I picked up my iMac at the store on Friday. I attempted to return/rebuy it, but was unsuccessful. The two employees who helped me were very nice and sympathetic, but they were unable to find a way to make it work.
I first told the employee who brought out my iMac that I needed to return and rebuy it with Apple Pay for the Discover cash back deal. She immediately said that couldn't be done because they have no way to enter a BTO order into their system. I'm sure that's true, but it's clear from this thread that there are ways around this. However I could tell right away that she wasn't going to try to find a way around it.
I politely mentioned that I had seen that other people were able to do this, so there must be a way. She got someone else to help check (not sure if he was a manager or not) - they went to the back to talk to someone in inventory for 10 minutes, but ultimately came back and said it couldn't be done. I could tell that both of them were not "problem solvers" - once they hit the first roadblock, it was over; not possible.
The first employee did suggest that I call back in a few days when a senior manager was there, and maybe I'd have better luck. I didn't want to keep pressing it further, so I thanked them for checking and brought home my new iMac. I don't know whether I'll bother retrying since I did get cash back on a good portion of the price. The main advantage would be for Discover's 1-year warranty extension; not sure if they'd provide coverage with my current payment situation.
Ultimately, I think for this to work, you do need to find an employee who is a problem solver. And unfortunately that's mostly the luck of the draw. You can ask to escalate, but even at higher levels, I can see some managers simply saying "sorry, we can't do that" and staying firm.
I first told the employee who brought out my iMac that I needed to return and rebuy it with Apple Pay for the Discover cash back deal. She immediately said that couldn't be done because they have no way to enter a BTO order into their system. I'm sure that's true, but it's clear from this thread that there are ways around this. However I could tell right away that she wasn't going to try to find a way around it.
I politely mentioned that I had seen that other people were able to do this, so there must be a way. She got someone else to help check (not sure if he was a manager or not) - they went to the back to talk to someone in inventory for 10 minutes, but ultimately came back and said it couldn't be done. I could tell that both of them were not "problem solvers" - once they hit the first roadblock, it was over; not possible.
The first employee did suggest that I call back in a few days when a senior manager was there, and maybe I'd have better luck. I didn't want to keep pressing it further, so I thanked them for checking and brought home my new iMac. I don't know whether I'll bother retrying since I did get cash back on a good portion of the price. The main advantage would be for Discover's 1-year warranty extension; not sure if they'd provide coverage with my current payment situation.
Ultimately, I think for this to work, you do need to find an employee who is a problem solver. And unfortunately that's mostly the luck of the draw. You can ask to escalate, but even at higher levels, I can see some managers simply saying "sorry, we can't do that" and staying firm.
