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[Archer]

But it IS just some employee. There is no Apple policy prohibiting the sale of goods to Iranian Americans or even Iranians. There IS a federal policy against any company knowingly selling to someone who will export goods to Iran.

correct.

that butt nugget manager was just a bigot.

 

[Ponn]

But it IS just some employee. There is no Apple policy prohibiting the sale of goods to Iranian Americans or even Iranians. There IS a federal policy against any company knowingly selling to someone who will export goods to Iran.

Not sure if you ever worked retail but "general policies" in retail stores are very fluid and rarely down in some book. For instance when I worked a very short stint at Radio Shack i was told not to sell Go Phones or any other pay as you go phones to "anyone that looked foreign, especially europeans" because they would buy them in mass and take them back overseas for their SIM chips. It was not a written policy you would find on their website or anywhere but its what was spread down from higher ups, down to DM's who then told it to employee's in the stores.

 

[KHarvey16]

Not sure if you ever worked retail but "general policies" in retail stores are very fluid and rarely down in some book. For instance when I worked a very short stint at Radio Shack i was told not to sell Go Phones or any other pay as you go phones to "anyone that looked foreign, especially europeans" because they would buy them in mass and take them back overseas for their SIM chips. It was not a written policy you would find on their website or anywhere but its what was spread down from higher ups, down to DM's who then told it to employee's in the stores.

And this is the claim here? And we have anything to back this up?

Also I'd question the claim in your example as well. A manager telling his employees about some stupid plan he or she has come up with will obviously justify it with "well this comes from high up...WAY above your pay grade buddy".

 

[Zhengi]

From previous things I've read about businesses, they usually opt not to be the enforcers of the law. It would only make sense for Apple to opt in on doing this. I find it strange that they have taken upon themselves to enforce the law when they don't have to.

 

[AlexMogil]

OP has an agenda;


And his previous topic was;

Top analyst: "Apple will decline"

Apple hate flowin'

Let us collectively SHUN HIM. SHUN HIM!

 

[krypt0nian]

So nothing to do with Apple, yet fools post "SMH Apple"

Carry on.

 

[Loofy]

From previous things I've read about businesses, they usually opt not to be the enforcers of the law. It would only make sense for Apple to opt in on doing this. I find it strange that they have taken upon themselves to enforce the law when they don't have to.

What law?
This would be the equivalent of taking 'The embargo of cuban goods is illegal' to 'lets not sell anything to shoppers who look cuban.'

 

[rezuth]

Read this a while back but I had no idea it would be such a big deal.

 

[Sobriquet]

Article in OP has nothing to do with thread title. Odd.

 

[Ponn]

And this is the claim here? And we have anything to back this up?

Also I'd question the claim in your example as well. A manager telling his employees about some stupid plan he or she has come up with will obviously justify it with "well this comes from high up...WAY above your pay grade buddy".

Question it all you want it happens, not with the cliche line you gave but it does happen. I left Radio Shack pretty quick but I was a manager at Gamestop and Blockbuster and some stupid stuff does trickle down from DM's and higher ups quite often. Things change so much and so quickly you will never have an official posted policy on all things. What happens is somewhere up in the chain you have some douchebag college grad with zero experience working in the real world, even less in retail who comes up with "brilliant" ideas like these to justify their paygrade and has to have them implemented immediately. This gets trickled down the line to each and every sycophantic level of management who will never question the person above them. Right down to the employees who more often then not will go "WTF!?, they can't be serious" Most employees will ignore it and go about their normal business, then you have the few, probably like this guy, who thinks if he kisses ass and shines and follow everything they are told they will get recognized and moved up the ranks.

To clarify what I mean is if the news or anyone calls the official Apple media relations number or anything they will categorically deny this is a "policy" as the big wigs at Apple don't hate capitalism and PR nightmares so of course wouldn't do something like this. In the retail chain part though this would have trickled down through a DM or Regional quite easily.

 

[noah111]

This is so fucked up, i'm guessing Apple will have to put out a statement or something.

 

[Al-ibn Kermit]

This is such a stupid law. Everybody takes at least a laptop with them when traveling to a foreign country for several weeks. I think I even did when I went to Iran like 7 years ago. This is probably why Apple products cost a shit load more over there. I don't blame the Apple Store for doing this if you specifically mentioned you were traveling there, but just banning Iranians from buying anything is obviously just racist.

I would encourage anybody who lives near this store to avoid going to it of they can.

I am pretty sure Iran is not the only Middle East country that speaks Farsi

They speak like a different dialect of it in Afghanistan.

 

[KHarvey16]

Question it all you want it happens, not with the cliche line you gave but it does happen. I left Radio Shack pretty quick but I was a manager at Gamestop and Blockbuster and some stupid stuff does trickle down from DM's and higher ups quite often. Things change so much and so quickly you will never have an official posted policy on all things. What happens is somewhere up in the chain you have some douchebag college grad with zero experience working in the real world, even less in retail who comes up with "brilliant" ideas like these to justify their paygrade and has to have them implemented immediately. This gets trickled down the line to each and every sycophantic level of management who will never question the person above them. Right down to the employees who more often then not will go "WTF!?, they can't be serious" Most employees will ignore it and go about their normal business, then you have the few, probably like this guy, who thinks if he kisses ass and shines and follow everything they are told they will get recognized and moved up the ranks.

And even if all of that is true...it is the result of one "douchebag college grad", aka just some employee.

 

[Ponn]

And even if all of that is true...it is the result of one "douchebag college grad", aka just some employee.

Right. Don't take me wrong, i'm not saying down with Apple, don't buy their products or this is a company wide policy, no. I just don't think it's one singular racist guy, this was trickled down from somewhere above him and he was told this is a policy for probably the exact reasons he told the customers. More than likely a regional thing that popped up, either a concentration of Iranian-Americans in the region or an influx of bulk or tracked orders or something.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

As the manager of the Apple Store guess who he represents?

If a dumbfuck McDonalds employee spits in your burger does that make it company policy to spit in burgers?

 

[KHarvey16]

Right. Don't take me wrong, i'm not saying down with Apple, don't buy their products or this is a company wide policy, no. I just don't think it's one singular racist guy, this was trickled down from somewhere above him and he was told this is a policy for probably the exact reasons he told the customers. More than likely a regional thing that popped up, either a concentration of Iranian-Americans in the region or an influx of bulk or tracked orders or something.

I don't see any reason to think that. The manager showed them the policy he felt justified the action taken. It did not. If he were simply told to do this by the higher ups, he wouldn't be citing the policy that's written down. It would be "no comment".

 

[phosphor112]

Why is there an issue with taking electronics back to Iran?

Embargoes... Also, the flame virus that the US made against Iran would only infect it...

 

[aparisi2274]

While I am sure there is some verbage in Apple's policies about selling anything to Iran, I am pretty sure this is just a case of some bigoted manager who heard another language and took it upon himself to tell them No!

I really hope that Apple Corp. does a formal review of this manager and then removes him from his post.

 

[SKINNER!]

Ever since Syrian-American Steve Jobs left, they unleashed their pent up racism.

They already unleashed it the second Seinfeld got cancelled taken off air.

 

[YoungHav]

this is for her own good, should have gotten a droid phone.

 

[Victarion]

Well, I recently bought and iPhone 4 online and sent it to a friend in Iran. Suck it Apple.

 

[Interfectum]

So nothing to do with Apple, yet fools post "SMH Apple"

Carry on.

nailed it.

 

[planar1280]

Its Georgia, expected profiling in the south.

 

[LegendofJoe]

If this was really an Apple policy I'd avoid all of their products out of principle, from the looks of it though it was just one dumb manager.

 

[Interfectum]

Besides trolls and people who have irrational hate for Apple, who would think that this was really an Apple policy? Come on guys...

 

[phosphor112]

So nothing to do with Apple, yet fools post "SMH Apple"

Carry on.

Nothing to do with Apple? They are Apple employees, at two different stores. Someone higher up must be enforcing this policy locally at those stores.

 

[Oppo]

I think the thread title should be "Apple sales dickhead badly misinterprets US law, refuses sale to Farsi-speaking customer"

It simply cannot be actual Apple policy to do this.

 

[phosphor112]

I think the thread title should be "Apple sales dickhead badly misinterprets US law, refuses sale to Farsi-speaking customer"

It simply cannot be actual Apple policy to do this.

Of course it's not actual policy, as stated by the... policy. But someone told these employers in two different stores not to sell to Iranians. I'm not saying it's from the top of the top, but whoever trains them is probably the one spreading these "policies."

 

[zroid]

...

 

[Kurdel]

Of course it's not actual policy, as stated by the... policy. But someone told these employers in two different stores not to sell to Iranians. I'm not saying it's from the top of the top, but whoever trains them is probably the one spreading these "policies."

Is this more probable then a simple coincidence?

 

[Boss Man]

I'm not saying this is right or anything, but Iranian isn't a race is it? Why is everything always racist?

 

[phosphor112]

Is this more probable then a simple coincidence?

Occam's Razor. The most probable cause is one source enforcing the policies instead of two managers enforcing them same policy on their own in two separate places.

I'm not saying this is right or anything, but Iranian isn't a race is it? Why is everything always racist?

You're right, Iranian isn't racist, but only Iranians are Persian, and Farsi (as shown in a previous post) is almost spoken exclusively by Persians.

It's racist/profiling in the end... it's not like you can be bigoted to a nationality, as it's not a belief.

 

[halogamer]

Some of the comments in the link disgust me.

 

[phosphor112]

Some of the comments in the link disgust me.

As an Arab American I feel loved.

I should clarify that there are deep amounts of sarcasm in my post...

 

[krae_man]

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. :/

I've been to that mall too. Freaky.

Crazy policy on Apple's part. It's not their problem unless the customer requests the products be shipped there.

 

[njean777]

Kind of a messed up thing to do to someone. I don't know if this is apples policy or not, but it seems to me that the manager was just being an asshole. Well there is always a wal-mart or target willing to sell you the iPad. Then again that still makes no excuse for this behavior.

 

[killer rin]

Holy Hell, The comments... My eyes are bleeding, so much bias and propaganda.

Spoiler

goes to hide in the corner

Anyhow, this is really messed up, racial profiling helps no one

 

[Kano on the Phone]

I've been to that mall too. Freaky.

Crazy policy on Apple's part. It's not their problem unless the customer requests the products be shipped there.

Amazing. It isn't an Apple policy, the manager is an asshole. When they called Apple, they were apologized to and told they could buy the iPad online. I really didn't think the OP was prohibitively long so I'm not sure why so many people replying didn't read it.

 

[MetatronM]

Of course it's not actual policy, as stated by the... policy. But someone told these employers in two different stores not to sell to Iranians. I'm not saying it's from the top of the top, but whoever trains them is probably the one spreading these "policies."

Right, it's some dumbass in middle management with poor reading comprehension. Who is probably about to be fired.

 

[andycapps]

Sounds like the manager interpreted the Apple policy more strictly than he should have. Sounds like there was also some ambiguity in Apple's policies that led him to this decision. The result of breaking federal law (his fear) is obviously huge, but now they have to worry about a civil suit from these people.

 

[AndyD]

U Madinejad?

Gotta say I loled.

I used to work across from the mall in the OP years and years ago.

 

[krae_man]

Amazing. It isn't an Apple policy, the manager is an asshole. When they called Apple, they were apologized to and told they could buy the iPad online. I really didn't think the OP was prohibitively long so I'm not sure why so many people replying didn't read it.

I read it quite well:

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.

The phone person saying "Buy it online" is not the same thing as "we have no such policy, you should not have been refused service".

It sounds more like providing an alternative(online is automated, as long as the mailing address isn't to Iran, the order will go through) without really addressing what happened in the store.

 

[MaverickHunterX]

Not sure if you ever worked retail but "general policies" in retail stores are very fluid and rarely down in some book. For instance when I worked a very short stint at Radio Shack i was told not to sell Go Phones or any other pay as you go phones to "anyone that looked foreign, especially europeans" because they would buy them in mass and take them back overseas for their SIM chips. It was not a written policy you would find on their website or anywhere but its what was spread down from higher ups, down to DM's who then told it to employee's in the stores.

My question to this is that instead of racial profiling, why not limit the number of phones that could be sold to said party at one time? Kinda like how best buy has that little disclaimer on the bottom of their ads that says "limit of 3, no dealers, etc."

 

[Az]

When I saw the new iPad... Iran.... amirite??

hahahha
haha
h

 

[Makoto]

When I saw the new iPad... Iran.... amirite??

hahahha
haha
h

 

[Esiquio]

Why is there an issue with taking electronics back to Iran?

Really? If you read the news, you'd know! Trade sanctions, same as with countries like Syria and North Korea.

 

[KHarvey16]

I read it quite well:



The phone person saying "Buy it online" is not the same thing as "we have no such policy, you should not have been refused service".

It sounds more like providing an alternative(online is automated, as long as the mailing address isn't to Iran, the order will go through) without really addressing what happened in the store.

The important sentence is the one immediately following what you bolded.

 

[blahblah...blah]

I would just like to throw my weight behind the group of people who thinks that half of this thread is full of absolute fucking numbnuts. Of course Apple won't refuse to serve Iranians - we would have heard about this before, if that were genuinely the case. It's merely an instance of an employee misunderstanding something.

I know a lot of people here hate Apple (I own a few of their products but consider myself rather indifferent), but don't jump on any bandwagon fueled by misinformation because of this hate. Most of you probably consider yourselves intelligent, start acting that way.

 

[BrLvgThrChmstry]

Holy -- I use to work at this location. Lol. And this is really no surprise...

 

[krypt0nian]

Nothing to do with Apple? They are Apple employees, at two different stores. Someone higher up must be enforcing this policy locally at those stores.

Wow, you're dumb.