iPhone scalpers start fight at Sanlitun Village

Sanlitun Village property management and the authorities said yesterday that they were powerless to do anything about public disturbances at the Apple store over the weekend.

Two groups of scalpers cut in line and started a fight for better positions outside Sanlitun Village Apple Store in Chaoyang district, on Saturday and Sunday, the Beijing Morning Post reported yesterday.

The newspaper also reported that the store was forced to cease selling the phones to ensure customer safety.

"Hundreds of people were waiting outside the store, some became irritated and picked fights when they wanted to cut in line," said Chen Jiadong, a cleaner who witnessed the fights on Sunday.

The fights became physical, but nobody was hurt because the property management and police drove the crowd apart, he told the Global Times.

The iPhone 4 was still not available for sale yesterday afternoon; store employees claimed that they were out of stock.

"You can check our online store and make a reservation first if you want to buy one," said one Apple store employee. "I don't know about the fights, and we don't pay any attention to the scalpers," she added.

A Global Times reporter found at least 20 scalpers outside the Sanlitun Apple store yesterday afternoon.

A new 8-gigabyte iPhone 4 from a scalper costs around 4,500 yuan ($712) while the official price is 3,988 yuan. Scalpers also tried to sell the reporter an iPhone 4S four days before the announced release date in the Chinese mainland. 

The 4S models are bought from Hong Kong and cost 5,500 yuan each, the scalpers said. The store will launch the model on Friday priced 4,988 yuan.

Online reservation for the iPhone 4 starts at 10 pm each evening on the official Apple website, said one store employee, and successful customers can pick them up when available.

"We use software that can get us the entire pre-sale quota in a second, which means people can only buy one from us," scalper Jin Ling told the Global Times. She claims all the phones they are selling are real and bought from the Sanlitun store, they even offer receipts.

"You'll never get it if you wait in line," Jin said. She claims that thousands of scalpers will mob the store for a buy-off on the iPhone 4S launch day.

"The store and scalpers have connections and have reached an agreement," said Ning Weiping, an employee with Zhongliang Lianhang, the property management company overseeing the Village area. The store's purchase quota restrictions led to the scalper problem in the first place, he said.

Though scalpers were following customers around, and even walking into the store to make a sale, security guards seemed unmoved.

Neither the property management company nor police can do anything effective when both sellers and buyers agree on the price, said Ning. "The huge potential for profit has turned many low-paid security guards into scalpers as well," he said.

Other government authorities, including the industry and commerce administration and the chengguan (city management officers) are also powerless to address the issue.

Wu Song, a media officer with the Municipal Industry and Commerce Administration told the Global Times that scalpers are not covered under their remit because they don't have a fixed location for their business.

One officer with the Sanlitun chengguan team said that they can only punish scalpers who are caught on site with evidence.

"Usually they run when they see us," said officer Fu Haijun.

The Apple store should inform the police or property management before they have a product launch, to maintain customer order, Ning suggested.

"Apple should obey the rules while running a business in China, and the government should give severe punishments for scalping," he said.