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Unfortunately you must either use a credit card or leave empty-handed; Apple stores don't accept cash on these high-demand items in order to enforce this very p

Unfortunately you must either use a credit card or leave empty-handed; Apple stores don't accept cash on these high-demand items in order to enforce this very policy. IIRC this was instituted some time after the launch of the original iPhone. That said, enforcement is at least a little spotty. There are reports of Apple Store employees helping customers circumvent the no-cash policy by taking the cash for a gift card, and immediately accepting the gift card for the original merchandise. In the other direction, there are also reports of purchases with gift cards being denied for the same reason as cash.

piguy314 16y ago
I wonder if they would accept a pre-paid credit card at the Apple store. These technically use the credit network the same as a regular credit card...
alextingle 16y ago
They refuse cash?? WTF. Is that even legal?
billswift 16y ago
I wonder if that is even legal. I thought the legal tender laws required anyone to accept cash as payment for any debt.
- riffic 16y ago
  debt.
  - eru 16y ago
    I guess you can pretend to pay with a credit card, then cancel the transaction (or something). Since you have the product now, you have a debt with them, and could pay them with cash. Of course, in theory they could counter that by having an artificial hight price (say a few millions), but give you a discount (down to the normal price) if you pay with a credit card. This way you wouldn't want to pay cash.
jacquesm 16y ago
Interesting. There are lots of people that do not have a credit card and that do not want one. It's a pretty bad policy if you have to go so far as to enforce it by making your customers pay in a way that is more expensive to them than paying in cash.
jonknee 16y ago
I paid cash for my iPhone and they did the gift card thing. I did some reading later and surprisingly it is legal to not accept cash: http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.s...

piguy314 16y ago

I wonder if they would accept a pre-paid credit card at the Apple store. These technically use the credit network the same as a regular credit card...

alextingle 16y ago

They refuse cash?? WTF. Is that even legal?

billswift 16y ago

I wonder if that is even legal. I thought the legal tender laws required anyone to accept cash as payment for any debt.

riffic 16y ago
debt.
- eru 16y ago
  I guess you can pretend to pay with a credit card, then cancel the transaction (or something). Since you have the product now, you have a debt with them, and could pay them with cash. Of course, in theory they could counter that by having an artificial hight price (say a few millions), but give you a discount (down to the normal price) if you pay with a credit card. This way you wouldn't want to pay cash.

jacquesm 16y ago

Interesting. There are lots of people that do not have a credit card and that do not want one. It's a pretty bad policy if you have to go so far as to enforce it by making your customers pay in a way that is more expensive to them than paying in cash.

jonknee 16y ago

I paid cash for my iPhone and they did the gift card thing. I did some reading later and surprisingly it is legal to not accept cash: http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.s...