Apple’s recent $179 iPod rebate sounds too good to be true… and it isn’t. Read on to find out why.

Those of you who buy or own Apple computers have probably heard about the $179 iPod Mini rebate. The deal was that you would buy an Apple computer and an iPod Mini or a more expensive model, and you’d get a check for $179 to defray the cost of the iPod. Sounded too good to be true, didn’t it? Well, it’s not true. Here’s the truth.

You can get the rebate, IF you meet all of the conditions in the fine print. Read all of them if you’d like. Here’s the Student Union Rebate Form. Please read through the conditions as carefully as possible, and then try to remember all of them as if you were getting ready to make a purchase at the store or online. By looking at the sheer number of Terms and Conditions, does it seem like Apple wants you to jump through hoops, or what?

Let me tell you what happened to me. I purchased a PowerBook and a couple of iPods, not just one. They weren’t the cheap iPod Mini, but the photo iPods. I then got so excited about the rebate that I went out and bought a Mac Mini and an Apple Cinema HD 23″ display, because I wanted to replace my existing desktop PC with an Apple. Well, as I got ready to send in the rebate forms, something caught my eye: “QUALIFYING PRODUCTS: Apple iMac, iBook, PowerBook, or Power Mac purchases qualify for this order.” See if that’ll catch your eye in the fine print if you look at the actual form. I thought, surely this is for a good reason. They don’t want people to get the cheaper computers, like the Mac Mini, and still qualify for the rebate.

I reasoned to myself that I’m not getting a cheap computer, I’m getting a souped up Mini that was almost double the price of the base model, and an expensive monitor. I had also just purchased a PowerBook. Surely they’ll be understanding, right? The price of the Mac Mini and Cinema Display together is more than the price of an iMac, which was one of the qualifying models! Surely Apple will be [sic!] reasonable, right? Wrong! I gave the Rebate Center a call, and got the same answer from everyone: “We are not authorized to change the Terms and Conditions.” All reason aside, even if I was spending much more money on my purchase than the price of some of the other qualifying models, like the iBook, it didn’t matter! If that doesn’t burn you up, read on.

So, what do you think I did? Let me tell you what I did. Like a good Apple customer, I decided to try and play by the rules and to return my Mini and monitor, pay the shipping fees back - I didn’t open the shipping boxes, so I didn’t have to pay restocking fees - and buy a qualifying model, like the 20″ iMac. So, that’s what I did… Then I got my iMac. Sure, it was beautiful and I loved it at first sight - I still do - but I sure wish I could have used it right out of the box! Apple sent me a Spanish keyboard and instruction manuals! I had to wait 1 1/2 weeks for the keyboard and I was still waiting for the manuals a month later… I had to put in a call to request the manual a second time, and instead of getting a nice, printed one, I got a cheap, photocopied one… But let’s not get derailed from the main issue, shall we?

This time I got my rebate forms together, filled them out completely, and made sure everything was in order. I mailed them out, not by ordinary mail, but by Priority Mail. I wanted to make sure they got there! They sure did, but did it do me any good? No! Weeks later, I get a “lovely” letter from Apple, telling me that they’re missing information. Apparently they needed copies of the receipts for both the computers and the iPods. I faxed them and waited another 1 1/2 weeks, only to get another letter. This one told me outright that I “didn’t qualify”!

Why? Apparently, buried somewhere in the find print, is the following line: “You must purchase all qualifying Apple products at the same time on the same sales receipt to be eligible for the mail-in rebate.” Please try to find that line yourselves on the actual rebate form. Having a hard time? That’s the idea! Can you believe it? Not only do you have to purchase the two at the same date and time, but they have to be on the same sales receipt! What if you find out about the rebate after you get the computer? You go back, get the iPod, and then it’s “tough luck to you buddy, thanks for buying Apple”? How incredibly rude!

I called the Rebate Center again, and again I got the same reply. “We are not authorized to change the terms and conditions.” That’s a curious answer, isn’t it, when right on the rebate form, it states, and I quote: “Apple reserves the right to change without notice the Terms and Conditions, or end the offer at any time, modify the offer, or end the offer early by publishing revised terms and conditions without notice.” I told the Rebate Center employees I spoke with (and I even spoke with one of the managers), that it’s not reasonable to expect the customer to jump through hoops like this, because it makes it very obvious that you don’t want to pay the rebates when you do that. Did they care? No. Does it feel like a dirty trick? Yes, it does, and Apple doesn’t care one bit.

I wonder how many more customers got suckered into this scam… Apple basically wanted to get rid of its iPod Mini inventory before it rolled out the Nanos. What a shame that they resorted to such tactics! To promise non-existent rebates, that would materialize only if a myriad conditions were met, was a very sneaky thing to do. I would expect this from a used-car salesman, but not from Apple!

This whole thing is just as disgusting as the recent problems with the iPod Nano, which Apple is denying. You know the stories: the screen scratches very easily. I can personally attest to it. I went to the Apple Store two days after the launching of the Nano, and the screens on the display models were scratched beyond belief. Then, when I started hearing from other folks, it clicked. I can also tell you that the screen on the photo iPod (the regular one) scratches very easily as well. I keep mine in its Apple-designed clip case all of the time, and yet somehow the screen still managed to get a nasty diagonal scratch as I was pulling it out one day. I don’t know what scratched it like that. The best explanation I can come up with is that a particle of dust (which I couldn’t see even though I looked inside the case very carefully) must have gotten caught in between the screen and the interior wall of the case, making the scratch as I pulled out the iPod. I can tell you that it’s hard to watch the screen when it’s even a little scratched. My scratch is hair thin, and it distorts the pixels that are displayed under it. This is a real problem, and Apple is denying it shamelessly. They used a plastic that’s too easily scratched on the screen cover, and instead of fixing the problem, they’re pretending it doesn’t exist. Why in the world can’t they make the screen surface scratch resistant, like a watch face? I would pay extra for it, if only it would cut down on the scratches. But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

You know, I had an Apple in college, a PowerBook 150, and I loved it. I then used Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 and XP for years. Not ever did I have an experience like this with a PC product. I recently decided to switch back to Apple, because I couldn’t resist the amazing hardware design and OS X capabilities. But this kind of customer experience pulls a black curtain over all of the positives, and serves only to undermine Apple reputation. It’s hard for me to understand how Apple hopes to deal with this sort of thing in the long-term. Do they just hope customers will forget the bad experiences?

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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