Apple refuses to sell Ipads to American-Iranian citizens

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shinobi602

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Video in the link. Just...wow.....

ALPHARETTA —Apparently it’s Apple policy not to sell anything to anyone from Iran.

A manager at the Apple Store in at North Point Mall says that is the reason a 19-year-old and one of her friends were turned away when they were heard speaking Farsi.

Sahar Sabet is a U.S. citizen and a UGA student. She was trying to buy an iPad and her friend wanted an iPhone. But their trip ended Thursday when an employ heard Sabet and her uncle speaking the wrong language.

"When we said 'Farsi, I'm from Iran,' he said, 'I just can't sell this to you. Our countries have bad relations,'" Sabet said.

A manager showed Channel 2 Action News Apple's policy. It said the exportation, sale or supply from the U.S. to Iran of any Apple goods is strictly prohibited without authorization by the U.S. government. The manager also says they have to rely on customers to be honest.

"Discrimination. Racially profiled. He didn't have any business asking me what country I was from," Sabet said.

Sabet is not the only person with this complaint.

"I would say if you're trying to buy an iPhone, don't tell them anything about Iran. That would be your best bet," said Zack Jafarzadeh, who had a similar experience at the Apple Store in Perimeter Mall.

Jafarzadeh says he and a friend from Iran were looking to buy an iPhone. His buddy was living in Atlanta on a visa.

"We never talked about him going back to Iran or anything like that. He was just speaking full-fledged Farsi and the representative came back and denied our sale," Jafarzadeh said.

Sabet said when she called Apple’s corporate customer relations, an employee apologized and told her she could buy the iPad online.

A representative for the U.S. State Department says it is illegal to travel to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones without U.S. authorization.

That representative said she is not familiar with Apple enforcing that law.

http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/apple-customers-upset-over-policy-not-sell-iranian/nPY8H/
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"A representative for the U.S. State Department says it is illegal to travel to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones without U.S. authorization."

They're just following the rules, I guess.

Edit: didn't read the article closely. Relax.
 
Yeah I'm sure the manager at the GA Apple store totally recognized it as Farsi and not just some middle east language.
 
Wow, this site has even better comments then Youtube...

Posted by billpierce at 9:57 a.m. Jun. 19, 2012
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Send the rug riding camel humpers packing back to allah land. Give them a free bag of hot pork rinds to eat on the trip. I wish we could throw all of the towel heads out, mudslums first.
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Read this article yesterday.

I actually went to this same Apple Store a few weeks ago.

Now I don't feel so good about that location anymore. :/
 
"A manager at the Apple Store [...] refused to sell to American-Iranians" while Apple policy is against selling to Iran/Iranians.
You suck at thread titles, Op.
 
It's almost like the US saw the IKEA barring UK travelers news story and thought they wanted to play too!

Apple's justification is bogus though as they're selling the goods to people in America, not enabling them to be taken to Iran. They jus' being racist.
 
SpacLock said:
"A representative for the U.S. State Department says it is illegal to travel to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones without U.S. authorization."

They're just following the rules, I guess.
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Apple is not travelling to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones, and it is not part of the gov't policy to refuse sale of said devices based on a suspicion that this may happen.
 
SpacLock said:
"A representative for the U.S. State Department says it is illegal to travel to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones without U.S. authorization."

They're just following the rules, I guess.
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No they're not. Bolded the relevant part for you to understand
 
This really does suck, however doesn't Apple have the right to refuse service to anyone for whatever reason? Just playing Devil's advocate here, and agree that Apple could have handled this better.
 
SpacLock said:
"A representative for the U.S. State Department says it is illegal to travel to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones without U.S. authorization."

They're just following the rules, I guess.
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No they aren't. Nobody here is trying to export the devices to Iran, and if they were to do so later it would be CBP's job to stop them
 
SpacLock said:
"A representative for the U.S. State Department says it is illegal to travel to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones without U.S. authorization."

They're just following the rules, I guess.
Click to expand...

Apple's an airport security middle-man now? This is retail, and it's incredibly racist.
 
umm, am i reading this wrong or is this actually about some dude who works at apple?

edit: i read it wrong, damn
 
I do know that a lot of Iranians would come into electronics stores here in Canada, specifically to resell them on the Iranian black market.

I think that has a lot more to do with it, rather than just "oh we don't like Iranians".

Obviously when you put it in blunt racial terms like that.. shit's gonna go sour. It's a lot like the Ikea/Gypsy thing.
 
darthbob said:
This really does suck, however doesn't Apple have the right to refuse service to anyone for whatever reason? Just playing Devil's advocate here, and agree that Apple could have handled this better.
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Next they refuse service to anyone who looks irani...
 
SpacLock said:
"A representative for the U.S. State Department says it is illegal to travel to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones without U.S. authorization."

They're just following the rules, I guess.
Click to expand...

No, because it's not illegal for Iranian-Americans to buy any otherwise-legal electronic product. Are these Apple stores located at international airports? No. It's not illegal unless people board a flight to Iran with those electronic devices, whether they're ethnically Iranian or not. That sounds like it is up to federal authorities enforce, not Apple employees, who last time I checked were not law enforcement agents. But then I doubt this is Apple's policy, at least I would hope it's not. I'm guessing it's just a handful of stupid / overzealous store employees.
 
xbhaskarx said:
No, because it's not illegal for Iranian-Americans to buy any product. Are these Apple stores located at international airports? No. It's not illegal unless these people board a flight to Iran with those electronic devices. That sounds like it is up to federal authorities enforce, not Apple employees, who last time I checked were not law enforcement officials. But then I doubt this is Apple's policy, at least I would hope it's not. I'm guessing it's just a handful of stupid / overzealous store employees.
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Fine, it's some racist dude(s). You guys win.
 
SpacLock said:
"A representative for the U.S. State Department says it is illegal to travel to Iran with laptops or satellite cellphones without U.S. authorization."

They're just following the rules, I guess.
Click to expand...

Not at all. All that law says is that they can't take the iPad with them on a plane to Iran, it says nothing about not being allowed to own an iPad in the US if they're a legal resident here, let alone a citizen. Apple's waaaay overstepping their bounds on that.
 
Guevara said:
Yeah I'm sure the manager at the GA Apple store totally recognized it as Farsi and not just some middle east language.
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Well he did ask first and they told him.

Still doesn't make the policy right since this wasn't an export transaction and we have customs agents who check for this periodically.
 
wow. government policy or not, apple is not affiliated with them whatsoever and therefore any policies that don't explicitly affect Apple, shouldn't be applied to Apple. Therefore, this is ignorant, backasswards racism.
 
Seriously though this story is insane. If this is written Apple policy, I'd be shocked, but heads should roll.

If this is an abuse of whatever autonomy store managers are given, then they should be corrected and apologize.
 
Its not racial profiling. Racial profiling is an action undertaken by law enforcement, or other government agencies. This is just being an ignorant bigoted asshole.

You think they'd take free Windows Pads?
 
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