Apple Gives $100 Store Credit To iPhone Customers

MooRogue writes "In an open letter to all iPhone customers, Steve Jobs responds to hundreds of emails from upset iPhone customers. Apple will be giving early adopters who are not receiving rebates or any other consideration $100 store credit at the Apple store. Details will be posted on the Apple website next week"

Woohoo!

[Cajun Hell (725246)]

I just found 1300 iPhones in a dumpster. That's $130,000!

Wow, that was quick

[Tibor the Hun (143056)]

Say what you will, but what other company figurehead in recent memory has came out and apologized for other people's willingness to spend their money?

Maybe it was all planned out from the day one though, and if that's the case, I wish Steve would run for the next presidential election. Talk about planing for every contingency...

Re:Wow, that was quick

[by Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure it was planned. There no way Steve and his entire management didn't expect that it would upset a lot of the early adopters. Now they sacrifice a bit of their $200 early adopter tax, but the benefits are numerous. The much more affordable $399 price tag gets in the news not one but twice. The $100 credit still remains in the company, and probably gets spent on even more Apple products, or on accessories which costs them almost nothing. After venting their rage for a day, many of the upset early adopters become even more loyal to the company than before. They get a lot of good PR for listening to their customers. People will be less wary of being an early adopter for Apple products in the future. And they after all this, the _still_ get to keep $100 of the early adopter tax.

This was brilliant marketing through and through. Bravo.

If it was planned, why now?

[SuperKendall (25149)]

Think about it - if this had really been planned, the best timing would be to announce the credit a week or two AFTER the new iPods go on sale. That way a lot of customers buy new iPods, then head back to the Apple store for accessories after they get the rebate. If Apple was as devious as people claim, issuing an announcement about a rebate ahead of the actual rebate is a terrible non-profix-maximizing idea.

Like everything else in life, the reality is probably between the two extremes - Apple probably thought recently about deep price cuts, and held in reserve the strategy of a rebate if complaints about the price drop from current owners were loud enough (which they were). Apple is a company yes, but Jobs is not a Ferengi (or Mother Teresa in a turtleneck).

waaaa i want my money back

[by Anonymous Coward]

wtf is wrong with these early adopters who complain about paying more? they knew from the beginning that apple will drop prices. whiney bunch of pussies

Whiners

[Pinky3 (22411)]

Years ago, when the HP LaserJet 4 first came out, I bought one at Fry's for $1600. Three weeks later, they were selling it for $1200. I didn't whine.

Who hasn't bought a computer, a flat screen tv, or a car where there wasn't a discount or price reduction a few months later? Why would anyone expect the iPhone to be exempt from economics?

Clearly, Apple is doing the right thing as far a public relations are concerned, but the idea that you are entitled to a refund for something you bought two months ago is ridiculous.

How to make a fanatic fan

[chriss (26574)]

1. Sell him something
2. Kick him in the balls
3. Wait till he complains and declares to hate you
4. Give him a band aid and a lollipop
5. He now loves the big brother again

I'm myself bordering the state of Apple fan boy, but this is scary. People crying fool yesterday now praise the company for being responsive. I'm not into conspiracy theories, but if Apple had had this planed, this would be pure genius. Lowering the price and then getting the people who payed more to cheer you. Just scary how perfectly they play their crowd.

I don't think this was planed. But I think Apple knows that we now live in an attention society and that people highly regard companies who admit errors and change. In fact people overvalue this since they do not expect it (yet. Microsoft will obviously copy it someday). They did it with "greener Apple", they do it again with credits for iPhones which will generate more money for them due to people buying stuff in the Apple store.

I've just gained some respect for Steve Jobs

[bl8n8r (649187)]

Certainly not the normal "Please piss off, and have a nice day." response of:

"We're sorry to hear of your disappointment with our product.
  Unfortunately, we have a very large volume of customers who
  are very satisfied with our products, at the the prices
  we offer. We do our best to please every customer"

.

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[Liselle (684663)]

How can you "lose" $100? Does Steve Jobs mug you on the street? You paid $599 for a working product, end of story. Early adopters pay out the nose for bragging rights, film at 11.

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[timeOday (582209)]

What I find annoying about Apple pricing (or rather "potentially" annoying, as I'm not one of their customers) is the centralized, tightly controlled pricing, combined with a strategy of infrequent price changes. The cost of a flashy new CPU or videocard will start high but drop steadily day by day (with some fluctuation). With Apple, they keep their cards close to their chest and then Wham! the thing you bought yesterday depreciates 30% overnight. It's perfectly reasonable for customers to be annoyed by this, because it's Apple's secrecy and pricing strategy that create the problem.

Getting there first

[Kelson (129150)]

Early adopters pay out the nose for bragging rights, film at 11.

When the iPhone launched, it sold out at both the nearby Apple Stores. If you weren't in line on Friday, you couldn't get one on Saturday. One of my co-workers waited until the middle of the next week, called a couple of stores to check inventory, and just walked right in and bought one.

Those people standing in line weren't just standing in line to get an iPhone. If that's all they wanted, they could have waited a week or two for the second shipment to arrive. What they stood in line for was the opportunity to have it first. They "paid" extra by waiting around for several hours when they could have been doing something else so they could get an iPhone before anyone else did.

Whatever the motivation -- bragging rights, enthusiasm, impatience, etc. -- there is a cost to getting there first. Conversely, there is an opportunity cost to biding one's time: Anyone who waited for the price to come down has gone the last few months with no iPhone.

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[daveywest (937112)]

Why is everyone up in arms about this. When any other company comes out with something cool and must have, people will pay more the 200% the retail price to get it on eBay.

Apple just beat the scalpers at their own game.

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[woodchip (611770)]

They didn't "lose" anything. That is just the price you pay for having it a few months before people are willing to wait. If your stupid enough to waste $600 or so on a phone, it your own fault.

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[toleraen (831634)]

I take it you don't meta mod very often. You'd be amazed at the crap that gets modded insightful, or how many informative posts get modded troll. Give it a try sometime. [slashdot.org]

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[MightyMartian (840721)]

Fuck you broke asshole

Hmmm... I'm trying to decipher this. Is English not your first language? Are you saying there's something with my anatomy? Are you saying someone should copulate with me until I cease to function?

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[frdmfghtr (603968)]

It's not just a phone, so it's hard to evaluate the price. Early customers thought they could trust Apple about the fact that the iPhone was worth $600. Now they lost their trust in Apple, and Steve Jobs is trying to buy it back.

There's nothing here to trust--the iPhone was, in fact, worth $600 on June 29, as evidenced by the throngs who paid $600 after waiting in line for hours. If it wasn't worth $600, people wouldn't have bought it, or would have quickly realized it wasn't worth the price and returned it.

An item will sell for exactly what both parties (seller and buyer) believe is a fair price at the time of sale. Those that claimed that they got ripped off are just complaining that they fell for the "early adopter" technolust that comes with the launch of a new gadget. Instead, we should be cheering on those who couldn't afford one before but can do so now; "Hey, good for you! You're getting a deal!" instead of "Oh screw Apple, they let me buy something on my own free will at a higher price! Maybe I can join up with those non-user-replaceable-battery whiners and bitch about my lack of self-control and impulse buying."

And for the record, I paid $600 in early July, and feel that it was worth the price I paid. Mind you, if somebody wants to give me some form of credit after the fact, I won't turn it down, but I won't bitch about being allowed to spend my money on my own free will, either.

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[Stripsurge (162174)]

For the same reason that I can't go to Intel and ask for $200 after every round of price drops. If someone chooses to buy a product he or she must make a decision if the purchase is good value. Yes= buy. No= don't buy. Just wait. Early adopters thought the price was right at launch. Just because a new, better deal comes along it doesn't change their initial decision; the purchase was good value. Surely they knew a price drop was innevitable, granted perhaps not so soon or so much, so any free money is a terrific deal.

As Mr. Jobs so delicately points out these people technically aren't entitled to anything but Apple wants to keep them happy. If they were given all $200 then they get the benefit of being the first to have an iPhone for nothing. People who decided to wait for a price drop would be a little upset if there is no 'early adopter penalty', and that they could have been using an iPhone all this time if only they had known they could get $200 back.

Re:Why not $200 store credit?

[ivan256 (17499)]

Intel's a great example, considering they just re-priced their Xeon line so that the quad-core chips cost what the dual core chips of the same clock speed had cost the day before. How many end users that purchased quad core processors the day before do you think saw a refund of any of the several hundred dollar difference? What about the people who bought the dual core chips the day before? Is intel going to send them a free core?

If a product is worth the price to you when you pay for it, then you should be comfortable with price changes after you made the purchase.

I didn't lose anything

[SuperKendall (25149)]

I gained two months of phone use over someone who has waited; and I have made good use of the phone in the last two months, it's been way more useful to me than the previous phone I had. Well worth the slight extra amount I paid.

After all, any electronics purchase is a gamble - you never know when prices will be cut. But it's a gamble you cannot lose if you like what you bought and you buy at a price that works for you.

Re:Steve; make it retroactive to all Apple product

[Otter (3800)]

So what is the real reason Mr. Jobs?

If you give $100 Apple Store credit to the sort of people who bought an iPhone on iPhone Day, that's all the excuse they need to buy a new iPod, or a MacBook or another iPhone.

What would you have bought with a credit for your SE, a IIe?

Re:Steve; make it retroactive to all Apple product

[peacefinder (469349)]

"If you give $100 Apple Store credit to the sort of people who bought an iPhone on iPhone Day, that's all the excuse they need to buy a new iPod, or a MacBook or another iPhone."

Even better if most of them spend it on Apple software. Such as, I dunno, maybe Leopard? Due out next month?

Teh Steve is laughing all the way to the bank, and this time I'm laughing right along. This is so brilliant it almost has to be on purpose.

Re:next week....

[Bomarc (306716)]

... and send the request to Vastech, located on Bonaventura Drive in San Jose. [slashdot.org]

Re:$100.00 credit is NOT $100.00

[truesaer (135079)]

$40, except half the people wont claim it at all. And of those that do, how many will buy something that costs a hell of a lot more than $100? I bet apple profits off this.

Steve Jobs can't even fucking give away money without making money.

Meet Joe Whiner

[fm6 (162816)]

So,in no way does it cost Apple 100.00 to look like they are meeting Joe "early adopter" halfway.

What I don't understand is why they have to meet him at all. He waited out in front of the store all night, he bought something he knew would soon be subject to steep discounts, and he did it just because he had to have this new toy 5 minutes before everybody else. And now he's screaming that he got ripped of because Apple only waited a couple months before cutting the SRP? A price nobody pays anyway?

Me, I'm against Global Warming and Global Whining.

Re:Why the surprise?

[DeepZenPill (585656)]

Unfortunately I only bought my iphone because my beloved Samsung D807 suffered a premature demise.

That said, I think most of us early adopters aren't angry so much that we might have saved $200 by waiting, but by the fact that all kinds of riffraff can now afford the most fabulous object in the world. We paid a premium to assert our superiority and now we have to hear: "Oh, you bought it before the price drop?"