Another bad Apple experience (gift card is a black hole)

[cardfan]

Gift cards. I went to the store and told the employee that I would like the refund to be back to the credit card and she said OK. When I went to the Apple online store to check the status, it says that it would be back to a gift card. Since I have not received amything, I can’t tell what will happen.

Just like any case I have with Apple recently, different people told me different things and even somebody provided me with wrong information which Apple could verify by checking the recordings, they are not responsible for what they said. Another example is that I returned a defective MacBook Pro 16" 2021. They told me on the phone that I would get back the shipping cost. However, when I returned it, the employee said the shipping cost is not refundable even Support determined that it is defective.

First I heard of paying for shipping on a return. Maybe they don’t like you. lol.

 

[hajime]

First I heard of paying for shipping on a return. Maybe they don’t like you. lol.

They paid for free shipping when I sent it back. They did not refund the shipping cost for delivering it to me.

 

[hajime]

After talking to several people at Apple’s hotline, one person said that she would give me back the shipping cost via Visa card. She said that it would be credited to me within a few days.

A month has passed and my credit card statement does not show the credit. So I called Apple again. I asked the first guy to transfer me to After Sales Department. After taking all information, he transferred me to another guy. I repeated myself and this guy said that rather than giving me the money back to my Visa card, Apple sent it via a gift card. I told him that I was told it would be credited to my Visa card. He insisted that it was sent to a gift card. I asked him to provide the information to prove it and he said that it was very difficult to trace. He then said that I am not a computer and I might have made a mistake in keeping track of the gift card. Then, I asked him if he is really from After Sales Department and he said that he is from Tech Support. I told him to transfer me to a supervisor but he refused. Later, somebody else just picked up the phone.

I repeated the whole story. She checked the system and said that the shipping cost was credited back to me via a gift card not visa card. She said that a credit memo was sent to me a month ago. I checked my mailbox but I could not find it. I asked her to send it to me. She said that I would get it in 2 business days.

Now, I got the email. In the credit memo, it states that the money was sent to my “Credit Card”. In the email, it reads:

“A credit of $(amount) was issued to your Gift Card ending in (XXXX) on (date). The reference number provided by your bank is (long numbers). Please refer to your card issuing bank for further assistance.

A copy of your Apple Store invoice has been attached to this email. For further assistance, please call 1-800-MY-APPLE.”

So, where did they send the money? According to the credit memo, they sent it to my Visa card which I did not receive. From the email, they first said it was issued to a Gift Card. Then, they mentioned about the bank and asked me to contact the card issuing bank for further assistance.

Have I turned crazy or they themselves got confused between gift card (which should be issued by Apple not by my bank) and credit card?