Paying cash for an iPad: A quick guide

A California Apple Store refused to sell a woman an iPad because she wanted to pay in cash. Is that even legal?

Can Apple deny the right to pay cash?
(Image credit: Corbis)

The tech blogosphere leapt all over the case of an Apple Store that refused to sell an iPad to a customer who wanted to pay cash. "I had my cash in the backpack and I went up proudly to the counter and told them, 'I would like to purchase an iPad,'" Palo Alto, Calif., resident Diane Campbell told ABC News. "They said, 'Sorry, we don't take cash.'" But does a business really have a right to refuse cash as payment? Here, a quick guide to the issue:

Isn't cash good for "all debts, public and private," as printed on our currency?

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