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thinking of ordering macbook off amazon

M

mrweirdo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 21, 2005
370
0
well I'm thinking about ordering my macbook off amazon.com mainly because of the fact that there is no california sales tax and computer recycling fee which tacks on $92.03 to my order directly from apple :/

The only problem is I'm afraid that if i do so I might not get it buy june 30th the day I leave for vacation an entire week. I noticed that amazon says ships Usually ships in 1 to 2 weeks. But one added benifit of ordering off amazon is the $100 rebate they are curently offering.


If i order from apple using my student discount my total purchase price is $1202.03 USD
- white 1.83ghz macbook
- apple mini-dvi to dvi adapter
- apple usb modem
est ship 1-5 buisness days

ordering from amazon it comes to $1,167.76 USD + $100 mail in rebate marking the total cost $1,000.76
- white 1.83ghz macbook
- apple mini-dvi to dvi adapter
- apple usb modem
est ship 5-9 business days asumed added ontop of the other ship wait?

Any thoughts of what i should do since i need it by june 30th? also if i buy from amazon does it still include the 1 year warrenty from apple? I may purchase apple care later on budget allowing.
 
I would order from Amazon, but don't take their free shipping. Choose one of their expedited shipping times and you might get it faster as they will que you up higher (or so reported.) You might qualify for their free 3 month amazon prime thing also, it should offer it to you at checkout if you are.

Yes you still get the standard Apple warranty as well. No problems there.
 
I'd order it from Apple to take advantage of their education special where you can get a iPod nano for free after rebate. I'd then sell the nano (You'll be able to easily get $150 or more for it).

So, $1202.03 USD - $150 (iPod nano) = $1052.03 plus tax for the nano, postage to send in rebate, time to send in rebate, etc.
 
hrm... well I plan to order this weekend and I seriously doubt now that amazon will be able to get it to me in time. I wonder if I ordered from Apple and had it shipped to my cousins apartment in Reno, Nevada that I could get around the sales tax ordering from apple. Then go pick it up when I leave in july(going to lake tahoe) Only thing is I dont know if they charge tax by ordering address on CC or by shipping address.

thats a good idea about getting the nano. Well I kinda owe my sister an mp3 player anyways since I stole her creative zen micro :D and i think her being a complete n00b with technology it would be best that i get her an ipod instead of anouther zen. she could barely figure out how to use the zen.

I personaly prefer the zen over the ipod nano because of its size 5gb vs 2gb and the fact that it has a removable battery. Then I dont even use software when transfering mp3s to the player just drag and drop :)
 
You're not going to save much on sales tax shipping to Reno -- I just googled it and the total sales tax there is 7.375 percent or something like that. Apple collects all the state and municipal taxes for mail order; the only ones they miss are things like transit system sales taxes and other small surcharges.
 
hrm didnt know they had sales tax there. The last time I was in nevada a couple of years ago there werent any sales taxes at all. That was fallon though a small town out in the middle of the desert lol.
 
Dont forget, when you buy from Apple, you also get a free ipod...


if you dont want it, you can always sell it for cash. I seen quite a few of them sell at the marketplace. that can cover the tax and more.
 
Remember, California is culling credit card databases to look for people trying to get around the sales and income taxes.

While the chances of you getting nailed is small, it is entirely possible you can get whacked upside the head with it.

---

And never really count on rebates ... they are sort of like flipping a multisided coin.
 
Sun Baked said:
Remember, California is culling credit card databases to look for people trying to get around the sales and income taxes.

While the chances of you getting nailed is small, it is entirely possible you can get whacked upside the head with it.
Click to expand...

weird then I wonder why amazon isnt charging sales tax to california. You would have to think lots of people living here order stuff from amazon all the time and they would have pressure against them by the state to charge taxes.
 
mrweirdo said:
weird then I wonder why amazon isnt charging sales tax to california. You would have to think lots of people living here order stuff from amazon all the time and they would have pressure against them by the state to charge taxes.
Click to expand...
Remember, CA updated the forms -- to add the USE TAX (or something similar) as a line item to the CA state tax form.

You've owed it, for quite awhile, but you had to hunt it down before to pay it -- for a long time they usually nailed people buying cars.

Now you are required to self report taxes you owe for purchases of stuff from out of state on your CA Taxes.

http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/faqusetax.htm#9

Edit: Chances of getting caught in another state, low. California it is a bit higher ... California is leading the nation in searching for tax scofflaws, by a big margin. Probably still low, but getting higher every year as they look at internet purchases for revenue.
 
hrm no matter anyways looks like I have no choice but to purchase from apple as amazon is out of stock.
 
Maybe someone can help me with this question:

If I buy the macbook with amazon.com, the rebate check will be send to billing address or shipping address?
 
The amazon rebates are sweet, They are 100% online and it took me 3 minutes to submit it and they even provide you with a tracking number!
 
catracho said:
Maybe someone can help me with this question:

If I buy the macbook with amazon.com, the rebate check will be send to billing address or shipping address?
Click to expand...


hrm the rebate guide i printed out doesnt say. I bet it gos by the address you submit with on the rebate form. However i found this interesting piece of info "Products claimed for rebate redemption are not reurnable to Amazon.com" and with all these issues of occasional mooing macbooks I'm not sure sure if its a wise idea to order off amazon because then you cant send it back if you submit the rebate only to find your macbook acting up the next day.
 
If Amazon is sold out .. and there is a shift in delivery dates from Apple.

Either they are severely backordered at Apple, or it signals a speedbump.
 
apple has actualy gone down in its shipping times recently. Its now 1-3 days instead of 1-5. I'm guessing that amazon probably ordered a limited supply of 1.83ghz model from apple under estimating how many the current rebate offer would sale and ran out of stock for the time being.

Side note when I was checking out the macbook at compusa some woman was asking the apple rep if any other stores in the area had the macbook availible and his response was non of the stores in all of Northern California have any in stock because of high demand. Then he sugested that she order on the apple site since they ship directly from china as soon as they are done being manufactured.

Something tells me that apple puts the direct purchasers that use the site ahead of people who buy from the stores or third party retailers. They sale first to the direct purchasers online then if there are any extras left over they go into the retail pool.

These little guys are hot sellers ;)
 
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