Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Chopper · Nov 20, 2003, 07:17 PM

As the subject says, I'm going to be buying an iBook (my first apple product too).

Is there any advantage to buying from the Apple.com site over going to an Apple store?

d4nth3m4n · Nov 20, 2003, 07:44 PM

built to order from the online version. the apple stores (afaik) sell only pre setup machines. i wouldnt reccommend buying ram from apple ($$$$$$) but if you want bluetooth onboard i think BTO is the only way to go. sometimes there are deals on the site (legacy ibooks... 800s and 900 g3s.) but past that the prices should be comparable.

i guess you save the shipping costs if you buy from a physical store.

chabig · Nov 20, 2003, 08:08 PM

Store=immediate delivery.
Online=delayed delivery.

If you qualify for education or government discounts, you have to buy online. Forget the store.

But if you don't qualify for those discounts, the online store can sometimes be cheaper than the retail store. The area in which I live has lower sales tax than the retail store nearby. So if I buy online I save on taxes.

Chris

discotronic · Nov 20, 2003, 08:13 PM

Originally posted by chabig:

If you qualify for education or government discounts, you have to buy online. Forget the store.

I used my education discount on my iMac at the Apple Store. Has the policy has changed in the last few months? I couldn't purchase Panther with the education discount at the actual store because it was an online discount only.

chabig · Nov 20, 2003, 08:17 PM

If you used an education discount at the store, then I was wrong. Sorry if I caused any confusion.

Chris

Cadaver · Nov 21, 2003, 01:00 AM

You can use an education discount at any Apple Store to buy hardware (must show appropriate ID). The Stores, however, do not give education discounts on software. Often, the education version of a product is different (even if its only a sticker on the box or the EULA). The Stores do not stock the education versions of software (even edu "versions" of MacOS X 10.3).

As an example of the above, my education version of Photoshop 7 says "Educational Version - for academic use only" on the splash-screen graphic, and has an "academic version" label printed on the box.

If you want edu prices on Apple (or third party) software, you must order on-line or from a school bookstore, through school IT departments, etc.

cobra27 · Nov 21, 2003, 07:19 AM

Originally posted by chabig:
If you used an education discount at the store, then I was wrong. Sorry if I caused any confusion.

Chris

I guess you are partially right. I live in Singapore, where there are 3 Apple Stores. But none of them give education discount. In the end, I had to go online to get my discounted PB.

I guess the discount policy varies from Apple Store to Apple Store, but one thing is for sure, that is they all take the online price as the baseline price!

garetjax · Nov 21, 2003, 09:33 PM

Have you seen or handled the new ibook yet? If not, go to the store and buy it. Get it online if you plan on BTO options. Here in California shipping is free, so the final price is the same.

Or you could buy it from smalldog or maczones minus the sales tax.

GJ

Gorilla · Nov 29, 2003, 04:05 PM

Originally posted by cobra27:
I guess you are partially right. I live in Singapore, where there are 3 Apple Stores. But none of them give education discount. In the end, I had to go online to get my discounted PB.

I guess the discount policy varies from Apple Store to Apple Store, but one thing is for sure, that is they all take the online price as the baseline price!

Sorry, this is completely off-topic, but didn't the first overseas Apple store just open in Japan?

Maybe, that's why you're not getting the edu discount.

Kelly Rothenber · Nov 30, 2003, 11:26 AM

I'm going to the Apple Store in Atlanta this Friday. I recently bought a G4 iBook but sent it back to Macconnection because of the monitor was messing up. I believe that if you buy directly from Apple you can return it within ten days, right? Does it mean that if I don't like it I can just return it, or not?

Also, if I add memory and an Airport card to it (either by doing it myself or allowing the Apple store to do it), does it mean that I cannot return it then?

I've been using Apple for over twenty years, but when I bought one this last time I was a little concerned becaused of the screen and of the heat (my key lime iBook doesn't emmit heat).

Just curious. Thanks!

--Kelly