Unofficial Apple store ‘We don’t sell fakes’

Earlier in the week we reported on a fake Apple store in China which has been the centerpoint of media frenzy in the last couple of days.

Leading news organisation Reuters decided to investigate the store and they found that while customers were angry, staff were defiant.

After the media attention which alerted customers that the store was not official – customers returned demanding refunds for products purchased.

A customer called Wang told Reuters “When I heard the news I rushed here immediately to get the receipt, I am so upset. With a store this big, it looks so believable who would have thought it was fake?”

Wang spent over $2,000 on a new MacBook Pro 13 inch and a 3G iPhone from the store and she wasn't issued a receipt at the time. Staff told her to come back later.

Wang returned and started shouting at the employees demanding her receipt. She was apparently taken upstairs to a room. We would assume to keep the noise from the main shop floor.

Staff of the store were apparently enraged at the attention after the BirdAbroad blog started the story.

One unnamed employee spoke to Reuters and said “The media is painting us to be a fake store but we don't sell fakes, all our products are real, you can check it yourself. “There is no Chinese law that says I can't decorate my shop the way I want to decorate it.”

It raises an interesting point however. Apple seem to be very tight lipped over the unauthorised store, which is blatantly trying to give the impression of being a genuine dealer. Employees are wearing the official Apple shirts, with logo and the store is decorated to exactly the same specifications as a legitimate dealership.

Reuters claim however that there are some slight differences “The fake Apple Store is situated along a crowded pedestrian-only shopping street, its black Apple logo gleaming. Inside, with its Apple posters on the walls and iPads and Macbook computers displayed on wooden tables, the store looks every bit like Apple Stores found all over the world but for some slightly shoddy workmanship and one or two errant details.”

Research has proved that there are only four genuine Apple stores in Beijing and Shanghai and none in Kunming.

Kitguru says: We wonder if their warranty terms will honour the official Apple terms.

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