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Should I Buy an Imac 27' from BestBuy?

G

gentleman00

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 8, 2007
416
124
OK, so I am thinking of purchasing the 27" imac. Bestbuy has an 18 month no interest credit card offer. Does it make a difference if I buy the imac from Bestbuy or from the Apple Store?

I am also thinking of asking for the student/teacher discount. Some have said that Bestbuy honors it. So I will ask if they would be willing to match Apple's educator discount or not.
 
Well.. I've had pretty bad experience with shopping at Best Buy in the past few years, and by that I mean, every single thing I have ever purchased was broken.

I bought 2 laptops from them, one of them had 4 dead pixels right when I started using it, they replaced that one, and the other one is still broken so I just don't use it.

The 1TB HDD I purchased was also defected, so had to get that replaced, twice.
Anyway the list just keeps going on and on.
But maybe it's just me.

So, realistically speaking it shouldn't make any difference. And I really don't know how Apple products are at Best Buy since I've bought everything at the Apple Store.

But if I were you I'd buy straight from the Apple store.
They also have some sort of no interest deals I think, you'd just have to ask the people at the store.

But if you do decide to go with anything from Best Buy, make sure there is nothing wrong with your iMac within a month, if you even see a tiny little problem, go straight to them and get it replaced. Because even if you're a day late, no one there cares.
 
I've bought Macs before at Best Buy. I don't have a problem with it. Even if your stuff breaks, as long as it's under warranty, Apple (or the Apple Store) will fix it, no problem. No need to go out of your way to an Apple Store if you're just making a purchase. I wouldn't get it worked on there, though.
 
mtnDewFTW said:
But if you do decide to go with anything from Best Buy, make sure there is nothing wrong with your iMac within a month, if you even see a tiny little problem, go straight to them and get it replaced. Because even if you're a day late, no one there cares.
Click to expand...

Apple computers have a one-year warranty, and no matter where it's purchased you can take it back to the Apple Store within a year to get fixed free of charge, 3 years if you bought Apple Care at Best Buy.
 
I'm probably going to purchase from the Apple store to avoid sales tax.

And if you take that BB credit card route, you better make your payments on time or get hit with late fees. I got a payment in a day late and had to pay thirty-something dollars more. And if it is not paid off on time, they have 20.99% interest.

I bought a LCD TV, PS3, and AV receiver that way, but I was always thinking about the credit card in the back of my mind.
 
Yes, credit card companies gamble with the hope that you miss a payment or fail to complete all the payments before the end of the special offer so could make a killing with the interest rates, fines, etc. You have to be on that of that or else...



Darl Bundren said:
I'm probably going to purchase from the Apple store to avoid sales tax.

And if you take that BB credit card route, you better make your payments on time or get hit with late fees. I got a payment in a day late and had to pay thirty-something dollars more. And if it is not paid off on time, they have 20.99% interest.

I bought a LCD TV, PS3, and AV receiver that way, but I was always thinking about the credit card in the back of my mind.
Click to expand...
 
For financing purposes, its a great deal.

I dont think Best Buy honors any Apple discount, but I could be wrong.

The warranty is the same from any authorized Apple Retailer
 
scottness said:
Apple computers have a one-year warranty, and no matter where it's purchased you can take it back to the Apple Store within a year to get fixed free of charge, 3 years if you bought Apple Care at Best Buy.
Click to expand...

you should be careful with that statement... the warranty is only valid if purchased from an authorized apple retailer. best buy, amazon, etc are authorized so you will get the warranty. If you buy it off ebay or some other shady small shop, they can deny your warranty.
 
Purchasing at Best Buy should be fine. I bought my MacBook Pro from them and it works great. I was even able to use Reward Zone coupons which lowered the price down drastically.
 
gentleman00 said:
OK, so I am thinking of purchasing the 27" imac. Bestbuy has an 18 month no interest credit card offer. Does it make a difference if I buy the imac from Bestbuy or from the Apple Store?
Click to expand...

As others have mentioned, there isn't a difference.

However, just curious why you're choosing to finance the purchase instead of paying straight with cash or opting for a cheaper model?
 
Its 18 months with no interest. So it is same as cash. Of course, the catch is making sure you pay your balance each month on time to avoid charges!


RexTraverse said:
As others have mentioned, there isn't a difference.

However, just curious why you're choosing to finance the purchase instead of paying straight with cash or opting for a cheaper model?
Click to expand...
 
gentleman00 said:
OK, so I am thinking of purchasing the 27" imac. Bestbuy has an 18 month no interest credit card offer. Does it make a difference if I buy the imac from Bestbuy or from the Apple Store?

I am also thinking of asking for the student/teacher discount. Some have said that Bestbuy honors it. So I will ask if they would be willing to match Apple's educator discount or not.
Click to expand...

I think you should just buy it from apple they have the barclay finance as well and in case you happen to get dead pixels or something like that I think apple would resolve the issues faster than bestbuy would. unless of course you're getting a better deal at bestbuy ;)
 
gentleman00 said:
Its 18 months with no interest. So it is same as cash. Of course, the catch is making sure you pay your balance each month on time to avoid charges!
Click to expand...

Meh. I say if you have the cash, and want to go the retail route, just go ahead and buy it straight from Apple. Buy online, save some cash.

But I'm pretty biased against Best Buy. Read too many Consumerist horror stories to give that company another dime.
 
I really hate BestBuy. I go there only to have lowest prices on video games, movies, etc...

For a computer? No way. Even if it's cheaper.
 
You only have 14 days...

You only have 14 days to return a laptop but not sure how many days you have on a desktop. While there are occasionally some decent folks in the geek squad my standing policy is to never let those neanderthals near my computers. :eek: Ever. I would buy the Applecare from Amazon and skip the Worstbuy extended warranty.
 
I don't care much about Bestbuy either, but here is the deal:

1. I live in Oregon and we don't pay sales taxes. So thats a savings of about a $150, give or take a few.

2. I asked if they honor and match Apple's educator's discount. They said yes. Thats another savings of $100

3. They have financing terms where they give you 18 months to pay for the computer with no interest ( same as cash).

4. If I have any problems with the computer after my purchase, I can call Apple directly since it comes with apple one year warranty. I wo't be needing to deal with BestBuy.

Juliet1186 said:
I think you should just buy it from apple they have the barclay finance as well and in case you happen to get dead pixels or something like that I think apple would resolve the issues faster than bestbuy would. unless of course you're getting a better deal at bestbuy ;)
Click to expand...
 
gentleman00 said:
I don't care much about Bestbuy either, but here is the deal:

1. I live in Oregon and we don't pay sales taxes. So thats a savings of about a $150, give or take a few.

2. I asked if they honor and match Apple's educator's discount. They said yes. Thats another savings of $100

3. They have financing terms where they give you 18 months to pay for the computer with no interest ( same as cash).

4. If I have any problems with the computer after my purchase, I can call Apple directly since it comes with apple one year warranty. I wo't be needing to deal with BestBuy.
Click to expand...

Well, it sounds like you've answered your own question. The only suggestion I would give is to make sure that Best Buy gives you the Educators discount on any add-ons that you may get. (extra RAM, etc.)

Bryan
 
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