Apple Rejects Cold, Hard Cash at its Own Stores
Physical money isn't good enough to buy an iPad.
The iPad is opening up computing possibilities for many other non-traditional users, such as dogs, cats and even those nearing 100 years old.
Diane Campbell, who is disabled and on a fixed income, wishes to go onto YouTube to learn some new songs to play on her guitar. Instead of getting a computer, she's been saving up for an iPad. Slowly she saved up $600 in cash and proceeded to the Apple Store in Palo Alto, Calif.
"It took quite a long time for me to just save up this small amount of money to go down and purchase one," she said to ABC local station KGO. "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.'"
To her surprise, the Apple store workers told her that cash wasn't a suitable form of payment for the iPad.
"They said, 'Sorry, we don't take cash.' And, so I looked at her and I said OK she's kidding," Campbell recalled. But Apple wasn't kidding, and she wasn't allowed to purchase an iPad without plastic.
The ABC station contacted Apple and was told that the policy is "a limit of two iPads per customer and you must pay by credit or debit card. Gift cards will not work either."
Apple declined to explain its policies, but store workers said it was to curb grey market sales of customers buying iPads in large quantities and selling them overseas at a profit.
Despite cash being "legal tender," the U.S. Treasury Department says that there is nothing in the law that requires businesses to accept cash as payment.
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Is this Apple's next step in ensuring everyone adheres to Apple's preferred standards? Steve Job's is dreaming of a future with no Flash, no porn, no stores except Apple's own, and apparently no cash either!
If all she wanted was to use youtube to learn some more guitar songs, there are plenty of stores who would have been more than happy to take her money for a different, more suitable product. One that - oh I dunno - lets you place it so the screen is at an angle you can actually see while holding a guitar. Rather than having to put it on the floor, or nail it to a wall.
And oh yeah, they'd be happy to take a bit LESS than 600 dollars, too. There you go Diane, an extra 200 dollars towards a new guitar or something.
Oh sorry, what's that? You specifically want an ipad because it's a highly-publicized fad and you want to appear cool in front of your friends? I'm afraid in that case you deserve everything you get and will find no sympathy from us here at TH.
It's funny how some of the comments people post on here are similar to comments on /b/
This is old news. Apple did this in the early days of the iPhone to curb the grey market nonsense. The policy will change once the iPad stock is freely flowing all over the world as it did with the iPhone.
The woman is lucky she didn't get mugged. What was wrong with depositing the cash in her bank and then using her bank debit card to pay for it? Do you guys have Debit cards?
LMFAO Yeah right, buy an ipad and watch videos for guitar lessons on youtube
good luck with that, being as youtube is a flash based site 
If they wont take cash then they wont mind when people take their wares for free imo.
I don't know how things are in America, but in most European countries a store is forced to accept cash, no matter for what product or in what quantity. Accepting credit cards and other virtual payment forms are completely optional. How can cash, being legal tender, not be a valid form of payment?
Apple clearly doesn't live in our world...
more to the point apple dont get your info with cash like thay would with a debit card
im confused... how does paying with cash allow you to sell at a profit will using plastic doesnt allow you to?
What if she had been Jobb's own mother?
All the more reason not to get the Pad.
im with the poster above what's the big deal about using a debit card? why don't you put your savings in a *gasp* savings account? it will save you from being robbed or losing your money stupidly. my mother once lost 200 dollars that she kept carrying around with her. i've never lost a dime cause its all in an account. and why you need you tube to learn how toplay guitar in the first place is not registering with me. so you're saying that you're gonna be holding the ipad in one hand while you play guitar which requires two? oh no prop it up with a pillow, that will make it less awkward. how about you hire a good instructor with a fraction of those 600 dollars and actually LEARN something. kinda makes you wonder how much she spent on the guitar itself.
I hope this woman comes to her senses and buys a cheap Windows laptop.
im with the poster above what's the big deal about using a debit card? why don't you put your savings in a *gasp* savings account? it will save you from being robbed or losing your money stupidly. my mother once lost 200 dollars that she kept carrying around with her. i've never lost a dime cause its all in an account. and why you need you tube to learn how toplay guitar in the first place is not registering with me. so you're saying that you're gonna be holding the ipad in one hand while you play guitar which requires two? oh no prop it up with a pillow, that will make it less awkward. how about you hire a good instructor with a fraction of those 600 dollars and actually LEARN something. kinda makes you wonder how much she spent on the guitar itself.
I doubt she purely did it for the guitar lessons. She wanted to buy the iPad as a replacement for a computer (a stupid idea, but still...) and I strongly doubt she would ONLY use it for that guitar course of hers.
Although for $600 you can get a nice budget desktop that will be so much better than the iUselessPieceOfJunk...
Doesnt everyone have a debit card from their bank? Everyone in Canada does lol. It makes sense to keep people from buying 100s and selling them on ebay. Also it reduces robberies since there is little cash on hand possibly.
The bank notes here say the words "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of five [ten/twenty/fifty] pounds".
Simple.
Maybe they just didn't want to have to go to the trouble of paying the money into the bank? Still, waydago Apple for turning away paying customers.
It's funny how some of the comments people post on here are similar to comments on /b/
Wait, you don't know that /b/ is everywhere nowadays? I say nowadays its been everywhere for years, just people didn't know it was.
Why oh why do you insist on doing business with a company whose business practices you do not like. It is their business and it is their rules. I say good going Apple. Why should they keep cash in their store? It is actually a security risk to keep cash.
I didnt realise the US economy was doing so well that they would actually want to stop customers buying things. I guess the news coming from there isnt true then? Wasnt relying on credit cards a part (albeit small) of what caused the problem. Additionally, many people still have trouble getting a reasonable deal on credit or debit cards. Companies should not be free to make rules that effect economic conditions like this.
Why oh why do you insist on doing business with a company whose business practices you do not like. It is their business and it is their rules. I say good going Apple. Why should they keep cash in their store? It is actually a security risk to keep cash.
Yeah because credit card fraud isnt a global problem either. DO you know the difference in the risk assesment between credits cards and cash. If you did you might not have made such a pointless observation. I agree with you that people shouldnt do business with companies whose business practises they dont like though.