We’ve all been there. It’s 3am and you’re doing nothing but watching TV, questioning why you’re still awake, and eating ice cream out of the tub (I said out of the tub, not in the tub. You’re not that pathetic). And as we all know, there isn’t much on TV at that hour besides extremely entertaining (and strangely persuasive) infomercials.
In the hours that you’ve been watching these infomercials, you’ve seriously considered ordering some Pajama Jeans (for those of us who know pants are necessary but don’t really like them). You’re fairly certain that you would look like a very attractive Teletubbie in your Forever Lazy. And as you drift in and out of sleep, you’re not sure if you are purchasing a blender or should be expecting a ninja to come over and chop vegetables for you. The point is, we’ve all bought a few of these things, and inevitably they now sit in the back of our closets as we continue to make our “easy payments” on these, uh, “cherished” items.
But a few networks (such as HSN and QVC) sell products all the time, so you don’t have to wait until 3 am! I mean, where else but QVC can you purchase a Quacker Factory sweater, a pig shaped container to hold your salt, and gourmet peanut butter all in the same place? Now you can also purchase an iMac—but we really, really do not recommend it. Well, we do recommend purchasing an iMac… just not from QVC.
Macs are great products and beautiful machines and are definitely worth the investment. But while Apple sells the base model iMac 21.5” 2.7 GHz i5 for $1299, QVC is selling the same version for $2000. QVC’s version does come with an uncomfortable looking pair of headphones though. It also comes with an Apple Wireless Mouse and Keyboard, an Ethernet cable, and 4-Port USB hub. With your QVC iMac purchase, you also receive some awkward software on an SD card, such as Hoyle Card Games and Mac Fonts. However, in no way are these add-on’s (most of which you probably don’t want anyway) worth an extra $700.
If you would like to spend even more money with QVC, the next iMac model (the 21.5” 2.9 GHz i5) comes with all of the above plus cleaning spray and a power strip! You can add the power strip to that box in your garage that is completely dedicated to power strips that we already don’t use! Yes, for the faster processor, cleansing spray, and power strip, you can pay $289 more than they charge for the base model for a grand total of $2,289. Apple’s version of the 2.9 GHz? $1499. For the faster processor, Apple only charges $200 more than the base model. Which means QVC is in fact charging $89 for cleaning spray and a power strip. (Seriously?! That cleaning spray better be made out of unicorn tears…).
The QVC sales pitch on the iMac is rather convincing, especially at 3 am. They highlight a lot of positives about owning a Mac—and it is a great thing. But before you think about purchasing your iMac from QVC, do your research and get the best value. And if you still feel compelled to impulse buy from one of these home shopping networks, just step away from the iMacs and stick to the metal squirrel fan instead.
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the 27″ is even a bigger rip off $1,899.99 at best buy VS $3,069.96 at qvc
Speaking of iMacs, are you guys ever going to offer turnkey upgrades for the current generation? What about internal SSD upgrades like you do for the rMBP?
The current iMacs offer some special challenges for the SSD aspect and we’re still working on the full program. The only turnkey service we could offer right now is for the HDD. But Turn key is coming.