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Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

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Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#241
post #207

I am an Indian. I can attest that a lot indians are extremely corrupt and will abuse the system as as possible for their own benefit. I am so ashamed of being an indian. Indians are the people who don’t put the shopping cart back in its place and just leave it in the parking lot and the rest of the people can’t park their cars. They unload the cart into car and don’t bother that traffic is backing up.

There are self-centered people from all countries. I used to feel good/bad depending on what people from my country/region/group etc. do. But it's so silly. Why do I care what another person does - whom I don't even know? It's the same with long lost ancestors. So now a days I notice such thoughts quickly and remember that it's a silly heuristic that my brain uses and I should ignore it.

Thank you for the thoughtful answer. I am not unaware of my first impulse towards anger. I have hurt a lot of people with my angry outbursts. Some of them are in their after lives and I hope my sorry reaches them.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#242
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I am not. I grew up in Mumbai and emigrated to USA. Those were my genuine feelings.

As a non-Indian, my impression (after hearing something like that multiple times about Indians) is that people in India may be raised to be more apt to over-use a system (and even abuse it), but it's not unique to them. Every country has people who do it far too much, and everyone does it to some extent. So don't feel so bad. Also, these kinds of things are usually a trade off. Your culture has a lot of beautiful thi…

Thank you for the thoughtful answer. I am not unaware of my first impulse towards anger. I have hurt a lot of people with my angry outbursts. Some of them are in their after lives and I hope my sorry reaches them.

I was also drunk when I wrote my original message. I have been drinking since 8 am since my wife left for work. I also need to get my drinking problem in order.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#243
I am looking forward to buying the next Macbook that comes out and knowing this kind of makes it troublesome. India does not have physical Apple stores and its not that easy to try out new products. Apple products are not magic and also have their own problems. Knowing that there is a fair refund policy for Indian consumers like any other country would have been a fair business practice and consumer friendly but unfortunately Apple does not see it like that.

Completely ending the refund/return is a stupid decision.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#244
post #31

Apple had a lot of trouble with the Indian market back the early 2010s. They had to pull AppleCare+ out of the country because people were abusing it a lot. [†] Same goes for the country's biggest online retailers, both Amazon and Flipkart also switched to a replacement-only policy in India. "Most analysts agree that many many buyers were abusing the company's refund policy. With many buying latest smartphones, and r…

It's really strange to see that on HN when a company is paying only the taxes it legally has to, it's called "business acumen", but when a person is extracting all the value it can from a policy, it's "abusing the policy". I wonder if the same people hold both the opinions.

store courtesies != tax law.

If you break store policy, they don't send armed people to your house to fix the glitch.

You also seem to be comparing tax minimization (as distinct from tax fraud) with warranty/return fraud.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#245
post #31

Apple had a lot of trouble with the Indian market back the early 2010s. They had to pull AppleCare+ out of the country because people were abusing it a lot. [†] Same goes for the country's biggest online retailers, both Amazon and Flipkart also switched to a replacement-only policy in India. "Most analysts agree that many many buyers were abusing the company's refund policy. With many buying latest smartphones, and r…

It's really strange to see that on HN when a company is paying only the taxes it legally has to, it's called "business acumen", but when a person is extracting all the value it can from a policy, it's "abusing the policy". I wonder if the same people hold both the opinions.

I see it other way around. When company does legal tax saving , they are morally bankrupt and monsters. When individuals try to rip off company due to some mistake or even better something like pirady then it is usually "what other choice do people have?". If companies do not give them for cheap, they will have to pirate.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#246
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the US, we have a thriving culture of shaming people for anything and everything, so companies can have generous policies and lean on the social norms interpretation to keep people in check. Consumers in US can buy a product without the anxiety of not having read the fine print, knowing that the seller will honor the return policy. Sellers also end up selling more because most buyers like the product they buy. S…

Oh I agree, this is definitely a tragedy-of-the-commons situation. I was mostly joking about the shaming bit because of all the sibling comments.

I think the calling out is justified. Having lived in India, it is a country filled with these Smart Alecks who ruin it for everyone. I find it the duty of the general public to call these out, if we want to keep good things.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#247
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would people want to have an iPhone for only a week? That sounds like more of a hassle than it is worth. Just to see what they are like?

As status symbols. Many people also abuse return policies to buy expensive cameras, use them to shoot nice pictures on vacation and then sending them back. They can still keep the pictures, so the camera lost its value for them.

If I were to wager as to the single most common type of fraud of this type, I would guess it is women "buying" a dress with the intent to wear it once and return it.

This is also why the terms on rental cars can get very specific.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#248
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a troll?

No, I am not. I grew up in Mumbai and emigrated to USA. Those were my genuine feelings.

There's whole category of user like this https://old.reddit.com/r/canconfirmiamindian/

That's why I asked but I think you're rage is legit as this is the sad relatiy of society right now.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is right on the money. I worked at a startup catering to Indian consumers. It was a typical transactional product coupled with offers. The time and energy we spent on fighting different kinds of abuse was outright insane. The fraudsters would come up with a new trick each week to abuse offers. No matter what check we placed (based on e-mail, phone number, IP etc., etc.,) they would beat it. Based on my experienc…

> Order a smart phone, return a faulty/old one of the same model, sell the new one. Profit. Don't sellers there record the serial number of phones? I thought it was routine everywhere. If the serial number is recorded for the transaction then they can't just send back any other phone with a different serial number.

It's been plugged. Though I used smartphone as an example it happens on all kinds of products. High-end fashion clothing, toiletries, jewelry, and so on. Last I heard the return/refund fraud was under control. But its only a matter of time a new angle of attack is found.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Philippines meets all of these criteria that you enumerated, why don't they pump out scammers like India?

You're on HN and it's supposed to have somewhat better discourse, don't bring the quality of this site down. Next time try googling the population (!), per capita income, rates of English profiency and technical know-how, international phone calling prices, unemployment rates of the two countries... and apply some basic statistics / common sense. There are just some of the factors, there are probably more.

Have you tried googling these statistics? They are very similar (except for total population). Any more straw-man arguments to share?
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