I finally decided that I had the financial ability to buy an iPhone, and decided to “reward” myself with one. Well, today I went to my local Apple store, with my 450 dollars for the iPhone, and after talking with an Apple rep for about five minutes I settled on the phone and a few other accessories. We went to checkout and he rang me up and then asked for a credit card. I said I do not have a credit card, only cash, and handed him to 450 dollars. He then told me that I could not buy the iPhone, unless I had a credit card, due to a new policy. I then asked why because cash does the same thing as credit cards, if I have the money why shouldn’t I be able to buy it? Apparently Apple thinks people like me plan on reselling the iPhone.

Let me just say, that as a college student, I truly love Apple Products, but had some credit troubles so I canceled all my credit cards and plan on using only cash for the forseeable future. I work a full time job and save as much money as I possibly can, and was really looking forward to my little treat of an iPhone, but I am now forced to leave empty handed. I hope Apple can understand that not all people have credit cards to use, or plan on selling the iPhone we buy with cash. Finally, I just wanted to let Apple know they have lost me as a customer, not only for the iPhone, but also for any Macs I had been thinking about buying (and I had seriously been thinking about a macbook now that Leopard has come out). I also passed on my experience onto my family and friends (many of which do not have credit cards either).

Hopely a policy change will come soon, and maybe, just maybe I’ll think about giving them another look.

[tags]iPhone, Apple, Store, policy, cash, credit[/tags]