Apple Education Store issue

[DiscordUser]

Long story short: I'm trying to buy a 15" MBA through the Apple Education Store (I work in a Middle School, but at no time does Apple asks for verification). The configuration is not your usual one: 24/512, 70W charger, keyboard in my mother tongue. I go through all the hoops, put my address and payment method, try to pay and... error:

"Your card issuer could not authenticate the use of the card ####. Please contact your issuing bank or try another payment method."

I've got in touch with my bank and to my surprise (not), everything is ok with my card. Same with my wife's credit cards: same error, contacted the bank and everything is ok.

Google is useless as all it gives me are links to Apple Help Documentation that says for me to try a different payment method (spoilers: I did! 2 of them actually!). Got in touch with a "Store Specialist" and all of a sudden it's a technical issue and it should be resolved in 30 to 40 minutes (don't really believe them as this has been going on since early morning, but you never know...)

Went to the Apple Store near my house and, shockingly, they don't do custom orders nor they offer pickup for anything bought on their website (I'm kind of nervous to have a ~2000$ piece of hardware zipping around).

Anyone else went through the same (frustrating) experience? Let me know what can be done (because I don't really believe that this is a technical issue).

P.S: Sorry for the long text and excuse me for posting in the wrong forum (hopefully it's fine, if not, please move the topic to the appropriate section). Thank you!

 

[Boyd01]

Probably not very helpful, but I wanted to buy AppleCare for a new Mac three years ago. Went through the whole procedure on their website, entered my credit card info and got an error almost exactly like yours. In my case, the funny part was that I was using my Apple credit card!

The purchasing process had been slow and I was surprised they didn't have the option to use Apple Pay, I had to enter the Mastercard numbers manually. Had done this before on other sites with no problem. Didn't feel like wasting time contacting them so I just put it off. Ended up never getting AppleCare and since my Mac has been trouble-free, the whole episode saved me some money.

Anyway, apparently these glitches happen from time to time, even with Apple's own card. Sounds like you are doing the right things, hopefully you'll get it all straightened out soon. Enjoy your new computer!

 

[Slartibart]

call and order and then pick up in the Apple Store of choice worked for me and other teachers and personal of the schools I teach in the past. I have currently some problems to connect to Apple.com to check, but I think that there is an option to call when you customized your order - “talk to one of our specialist” or something similar.

 

[DiscordUser]

call and order and then pick up in the Apple Store of choice worked for me and other teachers and personal of the schools I teach in the past. I have currently some problems to connect to Apple.com to check, but I think that there is an option to call when you customized your order - “talk to one of our specialist” or something similar.

No can do. Went to 3 different Apple Stores all around me and they won't take pickups nor take custom orders in-site. Not to mention that what they have in stock are ridiculous (for me) configurations like 8G/1TB in Starlight and etc.

I'm really, really disappointed with this whole experience. I've purchased dozens of items all over the place from various brands and I never ever had these troubles. I'll try again today and if I can't I'll just give up as it's obvious they aren't interested in getting my (albeit low amount) money.

I feel like I'm being too dramatic but I'm frustrated.

 

[Boyd01]

No can do. Went to 3 different Apple Stores all around me and they won't take pickups nor take custom orders in-site.

Is that just because you are ordering through the Education Store? Don't they allow pickups and custom orders from "regular" customers?

 

[DiscordUser]

Is that just because you are ordering through the Education Store? Don't they allow pickups and custom orders from "regular" customers?

From what they told me, it's all custom orders and all pickups. And there's no way I was taking home any of those specced MBAs they had in stock.

Now I understand why that specific Apple Store is always full of people with acessories boxes, it seems that's all they sell these days. That and low specced computers: there was a girl in front of me taking home a 8G/256SSD 13" MBA...

 

[AZhappyjack]

I just ordered TWO 15" MBA (both 16GB/1TB) - one through the standard Apple Store and the other (for a college-bound granddaughter) through the education store... both purchases for delivery and both went through without incident, though both offered "pick up at local store"... could it be that the issue is "pick up" at the local store? With the current Apple, things may not always be as they appear.

 

[ChrisA]

Long story short: I'm trying to buy a 15" MBA through the Apple Education Store (I work in a Middle School, but at no time does Apple asks for verification). The configuration is not your usual one: 24/512, 70W charger, keyboard in my mother tongue. I go through all the hoops, put my address and payment method, try to pay and... error:

"Your card issuer could not authenticate the use of the card ####. Please contact your issuing bank or try another payment method."

I've got in touch with my bank and to my surprise (not), everything is ok with my card. Same with my wife's credit cards: same error, contacted the bank and everything is ok.

Google is useless as all it gives me are links to Apple Help Documentation that says for me to try a different payment method (spoilers: I did! 2 of them actually!). Got in touch with a "Store Specialist" and all of a sudden it's a technical issue and it should be resolved in 30 to 40 minutes (don't really believe them as this has been going on since early morning, but you never know...)

Went to the Apple Store near my house and, shockingly, they don't do custom orders nor they offer pickup for anything bought on their website (I'm kind of nervous to have a ~2000$ piece of hardware zipping around).

Anyone else went through the same (frustrating) experience? Let me know what can be done (because I don't really believe that this is a technical issue).

P.S: Sorry for the long text and excuse me for posting in the wrong forum (hopefully it's fine, if not, please move the topic to the appropriate section). Thank you!

This sounds like the old joke where the old guy says to his doctor "It hurts when I do this." So the doctor says "Then don't do that."

Seriously, you can make an end-run around the problem and avoid having to solve it.

Apply for an Apple Card. It takes just a few minutes and then on top of your education discount you also get 5% rebate on the $2,000 computer. Use the Apple card to buy the Mac. I just did this at the education store. Then on top of the 5% Apple offers zero interest loans. So I place $2K in savings where it makes some small interest and then schedule auto-pay from savings to the Apple Card. Maybe this takes 40 minutes to set up but you make about $120 and "it works"

One more thing, while you can not do this at the Apple Store, you can order online as described above ad then when you check out there is an option for free delivery to an Apple Store. So you can in fact pick it up at the store.

 

[DiscordUser]

This sounds like the old joke where the old guy says to his doctor "It hurts when I do this." So the doctor says "Then don't do that."

Seriously, you can make an end-run around the problem and avoid having to solve it.

Apply for an Apple Card. It takes just a few minutes and then on top of your education discount you also get 5% rebate on the $2,000 computer. Use the Apple card to buy the Mac. I just did this at the education store. Then on top of the 5% Apple offers zero interest loans. So I place $2K in savings where it makes some small interest and then schedule auto-pay from savings to the Apple Card. Maybe this takes 40 minutes to set up but you make about $120 and "it works"

One more thing, while you can not do this at the Apple Store, you can order online as described above ad then when you check out there is an option for free delivery to an Apple Store. So you can in fact pick it up at the store.

Thank you for your insight, but this is not an "It hurts when I do this, so don't do that situation". It was clear that something was wrong on their side, give that I tried 3 different credit cards (2 Visa and 1 Mastercard). Furthermore, I don't have use for another card on my name...

Regarding the pick-up option: it won't let me do it for the 3 Apple Stores around me (all of them are in a 20 mile radius): it gives me an error saying that this method of delivery is not available anymore for the things in my cart. Not to mention that I went physically to one of the stores and the lady there told me that they won't accept pick-up orders from the website.

Situation seems to be fixed now: I logged in with my Apple ID and everything went smoothly... Until 3AM when my wife received a "suspicious transaction" warning for 150$ (I'm assuming the Gift Card?). Contacted her bank, they said everything was ok now. I got in touch with Apple Support and they "unlocked" the order and everything seems to be ok.

Let's hope for the best, because this whole shopping experience has left me beyond frustrated.