Re: Apple Computer

Alice Smithson (asmithso@eagle.esd189.wednet.edu)
Mon, 5 Feb 1996 23:50:25 EST

I have to agree with you. I have been hearing some interesting things
that apple has been doing with educators.I purchased my Performa much
cheaper through the local outlet than I could through their so-called
educator discounts. It's a good think I checked. It might have something
to do with the lag time on purchase orders, and I do feel that is
reasonable. I couldn't believe it when a complany told me they would not
handle purchase orders beause it can take up to 3 months to have it
paid. Is that unique to my district? Well, keep letting apple know that
you are displeased and are in a position to influence others. I also
heard that apple sold out. Is this true?

Alice Smithson
asmithso@eagle.esd189.wednet.edu
snohomish, WA

On Sun, 4 Feb 1996, Don Ross <dross@interramp.com> wrote:
> A recent posting from Terry Crane, Ed.D, Senior Vice President, Education,
> Apple America gave me the impetus to write what I have been putting off for
> some time. Before I go into my gripe with Apple, let me say that I've had a
> love affair with the Mac ever since I bought my first 128k many years ago.
> I always thought about what a great innovative company Apple was and how it
> cared about its customers, especially in the area of education. I am the
> District Director of Technology of a small public school district and we
> are of course a Mac school.
>
> A few months ago, I received a catalog from MacMall and noticed that they
> were having a closeout on some Macs (including color monitor and keyboard)
> at a great price. We've been paying almost $1600 for LC580s and these Macs
> were around $700 cheaper. OK, the hard drive was a little smaller, only 4
> mb of RAM and the CDROM was external and slower, but so what. My budget was
> getting low and I could buy almost 17 sets for the same price as 10 from my
> Apple. educational dealer.
>
> I called MacMall to verify that they had the equipment in stock and was
> told that they were not allowed to sell these items to a school. They could
> sell it to me as an individual but could not even deliver it to a school.
> Why not? Apple wouldn't let them. I was furious. Why should Apple not let
> their best customers save some money? I made some calls to Apple but only
> got the run-around. Frankly, it sounds illegal to me, but if it's not it
> certainly is not good business.
>
> I'm curious to know how any of you other Mac schools out there feel about
> my experience Apple's policies. My next years' budget calls for the
> purchase of 150 computers and I'm considering making 50 of them Intel-based
> with Win 95 or Win NT. If this is how Apple is going to treat its best
> market then it can't hurt to be multi-platform these days. Maybe they'll
> start getting the message.