I sprinted through to place an order on launch day as soon as the event wrapped up. I forgot to use the Educational Store when I placed the order so I placed another one with less than $200 discount using the same exact gift card balances I had accumulated through various promotions Apple ran at Best Buy and Target (the buy a $100 Apple gift card get a $10 gift card from the retailer, essentially making it 10% off).
The first order I placed for the full retail price went through about 10 minutes later that says "we have everything necessary to process your order" and also showed an option to cancel. I cancelled that one. But about 30 minutes later when I attempted to update an app on my iPhone, there was an error message that says your Apple ID has been disabled in the App Store / iTunes Store. So I called Apple Support and was transferred to a tier 2 senior advisor who reviewed my account and said it should never have been disabled. She re-enabled my account also disclosed to me that the reason that got my account disabled was "malicious use of gift cards". I also noticed that the second order I placed never progressed to the "processed" step like the first one where a cancel button would show up. I asked that Senior Advisor if I would need to cancel and re-place the order since that order caused my account to be disabled and was never processed. She wasn't sure about that and transferred me to Apple's sales department. A sales rep checked the order and said it was being processed as normal.
Then about 30 minutes later, I noticed my Apple account got disabled again. I called in again and was told that it was "closed". I was asked to send in all proof of purchase, front and back of the gift cards I purchased as well as activation slips. Keep in mind, those are all e-gift cards as the recent Apple gift cards sale at Target are only online.
I emailed Tim Cook about this whole situation and received a call back the following day from someone at Apple's Executive Relations. I had never contacted Apple executive team before even though I had multiple failures on my Macbooks before resulting in repeated repairs, sometimes it was even worse when I received my devices back to name a few issues. Then there was repeated reboots every few minutes on an iPhone 6 I had years ago that MacRumors speculated that it's a memory card used in that model that's prone to failure. I tolerated it for a year and never escalated to the executive level.
The Executive Relations person was patient on the phone. I explained to him in details of what happened and how I would primarily want my decade old Apple account restored as there're hundreds of digital purchases tied to it as well as iCloud storage I share with my family. I also told him that I've owned every premium line iPhone since iPhone 5 as well as multiple Macs, AirPods / Apple TVs and even a Hermes Apple Watch Series 0. Not to mention the purchases I made for my parents and got them all locked into Apple's ecosystem. It's not right how they treat a loyal customer like a criminal. I simply planned ahead and purchased some Apple gift cards within the quantity limit each time there was a sale. (Usually it's up to 3 per customer. I didn't go around it by creating multiple Target or Best Buy accounts.) The way they handled my account is like a blanket ban. If the actual fraud department spent any time reviewing my account history of all the purchases I've made (Tier 2 support did and re-enabled it), they wouldn't have closed it. There has never been any chargeback or delinquent payments as I always purchase for full price or finance through carriers.
He said he was going to resolve this but needed to reach out to his peers in other departments. I have seen our conversation sent in more roof of purchases to him. But it's been 3 days now and my Apple ID is still locked. I'm glad that I already got my iPhone 13 Pro. If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to restore any apps to a new device without having my Apple ID back.
Does anyone have any similar experiences? How did you all get our Apple account restored?
Update: Executive Relations was able to reach out internally and had my account re-enabled. My Macbook Pro order was also shipped over the weekend while the ER was out of office and my account was still locked. Everything is good now.
The first order I placed for the full retail price went through about 10 minutes later that says "we have everything necessary to process your order" and also showed an option to cancel. I cancelled that one. But about 30 minutes later when I attempted to update an app on my iPhone, there was an error message that says your Apple ID has been disabled in the App Store / iTunes Store. So I called Apple Support and was transferred to a tier 2 senior advisor who reviewed my account and said it should never have been disabled. She re-enabled my account also disclosed to me that the reason that got my account disabled was "malicious use of gift cards". I also noticed that the second order I placed never progressed to the "processed" step like the first one where a cancel button would show up. I asked that Senior Advisor if I would need to cancel and re-place the order since that order caused my account to be disabled and was never processed. She wasn't sure about that and transferred me to Apple's sales department. A sales rep checked the order and said it was being processed as normal.
Then about 30 minutes later, I noticed my Apple account got disabled again. I called in again and was told that it was "closed". I was asked to send in all proof of purchase, front and back of the gift cards I purchased as well as activation slips. Keep in mind, those are all e-gift cards as the recent Apple gift cards sale at Target are only online.
I emailed Tim Cook about this whole situation and received a call back the following day from someone at Apple's Executive Relations. I had never contacted Apple executive team before even though I had multiple failures on my Macbooks before resulting in repeated repairs, sometimes it was even worse when I received my devices back to name a few issues. Then there was repeated reboots every few minutes on an iPhone 6 I had years ago that MacRumors speculated that it's a memory card used in that model that's prone to failure. I tolerated it for a year and never escalated to the executive level.
The Executive Relations person was patient on the phone. I explained to him in details of what happened and how I would primarily want my decade old Apple account restored as there're hundreds of digital purchases tied to it as well as iCloud storage I share with my family. I also told him that I've owned every premium line iPhone since iPhone 5 as well as multiple Macs, AirPods / Apple TVs and even a Hermes Apple Watch Series 0. Not to mention the purchases I made for my parents and got them all locked into Apple's ecosystem. It's not right how they treat a loyal customer like a criminal. I simply planned ahead and purchased some Apple gift cards within the quantity limit each time there was a sale. (Usually it's up to 3 per customer. I didn't go around it by creating multiple Target or Best Buy accounts.) The way they handled my account is like a blanket ban. If the actual fraud department spent any time reviewing my account history of all the purchases I've made (Tier 2 support did and re-enabled it), they wouldn't have closed it. There has never been any chargeback or delinquent payments as I always purchase for full price or finance through carriers.
He said he was going to resolve this but needed to reach out to his peers in other departments. I have seen our conversation sent in more roof of purchases to him. But it's been 3 days now and my Apple ID is still locked. I'm glad that I already got my iPhone 13 Pro. If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to restore any apps to a new device without having my Apple ID back.
Does anyone have any similar experiences? How did you all get our Apple account restored?
Update: Executive Relations was able to reach out internally and had my account re-enabled. My Macbook Pro order was also shipped over the weekend while the ER was out of office and my account was still locked. Everything is good now.
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