News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

February 28, 2008

hardware

Whither the “open-box” products?

Posted Feb. 28, ’08, 12:00 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar
Category | Hardware

openbox.jpgSo I’m at the Apple Store Bay Street in Emeryville, CA the other day, getting my iPhone earbuds replaced (the left channel decided that it was going on strike for some reason). While I waited, I asked if they had any “open-box” earbuds in case mine weren’t covered under warranty (it turned out that they were).

The friendly employee told me that not only did they not have any open-box earbuds, but that they had no open-box products of any kind, and that the Apple Stores had gotten rid of them something like six months ago.

How sad. The secret open-box sections were one of my favorite ways to get a good deal.

Maybe now I’ll just have to rely on my brother’s company discount—yes, he works at 1 Infinite L—aargh! [It appears Cyrus has been the victim of a paralyzing blowdart to the neck, courtesy of Apple Special Forces. We’re assured he will make a full recovery. -DM]

Anyone else try to go open-box recently?


3 Comments

Philippe said:

I've never heard of the open-box section but when I brought my used earbuds to the Apple store they just gave me new ones, basically no questios asked. Same with my friend's earbuds. The grey part around the edge was peeling a lot and the white part at the very end where you plug it in kept slipping, and I told them I didn't think I used them enough to cause that. The cut me off from my explanation and just said "one minute I'll get new ones" and just like that I got new earbuds worth 30 dollars!

So try that, if you still have your earbuds.

February 28, 2008 12:33 PM
krye said:

Yeh they call them "Fire Sales" right? I was in a store one weekend when they did it. They had a big roll out cart full of customer returns for up to 50% off. A lot of it was opened, but not even used. I got some iPod USB cables for $10.

February 28, 2008 1:24 PM
Josh Bryant said:

Yeah, same thing happened to me. I had gotten my last 2 MBPs this way and they were incredible deals. They were even cheaper than the refurb prices online and both times they were simple just returned machines ... absolutely nothing wrong with them.

2 weeks ago I was told that the open box items and fire sales had been discontinued. My guess is they were becoming too much of a hassle and too many people were always calling in and asking for things.

Besides, on machines anyway its more central and probably easier to send stuff back in and sell them through the online store.

Shame though.

February 28, 2008 5:04 PM

Leave a comment

 



IDG IDG NETWORK:   CIO   Computerworld   CSO   GamePro   GamerHelp   IDG Connect   Infoworld  
   JavaWorld   LinuxWorld   Macworld   Network World   PC World   PC World Canada   Playlist   Techworld