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Apple $500 DTK Program Asking for Returns – Giving $200USD Voucher

47 points by Mandatum ↗ HN
Just received an email from Apple regarding the DTK program returns, won't paste content in case they have stenographed the email (NDA'd). The program has been a joke from the start with minimal response from Apple. The developer forums are packed with complaints, hardware arriving DOA, endless reboots and no opportunity to return or refund out of the program.

Really surprised with Apple's handling here.

One of the most active threads with zero Apple input was asking "has the DTK program been set adrift" in the title with more than 2500 views.

I guess we have our answer.

13 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 38.7 ms ] thread
runjake
Haha, good luck with that.

They gave people free iMacs with the last DTK and still didn't get a ton of them returned. Instead, they flooded the eBay market.

immy
Those people may lose membership in Developer Program. Also, DTK will become less and less functional as it’s not supported by OS updates. But not a very strong incentive over laziness for someone who isn’t actually a developer.
runjake
Again, I'll point to the fact that even with an iMac for turning in an Intel DTK, Intel DTKs flooded the second-hand market for a while.

I turned my Intel DTK in, so I'm not sure whether Apple took away their dev access but it clearly wasn't a super effective deterrent.

sjwright
To everyone who dealt with faulty hardware, I think Apple should be quietly offering refunds (not just a store credit). But to everyone else, they received the service promised by Apple in full and should be stoked at this surprise $200 return incentive.

You can argue that the $500 price was too steep for a hardware loan, or that Apple should be offering a more generous incentive to return the device. I wouldn't disagree. But it's not like Apple was unclear about this.

https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/36365-67564-DTK-own...

https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*V6If2OIL4W223oGLzT5OrQ.pn...

flemhans
I feel like there would be less of a shitstorm if they hadn't offered the $200 at all, but instead just asked the developers to return them as per the agreement.
mproud
That’s ironic
sjwright
But probably true.

Though the real screw-up was not being more responsive to complaints of faulty hardware. It was unreasonable for developers to expect retail product levels of reliability from the DTK, but it was even more unreasonable for Apple to expect it. Therefore Apple should have expected a high fault rate and been ready with a low friction, no-excuses exchange policy.

Mandatum
I expected a year lease of a working computer. I got neither.
kingsleyopara
I find the $200 credit expiring by May 31st in particularly bad taste (doubt the new Mac's that developers would want to buy would even be out by then!)
vimy
It feels like a slap in the face.
lukeh
I'm kind of two minds here, the terms were clear from the start (it's a rental and the developer program is cheaper than it was at the time of the PowerPC to Intel transition).

On the other hand, it did spend a lot of its time spontaneously rebooting...

tubularhells
And this is why I don't support Apple devices.
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