

Chinese scalpers booking up all Genius Bar appointments and selling online - jack-r-abbit
http://9to5mac.com/2013/07/29/chinese-scalpers-booking-up-all-genius-bar-appointments-selling-online/

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mhb
Reminiscent of the old one-trip salad bar ploy:

[http://kotaku.com/how-chinese-ingenuity-destroyed-salad-
bars...](http://kotaku.com/how-chinese-ingenuity-destroyed-salad-bars-at-
pizza-hut-834835079)

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chollida1
Stanford teaches an entrepreneurial course. During one of the courses students
were given $5 to use to make money.

The group that made the most money did so by getting reservations to
restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights and then selling them to groups who
didn't have reservations.

I thought it was clever when I first heard about it but this type of thing is
old hat by now:)

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aryastark
pretty sure Dwight did this (The Office, US version). That's where I first
remember hearing it

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thematt
Interesting, I don't remember that. I do, however, remember him buying up all
the unicorn dolls at Christmas and then scalping them to last-minute parents.

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jack-r-abbit
Brilliant! Is this actually illegal? I don't own any Apple products and have
never booked a Genius Bar appointment so I don't know the terms of that
booking. Maybe there is something in the fine print that your appointment is
non-transferable? I wish the article went into more details about if this is
illegal or just frowned upon. My gut tells me it is a loop hole that Apple
will either change... or not care about. :)

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archgoon
Apple clearly does not wish to make money off Genius Bar appointments; if they
did, they'd charge a fee. They're providing it as a service to their customers
to improve their experience. This is akin to taking food from a soup kitchen
and reselling it at the market rate. Nothing 'brilliant' about it.

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pessimizer
If you can figure out how to take food from a soup kitchen, sell it at the
market rate, and make a profit, you're brilliant.

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jlgreco
Stand in front of the soup kitchen with a bat, declare the kitchen to be
"yours", and demand people pay you tribute for admission.

That doesn't make you a genius, just an asshole.

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chrischen
That would make you arrested.

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jlgreco
In an ideal world, yes. Homeless people are frequently preyed upon though,
particularly in less developed parts of the world.

At a much different scale, consider warlords that sell intercepted donated
food to the people it was meant to go to for free. They aren't geniuses, just
_massive_ assholes.

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gonzo
Capitalism in action.

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breakupapp
Why don't you just check the names?

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jack-r-abbit
> _The reporter was sent login details for the booking by instant messenger,
> and was then able to access the booking on the Apple site to change the
> details to their own._

Once you buy the slot, you get access to it to change the name.

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chrisbennet
The scalpers are just "adding liquidity to the market". /sarcasm

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o0-0o
Clones will be clones.

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rorrr2
Charge a fee and refund to the person that shows up.

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EliRivers
I'll still turn a profit; I'll just charge the actual customer what I was
charged, plus a profit, plus some extra to cover slots I don't sell (or,
alternatively, I'll just come in to those slots myself to pick up the refund).

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toomuchtodo
Charge a fee. Require the credit card used to make reservation to be
physically present to use the reservation.

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kalleboo
I wonder what the credit card ownership rate is in China

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wisty
Quite small. But everyone has a government-issued ID card, with a unique
number. Except foreigners, most of whom complain about people telling them
that their passport isn't an acceptable ID (at places like internet cafes,
where registration is required for obvious reasons).

