Apple Pulls Plug on mini Test Drive
TMO Reports - Apple Pulls Plug on mini Test Drive
by , 7:00 AM EDT, September 1st, 2005
It appears Apple has discontinued its US Mac mini test drive deal, within 24 hours of initially launching it.
On Tuesday, the company launched a new program to entice people to the Mac platform called "Test drive a Mac mini." The program allowed users to purchase a new Mac mini, including an optional Apple keyboard or mouse, and use it for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, if the user is not satisfied with their Mac mini, they can return it, along with the mouse and keyboard, to Apple for a full refund.
"We're so confident you'll love your new Mac mini, we'll let you test drive it for 30 days with no risk. If you decide you don't want it, we'll take it back," Apple said.
For reasons which have not been disclosed, Apple withdrew the offer Wednesday night from its Web site and retail stores. A link to information is now re-directed to Apple's main online store.
Calls by The Mac Observer to three west coast Apple retail stores confirmed that the offer was no longer available, but sales staffers declined to provide further details. "All my manager told me was that the offer has been pulled," said one sales person at Apple's retail store in San Francisco. "I was given no reason, but I get the feeling (the offer) isn't coming back."
Observer Comments
My brother has been asking me to build him a new computer. I priced it out and showed him that it would be cheaper to get the top of the line Mac Mini (w/ Superdrive, 17" LCD, keyboard, mouse, etc). He's nearly convinced. I was positive that trying the Mac Mini on this program would remove all doubt from his mind.
Sucks it isn't available anymore.
- Jon
Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:08 am Subject: take it back, get a bigger one
I can't help but think there would be a significant amount of customers that would test drive the Mini (with the intention of test driving the whole Mac platform, not necessarily the Mini itself), then bring back the Mini for a refund which would then be applied to an iMac/iBook/PowerMac/PowerBook, etc.
NOT! <made ya read this .. tee hee>
Actually, I was just about to buy 10 of 'em and set up a node cluster for the fun of it for 25 days, then return 'em.
Oh, well.
*My views and/or actions are that of my own personal choice and do not necessarily reflect that of any other person, entity, organization, alien, or TMO reader.
I worked at an Apple dealership about 10 years ago when Apple tried this. It was a huge fiasco. That time they had a whole range of models you could try. We had people buying machines they couldn't afford and then returning them. The sales people would then lose their commission after having had to spend a good amount of time with these people. The store wasn't fully compensated for the returned systems, and couldn't resell them as new.
Doing it with just the mini makes more sense, and if it's just through Apple's own stores, they aren't screwing the independent dealers, but it cracks me up that they bailed on the program... Too much turn over in a company equals no institutional memory.
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