Apple has rolled back an unpopular change that would have required education customers to verify their eligibility for discounts on products such as Macbooks.
The company had introduced new rules recently that required shoppers to prove they were involved in education, or studying, to qualify for discounts on a range of Apple products.
However MacRumors has spotted that Apple no longer requires US customers to verify their status following major pushback that seems to have forced Apple into a U-turn within just a few days.
Apple discounts
While UK customers have previously had to verify Apple Education purchases through services such as UNiDAYS and Student Beans, in the US things have been quite different: no verification was needed to qualify for the 10% discounts on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, and almost all other Apple devices.
According to Apple Track, on top of verification, customers have also been limited to one desktop, one Mac mini, one MacBook, two iPads, and two accessories per year. The limit appears to remain in place even as the verification requirement has been lifted.
One of the central issues was that UNiDAYS, Apple’s partner for verification, was down for many potential education customers when Apple introduced the requirement. The issues especially affected teachers, who needed to provide a student ID, something that was clearly not possible.
Apple has said nothing publicly about the reversal but tests show that US customers no longer need to verify who they are to qualify. It remains unclear if Apple is working to reintroduce verification in a different form.
The current system remains fairly easy to exploit and in some cases doesn’t even require a .edu email address. Given that many Apple products are expensive, getting a 10% discount is very, very enticing.
Some have pointed out that Apple’s 10% discount is often beaten by third-party retailers during the school shopping season, which is something to keep in mind when searching for Apple products.
