Is Amazon Prime an authorized retailer for Apple iMac

Amazon Prime is not the seller. Check the listing more carefully. Just because something is Prime eligible does NOT necessarily mean it is sold by Amazon.

According to this, Amazon is an authorized reseller:

Amazon.com: The Apple Store: Electronics

So, Apple will honor the warranty. But, I prefer to buy directly from Apple; one reason: Apple has a no questions asked 14 day return policy if you find you don't like it or whatever - if you buy from a reseller, they will have their own policy.

I'd also strongly recommend buying directly from Apple. Your Amazon vendor likely doesn't offer a 14 no questions return policy as does Apple. If money is the reason you want to buy from Amazon then consider an Apple refurbished iMac. There is ZERO downside, they are identical to new, come with the same 1 year warranty, are eligible for AppleCare and can save hundreds of dollars and if your credit is good you can apply for financing.

You can find them on Apple's home web page under Refurbished and Clearance. If you don't find exactly what you want, check frequently as inventory changes VERY quickly.

Amazon being an authorized reseller does not necessarily mean the item the OP is looking at is being sold by Amazon. Amazon is little better than eBay these days... worse in some cases as many people don't realize that they are not buying from Amazon, but through Amazon...

KiltedTim wrote:

Amazon is little better than eBay these days...

Yup" The "last time" that we bought something from Amazon, there was no tracking it and some scuzzy looking dude in a beat-up plain white van delivered it. For us, it was the "last time" that we will ever buy anything from Amazon.

lol That has not been my experience. Of course "scuzzy" looking is relative. I have and will continue to purchase from Amazon. So will my neighbor across the street who seems to get something from Amazon on nearly a daily basis.

den.thed wrote:

KiltedTim wrote:

Amazon is little better than eBay these days...

Yup" The "last time" that we bought something from Amazon, there was no tracking it and some scuzzy looking dude in a beat-up plain white van delivered it. For us, it was the "last time" that we will ever buy anything from Amazon.

Amazon uses contract drivers to deliver packages from the local depot to the customer. It's kind of like working for Uber. I have a friend who does it to pick up extra money. Those folks always manage to get the packages to me on time. I can't say I care what the vehicle looks like. The understaffed postal service, on the other hand, has a habit of marking packages as "undeliverable" and holding them till the next day when, in fact, they just ran out of time.

All of my Amazon packages, regardless of carrier, get tracked. I get text messages when they are shipped and then again when they're delivered. If there's a problem, I get messaged about that. Possibly you don't have your notifications set up properly in your Amazon account?

I got a delivery this morning that had a missing item (23 cans of cat food in the case instead of 24). I called Amazon and they delivered a replacement case this afternoon (of the entire order, not just the missing item). In a scuzzy white van. I got a text, email and Alexa notification that it was on its way, and a text, email and Alexa notification when it was delivered. I also got a phone call from the driver saying he was at the door to my condo building with it; I told he he could just leave it.

CountryGirl56 wrote:

I agree, the Postal Service has been pathetic, to be kind.

I feel bad for my local postal carriers. I used to get may mail around 3pm. I'm lucky if I get it by 7p these days. The carriers walk around my neighborhood with headlamps. Apparently, there have been a lot of staffing cuts.

All of my Amazon packages, regardless of carrier, get tracked. I get text messages when they are shipped and then again when they're delivered. If there's a problem, I get messaged about that. Possibly you don't have your notifications set up properly in your Amazon account?

That's also been my experience, Amazon, regardless of carrier used are very reliable.

The last time I ordered something, I checked on the day of the announced delivery and - it was around 6 pm - it showed delivered. Which it was not - we were home the entire day and can see up/down the street. I checked and it said "delivered to central office in clubhouse". That was simply pure fiction - the community does have a clubhouse, but there is no one in attendance and no central office or any place to deliver a package. The contracted service (which we had dealt with previously and does arrive in a beat up white van) insisted that it was delivered - I insisted it was not. About 24 hours later, I got a call from someone more than half a mile away who said "I found 3 packages on my driveway; none of them are mine - there appears to be one for you" (we have a community phone book, so that is how they found my phone number). We picked it up - they had delivered 3 packages to a private residence in the general neighborhood, 1/2 mile from our house. So, they just dumped the packages at the first house when you drive into the community or they are unable to read/comprehend GPS instructions. Even though I could now prove that they did not deliver it to the specified address and simply lied with the "delivered to central office...", they continued to lie and kept insisting that they delivered it to the correct address. No apologies were offered.

I will never buy from any business again if they use that particular service (which was Ontrac).

babowa wrote:

I will never buy from any business again if they use that particular service (which was Ontrac).

Sadly, refusing to do business with a company that uses the U.S. Postal service isn't a practical option for me.

And, in all fairness, I have, on rare occasions, had issues with UPS and FedEx.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

CountryGirl56 wrote:

I agree, the Postal Service has been pathetic, to be kind.

I feel bad for my local postal carriers. I used to get may mail around 3pm. I'm lucky if I get it by 7p these days. The carriers walk around my neighborhood with headlamps. Apparently, there have been a lot of staffing cuts.

My mail used to come between 10 and 10:30 every morning, like clockwork... now, I'm lucky if it's been delivered by the time I get home from work... Was wondering what happened, then I saw this (yes... this is my neighborhood)

http://fox8.com/2018/01/18/north-olmsted-mail-carrier-accused-of-stealing-hundre ds-of-pieces-of-mail/

In my case, it wasn't the postal service - it was a contractor carrier named Ontrac. But, I haven't had too many positive experiences with USPS either. About 10+ years ago, our now retired carrier would either lose or whatever all of my investment income checks every month - I had to call the investment company > they'd wait 15 days > if I called back to tell them I still don't have it, they'd put a stop payment on it and issue another. This went on month after month until the postal inspection unit out of DC showed up and investigated her. Don't know what happened there as I had in the meantime changed to electronic deposits, but she did get to keep her job and retire with benefits (which was totally undeserved in my opinion). And, she had trouble reading as I (and all of my neighbors) would get someone else's mail consistently while also violating USPS policies by throwing all larger parcels in an open area of the clubhouse (publicly accessible building) rather then delivering them to the house. That stopped once the investigator had seen that.

Other than that, USPS has been acceptable.

I realize that - I wouldn't buy it there either; I did check a couple of entries and it mentioned "being sold by Amazon".