Sprenzy Shopping Blog

Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced that Apple was cutting the price of the 8 GB iPhone to $399 from $599. I was shocked at the 33% price cut, less than 10 weeks after its initial launch. Even though I was surprised by the price reduction, I wasn’t mad at Apple and just wrote it off as the penalty for being an early adopter of tech gadgets.

It turns out that a lot of early adopters were extremely upset and flooded Apple with complaints via email and on the Apple iPhone forum. In another surprising move and in response to the customer backlash, Jobs wrote an open letter to iPhone purchasers offering a $100 store credit…

“Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.”

I’m surprised that the Apple marketing machine didn’t anticipate the negative customer reaction to the $200 price cut. But, I applaud Apple for listening to customer complaints and offering a $100 store credit, which is fair mea culpa. I can’t recall any other company who offered a credit to early adopters after a product price drop.

If the store credit isn’t enough for you and you purchased your iPhone using an American Express card, you have another option to recoup your $200. Call the AMEX Return Protection Program at (800) 297-8019 and ask to file a claim. Although AMEX’s price protection program expired October 2006, they are making an exception for the iPhone and will price protect it. There’s one caveat, AMEX is not guaranteeing they will accept your claim. However, if you are a customer in good standing, they will most likely credit your account $200 plus tax. Depending on the authority level of the AMEX rep you speak to, you may be able to get credit within 24 - 48 hours, otherwise you’ll have to wait 2 weeks for the claim review.

I have filed my claim with AMEX already and anticipate getting a $200 credit on my next bill. Coupled with a $100 Apple store credit, I’m a very happy iPhone owner, whose iPhone net price will be $300, not bad for being an early adopter?!?