Doctor decries Apple gift card discount 'scam' after failing to understand the terms of the deal

This will shock you, but it's possible that experts on TikTok might not know what they're talking about. That's even when the expert is Dr Mara Einstein, a professor at Queens College, CUNY, who says she's an "ex-TV/ad exec turned marketing critic."

Dr Einstein, who presents seminars on marketing trickery, added a video about Apple to her TikTok channel. As she tells it, she bought an iPad and was stung by the "deceptive marketing" that meant Apple offered her a free $100 gift card but then charged her for it.

"If this did happen to you, do contact the FTC and let's make sure Apple isn't doing this to anybody else," she says in the video, with a completely straight face. So far the video has had 19,000 views and seemingly no comments pointing out that she should have read her credit card statement before filming it.

That's because if she had read it, Dr Einstein would have seen that the total she paid was precisely the amount she expected. She got her iPad at the educational discount price, and she still has a $100 gift card.

What Apple does is make two charges on a credit card. Dr Einstein will see that the first one is for her iPad — and that it is $100 less than she was expecting to pay. Then the second charge is $100, which is ascribed to the gift card, which brings the total up to exactly the advertised price.

It could all be clearer, but as any marketing expert ought to be able to tell you, it's done this way for a really specific and necessary reason. If Apple simply billed the full amount for the iPad and gave away the $100 gift card, someone could redeem that card but also return the iPad.

Dr Einstein even says that Apple told her this when she phoned to complain. She also appears to say that she got them to "get rid of that" $100 apparent charge, and seems convinced that this worked.

She's the one who scammed Apple, not the other way around. And, worst yet, she doubled down on her "analysis" of the situation.

So she should really now read her next credit card statement properly, too.

Dr Einstein got her iPad through Apple's educational discount. Apple always offers students and educators a discount, but particularly at Back to School time of the year, includes gift cards as an incentive.