Apple Store in Georgia Turns Away Farsi-speaking Customer

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drwho1

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So if I go to the store and I speak in Spanish (which I do), and someone thinks that I might be Cuban
(which I'm not) I would not be able to buy a thing on that store.

Oh wait, this is an Apple store... never mind, never cared for their products anyways.
 

fudoka711

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but if its against the policy of Apple to sell its products to people from those nations...how would that work when purchasing something online? What's stopping them? And yes, we're assuming someone actually wants to buy one of their products.

Funny how Apple doesn't support communist nations and also singles out everyone of Iranian descent even though we know not all Iranian's are terrorists. All the while Apple makes over 50% profits off their iPads which are made in China under grueling working conditions and pay (no matter what any committee tells us...its way worse than it would be if it were manufactured in the USA, Canada, or Europe).
 

Pinhedd

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[citation][nom]drwho1[/nom]So if I go to the store and I speak in Spanish (which I do), and someone thinks that I might be Cuban (which I'm not) I would not be able to buy a thing on that store.Oh wait, this is an Apple store... never mind, never cared for their products anyways.[/citation]

Cubans who reach America are considered political refugees
 

Cy-Kill

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The worst thing about this is, that she is an American citizen, and they are refusing to sell to her because she's an Iranian-American.
 

halcyon

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[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]it's Georgia. no surprise there[/citation]
You're right...one of our more "backwards" states. ...makes the whole US look bad...something we don't need help with.
 

southernshark

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[citation][nom]Cy-Kill[/nom]The worst thing about this is, that she is an American citizen, and they are refusing to sell to her because she's an Iranian-American.[/citation]

Actually its not. They asked her what she was going to do with it and she said ship it to Iran. It would actually have been illegal to sell it to her, since the USA has a trade embargo with Iran. It also violated company policy.

If she had said, use it....... then it would have been ok.
 

whimseh

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Wait wait wait, it's actually not the Apple store, they are following government placed embargoes that are ON Iran. She wanted to give it to her friend in Iran, you can't do that. As usual the media puts this on Apple instead of our crappy government and the "Apple haters" come out of the woodwork bashing them. Look, Apple is making way more money than you ever will 999999 billion lifetimes over. Anyway, instead of bashing Apple, take it up with the US government. :)
 

whimseh

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Also, any store should be able to turn away anyone they don't want to sell products to.
If I had a business and I don't want to sell stuff to some deep-woods hoodrat then I shouldn't have to.
 

raytseng

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it is not about politics, it is about US Government Law and the company facing huge fines or losing your export privileges or ability to do any business with Federal entities.

Every tech company which produces software or goods has powerpoint presentations or videos that top to bottom every employee watches.

But this shows the particular store's low intelligence and interpretting the policies the wrong way rather then saying let me check with Legal team or my Export contact.

At least it is just a PR disaster and not anything legally wrong.
 

LePhuronn

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[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]it's Georgia. no surprise there[/citation]

[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]You're right...one of our more "backwards" states. ...makes the whole US look bad...something we don't need help with.[/citation]

Couldn't work out for a minute if it was Georgia the US state or Georgia the country - I had to check lol

Still, this is more about ignorance of people than Apple, and I'd be surprised if the sales reps directly recognised the language as Farsi, or just saw a not-quite-white person talking "that there terrorists mutterings" and instantly thought there was a bomb somewhere...
 

altriss

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[citation][nom]LePhuronn[/nom]Couldn't work out for a minute if it was Georgia the US state or Georgia the country - I had to check lolStill, this is more about ignorance of people than Apple, and I'd be surprised if the sales reps directly recognised the language as Farsi, or just saw a not-quite-white person talking "that there terrorists mutterings" and instantly thought there was a bomb somewhere...[/citation]
you're forgetting the mighty Siri! They now have the language detector app. You speak any language near the Iphone 4SS and it screams in German the name of the country you're coming from.
By the way I agree with raytseng, even if they were especially stupid this is a matter of law. So stop yelling at Aple for pointing out communism, if you really want the north Korean to get Aple products you should yell at the US government.
The real problem here is the fact that Aple associate language and nationality, which is an unforgivable mistake from my point of view.
 

bit_user

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Ironically, Steve Jobs was half Lebanese. I know Lebanon and Iran are very different countries, but I'll bet the same store would have turned away people speaking Arabic.
 

JamesBondage

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hittin Georgia for this? Seems APPLE is the one to blame. But it sound like something tech guys would do. go after the southern states when the northern states are the ones with the biggest and most close minded A-holes in the country.
 

dizzy_davidh

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Being from the UK it may sound strange to US and other international folk that it sounds very odd when someone says they are 'anything' - American, as in Cuban-American, Iranian-American etc.

Outside the new-world migrants aren't routinely (or ever) labelled with their ethnic history and their citizenship details. I would be an 'Irish-Britain' in that were the case and I've never heard of a 'French-German', for example.

If you are a citizen of a country then that is what you are, in both cases related to Apple, the customers are simply American and that is all there is too it and should have been the end to the problem and their ethnic origin should never have been called into question.

When it comes to matters of cultural identity then it is clearly of importance but as this issue specifically relates to Apple's unwillingness to sell goods to citizens of countries it doesn't agree with the customer should just use simply explain they are American and insist that their grievance be taken up by a higher-power (or else!), plain and simple.

Rather than see the incidents as a racial matter turn the argument around and make it one of consumerism and hit Apple where it hurts. The customer could potentially sue Apple or take the issue up with the feds as according to the Federal Civil Rights Act;

people are guaranteed the right to "full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin."

Surely Apple are therefore breaking Federal Law by refusing to sell on grounds of racial bias which would quash\trump any claim to the 'right of first refusal' that any retailer could argue was theirs to employ?
 

bee144

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So many noobs here. Pay attention now... It's not Apple's policy to refuse sales to these countries... It's the US LAW not to sell goods to those countries. Apple could be fined if they are caught assisting in the export of goods to blacklisted countries
 

dizzy_davidh

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[citation][nom]dizzy_davidh[/nom]...people are guaranteed the right to "full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation"[/citation]

I should explain that 'Accommodation' in context of the law is the and nothing to do with a place to stay - such as hotel (although it can be applied to such services).
 
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