To curb “money changers”, Apple temporarily freezes exchanges for products purchased in Hong Kong

Even though it is on the other side of the world, we regularly follow Apple's adventures (and misfortunes) in China as it is a crucial place for Ma in all aspects but mainly because it influences the company's financial part.

With all the feedback she receives, there is always a nudes, something that ends up harming her in several factors and has worldwide reverberation. One of the major problems faced a few years ago in the country is the large operation of “money changers” in the launch of devices.

The bastards they buy a very large volume of units (running out or leaving stocks of new devices very low) and, if they are unable to resell everything they have purchased, go back and return the surplus. The operation ends up being successful, since Ma's exchange policy is quite generous and allows any customer to regret a purchase up to 14 days after made, with or without an explicit reason for doing so.

A Hong Kong “money changer” was seen “walking strangely” across the Chinese border in 2015; Is he not looking like a Megazord? 😝 | Image: South China Morning Post

To prevent this from happening, Apple has temporarily froze the possibility of returns in Hong Kong starting today (8/15), as reported on this page. The exception to the rule applies only for exchanges of defective products.

All products purchased at the Apple Store in Hong Kong cannot be returned or exchanged. Except that defective products may be exchanged. The content on this page applies to all online orders placed on and after August 15, 2017.

According to the Chinese newspaper South China Morning Post, this would be a way to prevent "money changers" from ending up with the probably limited stock of "iPhone 8" and the other iPhones that will be launched this year.

The same measure was already adopted last year, in the period preceding the launch of the iPhone 7 and, let's face it, did not prevent them from doing "business" at the door of the Apple Stores. O MacRumors he mentioned that, at the time, the “black market” sold the new devices for about HK $ 15 thousand (more than R $ 6 thousand!).

In the country, the return policy when it is active is a little stricter: if there are purchases of more than four products, “only” seven days are given for the exchange and there is a 25% fee for refilling per unit.

Since China is really a large area of “Face-of-pauzisse” when it comes to money changers, it makes sense for Apple to adopt these measures. However, we see similar movements in several places such as the United States, France, Germany and so many others that this serves as a warning for all these places.