NYC362

Not unexpected considering Goldman is losing money on the card and the Fed just cut interest rates by ½ a point.  At some point, other high yield accounts are going to see their rates cut too- especially if the Fed cuts rates again as expected. 

ssfe11 said:

These chips would be shipped to China AND India for assembly? 

Yup.. that's exactly how it would work.  It might sounds nuts, but the costs of everything are figured out to the penny and if it was cheaper to do it elsewhere, they would. 

I received that survey yesterday.   I do wish a couple of questions had more that just a yes or no answer- like do I wear my watch when sleeping.   Overall, the answer was no, but not 100%.  I will wear it about once or so a month overnight to get more detailed sleep readings.

Anyway, it's good to see they want to know how we use the watch. 

humbug1873 said:

"Layoffs at Apple are rare"!? Must be a new thing. I can remember an Apple where hire&fire was the norm. People got literally celebrated in the comm meeting for their excellent work, only to be layed off a week later etc. That was quite normal in the 00's at least.

Well, the early 2000's for Apple is a VERY long time ago.. a different world completely.  

How rare are layoffs now?  Well, when COVID hit, not one retail employee was laid off even though the stores were closed for three months. In fact, seasonal workers whose contracts were ending in March were offered regular part time positions, so as to not (as one of my store leaders put it) to "toss people over a cliff."    Then, when stores did reopen with very limited services, staff, and hours, over 25,000 of us (myself included) went to work at home over the phone or chat. 

And even more recently, where the headcount in some stores got too high, again no one was laid off, headcount gets reduced by attrition.  People were able to move to other stores if possible, or positions just weren't filled when someone left.  (I don't think my Expert spot has been filled since I left five months ago.).  

So here's the deal... and this doctor is an idiot.. or just trying to scam Apple.   Former Expert here who dealt with stuff like this about ten thousand times. 

You buy an iPad Pro, it costs $999.  You're eligible for the education discount, so now the price is $899.  That is a year round deal.  But since the back to school promo is going on, you also get a $100 gift card.

When you look at your receipt you'll see that you were charged $799 for the iPad, and $100 for the gift card.  The total is $899.  The same as without the gift card, but you do have a $100 gift card to spend.  

Why does Apple do the transaction this way?

Simple, customers would take advantage of the deal, then try to return the iPad.  If they weren't charged for the card, and the value of the card wasn't take off the product, you'd still have that gift card.  Now, you try to return the item, if you come in both product and UNUSED gift card, you get your full $899 back.  What if you used part of the gift card?  What if you didn't have it?  Well, now you get your $799 back and you get to keep the gift card- after all you paid for it.

Going back to the summer 2020, I worked at home doing post order service for Apple, and the back to school deal wasn't a gift card, but AirPods.  I cannot even guess how many people tried to return the product thinking they'd get to keep free AirPods.  No, silly people... you paid for those AirPods, but we'll gladly refund you the reduced price of the product you bought to get them

It's all pretty simple except I guess for doctors who can't do arithmetic.