Apple criticised for download costs
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Apple computer is facing an inquiry by the Office of Fair Trading after it was criticised for selling music downloads to UK customers at higher prices than in other European countries.
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When I got back from Europe my black MacBook wouldn't boot, it just sat there with a disk icon and a flashing question mark. So I made an appointment at the Apple store in Emeryville to have it looked at. When I got there, there was no wait, they were calling my name. The repair guy opened the Mac, took out the disk, went into the back room, and came back saying the disk was bad, I'd need a new one. How much? $160. How large? 80GB. I've been buying disks lately, I bought a 500GB disk for $150 a few weeks ago, and just bought a 1TB disk for $280. So I knew that $160 for 80GB, even in a portable form factor, was probably a ripoff, but I figured here I am now, I can get the computer working, so I said OK and shrugged it off. The new disk went in, I signed a form, and was about to leave and asked for the old disk and the clerk said it was his not mine. They were going to send it back to the manufacturer. I figured it would be refurbished and sold cheap to someone in a third world country. Little did I suspect.  He got his supervisor. She insisted that the drive belonged to Apple, even though I had paid an inflated price to buy a new one. She showed me the language on the reverse side of the form I signed. It was even worse than she had said. There was no guarantee that the drive they had just put in my Mac was new! It might have been someone else's defective drive. I said it was outrageous. I grabbed a copy of the agreement and left.  I scanned the agreement, highlighting section 4, the part the store manager cited. Now there are a lot of speeches I could give. Here are a few. 1. I buy Macs knowing they're more expensive, but I expect to be treated better. I drive a BMW for the same reason. Luckily there's Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, et al to keep BMW customer service in top form (which it has been so far, I'm on my fourth BMW). I always say this -- Apple service is outstanding when you buy something, but it falls down, often, when you need it fixed. Not always, but often. 2. There are consumer protection laws that require auto repair shops to offer you the old parts. Why doesn't that apply to computer repairs? Or maybe it does. 3. Apple prices are ripoffs, but this is an unusually heinous ripoff. To charge such inflated prices for used parts, they should have some shame. 4. They don't seem to have any fallback when there's a dissatisfied customer. As an Apple shareholder, I think it would work better if store personnel felt they were guardians of the company's reputation. Consider for a moment that you are ripping off the customer. What tools can you offer the sales person to make good with the customer? Could you let the customers who object take their drives home? Could you offer a discount coupon on the next purchase, or free premium support for a year? That they let me walk out of the store, a person who spends thousands of dollars with Apple, feeling like I had been abused, says they haven't got all the glitches out of their retail process.  5. Falling back on the fine print is really lame. I think they should tell you up front, before they do the work, that you're not getting the old drive back. What if the data on the drive can be recovered? What if there are credit card numbers and other personal information on the drive? Source code? Trade secrets? Does Apple really want to treat their customers privacy so shabbily? For what? Don't they already make enough money off the $160 price for the new disk? It's amazing that a company can make it this far, having such special customers, and rarely if ever acknowledging it.
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Why is the Microsoft OS so much more expensive in the United Kingdom than in the United States? More than 1,250 Brits are angry.
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What consumers and companies should have learned from the recent Apple iPhone price cuts and subsequent backlash.
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Instead of &quot;Think Different&quot;, perhaps Apple&#39;s slogan should be &quot;Price Different&quot;, says a group of disgruntled UK music fans.
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Business & money: Apple is understood to be demanding a significant proportion of revenues generated by the iPhone and restrictions on content that users can access.
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An old-fashioned price war is gearing up in the digital music download business, with RealNetworks (Quote, Chart) on the offensive. With rival Apple in its crosshairs, RealNetworks has slashed the price on songs sold from its RealPlayer store by 50 ...
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Heads off EC investigation The European Commission has ended its antitrust investigation into Apple after the computing giant agreed to cut the price UK consumers pay to download music for their iPods.â¦
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A consumer&#39;s group said Wednesday it has complained to government regulators about the cost of downloading music from Apple&#39;s iTunes system.
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- Apple Inc.  said it launched iTunes  Plus, a digital rights management-free music download service,  for $1.29 per song.
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A watchdog group asks a consumer-protection agency to look into the higher price of songs on Apple's British version of its iTunes service. Wendy M. Grossman reports from London.
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With the release of the new iMacs, writes Peter Lewis for CNNMoney.com, &#147;Apple is making applesauce out of the old canard that Macs are a lot more expensive than Windows computers.&#148;
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The controversy around Apple's iPhone price cuts seems suspiciously calculated.
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The OFT refers Apple's iTunes to the European Commission on the grounds that it over-charges UK customers.
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The Consumer Association has today complained to the UKâs Office of Fair Trading that downloading tracks from Appleâs iTunes costs UK consumers more than their counterparts in France and Germany.
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Affordable for the holidays, or cheaper to boost sales? Analysts were divided on the true meaning of Apple's $200 price drop for the 8GB iPhone, but a number of consumers were more focused on having just paid 50 percent more than today's new price for their fancy gadget.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Apple Inc. will scrap its iTunes pricing policies across Europe and charge consumers in Britain and the rest of Europe the same for music downloads, the company and the European Union said Wednesday.