Buyer Tip: Want an Apple product? Consider Buying @Costco

Took four weeks to discover the lemon

I purchased a new iPad four weeks ago as a gift for my neighbor from our local Apple Store, and for the first time ever in buying Apple products, we got a lemon.

The unit, our neighbor Susie said, wouldn’t charge. Upon inspection, she wasn’t kidding. We tried different cables and charging bricks, and the prognosis was the same: it was stuck at 1%, and wouldn’t go any higher.

So we brought it back to the Apple Store for a replacement. But that’s not what they offered.

The reveal of the lemon didn’t happen in the first 2 weeks, which is what Apple offers—a 14-day return policy and a one-year-warranty. Had we purchased the unit at Costco, with its liberal 90 day return policy, she probably would have a replacement today. But on returns, Apple thinks differently.

Read on.

Let me start by saying that Apple has the best tech support in the business. If you have a problem, you can always get a human on the phone, at 1 (800) 275-2273.

Try getting Google, Facebook to talk to you. With Amazon it can be done, but there’s a lot of digging that has to happen first. This service is pretty hidden.

Apple is a regular presence in the major cities with Apple Stores, so going in for answers is easy.

Returns, however, are a different story.

You can’t just waltz in, tell the clerk you’re there to return a product and see results.

You need to call the above number, tell the associate the problem, and have them make an appointment for you to visit the “Genius Bar” at the Apple Store.

I did just that Saturday morning, and got an appointment for Sunday at 1:45.

Susie and I went over, and were kept waiting until 2:15.

The associate quickly confirmed that it wouldn’t charge, but said he had to reset the unit with updated software and do a diagnostic.

About 30 minutes later, the results were the same. It still wouldn’t charge.

But the answer you would expect to hear—”Let me get you a new one,” never left his lips.

Instead he said he had to send it to Apple repair for another diagnostic and for it to be determined whether it could be fixed or not. If it couldn’t, it would then give Susie a new, working model. After about a week without access to the product that I purchased—luckily before Apple jacked up its rates in response to the rising cost of memory chips.

I’ve never had the experience of trying to return an iPhone, MacBook or other product to the Apple Store outside of the 14-day window, so perhaps they would respond the same, by insisting on fixing it instead of replacing it, who knows?

What about Apple Care, the monthly insurance program Apple offers? For $4.99 monthly, the Apple Care for the iPad promises “to ship you a replacement so you don’t have to wait for a repair,” which sounds like more of a bad thing.

Again, I’ve never had a lemon in all these years of buying and using Apple products, so this is a new experience.

So yes, a little rant, but also news you can use: I’ve returned several Apple products to Costco with no questions asked. So not only are tech products generally slightly cheaper at Costco, but the 3-month return policy is amazing. Target, Best Buy, Apple and most retailers are two weeks.

I wish I had bought the iPad for Susie at Costco. If you’re not a Costco member, yes, the membership is $65 yearly, but gas at our local Costco can be a good 25 to 50 cents per gallon cheaper, and if you just did gas and tech products, you’d come out ahead. Apple’s lowest price iPad is the entry level model at $449. Costco sells it for $439. Not a huge saving, but at least they’d take it back!

That said, Costco parking lots are jammed, the stores are crowded and waiting to check out can be a hassle. But that 90-day return policy!

And if you don’t have a local Costco, you can always shop on its website.

Readers: have you had any issues returning Apple products to Costco? Let me hear from you.