Apple Store REFUSED To Take Cash For iPad, Woman Says (VIDEO)

UPDATE: After hearing about this story, Apple stepped up and not only reversed their policy, they gave Diane Campbell an iPad -- for free. Click here for more.
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Diane Campbell saved up, bit by bit, the $600 required to buy an Apple iPad, but when she showed up at the store with a wad of cash to buy the tablet, she found she was out of luck.

Campbell recalls her visit to the Palo Alto Apple Store: "I had my cash in the backpack and I went up proudly to the counter and told them, 'I would like to purchase an iPad.'"

Apple's sales policy states that the iPad must be purchased by credit or debit card, according to ABC News. No plastic means no tablet, and the Apple employee turned Campbell away.

"They said, 'Sorry, we don't take cash.' And, so I looked at her and I said OK she's kidding," Campbell tells ABC News.

Although Apple did not respond to ABC News' request for an explanation, Campbell was told by an Apple Store employee that the plastic-only policy is intended to cut down on piracy--customers who buy vast numbers of iPads, in order to sell them overseas.

See ABC News' video report here.

Comments

[PartoftheParadox]

11:08 PM on 06/01/2010

I brought my couch and a mule in and was turned away at the door.

[dSco]

09:51 AM on 05/27/2010

i don't see why this is such a big deal, i mean, they would require a credit/debit card number anyways in order to charge you the monthly subscription fee...

[Mychaeltodd Robinson]

10:32 AM on 05/22/2010

I'm glad they handled this! I thought this was crazy! So now cash is'nt ant good in AMERICA!?

[PartoftheParadox]

11:09 PM on 06/01/2010

In many cases, yes sir. Have you ever tried to purchase something with cash on Amazon?

[MorpheusXNYC]

12:09 AM on 06/02/2010

Aww, come on. That's apples and oranges and you know it.

[elvis kovacic]

01:35 AM on 05/21/2010

I wanted to buy one by exchanging my 11 year old dog for one. They rejected me aswell. Whats the world coming to?

[elvis kovacic]

10:47 PM on 05/20/2010

You are kidding! I dont get it why she could not buy it for cash. I guess they lost a sale then hey? Good policy...yeh right!

[KickstandCat]

04:25 AM on 05/27/2010

Actually, it's just an example of "big brother" trying to keep an eye on us--or in this case "big brother's cousin".

With your credit card they can get ALL your information. Keep tabs on what your do.

I think we should do as this woman did and save up and pay cash unless there is an emergency. We are too free with our info.

Plus, look at the mess that credit cards have gotten a whole lot of people into. This mess then trickles down to the all of us, which is a side effect of "trickle down economics".

[Billy2]

01:37 PM on 05/20/2010

Yeah. I just tried to order a bunch of stuff through Amazon. They don't take cash either.

Am I free to call them evil? Are they doing something illegal? /sarcasm

[clsez]

04:52 PM on 05/20/2010

You are truly a dolt. I guess you see no spatial difference between ordering online and in store. Step slowly away from the computer Billy Bob

[Billy2]

05:57 PM on 05/20/2010

My point is (and I suppose you missed it, so I'll be clear), if you're going to argue (as it has been argued in these comments repeatedly) that cash is legal tender and must be accepted as payment for any purchase, that would have to include Amazon by definition.

The fact is, though, neither Amazon nor Apple nor any other retailer is required to accept cash. It's not because Amazon is on-line, or that they have a "spatial difference" as you call it.

If you can find any authority to back you up, post it. In the meantime, I'll rely on the Treasury Department's understanding about this.

So, who's the dolt?

[MPAndonee]

11:50 AM on 05/20/2010

I take everything back. Apple stepped up this time.

Although, it has to be said, pressure had to be applied.

[Kuuba]

10:44 AM on 05/20/2010

Doesn't she have a credit card?
In this day and age? Really?

[thaggas]

03:31 PM on 05/20/2010

Exactly. How does she plan to put apps on the iPad?

[Miltonjr]

03:37 PM on 05/20/2010

let me give you a little piece of info since you seem to have been pulling up your socks when the brains were being passed out. should there be a power outage, or a simple plc board glitch or even a solar flare in space, you dearly held plastic card will not work. that is why when there are impending weather disasters headed towards cities and towns many folks just use their plastic for the cold hard cash which is asked for. as a former manager of credit card division I should know.

[Kuuba]

07:23 PM on 05/22/2010

As Thaggas stated, how does she plan to get Apps then?
Cash as well?

[DrBlunt]

02:46 AM on 05/20/2010

Just Say No to "The Benjamins!"

I've heard it all!

[indiematrix]

02:27 AM on 05/20/2010

There's a more nefarious reason for using plastic. Apple staff are NOT going to turn away anyone with a non American credit card. What paying with a credit card does is make it TRACEABLE.
That way they can match the serial numbers, part numbers, IP address to credit card. Which means they can associate it with a person. Which means they can follow, detect or track the identity of any persons online activity.

THAT'S why they don't want cash.

[thaggas]

03:32 PM on 05/20/2010

It's not nefarious. They want to make sure that people aren't buying a pile of iPad and taking them overseas. That's all. It's Apple remember. Not Google.

[indiematrix]

05:24 PM on 05/20/2010

My apologiesi wasn't clear. I was not infering that apple was the company you had to be worrying about being able to trace your net activity and match your identity by matching credit card to your computer.

I was merely pointing out your privacy is compromised and if the government wanted to find out any and all activities then the fact they can match a credit card to the asset makes it extremely easy.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

02:22 AM on 05/20/2010

there needs to be an apple store open in Shaolin, that would of solved the problem cuz Cash rules everything around me C.R.E.A.M. get the money, dollar dollar bills y'all

[planetarywisdom]

02:13 AM on 05/20/2010

I WANT A FREE IPAD TO PERFORM THE GOLDFISH IPAD RADIATION TEST TONIGHT.
PLEASE SEND IMMEDIATELY while i am off to the goldfish store. will get three.....young, medium, and old......................see if they CAN SURVIVE A DAY OF IPAD RADIATION.

SEND IT NOW STEVE. WELL AM OFF TO GET THOSE GOLDFISH.

[planetarywisdom]

02:19 AM on 05/20/2010

IN THE MEANTIME hopefully the regulators in DC, like those who saved the LOUISIANA WETLANDS From Bp, are performing THE CANARY TESTS TODAY
TO
MEASURE.............................IF CANARY AGE is a variable IN
......................................................SURVIVING IPAD RADIATION

IT IS WELL KNOWN the young are particularly vulnerable to TOXIC STUFF,
.................................AND SINCED THE IPAD IS BASICALLY A CHILDS TOY
...........................................................THE WORLDS CHILDREN
....................................................ARE WAITING FOR NEWS FROM
..........................................................THE DC REGULATORS
........................................BECAUSE THIS IS A NEW ADMINISTRATION....YES WE CAN

[planetarywisdom]

02:22 AM on 05/20/2010

ANOTHER CHEAP AREA FOR IPAD RESEARCH QUA RADIATION
IS
THE SNAIL TEST..................can backyard snails survive ipad RADIATION

THEY HAVE BEEN AROUND LONG BEFORE US, AND THAT SHELL MIGHT HELP
BUT IF THEY DROP DEAD AFTER GETTING IPAD ZAPPED, WELL
................THIS COLD BE SOMETHING THAT LOWERS
...................MY CONFIDENCE ABOUT APPLE HAVING DONE THEIR..........................HOMEWORK....................AND THOSE REGULATOR TOO

[libluv235]

02:12 AM on 05/20/2010

Update: apple employees hand carried a free ipad to Diane Campbell today. Think a policy change coming as well. yay.

[CapsFan78]

02:03 AM on 05/20/2010

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/19/apple-axes-no-cash-policy-for-ipad-sales/

A national crisis averted. And the lady gets an iPad for free.

[1logicalthinker]

02:32 AM on 05/20/2010

Thanks for posting the link. It's a great story.

[miamivalleyjournal]

02:02 AM on 05/20/2010

Is there a national pay with cash day?