What's the consequences for asking your friend to buy a student price macbook?

[flyfish29]

NOTE- I did not say the above quote as noted!

In the real world, you need to play by others' rules until you're powerful enough to set your own. And if you do what you "need" to do too early, you'll be sorry.

Kbfr08 please edit your post- it shows incorrectly that I (flyfish29) am quoted in your post.

 

[Macky-Mac]

I discover sth new (at least to me =P)...


for the adobe website, they actually ask me to sent a scan pdf of my student status.

but for Apple store, I try to proceed to check out...all the way they didn't ask for any proof of student identity, so i don't even need to ask a student to help me????

Apple audits a percentage of the online student sales by asking some buyers to verify their student status. If you can't, then they'll charge you the difference to make up the regular price.

 

[kbfr08]

NOTE- I did not say the above quote as noted!




Kbfr08 please edit your post- it shows incorrectly that I (flyfish29) am quoted in your post.

whoa, whoops.

 

[JNB]

When there was a real student discount through the Apple College Consortium—we're talking 20-25% range), there were solid checks on eligibility, but with the current miniscule markdown, it's realized as more of a minor come-on than a proper discount. The minimal eligibility requirements and auditing are more to satisfy accountants & shareholders than to really prevent anyone from getting it. Another way to look at it is the "rest of us" are being surcharged to subsidize students. The whole point is to get more business by offering a tease based on your association with one group or another.

So if a friend offers to purchase it with their discount and then sell it to you and transfer the warranty, that's perfectly fine, as there's no restriction by Apple on what the owner does with it post-purchase. Keep in mind that the friend now cannot use the discount for themselves for another year IIRC.

Amazon and Apple Refurbs are both ways to save nearly the same amount without crossing one's own ethical boundaries, if that's the case.

And to answer one poster above, they do offer a military discount (active & retired) of 4% on hardware, except for newly-released stuff.

 

[Excluse]

snip

Keep in mind that the friend now cannot use the discount for themselves for another year IIRC.

You do remember correctly. I spoke to a rep on the phone and they said that using the ed discount to purchase an MBP means that that student cant buy another MBP within the next year. Other hardware like iMacs and Mac Pros are still eligible.

 

[snberk103]

... Another way to look at it is the "rest of us" are being surcharged to subsidize students. ...

Bingo! I think that this sums up my thinking best. Yes, the store clerks may be "encouraging" the practice. Yes, Apple may make this kind of thing easy....but....

I wish all those posters who encourage buyers to "misrepresent" their situation and to take advantage of an unearned discount wouldn't. Instead, I wish the would just fork over their own cash and subsidize these buyers instead of making me share in their "generousity".

I wonder how happy they will be when they discover that they've been paying more over they years to balance out the money Apple (and other companies) lose to unearned discounts. That if they have money in any kind of an investment, how happy they will be when it dawns on them that this kind of "victimless" cheating actually means their retirement fund will be worth less, and that they are paying more in insurance premiums.

I was taught a very simple lesson early on. If it is not yours, it's somebody else's. And if you take something that is somebody else's without permission, then it's stealing.

/rant

Carry on with your happy day, eh?