Gift card for education discount

Oh. My. God...

This has to be one of the worst representations of a "promotion" I've ever seen. I've just spent the better part of 2 hours on chat / phone with apple support reps in order to finally make this make sense.

As others have correctly stated, the "gift" card is indeed purchased by, and invoiced to, the customer. I was also able to confirm that the cost of the qualifying product (in my case a MacBook Air) is reduced by an amount equal to the promotional card. While this essentially validates the promotion advertised, there are three caveats that make this incredibly (and unnecessarily) confusing for the end-user:

1. The language used in the advertising of this offer uses the terms "New Student Discount", as well as "Promotional Gift Card". A deep-dive into the TOC reveals that these terms both refer to the gift card purchase and corresponding product discount. In my case, what I felt was clearly advertised as a $300 savings was actually half that.
2. While the separate invoicing of the gift card is confusing enough on its own, it's made exponentially confusing by the fact that Apple's invoices do not offer ANY indication of the price reduction on the qualifying product! It is displayed on the order status page as small red subtext, but NOT on the invoice. Using the invoices exclusively, there is absolutely zero reference indicating that the qualifying item's price was reduced. My Apple account order status page is the only reference I could find indicating that my net cost for the macbook was $929.00. On the invoice, the item price is shown as $1,079.00, both on the line item entry and the subtotal.
3. To add to the frustration, I never actually received the gift card!!!! After the initial purchase, and again after speaking to support reps, I received emails stating "Your gift card has been sent", with nothing further. I was eventually given the card's numeric code verbally by one of the agents.

This promotion is confusing, deceptively complicated, and in my opinion, purposely misleading.

You pay for the gift card and the price of the device is reduced by an equal amount.

For example. With no promotion, a MacBook Air with education discount is $900. You pay $900.

With the promotion, you still pay $900 but you get both the computer (for $800) and the gift card (say $100 in this example) -- a total of $1,000 in value but you still only pay $900.

Hey Krystal, I agree with you. Apple does a lot of things really well, but explaining in advance this gift card with the education discount is not one of them! This is on the borderline of deceptive advertising. Like you, I just noticed a $100 charge on my Apple Card for the month of August, and I was sure I did not buy anything for exactly $100. I was about to call Goldman Sachs and dispute the charge, but I decided to search online and see if anyone else had been charged like this. And here I find your post. Note that if you look at my recent purchase for an iPad with AppleCare+, you'd swear I bought it for $808, which is what my invoice from Apple shows, and this is the amount that appears on my Apple Card statement. But then there is the separate charge for $100 for the value of the gift card. I have no idea why Apple or Goldman feel it is necessary to give you a "fake discount" of $100 on the original equipment purchase and then turn right around and charge you back for the $100 discount. I hope they have a good excuse like preventing fraud or abuse. I did just look at the footnote #1 at the bottom of the Apple education purchase page. It is much longer than this, but it starts out saying, "Qualified Purchasers receive an Apple Gift Card when they purchase an eligible Mac or iPad at a Qualifying Location through 10/2/23. Only one Apple Gift Card per eligible Mac or iPad per Qualified Purchaser. Offer subject to availability. While supplies last. Qualified Purchasers shall receive a discount equal to the value of the Apple Gift Card off the price of the eligible Mac or iPad, but will be charged for all items in their cart, including the Apple Gift Card." I added the bold font to the last sentence. So it is like "muguy" wrote earlier in this thread, but nevertheless, it's very confusing. I thought I had purchased the iPad for $808, but once Apple dinged me for the $100 gift card, I was right back up to $908. Granted, had I not used the education pricing, I would have paid $978 and also not had the $100 gift card. But I am disappointed in Apple for making it so confusing.

Agree this is incredibly confusing and the end result is you have actually paid the full price for the product, but you've received a gift card you didn't order. The price of the product is discounted but you are charged the same amount for a gift card separately, so it zeroes out.

I ordered an iPad with this offer, and added a pencil thinking this would be a nice bonus given I was getting a "discount" on the iPad - then the billing came through and I've been charged separately for the gift card. I've been on the phone with Apple help this morning trying to explain to them how confusing this offer is. If their "offer" had been clear I would have waited till the gift card came through and then used it to pay for the pencil.

I asked if they could refund me $160 from the pencil and allocate the gift card to it. This was apparently not possible because the item had already shipped. Their only resolution offered was to return my pencil once it arrived, and use the gift card to order a new one - what a waste of time, energy and resources.

The person on the phone was very nice and even sympathised but ultimately could do nothing about it. It seems this "educational offer" is at best worded confusingly, or at worst deliberately misleading - and the end result is people paying the same price and buying more apple products with a gift card they didn't need in the first place - well done apple marketing!

You are charged for the gift card and separately for the product minus $100.

You get education pricing on the product and a $100 gift card. But, you only pay the total amount of the product; the gift card is a bonus.