suspicious characters at the apple store

Yesterday I was at the apple store, and I saw something that grabbed my attention. I had noticed a couple walk in and talk to a rep, and then within 5 mins they had a 24" iMac and a printer picked out. The female said she wanted a webcam, and the sales man had to tell her it was built into the computer. The male started grabbing games out of the display racks without looking at the back for the price or what the game was about. He grabbed 10 in less then 1 min. When asked if they wanted anything else the female said she wanted an iPod, and got the 80gig. They payed in cash, and were out of the store within about 15 mins of walking in. It really seemed strange, because they didn't seem to know anything about the computers, and were grabbing items at random without even looking at the price. I know there are alot of things that could have been going here, but it seemed strange at the least.

That's happened to me at RadioShack. One day, we had a couple come in and buy all three iPods we had (a 30 gig video and two 2 gig nanos). Then for each one they bought our most expensive speaker set, a case, car chargers, iTrip FM tuners, and they also got a portable DVD player. The total of the sale was over $1,300 USD. She gave me a credit card, when I ran it the computer told me the transaction was declined, as I thought it would be. So I called the credit card company number on the back to see what was going on and she stopped me and said she'd just grab her checkbook. When she went out to her car to grab it, she just took off and never came back. A few hours later, I got a call from the credit card company asking me to describe the two people because the card they used had been stolen from a person at Wal-Mart only ten minutes before they came to my store. Because of that episode, I'm always suspicious of people who seem in a hurry and make big purchases.

But for you, since they paid cash as you say, there's no real thing you can do about that. There's no way to find out if the cash was stolen, and the Apple reps can't refuse service because the purchase is so large.

Sachsr1 said:

Yesterday I was at the apple store, and I saw something that grabbed my attention. I had noticed a couple walk in and talk to a rep, and then within 5 mins they had a 24" iMac and a printer picked out. The female said she wanted a webcam, and the sales man had to tell her it was built into the computer. The male started grabbing games out of the display racks without looking at the back for the price or what the game was about. He grabbed 10 in less then 1 min. When asked if they wanted anything else the female said she wanted an iPod, and got the 80gig. They payed in cash, and were out of the store within about 15 mins of walking in. It really seemed strange, because they didn't seem to know anything about the computers, and were grabbing items at random without even looking at the price. I know there are alot of things that could have been going here, but it seemed strange at the least.

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Was the ink dry on the bills they gave you?

Excellent question Dillinger-63!

I wasn't the salesperson I was buying my new mac, but they did use the brown pen on the bills to see if they were legit.

I also worked at a Radio Shack back in the day and I had a guy come in and buy a 500-600 digital camera within 5 minutes, I didn't even have to do the usual sales pitch, he just "wanted" it. So I figured well okay maybe he's been looking at it for a couple of days and finally knows what he wants. So he bought it with his credit card, no problems at all. About a week later he returned it for a full refund.

Turns out I had just started and the manager finally got a hold of me and told me he would always buy something really expensive and go out and play with it. Then he would return it a couple of days later and he had done it to numerous items.

todd51 said:

I also worked at a Radio Shack back in the day and I had a guy come in and buy a 500-600 digital camera within 5 minutes, I didn't even have to do the usual sales pitch, he just "wanted" it.

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I donno about any one else on these boards.. But when I want something, electronic in particular, that I really want and have been wanting for a while. I generally know how much to the dime it's going to cost, and make it an in-out deal so I can get home and play with it.

However, what your manager told you seems legit.

Your right punk I'm the same way, and I payed cash for my mac also. What got me was the fact that they didn't know there was a webcam, and the way the guy grabbed games without even looking at the price or what the game was about. When I use to work at K-mart we would get these people coming in about 20 mins before closing and walk down the aisles grabbing random high dollar items, and then try to use a check. It could have been legit, but my spidey sense told me it was wrong. They looked like they were spending someone elses money

When I got my iMac G5 iSight and iBook 1.33 12", I had been putting the $$$ together for a long time. I had it all CASH. I knew JUST what I wanted. Walked in, told them, they got me the Mac, I handed them the Cash and I was gone and on my way home to finally enjoy the Macs I had waited years to purchase!!

That is the way I usually am though, but that is me.

I do the same thing when it comes to well-researched items.

However, there's a big difference between suspicious and being determined

Kash said:

I do the same thing when it comes to well-researched items.

However, there's a big difference between suspicious and being determined

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True, true.
I'm one of those determined shoppers...research, research, go in, buy, go out, play with purchase .
But yeah, having been a retail lacky in my past, I'd also say those people definitely fit the 'suspicious' category.

If they were determined, they would've known about the Webcam. Really weird.

One other possibility if you are in the southern part of the US. Many affluent from Mexico come up here to shop. Much of the electronics are less expensive here (they say, don't know for myself) or are just not available in Mexico. Most are shopping for themselves, but many buy and then resell in Mexico. Have seen many of these type of shoppers, in and out of stores very quick.

I worked in Fort Lauderdale at a hotel. A lot of people would come up from South America, hit all the big electronics stores, stuff all the laptops, DVD players, game consoles, cameras and anything else into their bags before heading home.

My guess is either they have big familys who love electronics, or they resell them.