Some of Apple’s authorized retailers are scamming iPhone 6 buyers in China

Imagine this: you’ve saved up enough money to buy the already-expensive iPhone 6 in China. So you head to your local authorized Apple retailer, cash in hand, ready to acquire your new smartphone. But when you get to the register, you find out the phone is going to cost you more than you think. If you want to buy an iPhone 6, an employee tells you, you’ll have to also buy this US$100 gift bag of accessories. If you don’t, they won’t sell you an iPhone 6.

It sounds like a shakedown, but that is apparently what has been happening at Apple authorized retail outlets in Changchun (and probably other cities as well), according to a report in China’s Xinhua state wire service. Xinhua reporters in Changchun found that at many locations, iPhone 6 handsets were being mandatorily “bundled” with gift bags that ranged in price from RMB200 (US$32) all the way up to RMB1,000 (US$163).

For example, Chuangchun Apple fan Cai Ting told reporters that he was really looking forward to the iPhone 6, but his purchase experience left something to be desired:

When I went to the store on the 17th to buy the phone, an employee told me that to buy the phone I also needed to buy an RMB 1,000 gift bag, which contained a screen cover, phone case, mobile battery charger, and other accessories like that. These accessories, if purchased separately, would only be RMB 300-400 in total, so I thought this was very unreasonable.

To be clear, the culprit here is not Apple or Apple Stores, but rather some of Apple’s third-party authorized retailers in China, who seem to be hoping to squeeze some extra profit out of the new handset’s release there. This behavior is certainly not authorized by Apple, though, and it may well be illegal.

A law firm consulted in the original Xinhua report advised customers who felt they’d been ripped off in this way to contact China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce by calling 12315 to report it.

(Source: Xinhua via Techweb)