An appleID and all data were removed because of a spat over a payment method

[mentaluproar]

It looks like something was flagged as fraud erroneously at Apple so they basically deleted this guys entire digital life. Since there isn’t any real semblance of service or responsibility in the tech industry anymore there’s nothing he can do.

20 Years of Digital Life, Gone in an Instant, thanks to Apple

Summary: A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple Developer ID, and everything associated with it, and I have no recourse. Can you help? Email paris...

hey.paris

 

[!!!]

This reminds me of Google banning people from their accounts for no reason, and they have no support staff whatsoever, so you have no recourse. Not that Apple's seem much better, doing what EA/Xbox/etc do and refuse to explain why you get banned leaving you to guess.

I understand that maybe some company wants someone off their platform, permanently. But what's unacceptable to me is the bricking of devices and the loss of data stored there. I hope one day we will have legislation that protects consumers, allowing them to keep their digitally purchased goods, disallowing companies from being secretive about ban reasons, disallowing the ability to brick hardware, etc.

In the meantime, I hope that person sues Apple, for the money they've spent on digital goods, for the cost of hardware replacement, for damages resulting in loss of texting services, and for the cost of the lawsuit. I'm sure Apple won't have a problem paying that.

 

[redheeler]

I had a YouTube account banned once due to copyright claims on old recordings I'd uploaded (this was many years ago) and instead of just losing the YouTube account, they deactivated my entire Google account. Gmail inbox which I used as a primary email for years and everything having nothing to do with YouTube.

It's not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. These corporations aren't your friends.