Don't be a sucker janey... and don't tell me and others what to do.
Okay, how about this.
Apple
assembles their own computers, and yes there is competition if you haven't noticed. Apple could choose to stick with doing whatever they feel like doing, but when everyone else is using the same hardware for their own laptops too, Apple sure as hell can't charge $2000 for the same thing Lenovo or HP is charging $1000 for. And they aren't, just in case you haven't noticed Apple's prices being on par with the rest of the industry's.
Hence, Apple cannot engage in price fixing the way they want to because they risk losing a lot of customers if someone can go buy a newer setup for half the price instead of going with the outdated Mac that just looks good. Cause it doesn't matter if it's running Mac OS X or Windows for most college students because we all need the same set of apps, and they're all available on both platforms (like Office and iTunes).
Education discounts are certainly not 5% - it is 5% for the MacBooks but can go up or down depending on what is purchased. Apple marks up their hardware. Duh. How else are they gonna get money for R&D? Oh wait, Apple's a company, just like everyone else. And they're all counting on the fact that if certain discounts are only available to certain select small markets (education, developer, volume and so on), they can benefit, although with an initial loss, and those certain customers can benefit as well. But the moment that half their customers take this route, they won't be so happy about it.
It's called an education discount for a reason. And I'm a college student, so I'm gonna use that discount cause it's useful, and I don't want some idiot going around telling people who normally wouldn't go for the discount cause it's edu only that Apple doesn't check or care most of the time so you should lie your way into getting a few bucks off of a laptop. (well, to be honest, not really if I had the alternate vastly superior choice of the developer hardware discount available, but you can't even sign up for the student adc membership if you can't provide proof, yay)
Telling people to do this is not the same as getting a discount some other way, via coupons or special promos or refurb. You're telling people that it's okay to lie to get a measly $50 off a MacBook, which isn't even relevant to the OP's issue.
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. It's irrational to expect Apple to be pro-consumer, but that money doesn't just line part of SJ's pockets, it goes to paying for the salaries of all the people who work to get this stuff to you from the executives to the software devs to the guys working in China to assemble and test them, for using during hard times or when there's a new product launch...Apple can do whatever they want and once it becomes uncomfortably unprofitable to keep giving good student discounts and promos, they will stop, be it with worthless discounts or no more summer deals like last year's free 2gb iPods. Not something that people who qualify and need such discounts wants to see happen because other people who didn't qualify believed it was okay to go and do this all they want by lying about it.
If $50 is such a big deal, go legit with refurbs.
That's not to mention you also agree to Apple's education store terms, which also include the nice tidbit about being charged the difference if they ever catch you. So if paying back the discount seriously makes a dent in your wallet, don't do it.
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/salespoliciesEdIndividual.html said:
AUDIT RIGHTS
Apple routinely audits the purchases of customers at the Apple Store for Education to insure that only eligible purchases have ordered and that all purchase conditions have been observed. Should an audit disclose after delivery (or should Apple otherwise discover) that you were not an eligible purchaser at the time you placed your order or that you have not observed all of the conditions applicable to your purchase, you authorize Apple:
- If you placed your order by credit card, to charge to your credit card the difference between the amount you paid for the delivered goods and the price that Apple charged the general public for the same goods at the Apple Store, in effect on the date that you placed your order; and
- If you paid by a means other than credit card, to (a) invoice you for the difference between the amount that you paid for the delivered goods and the price that Apple charged the general public for the same goods at the Apple Store, payable in fifteen days from the date of the invoice, and (b), should you fail to pay the invoice when due, institute legal action against you in a court of competent jurisdiction, with the prevailing party entitled to attorneys' fees.
- Should Apple not offer to the general public the specific products that you purchased at the Apple Store for education, your credit card will be charged or you will be invoiced the difference between the amount you paid for the delivered goods and the price that Apple charged the general public for the closest equivalent goods at the Apple Store, in effect on the date that you placed your order.
......and I was planning on using the educational discount since my mom works at one of the elementary schools in town. When does the discount start and end again? It seems like the date would be nearing for the end of this school year, I just really hope they update the MBPs before then!!! Ahhh!
