dude wants "several" for his entire family (himself, wife and teenage kid)....then either purchase them online or bring your family and have them stand in line with you.
 
JFC said:
There is a similar group of 8 in front of me. What is driving me nuts is that there were originally 2, then all of the sudden 6 more show up and join their friends. WTF!
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see if that happened to me I would call foul to the staff. Flat out tell them that 6 folks cut in line and demand those six be told to get to the back. Perhaps they should do arm bands or something as folks come to the line. have a couple of staff watching the line from the start and thus you get an armband the moment you arrive. lose it and too bad.

In truth I wish they could go back to reservations and reservations only at launch. you reserve and get some kind of ticket email or such. you have any time that first day to show up. Since they only reserve what they have and they aren't doing any walkins you will know what you are getting from the start. you want to change your mind, you cancel and start over.

if they did something like armbands perhaps the two could go together. they have some kind of system that scans a barcode or QR on your band and 'reserves' a phone for you. when they zero out they can tell folks at 2am rather than at 8am when folks are pissed off about being there all night
 
I queued outside the Watford Apple store (in the UK) from 2AM. There were 100 scalpers in front of us and a group of 5ish genuine fans at the front. By the time the doors opened to the shopping centre (the Apple store is inside a centre), about 100 more scalpers pushed in front. The organisation from Apple is atrocious, I would expect them to hire some sort of guards or something.

By the time I could collect my ticket, they didn't have any 16-32GBs left. Ridiculous. The 200+ scalpers in front took them all.

As my cousins and I walked away with nothing after queuing for about 6 hours, we could see that behind us were about 200+ /real/ iPhone users who were genuine fans or would seriously use an iPhone on a daily basis. Apple needs to sort this out, it's ridiculous that I now have to wait until October despite quieting for 6 hours.

What's worse is some American online orders have already started shipping (from China, so we could even have them!). But no, Apple treats the UK like crap.
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
I have seen a few on eBay this morning that have come from the Manchester store and a couple of 16GB models are around the £875 to £900 mark! I can't believe people would pay that out for a phone especially at a higher premium!
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I remember when the iPad 3 came out. The resellers heading to China were at the NYC stores in droves. Buying iPads 2 at a time etc. Trouble was that the iPad went on sale in China only a couple of days later (if not on launch day) so they had no market. 5th Ave had to have special lines for all the returns that came back.

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Mercenary said:
Simple. Stop cash sales.
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They got blasted as being racist.
 
cyks said:
The solution is simple, but it's up to Apple to actually build enough phones before launch.

People wouldn't be so quick to drop $1,500 on a phone over eBay if they knew their local store had the same one in stock for half the price.

It's Apple's shortages that's the problem, not the scalpers looking for a fast buck.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of moving pieces in producing products at this volume and mitigating any potential issues. I worked in China for some time as a product manager for a device that was being manufactured there. There are a TON of considerations to be made for not just the short term, but long term (staffing, manufacturing and vendor capacity, re purposing of machines, list goes on).

The PLC line vs capacity lines should taper off into your next product launch.

Fact is, launch day for any hot product, especially electronics, will always face shortages. As demand tapers, production still goes 100% and supply eventually catches up.. I'm sure Apple has a legion of analysts trying to maximize their profits during the entire PLC of a device.
 
HickDead said:
Simple solution....1 iPhone per customer or per cell line.

If some dude wants "several" for his entire family (himself, wife and teenage kid)....then either purchase them online or bring your family and have them stand in line with you.
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And the most logical solution.

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GeorgieAcevedo said:
I thought this belonged here. I put my iPhone 5 on Craigslist.
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Haha, I get this every time I try to sell an item on craigslist.
 
Km133 said:
There was a similar "problem" in glasgow. In the end about 50-100 people who were queuing left because the 5s had sold out pre-8am.

Obviously it's terrible for the fans who actually want one, but credit where it's due - these guys will make hundreds of quid for just standing in a line for a few hours. It's easy money for them!
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They need a right good toe in the baws. And they're there every morning for the doors opening to snap up any new stock. Same every year, I see them on the way to work.

Tadgers.
 
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