After much consideration, I evaluated the feedback received in my poll about buying a laptop and decided to purchase an Apple MacBook.
However, I am returning it tomorrow.
The PC users tried to warn me about switching sides and I didn’t listen to them. I was enticed by the allure of the Mac and thought it was the right thing to do. I’ve owned the MacBook less than 12 hours now and it is already going back.
In all honesty, I am returning the MacBook to the Apple Store tomorrow but it isn’t because there is a problem or because I don’t like it. I haven’t even cracked – that might be a bad choice of words given some of the reported problems – open the box yet.
The reason that I am returning it is because I found a cheaper price
The county where the local Apple Store is located charges 9% sales tax, while Amazon does not charge any sales tax and is offering free shipping. The difference in sales tax equates to a savings of roughly $115 and when you add on the $75 rebate from Amazon, I will be saving nearly $200 by returning the MacBook to Apple and buying it from Amazon.
With the $200 in savings, I could buy third party memory and max it out to 4GB or maybe look for an external drive that I can use for a backup.
As hard as it has been today to have the MacBook
What should I do with the $200 in savings?
There are a few options that I have been thinking about, such as the memory expansion or an external hard drive. It might even be nice to launch a new blog contest, however next week is my wife’s birthday and I think it will be wise to invest this in a gift for my wife.
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Hi Derek,
My husband recently converted over to Mac, and he LOVES it. It took a little bit of time to get used at the start, but it seems to have been worth it now!
I’m sure your wife would be trilled with the decision to spend the extra on her birthday!
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The Apple store will give you a full refund just because it is selling at a cheaper price elsewhere?
As you had mentioned, “Technically the price is the same”
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That is a wise investment Derek. So what are you going to get for your wife’s birthday? Don’t worry we won’t tell
PS: I just saw a Lacie 500 gb external harddrive for $97.99 on Amazon. You would still have $100 to spend on the present.
Yeah, tax, shipping and handling can add up quite a bit. Got to be sure to take them into consideration… For me, the stores are more expensive. But sometimes I’m willing to pay a little bit extra for the convenience of having it right away.
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If you are planning of spending the money on your wife that is a very wise investment. I am sure it will pay rich dividends
What date is her birthday?
I have the same problem here with the Apple store in Canada. The taxes are the same versus our Amazon store, but the exchange rate is really inflated on the Apple store.
I think you are going to like the MacBook. That’s how I made the switch; started with a laptop, then went to the iMac, then finally to the MacPro. I think as a blogger you will really love it and you should check out the blogging app MarsEdit.
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Congratulations. For a moment there I thought that something was wrong and you were returning it because you were unhappy with it. Nice feint there!
Very sound and practical thinking on what needs to be done with the savings! I would not dare do anything else, if I were you.
Derek, save that money for your wifes birthday. It’s a wise investment.
I thought as I started reading this .. Derek your mad, give it longer than a day to see if you like it, haha.
Yes best choice to save it for the wife.
Please keep us updated on your mac journey, I am really contemplating get a mac in the future.
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Thought that you going back to PC. You would love the macbook once you play around with it.
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Go for the gift for your wife! So you are going to get another Mac Book only? Not switching sides? I need to buy a laptop next month. I shall wait for your review of the Mac Book before finalizing.
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Well, I guess you know what you are going to do with that $200 now?
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Nice strategy!
Smart idea. Does make a big difference I agree.. Love apple but would not change
The obvious solution would have been to buy your wife the RAM and an external drive for her birthday
Hey Derek, congrats on the new Mac. We are a family of Macs and loving it. The hubby and I each have a Macbook and the kids share my old iBook. We did have an old powerbook but that went kaput. We are looking into getting a mac mini to replace it. How are you liking it? Lemme know if you have any questions!!
Andrea, I am really liking it so far but still find myself returning to the PC for some things. As an example, while writing a blog post and wanting to add an image, I will usually jump on the PC where I have Photoshop installed as I don’t have anything installed on the Mac yet.
Thanks for the offer to shoot you questions. Are you on twitter or another social media site where I can ping you? You can find me on twitter: @dereksemmler
i do have twitter (my username is andreamiles), i signed up and have been meaning to play around with it. i have the attention span of 5 seconds (not literally but close to it) so i forgot i had it. But i am gonna use it more now, seems like everyone is using it now.
As for pictures and stuff for the Mac, have you tried out iPhoto? My wonderful husband bought iLife08 for me for my Bday. It included iPhoto08 and it is awesome! Your macbook comes with iPhoto but with iLife08, you get the “upgraded verson”.
Just followed you back on twitter
My Macbook came with iLife08 but I haven’t explored iPhoto yet, or iMovie yet for that matter. I need to start playing around with both of those more.
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