“Of course, in the event of a price drop, Apple Stores will automatically refund you the difference if the price drop occurs within 14 days of the date of purchase. AT&T accepts returns within 14 days and likely has a similar pricing policy. The online Apple Store covers price drops for 10 days (instead of 14, I have no idea why this different), but I suspect they’d overlook that in this case. In any case, if you purchased an iPhone in the past two weeks, getting a refund should be no problem, no matter where you bought it,” Berka reports.
“Once you get to day 15, things get significantly more complicated and unpredictable,” Berka reports.
More info in the full article here.
That’s technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that’s what happens in technology. – Apple CEO Steve Jobs on iPhone price cut, September 5, 2007
They should do it for all, not just the last 14 days. Glad I waited.
Unfortunately that’s business. It happens. Everyday, not just at Apple.
“They should do it for all…”? Are you for real?
I assume that you don’t own a business or have any true concept of commerce.
If it weren’t for the emphatic insistence by my boyfriend that it was too expensive so I should wait to buy it, I’d have one already. I guess I’m glad he’s such a cheap-ass.
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And $349 on the Refurb store? I’m so there….
Which is why you don’t buy the first model of anything
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iPod touch is a BIG no no!
The online Apple Store covers price drops for 10 days (instead of 14, I have no idea why this different),
The Apple Store policy is 10 days from the date shipped, which itself could be a few days (1-4) from purchase. It would still cover about the same time period.
hey, MDN..
you need to change your iPhone adver. – they reflect old pricing and a model that doesn’t exist!
get with it!
In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle – “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”
Yes, I got my iphone on day 1. Yes, I got $200 worth of enjoyment out of the last 69 days. Yes, I learned my lesson.
I won’t be fooled again.
Apple issued a $200 Apple store credit to ALL THE EARLY ADOPTERS when Aperture received a $200 price cut.
They should do the same now.
My apologies to the Kool Aid junkies who bought overpriced iPhones but…you wanted to be on the bleeding edge of technology? Now bleed to the tune of $100+.
Wait ’til iPhone gen 2 comes out in ’08….
Just my $0.02
A price drop is expected… not just in the first 2 months… it’s killing the stock and consumer confidence.
It had to be done. Now that the iPod touch is out, it makes sense to add cell phone functionality for a hundred bucks more. It also definitely means that a 16GB phone is around the corner, and maybe even a 32 GB to reclaim the 599 price slot
Had Apple simply dropped the iPhone 4GB and repriced the 8GB unit to that of the 4 ($499) you would have heard less squawking, people would have been happy enough, sales would have risen, and Apple could have pocketed the difference.
“Had Apple simply dropped the iPhone 4GB and repriced the 8GB unit to that of the 4 ($499) you would have heard less squawking, people would have been happy enough”
I, as an Apple shareholder, am happier at $399 because unit sales and revenue will be much higher.
Hey, Dosen’t Apple just replace the phone once the battery dies? How long do you think the batteries last? 1 to 1.5 years? So in 10-15 months those “early adopters” will get Brand New, Ver. 2, 32 Gig, iPhones that Apple will be selling for $600 to those who are still waiting.
Or maybe not.
How about two months free iPhone bill (up to $60.00 a month). It’s only $120, but I’d take that and be happy.
Emil wrote, “Which is why you don’t buy the first model of anything iPod touch is a BIG no no!”
I respectively disagree. The iPod touch shares so many components with the iPhone that it already benefits from the production scale of the iPhone and the manufacturing tuning that comes with being on the market for months. Part of the margins story for the iPhone and iPod Touch is that together they feed off a combined manufacturing volume — costs are lower, the higher the volume.
The iPod Touch is a bargain right now, as is the iPhone.
Ray: “Just my $0.02”
Hold on there you stingy, little, insulting freak.
I seriously doubt that you can actually spare 2 cents.
Shouldn’t you be in a soup line instead of camping out at the public library’s computer?
I wonder if the complains are loud enough, Apple will do something similar to when they dropped the price on Aperture. I suspect something like that is in the works. That said, I bought a dual core 3 weeks before they went quad. Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you.
Well I’m in Europe. We didn’t even get the iPhone in the first place. And maybe – who knows – when it arrives on these shores in 2 months, it will be another $200 cheaper!
As an AAPL stock holder, I’m happy with the aggressive pricing which should promote unit sales.
As a new iPhone owner (18 days) I’m flummoxed over the price cut.
Hopefully I can find some redress to assuage my confused feelings.
I called Apple customer support about this and they reported that they are flooded with iPhone price cut calls today. If I wanted any kind of “adjustment” they said I would have to work it out with the Apple Store I bought the iPhone at.
Stay tuned . . .
magic word : “pressure”
In 30 days how much noise will we be hearing about those poor abused early adopters?
For all you whining early adopters Chalk it up to the “Brag and Cool And Gloat” Tax. You spent the extra $200 bucks so you could brag and gloat about your new iPhone to show off how cool you are to own one.
Tough cookies for you. You got your “coolness” worth.
After Christmas you will probably be able to get an iPhone for around $199.
turmoil21 — “In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle – ‘Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.'”
In the immortal words of Geirge W. Bush – “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
Sep 06, 07 – 10:45 am Comment from: zunetobegone
“They should do it for all, not just the last 14 days.”
That’s ridiculous. They don’t have to offer any sort of price protection at all. A 14 day protection in the electronics business is plenty generous. Costs of electronics components fluctuate dramatically. The most likely reason for the quick reduction in the retail price is a steep drop in flash memory costs. When you purchase something, you are agreeing to the price you pay. Just because ithe item gets cheaper later, doesn’t mean squat.
I think it’s great that Apple is able to drop the price so ‘soon’ after introduction. But, then, ‘soon’ is relative in the cell phone biz. New products are coming out all the time and competition is fierce. Good for Apple that they are able to position themselves so competitively against other brands.
I bought an iPhone on June 30th, and have no hard feelings.
The early start gave me time to develop iPhone-specific websites that greatly extend the reach of the device.
$200 is nothing.
This is nothing.
Both Zune buyers are livid that they bought their electronic turd the day before the $50 price cut.
One of them is squealing for free points as soon as he can figure out how many he should demand. Carry the two.
Personally, the joy of being able to use the advanced and wonderful iPhone was worth every cent of its original price to me. Amortized over its expected life (knowing technology probably 18 mos) it’s cheap for everything it does .. and well.
“Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son”
I agree that the iPhone touch is going to sell, especially for those of us with a work-provided cell phone that cannot be transferred to an iPhone. They will carry two devices just like now.
Two hundred dollars is Dingo’s Kidneys compared to what I lost in the market yesterday. ;P BFD!
what apple showed by the severity, and immediacy of the drop, is that they weren’t interested in supporting the customers that supported them with this new product launch. Business is more than turning a dime, it’s about managing a relationship with the customer (so you can get MORE DIMES).. Apple, and Jobs, dropped the ball on the relationships they built over the last 2 months. My next dime, will be staying in my pocket.
No, this is NOT what happens in the technology business when there is no technology-related reason for a price cut.
Most of us here love Apple, but anyone who bought the iPhone before this price cut got screwed. Everyone can rationalize all they want to-that’s the way it goes; Apple is so good; Steve is God-the bottom line is you got screwed.
How much slack would a Death Star like M$ get over this if they’s pulled a similar stunt? None. Steve Jobs and Apple are cool, they make wonderful products, and they are hip and stylish but at the end of the day, Apple is still about making as much money as they can for themselves and the stockholders.
As wonderful as Apple is, people seem to forget that plenty of Apple Fan Bois have the Stockholm Syndrom as much as they believe Doze believers have it.
Actually, the rest of you bitches are just boo hooing because you didn’t get to “Brag and Cool And Gloat.”
Whining is whining any way you slice it.
Suck it up, late-comers. With all of our iPhone cool, we already got the hotties. You’ll have to settle for the porkers and trannies.
What if, say, instead of simply dropping the price $200, they’d also have added a 16gb iPhone at $599 – would any early adopters have felt a bit better about it? That seems to me like the missing part of this equation.
For all you whiners, you could carefully consider that your credit card may have either price protection or purchase protection. My AMEX gold card has both. However, the price protection, good for 90 days, is only for items up to $300.
Purchase protection which is for theft or breakage is also good for 90 days and is for items up to $1000. In other words, if you break or somehow have your iPhone stolen over the next 3 weeks, if you bought on the first day of sale like I did, you could still get your full purchase price back, and thus stop your whining.
Of course, I do not plan on doing anything of the kind, as I plan on giving my 4Gig iPhone to my mom, who wants one, and buying the new 16Gig iPhone when it comes out in time for Thanksgiving.
“settle for the porkers and trannies”. To some people they ARE the hotties. At least that’s what I’ve heard.
I’m just wondering what planet you people have been living on that this is a big surprise, because here on Earth it seems rather commonplace that stuff gets released, stuff gets bought, stuff goes down in price over time. Now I’ll grant you that 2 months is a pretty short window for that to happen, but I had no illusions about the process when I paid for my iPhone. I think I’d be more upset if a new version came out for the same price with all the features that the iPhone lacked, but I bet you all wouldn’t be bitching about it quite so loudly.
Anyway, whatever. I guess I’ll go back to my frivolous complaints about that god-awful screens on the new iMacs so I don’t get accused of being a sheep. But if you’d told me in January that the worst thing Apple could do would be to cut the iPhone price by 200 bucks, I would have said you were nuttier than a Ballmer Pie.
There is just no pleasing some people.
Fuck you.
@ ChrissyOne ..
… “Dingo’s Kidneys” ….. uhhhh is this a good thing, or a bad thing ?
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@Fuck you,
You wish.
I am furious! I paid over $500 for my CD player from Sony just a few years ago and now I see CD players everywhere for as little as $15.00!!!!
Sony!!! I want a refund!!!!
I own stock and I bought the phone the first day for 600. I do not want my 200 back becasue the stock price more tahn paid for it.
I think APple shall not refund however in a move of good faith it could give one of these options to the ones who paid 600 for their phones:
1- 100 dollars or so credit over their next iphone purchase active in 1 year from now
2- 200 credit for a purchase of 600 or more from the store.
$200 is not very significant when compared to the amount you pay over time in telephone charges and fees, plus ptoential health care cost for the “convenience” of holding a microwave driven brick up to your ear. Enjoy the device while you can still hear and function… and please stop whinning about how “ripped-off” you feel. Children are usually sent to their room for similar behavior.
Ironic my MDN “magic word” is “progress”. So much for cultural progress.
losses on the market?
pssssst!!! buy low sell high and buy low again.
and btw.. buy on rumor and sell on news and then buy it back
This is what happens when non-technical people post.
Supply and demand. Did any of you learn that in college? Guess not.
Apple buys large amount of ram for iPhones.
Apple buys super duper large amount of ram for iPhones and iPod Touch and gets a discount.
Apple passes on that discount by dropping iPhone price.
Some people just can’t rub two brain cells together.
Thank you for the Remedial Stock Trading 101 lesson. Please hurry on as Advanced Punctuation and Capitalization is about to begin.
Just a few days and the screem will be over ..
Up yours Steve….
Caught in the crossfire of this one.
Bought an 8 gig on 8/3… love it… but feeling pinched by the $200 drop.
Understand the business model, but do not likey
Funny isn’t it that only a few short months ago, when someone pointed out how overpriced the iPhone was they were called an idiot and a troll by the Drooling fanboys on this site… I was told “The Phone is really worth $800-$900″…. WOOO HOOOO “Apple is going to sell a Million the 1st weekend, WOOO HOOO”…
Here’s the real issue. Very few consumers would buy an iPhone at the outrageous prices they were asking. Of course, they sold 6 – 700,000 of them at full price to you mindless fanboys who would have been glad to pay $1000 if “Steve said so, Wooooo Hooooo”….
You fanboys got used. You should be happy cause “Steve said it was a good deal” WOOOOO HOOOO!!! Think with you head instead of being an Apple cheerleader just for the sake of being a cheerleader!
It sucks but I was still cooler than everyone else for 2 months. Big picture is that we will all be served by the price drop with the increase in iPhone community — early adopters just “funded” the increase. And I’d like to think that I learned to be more patient next time. I didn’t, but I’d like to think it.
I do think that Apple missed an opportunity to reward early adopters while at the same time serving the company. For example, give early adopters two free years of .Mac service (costs Apple very little but significantly grows or extends the .mac community). Or a $200 iTunes credit (again, grows the iTunes numbers, costs them less than the credit amount, and they get to write off the whole credit anyway). Either way, they could have preserved early adopter loyalty and created a positive PR spin.
I understand why Jobs did it – pricing has to make sense across the whole product line in order for each product to thrive… But there was an opportunity to pro-actively address the early adopter angry mob mentality and turn it around, and it looks like they’re just going to plug their ears and hope it goes away.
Just change your name to StrawMan and be done with it. You fool no one.
update: I just returned from the Apple Store where my iPhone was purchased 18 days ago, to inquire about the refund policy in person.
Answer: 14 days or nothing. Period. End of story. No gray area, no wiggle room, no fudge factor. Just a big, fat “no dice”.
Again, as an AAPL holder, I understand the move. Yet as a consumer I feel a bit jilted still.
Oh well, and so it goes…
MW : “turn” as in, let’s just turn the page on this one now, mm-kay?
Good ol’ Shoe Fetish at it again, berating others to make himself feel better about himself. Classic text book kick-the-dog.
Whether Apple should or should not offer a rebate is debatable. What is not debatable is the number of people that feel let down by Apple on this price cut. Yes, we paid to be early adopters, but a lot of us did it on faith in the company and the product. We put up with the activation hassles, the connection issues the first few weeks, the bugs that 2 patches have since fixed. In essence we paid $200 to be gamma-testers.
I think Apple will just hurt themselves with these moves…it should have been $399 from the start rather than drop the price that quick. Now who will trust Apple pricing in the future?
>ChrissyOne wrote: I’m just wondering what planet you people have been living on that this is a big surprise,
Earth.
Of course, price drops and increased function, form, and features are to be expected. BUT… you so easily write off this happened within 2 months of the product’s release. Something was flawed… pricing in particular.
The damage of the price cut is that is alienates, confuses, and disheartens customers.
Whether or not the complaints are merited – I believe they are – are side issues for Apple. The customers are pissed. So many of them in fact, that the company is in danger of losing many.
The $200 may be trivial to some.
But to others, it’s a sign of bad things happening at Apple. Maybe Steve is riding so high and is feeling benevolent enough to not worry about customer satisfaction as much as he did.
If the famed Apple Experience is not longer strived for and is dead, you can say hello to the new Microsoft:
Apple.
To all MS trolls: Go Home.
Zunes just reduced to $199 at Walmart. Call MS and complain and get your money back. (Yeah, right, like that will do any good.
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From the Zune site.:
New Zunes out for christmas.
An 80 gig Zune that will replace the Gigabeat but may look just the same.
Also a flash Zune that may look like the “old” 2 gen nano. It is said to have pictures and music. !!!
Microsoft. “We make great stuff, just give us a couple of years to get it right!! ”
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en
I wasn’t planning on doing this until yesterday, but if Jobs doesn’t give the early buyers at least some token of appreciation for their $600 purchases, I’ll just split the $69 education version of Leopard when it comes out with 3 of my friends that also bought iPhones in the first couple of weeks. That’ll get each of us about $100 back.
You see, two can play at these greedy games Steve, after all, you’re the one that said, “that’s what happens in technology” right?
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. NOBODY expected this DRASTIC price slash.
Nobody expects Apple to cut the price of a brand new product by one third within nine weeks of its release date. 10 to 15% after six to nine months? Sure. 33% before three months? No way.
This is not about how much a price drops shortly after your purchase. This is about a major price reduction shortly after the release of a brand new product.
@To all MS trolls: Go Home.
Yeah, Yeah, everyone is a Troll. What exactly are you mindless morons… EXAMPLE…..
Mac Fanboys 6/29 = “It’s CHEAP for $600. I’d pay $1000. It’s worth it!!!! Apple is going to sell 1,000,000 this weekend. Woooo Hoooo Steve!!!”
Mac Fanboys 9/5 = “Booo Hooo, I want my money back. Steve has lost my business. Boooo Hooooo. $200 is a LOT of money! “
Oh my, …. Poor Fanboys… $200 is going to break them. These are the same wannabe Bigwigs who post here:
“Well, I’m just going buy another 2000 shares of AAPL. I do own 5,000 shares that I bought at $16…”
You guys crack me up. Let’s face it. None of you own any stocks. You’re a bunch of Liberal Bums living off the government or off of mommy and daddy who are on welfare. (Go HILARY!!!!! Apple Fanboys Want FREE Healthcare and other handouts off of those “rich” working people!!! Wooooo
If being a troll means not crying about $200, I guess I am one…..
Bums… Gotta love em!
@romeodawg,
You were cooler than everyone else for two months?
I guess you haven’t heard…people that are really cool don’t, and don’t have to, say they are cool. Trust me, just because you bought something doesn’t let you in the cool club.
Jog on son, you’re nothing but a muppet.