Sorry Guys. You Can't Pay Cash For An Ipad :/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/apple-turns-away-ipad-buyer-points-to-no-cash-policy-poll/34581

I heard about this on the radio today and was wondering what you guys thought about it.

spoilers: Apple is a terrible company

Still at a loss as to why anybody would WANT an iPad...

I'm with ya nine, but i never though a company could be so stupid, lol.

I personally have never seen someone pay for something cash that was above $200, but this is rather strange.

Agreed... Although I guess it gets rid of another notion I had of them, that they were just money ***.. If they're turning away cold hard cash, obviously they're not as money hungry as I though or at least, not anymore

It's not dumb at all. By not taking cash, they don't need to have cash registers. Which also means they don't need to have checkout lines. They also don't have to deal with the (considerable) managerial accounting overhead of having employees handle cash.

Seriously, who pays in cash for anything that expensive anymore? I would look at you like you're crazy too.

You're giving me work. I need to keep adequate change on hand, I need to track all of my transactions, I need to count all my money at the end of the day, I need to go to the bank and deposit it, etc. I need to watch all my employees, have checkout lines, give them register ID codes and keep receipts...

Why bother, when a million+ other people are clamoring to pay me the easy way instead?

Cash? Wuz dat?

What about that RL-peen feeling when paying for a house in cash?

Nothing says "I'M RICH, ***!" more!

I paid cash for the last two cars I purchased, both around $4600 before tax.

I honestly find this to be strange.. The only logical way I think they can uphold such a thing is if they thought that by using credit/debit it is easier to track the purchases to prevent someone from going around their 2-per-customer limit.

However, this could put them in a tricky legal situation, as it's generally difficult to refuse legal tender in the US. Debit or credit, not being considered legal tender, can be refused, but to my knowledge, US currency always being legal tender in the US means they cannot reject it.

They can, I believe, refuse to initiate a transaction, but I think if they begin a transaction with a person, that's sort of out the window.

While I can see how it is stupid not to take cash when "times are tough"...

But...then again.This ^

It will save Apple money and headaches not taking cash..plus the whole supply > demand thing they can basically do what they want and the masses will bend over to get the new Igaget.

SideNote: And now-a-days where you can turn cash into Visa/MC debt cards at almost any bank why would you wanna carry that much cash around anyway?

There is no law that requires a retail store to accept cash, so no law has been broken. Just seems like silly business practice.

Where you guys are wrong is that the policy only states that the ipad and iphone cannot be purchased with cash. Nothing else they sell is exclusively credit/debit. Also, all credit/debit transactions cost them as well, so they still have to pay a fee for that.

I agree wholeheartedly with Jaerik. As a retailer, I would be concerned by anyone coming in to purchase items costing well over $500 with cash. Certainly there are some people who prefer to use cash, but the vast majority of patrons will be offering up plastic. A majority of individuals who offer to pay with cash are likely questionable, especially when items like iPhones and iPads sell so well on less... legitimate markets.

Of course, that doesn't mean that everyone who pays in cash is a sketchy character. The company, however, would be playing on a thin line when establishing who can pay with cash and who can't. It's a legal nightmare since it would involve denying a service to one customer while giving it to another. I imagine that Apple made this decision because there was a high enough percentage of sales conducted with cash that they found questionable, so they deny the service to everyone. They just deny cash purchases outright to avoid being sued for discrimination.

Well in US we still use cash mostly for stuff under a grand it not uncommon to pull out 5 one hundred dollar bills and pay for a Iphone or pad.....in the US any way...also reguardless if you pay cash or not there will still be check out lines to pay with debit or CC so idk I just think they are enforcing the NWO eletronic tracking system makes it easier to put a face or ID to who is purchasing their items so they can further solicit you when new products come out because now the marketing team know who to solicit and who to market their products to based on your financial buying history with apple. This will allow them to gather this info w/o you having to volunteer it with puchasing questioneer at check out which most will probably decline. They are unable to do this if you pay cash.......long story short its easier for them to gather information on you this way with out having to ask you for it.....

I'm a committed PC guy, but I don't get the irrational Apple hatred. Piling on them because it makes you look rebelliously iconoclastic is just as "trendy" as the consumerism you're ostensibly attacking.

I've never seen anyone pay for something in cash > $500 in almost a decade, and I live in Southern California. Apple isn't the only ones: many retailers here refuse to accept cash. I know that almost every car dealership around here refuses. So do real estate transactions. Nobody wants the responsibility of handling fifteen grand in bills.

In fact, if you say you paid "in cash," all it means is that you didn't pay with any form of credit. (I.e. you paid via check or wire transfer.) Nobody assumes you mean actual bills anymore.

Also, there are no lines because their employees carry mobile wireless checkout devices to scan your credit card. Pay from anywhere. I tried to buy a case from them the other day for $25 (an amount I would usually have cash for) and had to use plastic because they literally had no cash anywhere in the store.

I thought everyone had one of these puppies in his or her wallet.

I just bought some 4 new 33 inch tires for my Jeep and paid cash, I guess that makes me a bad person. :/



They really are. Do they still sue people who make Mac applications and accessories without their express written permission?

Is there really a $500 bill? lol.
The highest I've seen anyone pay cash is my dad when he got my Xbox 360. Anything else was credit/check.

I'd be damned to walk around with that much money on me.

I've yet to touch paper/metal money for years lol.
Helps me stay consciously sane on the streets when crackheads keep asking me for change on my way to work...
Cards ftw(?)

I'd agree with Jaerik except for the fact that they're not doing this on all purchases. Seemingly, you could buy as many iPods as it would take to equal the price of either of these items, and then pay cash.

So they're not doing it as a measure to prevent you from using counterfeit bills or anything, or reducing their overhead by eliminating cash. They're specifically delineating two items from their merchandise, and stating they are cash-exempt.

To steal some of the bluster from the magical ease of credit, using credit/debit at POS systems is generally at a fee to the business offering them. This is why many small businesses will impose minimum credit charges of X amount of dollars, because otherwise, it hurts their margins.

And generally, this works out to it being that larger companies could gain the most benefit from removing cash from their transactions, but the smaller the company, the smaller their gains from such a system.

Regardless, this article is not about denial of cash, in general, it's about denial of cash for two particular items.

Come to NY life here must be totally different lol Maybe its a walmart thing but in most electronic stores best buy, target,Staples ect...there is always people at the check out lines with cash or plastic..even in the apple store in manhattan(NYC) the check lines are never that empty maybe because its NYC

Probably want you to buy with credit card so they know you can buy all those damn apps for the ipad with a credit card :3


NEVAR!

Macs are PCs. PC stands for personal computer. Apple has brainwashed the general public into thinking a PC that runs Mac OS is somehow "better" than a regular PC. So when you say you're a committed PC guy, that doesn't really... say anything.

Personally, I consider paying cash for any amount three-digits-or-less perfectly normal. Paying cash for a used car is normal, too.

Eventually, we won't pay with cash at all. Perhaps in a long time, but eventually, cash will disappear. Eventually, we won't use pens and pencils to write (when's the last time you did?), unless we're attending ancient calligraphy classes in university. Not saying it's a good thing, but the world evolves and things disappear, it's always been like that.

If you were a store rep and someone came and pulled out a bag full of pennies, would you start counting? Yet he/she could insist that it IS money. He'd be right, yet still ridiculous.

Apple (I've never purchased a Mac, except for my girlfriend, in case you think I'm pro-somethin) is taking this "evolution" a step forward. They were the first to remove floppy drives from computers, back when people were like "WTF I still need this!!!" While this may not feel very appropriate, refusing cash is their choice, and within the next decades, others companies will probably follow.

Well some people are not allowed to use debit/credit card because they were blacklisted at some point in their life. In France you can be blacklisted for life (or sometime just 1/2 decade), and you won't be able to use cheque or any payment card even your financial situation gets better and even if you have money now.

Because of that some people still use cash to make ~expensive purchase.

Anyway law prohibit that kind of things here, all retailers are forced to accept cash. They can only refuse it if they have no way to handle it, like if you are paying with a truck full of 0.01 coins. But anything paid in a reasonable way => must accept. Retailers are only allowed to refuse cards or cheque.

As for seeing nobody paying in cash for anything that expensive, that's just because of where you are living. I know that in here it's pretty common, in Germany as well. I remember purchasing 2 Q6600 CPU with cash, $600 for both at the time. Bought my PS3 with cash as well. Paid some rent with cash (over $900) etc.

I either pay with cash or my card <_<

This is like saying that someone who buys a Lexus is somehow "brainwashed" into thinking it's "better" than a Civic.

They both have four wheels, four doors, and four seats. They have the same warranty, the same expected mileage in their lifetime. The same horsepower, the same cylinder configuration. You can even get the same level of interior and extras. So why would anyone pay 3x as much for a Lexus? There are many more Civics on the road, but last I checked, Lexus isn't exactly struggling for business.

Feature set divided by price point is not the only equation by which people make purchase decisions.

By that logic, nobody would wear designer brand clothes because they're not tangibly "better" than anything else. A one bedroom studio in Manhattan wouldn't cost 8x as much as a four bedroom house in Nebraska. There are intangibles in play, the perceived value of which differ from person to person.

It's understood when someone says "PC."
I've yet to run into a techhy person that questions what I mean when I say "I use a PC."

If I used a Mac, then I'd say "I use a Mac," not "I use a Mac PC."

Yay, another anti-Apple thread!