We’ve officially passed the two-week return period for the Apple Vision Pro, allowing people who purchased the headset on launch day to return it. The buzz on social media has suggested that the Vision Pro was being returned en masse. However, internal sources suggest this may not be the case – and provide an interesting insight into who is returning their headset, and why.
In our Apple Vision Pro review, we discussed the positives and negatives of using the device and summarized our top three reasons why users would ultimately return the headset. As Apple’s first attempt at a mixed-reality headset, the product was always going to be quite polarizing. It lacks the familiarity that other Apple products, like a new iPhone or MacBook, always have at the moment.
Not to mention that the Apple Vision Pro is duration. Retailing at $3,499/£2,788, AU$6349, it’s easy to imagine more than a few returns being the result of buyer’s remorse – I know I’d sneak back to the Apple Store the moment I experienced even the slightest inconvenience or would experience annoyance (or look at the Apple Store). my bank account, to be honest). Especially when I couldn’t get my prescription for the headset or just found it very uncomfortable.
In fact, AppleInsider reached out to sources within Apple’s retail chain for more information about returning the headset and noted that inconvenience is probably one of the biggest concerns when it comes down to it. “The vast majority of our returns are within a day or two. It’s the people who are getting sick of it,” a source told AppleInsider’s Mike Wuerthele. ‘The vomiters, the people who are turned away by filling prescriptions, things like that. They know very quickly.’
Investments in influencers: you have to have that content!
The second group of people who seem to generate the majority of revenue are influencers and YouTubers. Again, the Vision Pro is a product that many people are eager to get their hands on, so it would make sense that online tech gurus would want to jump on the trend at launch.
With the two-week return period that Apple offers, that’s more than enough time to milk the headset for as much content as possible and then return it, and get your money back too. If you’re a tech content creator, it’s easier to think of the Vision Pro as a short-term investment rather than a personal splurge.
“It’s only the damn YouTubers so far,” a store employee told Wuerthele.
However, according to AppleInsider’s sources, the return process isn’t as simple as packing up and dropping off the headset. Each return is accompanied by a detailed, lengthy investigation that allows users to delve deeper into the reason for the return and their experience with the product. This is great news in the long term, as it could mean that future versions of the Apple Vision Pro will be designed and built with this feedback in mind – and the Vision Pro is already in public beta for what will presumably ultimately be the ‘Apple’ will be. Vision’.
Outside of AppleInsider’s reporting, prolific Apple leaker and Bloomberg writer Mark Gurman has (unsurprisingly) contributed to the discussion around Vision Pro returns. He reported much the same thing; some people think it’s uncomfortable or causes illness, while for others it’s just too much money.
Gurman spoke to a Los Angeles professional who bought and returned the headset and said, “I loved it. They were bananas,” but then explained that he simply hadn’t used it that much, and that the price was just too high: watch movies, but for essentially four thousand dollars I’m waiting for version two.
If users return it because they don’t use it as much as they expected, certain aspects make them feel nauseous, or the headset simply sits very uncomfortable on their head, Apple may take this feedback in mind and pass it on. . Honestly, it’s a common criticism of VR headsets in general: maybe some people are just not built for using these types of products?