WHAT IS WRONG WITH CASH?
Apple doesn’t want your cash any more. Sounds rather odd to me, since I was under the impression that the objective of business was to sell a product or service in exchange for money. But the Jobs squad have decided I can’t take bonafide American folding money and buy one of their iPhones with it. They only want my plastic.
What if I don’t WANT to use my debit or credit card? What if I want to plunk down Washingtons and Lincolns and Hamiltons and Franklins instead? And would the Apple store folks, who know me from my recent repair episode, really look me in the eye and watch my $1,000+ walk out the door? Not taking cash seems downright un-American.
I understand Apple’s overall goal – making sure that black market sellers don’t hog all the iPhones. It’s an admirable undertaking. The process Apple came up with to ensure “one for all” was to limit each sale to only two iPhones and to demand a debit/credit card for the transaction. Exactly the kind of process a table full of business people might come up with.
But let’s look at the big picture. What are they doing by this “2 with Plastic” decree? Has Apple hired iPhone police to go through all the transactions in hopes of enforcing their rules?
Come on, people. Black market wholesalers don’t play by no stinkin’ rules. If they want to purchase 50 iPhones, they’ll just manufacture fake cards and REALLY rip off the company.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been denied a cash transaction at a big company. A few years back, on my way home from the gym, I dropped by a FedEx office in Sarasota, FL armed with the outgoing letter and a $20 bill. But the fine folks at FedEx wouldn’t take the cash. My negotiating skills failed, as did my logic lecture and I left with the $20 and the letter, confused and feeling like I had survived surrealism brought to life.
Did anybody get the email about cash being passé? I must have been counting my money.
