Apple Limits iPhone Sales to Thwart Resellers, Hackers
Most businesses won't turn down cash. Not Apple. In fact your cash is no good when it comes to buying a new iPhone at an Apple or AT&T Wireless store.
Apple announced this weekend it will no longer accept cash for iPhone purchases and now limits sales of the phone to two per person. The new policy is an effort to discourage unauthorized resale of the iPhone, according to an Apple spokeswoman. Up till now, you could buy up to five iPhones using cash, credit, or debit.
The move is sure to put a damper on the hacked iPhone reseller market. Now Apple lawyers can just trace sales of "open" iPhones sold on eBay right back to the credit card used to but it originally. If Apple's goal is to stymie gray market sales - it's a smart move. It likely won't endear any hardcore iPhone hackers to Apple.
Since its June 29 debut, Apple estimated that 250,000 of the 1.4 million iPhones sold were bought with the intent of using them with another carrier.
Count this as a counterattack on the hacker community as well. Just as Apple's release of the iPhone's 1.1.1 firmware combated unlocked devices by bricking them altogether, the new sale policy looks to stop the problem at its source.
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Hey, that's good! It's good to use iPhone in different carriers! :D
I thought it was illegal to refuse cash for a purchase
I think Apple had better read the fine print on US currency.
"THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE"
If they start refusing cash payments they will be running afoul of the US Goverment. Might be be enforced, but its still not legal to do.
I can't get AT&T service where I live so this doesn't matter a bit to me. So anyone who wants to have the eligibility for my two phones, they are welcome to them.
Apple is such a joke
Regards it being illegal to not accept currency as payment. I thought the same, but was wrong. Read the following:
http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.
Q. I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts. Some businesses or governmental agencies say that they will only accept checks, money orders or credit cards as payment, and others will only accept currency notes in denominations of $20 or smaller. Isn't this illegal?
The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."
A. This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.