Read the fine print on Apple's back-to-school promo

Darius Chang | May 28, 2009

Screen grab from Apple online store.

To help with the economic crunch, Apple is offering a special promotion for students or staff members in education institutions in Singapore. According to the Cupertino's Web site, you can get a free iPod touch when you purchase any MacBook from its Apple Online Store for Education site.

However, someone at Apple should have grabbed the dictionary app from the iTunes store before putting up this ad. Here is a definition of "free" as according to Webster's online dictionary:

Free--Costing nothing; "complimentary tickets".

But if you read the fine print on the same Web page, you'll notice that the mail-in rebate covers only up to S$365 (US$259.86). The cheapest 8GB iPod touch goes for S$388 (US$276.24). Though S$23 (US$16.37) is a pittance for a touchscreen media player, it's still not free.

We checked with Apple regarding this discrepancy and were told that the rebate does not take into account sales tax. As such, the 8GB iPod touch goes for S$362.62 (US$258.17) pre-tax, which fits into the maximum rebate amount.

We doubt Apple is trying to pull a fast one, since the cheaper iPod nano, classic and shuffle are also eligible for the discount. But it may have quite a few unhappy customers who have chosen the iPod touch and found that the rebate doesn't cover the entire cost.

Filed under: Music & Play, Notebooks
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