Apple Now Requires Verification For Education Store (9to5mac.com) 29
Apple now requires Education Store shoppers in the U.S. and several other countries to verify their student, educator, parent, or homeschool-teacher status through UNiDAYS, ending the previous honor-system approach. 9to5Mac reports: Starting today, Apple requires shoppers in the United States to complete verification when making a purchase via the Education Store. This change also applies to Australia, Hong Kong, Turkey, Canada, and Chile. In many other markets around the world, such as the UK, Apple already required verification. As a refresher, people eligible for Apple's Education Store include current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers across all grade levels.
Apple is teaming up with UNiDAYS to handle the verification process. Students and educators will be asked to create a UNiDAYS ID and then verify their academic status by logging in to their school's academic portal. Alternatively, users can upload a photo of their student or faculty IDs. Homeschool teachers, meanwhile, will need to provide an identity document such as a driver's license, state ID card, or passport. They'll also need to provide one homeschool document, such as a Letter of Intent (LOI) or Letter of Acknowledgment. Most customers will be verified instantly, and those requiring manual verification should hear back within 24 hours. The same verification process applies both in-store and online for Apple Education Store shoppers. Meanwhile, Apple has added Apple Watch to the Education Store for the first time, offering discounts on the Series 11, SE 3, and Ultra 3.
Apple is teaming up with UNiDAYS to handle the verification process. Students and educators will be asked to create a UNiDAYS ID and then verify their academic status by logging in to their school's academic portal. Alternatively, users can upload a photo of their student or faculty IDs. Homeschool teachers, meanwhile, will need to provide an identity document such as a driver's license, state ID card, or passport. They'll also need to provide one homeschool document, such as a Letter of Intent (LOI) or Letter of Acknowledgment. Most customers will be verified instantly, and those requiring manual verification should hear back within 24 hours. The same verification process applies both in-store and online for Apple Education Store shoppers. Meanwhile, Apple has added Apple Watch to the Education Store for the first time, offering discounts on the Series 11, SE 3, and Ultra 3.
Back to the past (Score:3, Insightful)
Back in the 20th century, you get student/teacher discounts through university/school channels and possibly from other authorized Apple resellers, but you had to show ID.
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I remember our university had what amounted to a showroom - a place we could go to see all the different varieties of computers which were available to campus people (students, faculty, and staff) with some sort of discount from the manufacturer.
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For that I got a student ID with picture...and NO DATEs on it.
I also got an .edu email address. I've not used that in ages, but likely could reactivate it with some phone calls.
But that ID alone has saved me a TON of money over the years getting educational rates and prices.
Check to see what your local colleges put on their ID
Campus computer store were not uncommon (Score:1)
I remember our university had what amounted to a showroom - a place we could go to see all the different varieties of computers which were available to campus people (students, faculty, and staff) with some sort of discount from the manufacturer.
The campus book stores typically had (have) an informal computer store integrated into it. At many universities this led to a separate and independent campus computer store.Typically doing some support as well. Configuration, software installation, sometimes even service/repairs. I had one of these in grad school. We had to have a laptop on an approved list (pick one of these 3 Dells). It would ship to the campus computer store, they would configure it with the disk image my department developed. More than
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Cracking down on this is free money for Apple.
Or for the H.S. kid down the street* who is willing to split the discount with me for purchases made on her ID.
*It's all Chromebooks at our local schools anyway.
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Or for the H.S. kid down the street* who is willing to split the discount with me for purchases made on her ID.
For some odd reason, K-12 students are not discount eligible unless they're homeschooled or are a high school student with a college acceptance letter. I think lower education used to be eligible under the previous pinky promise terms, but it was moot back then as they never verified anyway.
Also, there are purchase limits, which kind of puts a bit of a damper on trying the same scheme, but with college students.
Good timing (Score:2)
I just bought a Mac Mini last month. The no questions asked educational discount took $100 off. Also signed up for the Apple card giving me 12 months of 0% interest payments.
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Re:Good timing (Score:4, Informative)
Apple's card is fine, and the 0% (with monthly payment), and 3% cash back (on Apple store purchases), along with no fee international transactions, are the main benefits. It is also pretty easy to manage in the built-in wallet app, and you can set your cash back to automatically deposit into Goldman's associated savings account. However, there are plenty of other cards with larger sign-up incentives and bigger cash-back offers if you shop around a bit.
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Assuming responsible usage, having more credit cards actually helps your credit score (up to a point anyway, it's still possible to have too many credit cards). As for being a potential fraud target, most credit cards in the USA offer zero liability for fraud that is promptly reported.
What signing up for a new credit card does do however, is trigger a hard pull on your credit report.
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Once the machine is paid off I'm never touching the card again.
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Once the machine is paid off I'm never touching the card again.
You say that now. Obligatory The Oatmeal comic. [theoatmeal.com]
RAM shortage (Score:2)
Apple was probably okay with their education portal being a hint-hint, nudge-nudge discount until skyrocketing RAM costs began eating into their hefty profit margins.
I get it. (Score:3)
If I had known it wasn't checked, I absolutely would have lied.
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Yes, it's something of a really bad secret in Canada. In the US, they did check - usually just making sure you used a .edu address and sending them a copy of your student ID.
In Canada, they couldn't do any of that (privacy laws prevent the school from disclosing your student status, and there's no .edu in Canada, so many schools just use a regular .ca ccTLD or a regular TLD).
So you literally can lie - I've done it a few times after I graduated t
Other UNiDAYS loopholes closed too? (Score:2)
They've Gone Back & Forth (Score:2)
They've gone back and forth several times between the honor system and using some third-party student verification.
Seems like the Neo makes it worthwhile to check. (Score:1)
What a joke... (Score:2)
If they weren't ripping people of with every purchase there would no need for a "discount". I was the "guy" who was forced to replace our really nice Commodore Pet computers with that crApple BS in HS. Apple never did anything for the schools that they didn't get paid for. Their software SUCKS, their networking SUCKS. In an effort to be "cool" and trendy apple has made supporting their stuff annoying time consuming.
What about alumnus? (Score:2)
Will that work?
Lots of Apple discounts out there, really... (Score:2)
They never really talk about any of them except for the educational discount, to my knowledge? But for as long as I can remember, Apple also offered military discounts:
https://www.apple.com/shop/bro... [apple.com]
They also run government employee discounts, typically by way of special online stores you have to shop in. For example, Washington DC government workers can go here: https://dchr.dc.gov/page/apple... [dc.gov]