Aged Cheekiness

I’m putting this up here because it’s a symbol of me growing up. The older I’ve gotten, the more shameless I seem to have become, and I recently did something I couldn’t even imagine doing a few years ago.

I’d bought my computer some 2 weeks before the Macbooks were released, and with the release of the Macbooks, the specifications of the Macbook Pros were bumped up a bit without any change in price. So I did what any shameless person would do, called Apple to tell them I’d like the difference (I attached a monetary value to their specification bump) back; and today, I am $300 richer! (Less poor.) Here is the rough sequence of events, slightly edited, in chronological order:

Me:

Greetings.

This is a request regarding the price protection program. My order number is: W55555555.

I noticed earlier today that the specifications of the MacBook Pro computers were updated on your store without any changes in price. In particular, a processor upgrade which costed $300 (2.0 GHz -> 2.16 GHz) is now available as part of the base specification on the corresponding MacBook Pro machine.

A similar machine I had purchased with the earlier specifications was shipped to me on the 4th of this month. I have been in touch with a couple of Apple representatives on the phone, and was informed that I could be eligible for price protection, and was asked to get in touch with you regarding the specifics.

So could you please furnish me some more detail on this?

Thanks,
Me

She:

Hi:

I am forwarding your request to Developer Relations. We will notify you when a decision is made. As you know, Developers are under a different set of policies than the consumers. Hence, you receive a substantial discount.

Have you opened and used your system?

Thanks,
She

But it’s not like I was going to give up that easy; not with my new-found shamelessness.

Me:

Hello again,

Thank you for keeping me in the loop.

I have opened my system and am getting acquainted with it. I must say that it has been delightful. I do acknowledge that I received the discount. It’s just, even under the one-time discounted pricing, it dawned on me when I noticed the upgraded specifications that I would have received this faster machine had I ordered just a few days later. The value of the upgrade being the amount indicated earlier; subtracting, I suppose, the discount it would have garnered on the basis of being a Developer Store purchase.

Thinking it best to ask about this, I called up Apple earlier today, and the (post-sales service) woman I spoke to initially indicated to me that I was eligible for a credit of the differential, but was unable to process it because it was purchased from the Developer Store. And, in turn, I was forwarded to you so I decided to ask you what your policy was.

Thanks for looking into this,
Me

Needless to say, I love them; and I am forking down a large portion of this refund for a copy of Aperture.