Just What is a Custom Configured Server?

djhanson wonders: "I just got back from a small claims court proceeding against Apple Computer. They successfully won their argument in front of the court that selecting additional memory and disk drives for a computer/server at the time of purchase, off of their website, constitutes a 'custom configured computer built to the customer's specifications'. Said computer is therefore not eligible under the company policy to be returned. Has anyone else heard of such a thing? As near as I can tell, Apple is the only company that has such a restrictive policy. I called both IBM and HP, and neither of those companies has such a policy. Am I the only one that thinks there is something terribly wrong with a policy like this? Any opinions? Suggestions? Comments? Whatever?"

Comments

Disincentives

[Morky]

As if Apple's obscene prices for RAM weren't enough to make one avoid changing the base configuration.

Hmm.

[MImeKillEr]

If Apple has such a restrictive policy, maybe someone should inform them that having such a policy is likely to drive down their customer base. Not that they'll care until they actually *see* it.

I mean, if HP and IBM aren't so hell-bent on this, then wouldn't it be safe to assume that they're going to pick up some business?

Here's what everyone with a contract with Apple should do: Call up your rep, spec-out a "custom" system and then ask about the return policy. When they fess up and say that you can't, politely tell them you'll be calling HP or IBM and switching. The more that do this, the higher the probabiliy that they'll take notice.

Problem solved.