Bottom line: Now instead of shipping your Mac computer off to Apple and waiting three weeks for trade-in credit, you can take it directly to an Apple Store and get an in-store discount or Apple gift card immediately. But hold up, it's not all moonlight and canoes. Apple's recent cuts to trade-in values make it of questionable value unless you really hate selling stuff on eBay or Craiglist.
Apple will now allow customers to bring in their used Macs to get store credit on purchases. The company's trade-in program has given credit for lightly used iPhones and Macs for quite some time. However, while you can easily bring your last-gen iPhone into an Apple retail store to get a discount on the latest model, computers had to be shipped in to receive credit.
It was not the most convenient process, either. While Apple would email you a shipping label for free, You had to package it up and then wait for up to three weeks to receive your credit. Bloomberg reports that now you can bring in your iMac or any variety of MacBooks to a retail store, and staff will take it off your hands right there.
The amount of store credit (or gift card) you receive depends on the unit's age and model and is generally not nearly as much as you would get if you sold it, especially since the company recently slashed its trade-in values. So it's more of a convenience factor than a real value. Of course, the Mac has to be in usable condition to get any credit.
Apple has offered a free recycling program since 2006. It will provide a shipping label to send in your defunct computer regardless of manufacturer or condition and safely recycle it. It started giving credit for eligible products in 2014 and has played with the trade-in values over the years.
Editorial credit: pio3 / Shutterstock.com
Editorial credit: Hadrian / Shutterstock.com
https://www.techspot.com/news/85690-customers-can-now-trade-macs-apple-retail-stores.html
