Apple closed a loophole in the US that allowed buyers to take advantage of its educational prices, even if they weren’t students or teachers. Like got that by a Redditor, the US Apple Store now requires buyers to check their status via UNiDAYS so they can buy MacBooks, iPads and other devices from their education portal. The tech giant’s education discount typically cuts 10% off a device’s original retail price. It applies to currently enrolled and newly accepted college or university students, as well as teachers and faculty/staff at a school of any grade.
The change happened sometime in the last few days, based on snapshots from the Wayback Machine, which doesn’t show the UNiDAYS verification requirement even in its last log of January 17th. Prior to this change, Apple does not require its US customers to verify their status, unlike its stores for other locations such as the UK which have long required UNiDAYS authentication. It didn’t even ask for an .edu email address. The company simply checks customers occasionally at random and then charges their credit card the difference if it determines that they are not actually eligible for the education discount.
Now, when shoppers go to the Apple Education website, they can’t even see the device listings. They will have to click to the UNiDAYS Partner Page for Apple first, where they need to login or register for verification. Once they’re in, they’ll be able to buy whatever they want, as long as they’re within the device limits for the promotion. Buyers can only take advantage of the discount for one desktop, one Mac mini, one laptop, two iPads and two accessories per year.
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