First of all, and before going any further, I’d like everyone to read this and keep their troll personality in its box… This article isn’t solid proof, but rather a simple narrative of what happened to us over the past few weeks with Apple Japan and Oricon, the company hired by Apple in Japan for their Apple Loans.

Two weeks ago, and prior to the launch of Apple’s new Snow Leopard OS (not Exchange compatible, unless you use the latest version of Exchange (we are running 2003))… I decided to treat myself to a new MacBook Pro and its new and improved readable 15” antiglare screen. This isn’t the first time I bought a Mac through Apple’s online store, I like my Notebooks to be installed with a QWERTY US keyboard rather than a 106/109 Japanese one, so with confidence I dived into Apple Store Japan’s webpage to order my MacBook Pro.

While surfing Apple Store Japan’s pages, I stumble upon a very attractive ad announcing a special offer on Apple Loans starting at 1% up to 3% instead of the usual 9.5%… Surprised and having the money to pay my 270,000 Yen (A bit more than €2000 or $2900), I figured what the hell, having an 1% or 3% interest loan isn’t bad, and asked my assistant to proceed with my order…

Everything went smoothly, at least if you know how to handle a 10 year old style Japanese online loan company with all its input tricks… And after five minutes everything was sent to the company, banking details and so on… So far so good, and painless…

A couple of days after sending my information and without receiving any news from Oricon, the company hired by Apple for the Apple Loan, I asked my assistant to give them a call and check if everything was okay… Then things began to come apart… First they wanted to check some facts with me, in Japanese, and I’m sorry but my Japanese skill is too low to fully understand their technical questions… My assistant then took the phone and was told that not being able to understand completely what they were asking me would be troublesome… They had to check back with their manager. Ten minutes later the manager called back and talked with my assistant who gave him all the necessary information, and voila…

Another ten minutes later, another call from Apple telling me that I was rejected without providing any details. After giving them a lot personal information it would have been polite of them to explain why.

Fair enough, my assistant and I determined it was my lack of Japanese language skill and after all, I’m in Japan and should be treated like a Japanese… No big problem… We then contacted the Apple store to check if my wife (Japanese, earning four times as much as me, the owner of our house and chairman of a 300+ company) could apply instead and reordered. The nice Apple staff said it wouldn’t be a problem and began the process again… I’ll make this short, her loan was ALSO refused for no reason…

The same day as my wife’s loan refusal, at 6 PM, I received a call at my office concerning my refusal (the first one) but if I was still be interested I could get a 7.5% loan (to avoid any problems I won’t disclose the name of the company who called)… Surprised, my CFO and partner (Japanese) called the first loan company back and asked why I was contacted by a second company for the same loan… Why was information regarding a specific loan given to another company without my authorization???. Another interesting move from Oricon was to advise us to repeat the procedure several time until the we could, either myself or my wife (or others) be approved.

We gave Apple a call and our PR contact, who first assured us that since Apple is US company there’s no discrimination when it comes to Japanese language skill, but also stated they have no control over the loan process and that they rely at 100% on the loan company they hired.

Here it is… I didn’t buy a new MacBook Pro. Pity for Apple, I’ll wait until mine dies naturally… But this story and the rejection of six people for no reason, the company involved in the loan response, being advised to try several times and a second company proposing another loan at 7.5% raise many questions about how things operate here in Japan with Apple and Apple Loan… Granted Apple has no power over the loan process but Apple Japan is ultimately the company that hired loan company, and in this case Apple is in my eyes responsible… It’s easy to offer an attractive loan and then reject people who apply for it without giving any reasons.

Is this story over? No, not really. We are thinking of taking this further with an appropriate consumer organization and the Japanese government… After all, being rejected isn’t the problem, it’s the lack of a reason WHY (if no ones explains WHY you were rejected, how can you fix the problem and get another loan?), and the other offers some of us were given…

As far as I’m concerned, I now look at Apple very differently.