Apple Gift Cards
An academic who makes TikTok videos about marketing fraud on the side claims that Apple cheated her out of a discount on an iPad – even though she got exactly the deal she was promised and should have expected.
It will shock you, but it’s possible that experts on TikTok don’t know what they’re talking about. This is even true when the expert is Dr. Mara Einstein, a professor at Queens College, CUNY, who says she is a “former TV/advertising executive turned marketing critic.”
Dr. Einstein, who gives seminars on marketing tricks, added a video about Apple to her TikTok channel. As she tells it, she bought an iPad and was disappointed by the “misleading advertisement” that consisted of Apple offering her a free $100 gift card but then making her pay for it.
“If this happened to you, contact the FTC and make sure Apple doesn’t do this to anyone else,” she says in the video, with a completely straight face. So far, the video has been viewed 19,000 times and there seems to have been no comment suggesting that she should have read her credit card statement before filming.
Because if she had read it, Dr. Einstein would have seen that the total amount she paid was exactly what she expected. She got her iPad at the discounted educational rate and still has a $100 gift card.
Apple makes two charges to a credit card. Dr. Einstein sees that the first charge is for her iPad – and that the amount is $100 less than she expected to pay. The second charge is $100 and is applied to the gift card, bringing the total to exactly the advertised price.
It could all be clearer, but as any marketing expert can tell you, it’s done that way for a very specific and necessary reason. If Apple simply charged the full amount for the iPad and gave away the $100 gift card, someone might redeem that card but also return the iPad.
Dr. Einstein even says that Apple told her this when she called to complain. She also seems to say that she tricked her into “getting rid of” this alleged $100 fee and seems convinced that this worked.
She was the one who betrayed Apple, not the other way around. And the worst part is that she made her “analysis” of the situation even more severe.
Therefore, you should now read your next credit card statement carefully.
Dr. Einstein purchased her iPad through Apple’s education discount. Apple always offers a discount to students and teachers, but especially at the back-to-school time of the year, they offer gift cards as an incentive.
