Apple $10k winner hangs up on 'prank caller'
Spend it all on us
An Apple customer nearly missed out on a $10,000 gift card from the company, after she was convinced that her daughter – who had downloaded the 10 billionth app from the iPhone maker's store – had received a "prank call".
Cult of Mac reports that Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, took the call from Apple before promptly ending it because she thought she was being harangued by a time-wasting prankster.
“I thought it was a prank call,” said Davis. "I said ‘Thank you very much, I’m not interested’ and I hung up.”
Her daughter was the lucky soul to have purchased the 10 billionth app from Apple's store with her purchase of the virtual paper airplane app "Paper Glider".
Having hung up on what turned out to be a legit Apple rep, Davis frantically tried to phone the company back, after her daughters told her the "prank" may have been genuine.
Eventually, the astro-turfing heart-warming story met a happy ending when Apple's very own iTunes veep Eddy Cue put in a call to the Davis household to save the day.
Less excitingly, the generous $10k figure only applies to purchases made via Apple's own iTunes store. Which is kind of like ring-fencing one customer to never swerve from Cupertino's shop window again. ®
COMMENTS
"How are you going to spend 10k$ on fart apps?"
I'd write my own fart app, set the price at $10k, then buy it. (Probably get a few idiots buying it too as a "joke" and forgetting that Apple keeps their payment details on file)
Then I'd go out and buy a dueling glove and slap Steve Jobs right in the face with it. I dare say the flesh from his cheek would probably fall off in the process and then I'd feel a bit sick and wish I hadn't done it. That's if he doesn't regenerate, liquid metal man style.
Then a dollar sign would flash up on his chest, he would shout "DIRECTIVE" in a weird robotic voice and immediately start bin raiding.
creepy motherfucker.
Woo!
Raw British cynicism at its best! Someone calls to say you've won a prize; we immediately assume that it's a con. Makes me proud to be English! Had the winner been over the Pond in the Colonies you wouldn't have been able to do anything for all the high-fiving...
Stiff upper lip icon??
WTF?
You can only spend it in the iTunes store. What a bunch of tight arses. They could have at least made it valid the apple store. How are you going to spend 10k$ on fart apps ?
RE: "How are you going to spend 10k$ on fart apps ?"
Exactly, you can't.
They don't actually want to give anything away, you know. They just wanted the free publicity from El Reg and others -- the misunderstanding may or may not have been in some way engineered or anticipated by their marketing team, who knows?
Sign of the times...
Dunno about anyone else, but I get these kinds of calls all the time:
"Congratulations (in metallic recorded voice) you have won a prize" from a competition I didn't enter.
I'm not surprised that the lady cut them off. I've started getting abusive, at least if there is a human n the other end.
