As I was only a few days in New York with some collegaues, I could not get a genuine iPad from the AppleStore due to the long waiting list. While passing this store, I noticed that they had the iPad available. As of the moment you take a look some guys (in my case it was 'Andre') came up and said that they were going to close the storage at 12h for the annual inventory. He showed a flyer which announced a 30% discount on all products (including the iPad). Obviously, I became interested. He took a iPad from after the counter (in an orginal box) and showed it to me. It still had the plastics on it and it looked orginal (and turned out to be orginal as well). While looking at the iPad, he also proposed some other stuff such as a FM transmitter which allowed the iPad to run on a regular sound system. The price he mentioned verbally was 65$. He also showed a beamer which was sold at 2000$ (priced originally at 4000$). The iPad which is normally priced at 599$ was now priced at 399$. These guys are really good at this, they actually only show you prices, not what the price is for. Because I suspected that something was wrong, but I believed that the iPad would not be genuine. Once you decide to buy, there is a whole 'show' with getting your final device. I did not trust it at all and checked the merchandise several times. But what they actually do is that they charge you ridicilous prices for all the 'small' add-on'-s such as the FM transmitter. Note as well that they don't use an electronic credit card but the old paper system. They need your card for 'authorisation'. Since my collegaue was also looking for an Apple iPhone, this whole circus took a while. As we were pressed for time, I asked the guy to speed up. What I ended up with is that I payed for 1199.8$ for an iPad, an FM transmitter, a protection case and some cleaning material (which probably would be around 800$ tops in a regular store). I did not notice this at first as he put everything in the bag very quickly. When I used the card again to buy something else at another store, the card was over the limit. When I called to the credit company they had entered two transactions (one with the above figure and an additional amount which was probably the amount that my collegaue payed.
These guys are CRIMINALS and should be locked away. They make use of foreigners pressed for time and not entirely familiar with the local 'business practices'. What they do is FRAUDE and I hope from all my heart that they are seriously punished. They give New York (which is a great city) a really bad name. So, New-Yorkers do something about this!
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