Apple Ending 'Joint Venture' Program for Business Customers Next Month
Apple this week announced that its "Joint Venture" program will be ending on February 22, 2021. In an email, shared by MacRumors reader Ben, Apple said existing members will continue to have full access to the program through this date.
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Launched in 2011, the Joint Venture program provided business customers who purchased a Mac, iPhone, or iPad with priority technical support, training on Apple products and services, and setup assistance for up to five Apple systems. The program had an annual fee that started at $499, and additional systems could be covered for $99 each.
Joint Venture essentially provided outsourced IT for small and medium-sized businesses that needed greater support and service than standard Genius Bar appointments and AppleCare telephone support. Fortunately, businesses can still receive priority technical support by purchasing AppleCare Help Desk Support, which provides two designated contacts with unlimited support incidents for Apple hardware and software for $499 per year.
Apple says existing Joint Venture customers will receive a prorated refund for any remaining portion of their membership.
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Top Rated Comments
It won’t be missed. (Well, I guess by some it will be)
From what I recall, every time one came in that needed a loaner, we needed to basically move a retail unit to the ISU bucket then RTW it when it came back, as we weren't allowed to give it to another customer for "data protection" reasons - long before GDPR!
And just like so many regular old One to One sessions, the two I ended up delivering were full of MS Office, Adobe CS and other "unsupported" software questions that were way beyond what we were supposed to offer, at a table full of people with various use cases and skill levels with each. Good times.