Get a $100 Refund on Recent iPad Purchases

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:11:38 +0000

Apple wants to make good with customers who feel burned by the introduction of the iPad 2 and the $100 price drop on the original iPad. The company will be refunding customers the $100 difference between first-generation iPads bought before yesterday and those bought after the price drop, so long as the purchase happened sometime in the last two weeks.

The refund has been confirmed by Apple’s sales team and various other outlets, including Electricpig.In order to qualify, you’ll need to have purchased an iPad within 14 days of yesterday’s announcement, which puts the earliest eligible purchase date at about Feb. 16. Customers seeking the rebate will also need to have their receipts on hand.

This is actually pretty generous of Apple, which hasn’t done the same thing with the iPhone or iPod touch, as far as I can remember, unless you count the $100 in-store credit it offered to early iPhone buyers after that device got a price drop, which wasn’t the result of a new model being introduced. It has arranged rebates for customers who purchased Macs on occasion, but only to refund them for major OS updates that launched just after their new machines shipped.

What do you think? Is this a nice gesture, too little, or overly generous given that hardware updates are an inevitable part of buying gadgets?

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Quicken Essentials Updated, Price Lowered

Weldon Dodd — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:40:02 +0000

Reader response to the introduction of Quicken Essentials for Mac here on TheAppleBlog ranged from resigned acceptance of the reduction in features to outright anger and dismay at the new version that dropped so many of the capabilities of Quicken 2007 for Mac. In response to these criticisms, Intuit has publicly announced plans to enhance Quicken Essentials for Mac during the course of the year and has also lowered the price, offering a rebate to existing customers.

“Quicken Essentials is our first Mac-native Quicken product, and demonstrates our new commitment to the Mac platform,” said Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group. “We’re glad customers took it seriously when we asked for their feedback. These are the first in a series of changes we’re planning to ensure Quicken Essentials users have the tools they need to manage their money easily and affordably.”

New Features

The first set of enhancements to Quicken Essentials for Mac will be available by the end of the month and will let customers:

Protect files with passwords.
Export transaction data to spreadsheets for further analysis.
Additional enhancements are expected throughout the year, enabling customers to:
Obtain a complete picture of current net worth by entering investment holdings from brokerages that do not download to Quicken.
Compare spending between time periods to better understand expenses.
Export tax-deductible expenses to tax filing programs, such as TurboTax.
Track budgets across several months

Existing Quicken Essentials for Mac users will get these updates automatically as they become available.

Lower Price: Customer Refund Available

In addition, Quicken lowered the retail price for Essentials from $69.99 to $49.99. Customers who purchased the product before April 19, 2010 can obtain a $20 refund. The offer is good through May 31, and further details are available at www.quicken.com/macrefund.

Intuit Should Have Done More From the Beginning

These measures will be welcome news to many users. The features slated for free updates are a good start, although some will be upset that their favorite feature is still missing (check printing, investment analysis, etc.). I think it is a good move for Intuit to go public with its plan to release these new features as free updates this year. It is tough for software publishers to pre-announce new features, but Intuit is in a bind here and needs to communicate to users that they will not be stuck with an inferior product.

The rebate is also a good idea, but perhaps too little too late. In my original review, one of my first reactions was that the price was too high to begin with for such an anemic first release. Quicken Essentials should have launched at $29. Then the v2 release could be $49 with a $20 upgrade for v1.0 customers.

What Do You Think?