Apple Gift Card Issues

[iSightG5]

My wife bought an iPad Air with the back to school promo and ive been trying to order her an Apple Pencil and magic keyboard and im having a hell of a time. I've ordered and canceled so many times because of the longer then promised delivery times. I started this last Thursday (July 14th), I attempted to order the pencil and magic keyboard, both showed as available for next day express delivery, opted to pay with Apple Card and gift card, hit submit and it bounced me to the screen where you select either delivery or in store pick up....ok, thats strange, repeated order process, still shows Friday the 15th as the delivery date, hit submit again and the order is submitted.

Friday, the 15th, I check to see if its out for delivery and its telling me its still being processed and that delivery window is now the 20th-22nd. Monday the 18th comes and the order is still showing "processing" so I go back to the website and look at the delivery dates on the pencil and magic keyboard, with my zip code I can get it delivered tomorrow or in store pickup today. I decided to cancel the order and submit another order for express delivery. I get through the process and hit submit again an again it bounces me to screen to select delivery or in store pick up. I select delivery and go through everything again and before it hit submit I make sure it still says delivery for tomorrow, the 19th, which it does. I hit submit, order is accepted and when I look at the order it says delivery July 22nd-25th, whats going on???

At this point I chat with Apple customer support and explain the story, the rep tries to place an order for me, which they are in the process of doing when I ask how my gift card would be applied to the new order since its being used on the previous order I placed already. Rep comes back and says not sure what to do, im pretty pissed at this point, not at the rep but the situation, so I tell them I'll cancel the order and just order in store pickup.

I cancel the order and am in the process of the selecting in store pick when after I try and submit the order im bounced to a screen saying "Items are not available for in store pick up" OMG!!! I had to cool off and waited about 5 or 6 hours then I figured id give it one last shot, instead of adding both the pencil and magic keyboard to the order, id just do one at a time. I was successfully able to order the pencil, for in store pick up, great! Now I tried with the magic keyboard, using the gift card, rejected, items not avail for in store pick up....uhhhhh! But looking at the website it says available, just for the hell of it I add the magic keyboard to my bag, didnt use the gift card and boom, available tomorrow for pickup! Why cant I use the gift card for express delivery or in store pick up?

Chat again with apple customer support, they're not really any help, one says its an bug or glitch with the website, another says you cant use a gift card for certain in store pick ups. I dont know who to believe, Ive never had some many issues just trying to order something. I ended up ordering the magic keyboard a few hours ago, without using the gift card, for express delivery, which it now shows are preparing to ship, and the pencil, using the gift card, which it now shows processing with a delivery date of the 22nd-25th.

Have I just pissed off the tech gods or something or is this normal? Ive never used an apple gift card, and if this is the norm I will never again.

 

[Slartibart]

1. okay, so you want to buy some items partly with a gift card… and you get an estimate on the delivery date when you order the items using said gift card to cover partly these expenses… and then you get informed that the ordered items will be delivered 7 days (tops) later… and you decide to cancel your oder.
2. And then you run into additional problems of picking up one of the newly ordered items in the physical world, as well as discovering that Apple hasn’t optimised its ordering process to immediately revalue gift cards when canceling orders - for the protocol: I think you really hit something here and should complain about it to Apple till they get this right in their gift card processing work flow 💪🤜🤛 - and you discovered that a placed order can’t simply manipulated by the Apple customer service - and you experienced first hand that placing a new order will result in new (estimated) delivering dates, as well as availability of a particular item might have changed…

Yeah, you „pissed of the tech gods“ for sure. 🤓

EDIT: Apparently YMMV - but your conclusion that this is mainly caused by using a gift card (whoever issued it) doesn’t seem sound, does it?

 

[iSightG5]

I wanted to buy them and get them with the advertised express next day shipping…not 4-7 days later…

Bottom line is I wanted to use the gift card apple provided, no where does it say express delivery not available with use of gift card, doesn’t say ordering online for in store pick not available at all with use of gift card.

If I knew these exceptions to using a gift card online I would have made time to drive (about an hour each way) to the closest apple store and tried in person.

 

[Slartibart]

I see only Express-Pickup offered by Apple. What are you referring to ?
I understand the disappointment when something isn’t going according to how it “worked” in one’s mind, I really do - and I understand the need to vent said dissapointment - but the whole thing seems more like some misunderstanding/wrong expectation from your part…

Much more interesting: did Apple revaluate the gift card to your account? if yes, how long did they took to do so?
Did you complain about the time it takes Apple to do so?
what was Apple’s response?
And - finally - did you enjoy the Pencil and keyboard (after picking them up or having them delivered)? 🤓

 

[iSightG5]

On apple's website, when you select and item it shows this

Order by 5pm delivers tomorrow (express shipping is mentioned when you're checking out)
or
Order now for pickup today
BUT when you use a gift card as partial payment, after you submit your order, your shipping date changes to 4-7 days later. Same thing with in store pickup, its shows its possible to do until you hit submit then you get a message saying not available for in store pick up, again thats only when you use a gift card.
After it told me the items weren't available for pick up I was able to go back an add the items back to my bag and choose in store pick up, without using the gift card and would you look at that, both items were available to pickup. So clearly Apple has some caveats with using their gift cars and delivery/pick up options that aren't known until you submit your order.

Honestly im sure I sound like a whack job nut, and typing all this out makes me feel like one lol, but it was more of a "why isn't this working?" rabbit hole I went down and trying to figure out what the issue was.

As for the conclusion to all this, I ended up ordering the magic keyboard, without the gift card, on the 19th and it was delivered on the 20th. I ordered the Pencil, with the gift card, on the 19th and as of today it is still processing with a delivery date of the 25th-27th, so clearly the gift card is holding up the order.

Almost forgot, as soon as the order was canceled the gift card was able to be used on another order, no delay.

I really like the magic keyboard, it is strange to see iOS behaving more like my wife's Air though but she says its super handy for meeting