Sunday, May 9, 2010

Discrimination at the Apple store?

From the Daily News:

A Queens assemblywoman is demanding an explanation from Apple over allegations that employees at its SoHo store are discriminating against Chinese people.

Grace Meng (D-Flushing) fired off a letter to the tech giant after she was approached by a handful of disgruntled customers claiming Apple staffers denied them iPads, demanded to see their passports or asked inappropriate questions.

"One person was asked why they wanted one since their English was not so good," Meng said. "I want to get an explanation."

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.

A 33-year-old Queens man told the Daily News a SoHo worker initially told him the store was out of iPads. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said when he asked an Asian staffer, she found one for him. The man said a manager later asked him if he was planning to buy the iPad and resell it. "I'm just so upset," the man said. "This is racial profiling."

Meng said she suspects Apple is concerned about Chinese people selling the gadgets in their homeland.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apple is probably concerned that some folks are fronts for Chinese businesses that resell the Ipads at big markups locally or on ebay not export them. Quite frankly, if there is a profit beyond what Apple is squeezing out of the average user, so be it, actually it amazing since the device is so darn expensive and has at this configuration offer so little, except for it being so hyped. Anyone who can capture additional profit deserves to and Apple should be happy they have a sale, period.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous says;

"Anyone who can capture additional profit deserves to and Apple should be happy they have a sale, period."

Actually a lot of us disagree, many of us believe scalping breeds crime, and do you think these gangs collect proper sales tax on even a single one of the ipads they resell??

Anonymous said...

Then Apple can simply raise the price a little more and eliminate the profit margin.

One cannot automatically think "scalping" if a Chinese person enters a store since some Chinese are 6th generation Americans whose families came over with the 19th Century Gold Rush.

In the absence of unusual patterns of buying such as buying in bulk, Chinese are no more likely to be scalpers than anyone picked at random from the street.

Anonymous said...

"Actually a lot of us disagree, many of us believe scalping breeds crime, and do you think these gangs collect proper sales tax on even a single one of the ipads they resell??"

They already paid the sales tax. Sales tax is supposed to be collected at the end-user transaction. Resellers all the way up the line do not pay sales tax; it is only collected from the end user. That's my understanding, anyways.

Charlie Chan said...

Lookie here!

Me no resell Apple iPad!

Me loyal Chinese comrade, me loyal to Chinese Communist Party and People's Liberation Army!

Me loyal to Big Brother Johnny Liu!

No tickee, no shirtee!

Eggroll or free soda?

Anonymous said...

Wow,she' all over the place.Must want to be the first GG.

Anonymous said...

Hey being the Chinese people's kids are alot smarter than the majority of your readers, I have some sympathy for them. Maybe they, your readers, should educate their kids so they wont turn out as dumb as they are?

Anonymous said...

not for nothing but Chinese people are so dam aggressive. I don't buy this crap and frankly don't care.

I can't afford a dam what ever it is.

Queens Crapper said...

Chinese people's kids are my readers, as well as Hispanic people's kids, black people's kids, white people's kids and other Asian people's kids.

I think you're letting political correctness getting the better of you because the fact is no one was disparaged in this post, it was just a copy and paste job.

Anonymous said...

"They already paid the sales tax. Sales tax is supposed to be collected at the end-user transaction. Resellers all the way up the line do not pay sales tax; it is only collected from the end user. That's my understanding, anyways."

Correct the gangs don't owe the tax amount paid to Apple the first time, provided they keep accurate records, but they do owe tax on their markup.

The very idea of them keeping those records and paying that tax is laughable.

The gangs often re-sell through little shops in Flushing that cater to people who speak little english.

To paraphrase Julia Harrison, "they bilk their own kind".

Joe said...

Why would anybody want to shell out big $$ for an IPAD in the first place ?

Its has no NO USB, Firewire, media card ports and you better have $100+ when that proprietary battery goes dead every 9 months.
Worst thing of all is no marine navigation, NEMA compliant, phone syncing software runs on it and to add music to it everything must go through I-Tunes.
It also to delicate against drops and bumps, its useless in IMHO

The Advantech MARS running good old Windows XP on a solid state drive blows it away
http://ruggedpcreview.com/3_slates_advantech_3100s.html

Anonymous said...

This isn't limited to people with a Chinese appearance. The Apple Store treats everyone rudely. Their employees must be the children of the Maire'D's of the restaurants of New York where the rudeness is always available at no extra charge.

Reminds of the complaints have when blacks are stopped for a traffic infraction and experience interaction with a police officer.

Patrick Sweeney said...

I'm the same guy as anon-1 making the "everyone rudely" point.The very-unChinese actor, Richard Belzer had the same complaint.

Anonymous said...

It looks as if the Meng dynasty is pulling that phony race card once again.

Anything to get elected Grace...eh?

Joe said...

"The Apple Store treats everyone rudely"
Thats nothing !!

Try going into a Sears service dept.
I wanted to spare BBQ Burners (the parts that go bad) for an older $900 well made Sears BBQ Grill.

The guy behind the counter became furious with me for not buying a whole new grill @199 (made in China).
His beef was he had to go into a 2000 page old parts book to get the new part# to enter into the computer then walk back into the warehouse only find its NOT in stock.
The counter person then bitched he had to order the part, how Sears has been baught by K-Mart, his job is hard, and how I'm crazy for repairing things these days

Anonymous said...

"I'm just so upset," the man said. "This is racial profiling."

---------------------------------

Stop re-selling goods and infringing on copyrights and we will have no reason to profile you.

its NOT Nigerians or Muslims that commit cooperate espionage. Guess who does????

Anonymous said...

fuk apple..they aint sh*t

Anonymous said...

I'm Chinese so, whatever.

While bad, Apple wasn't too far off:

http://kotaku.com/5549865/china-rips-off-the-ipad-with-the-iped