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+--- Thread: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? (/showthread.php?tid=278317)
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Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - reezekeys - 07-01-2023
Looks like my old MBP's life has come to an end so I'm shopping for a new 15" Air. My child is a college student so I see a current edu price, along with an "offer" - a $150 "gift card" - from Apple.
Now, I'd love to use this $150 to knock down the final price of the Air, but it looks like I can't do that. This is $150 to spend on other Apple stuff. OK, well that's a little sneaky but whatever. Except, wait a second, they're not giving me a $150 gift card, I'm paying for it!
Summarizing from the order page:
15-inch MacBook Air, 8GB ram, 1TB SSD, Pro Apps Bundle: $1,778.99
Special Offer: -$150.00
Price with Special Offer: $1,628.99. <--- really?
(They even tell me I can do this for $135.74/mo for 12 months on the Apple Card)
OK, here's my wallet. Wait a sec... what's this?:
Tax: $136.43
TOTAL: $1,915.42
What am I not getting here? The $150 for the "gift card" is added to the total. Hello? There either some logic escaping me or I'm just really stupid bad at math. What exactly is special about this offer?
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - mattkime - 07-01-2023
Its certainly special
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - btfc - 07-01-2023
“ Price with Special Offer: $1,628.99 “
“ The $150 for the "gift card" is added to the total. “
Not added to the total, just not subtracted.
TOTAL: $1,915.42 = the Apple Edu total price with tax for what you ordered.
“ This is $150 to spend on other Apple stuff. “
This.
Showing you that 16xx.xx number is what is confusing.
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - datbeme - 07-01-2023
Looks correct to me. You can't apply the gift card to this purchase, but you are not paying for it. They most likely send you the gift card code once you pass the return window.
You upgraded to 1TB of RAM and added the Pro Apps Bundle:
Base Config (EDU) $1,399
16GB (EDU) +180
Pro Apps Bundle (EDU) +199.99
Pretax Amount $1,778.99
You can get the Pro Apps Bundle whenever you want. If I were you, I'd omit that from your order and use the gift card towards that later.
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - reezekeys - 07-01-2023
datbeme wrote:
Looks correct to me. You can't apply the gift card to this purchase, but you are not paying for it. They most likely send you the gift card code once you pass the return window.
You upgraded to 1TB of RAM and added the Pro Apps Bundle:
Base Config (EDU) $1,399
16GB (EDU) +180
Pro Apps Bundle (EDU) +199.99
Pretax Amount $1,778.99
You can get the Pro Apps Bundle whenever you want. If I were you, I'd omit that from your order and use the gift card towards that later.
Sometimes the obvious stuff just sits in front of my face and I don't see it. Yes, I should use that $150 "gift" on the Pro Apps bundle, absolutely. Thanks for that!
FWIW the price I showed was for 8GB ram and 1TB SSD.
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - reezekeys - 07-02-2023
And here I be, typing from my brand new 15" Air I just came home with from the Apple Store. I wasn't expecting to do this, because online this morning it said no stock of models with a 1TB drive at the store. There was one there but not in my preferred silver color - it was "starlight." Then I got hit with a bit of an upsell - the only 1TB 15" Air had 16GB ram, not 8GB like I wanted, but the salesperson offered it at what appeared to be only $90 over the price of the 8GB. I went for it, seeing as how going from 8 to 16GB is $200 on the Apple Store. Back home and looking at the figures, I don't think I saved that much - maybe $40 or $50. Not sure why it played out the way it did at the store - it kinda feels like when a car salesman throws a ton of numbers out to confuse things!
She also tried hard to sell me on AppleCare, but I think I'm gonna use the gift card on the Pro Apps Bundle as datbeme suggested (I have 60 days to decide on AppleCare). $1871 with the gift card (including tax), so after I pay the $50 for the app bundle I'll be at around $1920 for everything.
I'm OK with the "starlight" color, I just wanted something reflective as I've done gigs in direct sun and it's a bear to keep a laptop from shutting down in those circumstances. It's pretty close to silver.
One drag is that she sold me on the 70-watt adapter. When the box was brought out there was no indication which adapter was in there. She went in back to presumably ask a manager or do research, returned and assured me I had the 70-watter but I got the 35-watt adapter. I'm probably gonna go back but I wonder if they'll just swap adapters? I hope so.
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - btfc - 07-02-2023
New Laptop Leader!
miley-gen013: miley-gen013: miley-gen013:I’d go back for the 70-watter.
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - Michael - 07-02-2023
reezekeys wrote:
One drag is that she sold me on the 70-watt adapter. When the box was brought out there was no indication which adapter was in there. She went in back to presumably ask a manager or do research, returned and assured me I had the 70-watter but I got the 35-watt adapter. I'm probably gonna go back but I wonder if they'll just swap adapters? I hope so.
On the Apple purchase page it shows no increase in cost choosing either of the adapters. That's interesting to me; I imagine it's because the 35W adapter is dual and the 70W adapter is not. But, hopefully they'll swap with you since they cost the same with an Air purchase.
I any case, it's a very cool computer. I looked at one last week and plan to get a 15" on the TN tax free weekend later in the summer. Leader!
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - reezekeys - 07-02-2023
Yea I'll be heading back to the store today. Very much hoping they'll swap adapters vs having me return the computer & redo the order. I haven't migrated my old computer's account data & apps yet but did sign in with my Apple ID, so bookmarks, photos, login data, etc. are all in the new guy. I'm very much enjoying logging in everywhere with my finger! On the flip side I used to sleep my old computer by pressing the power button for a second - looks like that's not doable, I have to close the lid or use the Apple Menu.
Re: Apple, is this deceptive advertising, or am I confused? - jdc - 07-02-2023
Leader!
No "instant" gift cards work that way, no matter the store or item. In the grand scheme of things, its slightly different from last years edu offer, which was "free aripods" -- technically $129 "free"
Ive been shopping for the 15" as well for my college bound daughter -- with 16 Gb of ram, but 1TB of storage is overkill. Maybe 512. $1600 is the going rate, $100 off apple.
My biggest struggle is that a refurb 14" M1 MAX MBP is $1540 w 16/512. Heavier and slightly smaller, sure, but powerhouse. More chip, more speaker, LED screen, extra ports, etc, for less $.
Honestly in the end, will probably just go with the base 8/256. $1250 vs $1600 is killing me a bit -- and I doubt she will need more, since her current M1 MBA is fine with both.