haha yeah i told them i was doing this explicitly as a protest to a silly wasteful policy. now the new laptop will have to go through whatever expensive inspection and refurbishing process.

The inconvenience is enough to deter some people that the policy ends up saving them money with probably minimal reputational damage (since the competition sucks so much)

SimpleStacker

Bought a Macbook Air on Tues for $1599.   Today Amazon (via Apple) and Best Buy are offering the same macbook for $1399.  Apple store goons only willing to offer me 10% off ($160) instead of the full price difference, insisting I need to bring the box in to process the "refund"- I will have to return and buy back at the discounted price.  So I am buying a new macbook online and returning this one as a form of protest.  What a dumb policy.