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Apple Sends Another MobileMe Apology E-mail and Extension

"any inconvenience"

I hate that phrase, "any inconvenience". As if we can't possibly imagine what the inconvenience would be, but if you have "any" then they, whatever, we apologize.

How about "we apologize for the inconvenience"? Or better still, "we apologize for taking your money when we should not have". It's not only inconvenient to have your money taken from you.

Yeah, this whole outage has me switching to Gmail. It's free and it's more reliable. Bye-bye .Mac/MobileYou.
 
Wow, Apple is starting to look and act more and more like Microsoft everyday. First it was the mobile me logo that looks almost identical to the WindowsME logo and now they are starting to screw up the details just like our favorite monopolist has been doing for years.

Come on Apple, get it right the first time.
 
.Chris said:
they are becoming like Microsoft!

just kidding...

this was a rough start. Glad to see apple apologizing. But have they totally gotten rid of .mac? I think they need to get mobile me working all the way before doing anything more
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According to AppleCare I am among many who can send but not receive from Mail and not see Mail at all via the website. My situation begin yesterday and continues as I write. My wife's account works perfectly using the same setup information except the user name and password.

Anyone else with our experience?

Jim
 
lol jesus, all these people crying because mobileme is a luxury, not a basic need. if you're that strapped for cash, don't pay yearly for the service. you don't need it.
 
Well I am in the UK, oh and before anyone says Gmail... we don't have it... we have Googlemail.... email@googlemail.com :D

All this talk of don't worry it's only a pre-authorisation, not money taken, is balderdash.

On mobileme launch day it showed up that I could upgrade my account (existing .mac user) to a family account. I tried to do this. It worked out a pro-rata charge, about £15. Went through to the end then came up with 'please try later, unable to complete.' I tried a few times over the weekend, all to the same ends, 'please try later.'

I emailed Apple what had happened, twice, no replies. I noticed I had pre-authorisations on my credit card for over £100, you cant see what they are. I informed my Credit Card Company who couldn't help........... until... my credit card was suspended days later for a number of suspected fraudulant transactions. Apple had charged me £15.xx seven time to a total of £109 for something that was never upgraded. My credit card company said Apple has got the money, contact them for refunds!!!! :mad:

I couldn't get through to mobileme support, they don't have phones on their desks (according to someone who I spoke to at Apple)

Anyway my credit card is back now, Apple charges wiped off... but not one word from Apple, no emails, no apologies, no extra 30 days (on top of the 30 days we all got)

I want to complain to someone, but no-one at Apple is listening, I want to upgrade my account to a family account but it won't work.

:mad:
 
Two things:

1. Apple has always been a horrible company... that makes great products. What's concerning about this ridiculously-named MobileMe nonsense is that the products are starting to get bad too.

2. I completely sympathize with people who've had these holds placed on their credit or debit accounts. I think you will find, however, that once the hold lapses, not only will the money be returned, the transactions will disappear from your bank statement along with any overdraft fees. It depends on the bank, but it is quite rare that you would encounter fees stemming from a preauthorized hold on a debit/checking account. We shall see, I suppose.
 
ckeck said:
All I can say is...while this situation never should have happened...it isn't Apple's fault if you cannot keep more than $250 or 121 GBP in your bank account.

If that is all the money you have maybe you shouldn't be worrying about a MobileMe subscription in the first place right now :eek:

***flame suit on***

Have a great day! :p
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Why did you bother posting? Who are you to judge how people manage their finances?

In my case, my credit card has an extremely low limit of £200 - which I like because I only use it when the supplier only accepts Visa/Mastercard. It also stops temptation.

I have a few recurring payments that come off my credit card each month. Apple 'holding' £121 has meant that several of my recurring payments have failed causing me to have to spend a lot of time on the phone to the USA trying to explain and get myself out of a bit of a mess I shouldn't have been in.

Apple shouldn't have held £121. Nor should they even have held £59 until the 60 day trial was up. While for many this *may* be a minor inconvenience, there are those of us to whom a 30-day extension to a service we may or may not choose to continue to use anyway is the very least Apple could do.
 
THe responses by some of the so-called mac faithful have truly shown their elitist, arrogant selves.Apple truly has created a user base modeled after themselves.This billing error is just further proof Apple has not handled the transition to the big time.



I am outta here, :mad:
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5A347 Safari/525.20)

I think some people are missing the point. Although it was a pre-auth of £121 if you used your debit card you do not have access to these funds!!! I had a faulty MacBook battery and was told I would recieve a new one in the post. I was told if I didn't send the broken one back I would be charged for the part. What I wasn't told was they would pre-auth the money from my account. I live on my own and it was close to the end of the month. The money they "pre-auth'd" was my food budget so. I could not afford to eat and had to loan some money. Should have used a credit card and will do in future. Apple could have really f**ked up many peoples budgets - there is a credit crunch after all!!!!!!!
 
drummingcraig said:
Not trying to piss into the wind here, so-to-speak, but for all intents and purposes anyone living and working in the UK doesn't see it as being $240/$250/$241.47. They see it as 121 GBP, which in the UK offers roughly the same purchasing power as $121 USD would. This is why apple charges 121 GBP for the service and not 59 GBP for it.

So, really it would be like having $120 missing from your US account; not $250.
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Um, hate to tell you, but Apple's UK store actually lists the price as 59 GBP

You'll need to zoom in a bit on the picture I've attached.

The 121 GBP is actually about double the annual costs. It's not that 121 GBP is comparable to the buying power of $99 American Dollars. It's just that it's Apple's overcharge.

I'm not going to bother posting all the stories and discussions on this. But, here's a shorter discussion regarding the double-charge as a reserve:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1593095&tstart=0

Just because a story omits to mention that the 121 GBP is not the standard price does not mean that 121 GBP is equivalent to $99 U.S. Dollars.

The headline was Apple placed this amount of money on reserve without user's authorization.

The story did not say Apple placed the equivalent of 1 years subscription on reserve.

Actually, Apple would have been putting 2 years of fees on reserve. It just isn't mentioned.

But, if we had some U.K. correspondents in this discussion that were affected, then we'd probably be hearing a bit more about this (like in the Apple Discussions).

So, yes, the 121 GBP is equivalent in purchasing power to approximately $240 U.S. Dollars.
 

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I never got the original apology email...and my subscription has not been extended 30 days...was the extension for only new customers? do I have to call Apple about this? I just want to make sure the extension of 30 days was true, before I start complaining:eek:
 
haunebu said:
You people are kidding, right? Giving away an additional 30 days is an acceptable response? Give me a break.
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Yup! I think that's acceptable!

For all the melodrama that seems to be going on in this thread....I'm curious to know how many people, who are making a total song and dance out of this, have actually incurred banking fees!?

I'm pretty sure we're talking about a tiny percentage. I appreciate that this mess is not particularly professional on Apples part, but for the majority it's really a case of no harm no foul. You get an extension on your MobileMe trial and in all honesty you've not actually been put out whatsoever.

For those that have lost funds in this mess then you should address Apple directly to regain those funds....and I sincerely hope you get it!
 
gcmexico said:
I never got the original apology email...and my subscription has not been extended 30 days...was the extension for only new customers? do I have to call Apple about this? I just want to make sure the extension of 30 days was true, before I start complaining:eek:
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The first extension should be for all users. Whether you are a new customer or old customer, you would have been affected.

But, the second extension would only be for those who just signed-up. They would be the ones who had trial accounts and had to give credit cards to obtain them.

Apple's going to hook a lot fewer new users with their trials by requiring a card up front.

I would not sign up for a trial of anything that I wasn't 100% sure I wanted it it required me to give them a credit card. I

know from experience with many other companies that canceling before the cut-off date never actually stops the charge from happening. You always have to call in and remind them, and usually involve the credit card company in the dispute.

Once they have your card number, you will be billed.

It's just like I'd like to try that e-music service and see if I like it. But, they want me to give them a credit card number to sign up for the trial. And, I know that if I do that, they'll charge me even if I cancel the trial before the end of the trial period.

So, while they might hook me if they got me to try them out with a free trial, they won't get me at all since I'm not going to risk having to pay for something I don't like (or fighting to get the money back).
 
I am on the fence about this one, I give kudos to Apple for the apology and working to rectify the issue as they should, but given the amount of money involved I am not that comfortable with the extra 30 days which is pretty close to nothing in Apples eyes given how many "60 day free trials" they will be offering anyway and no doubt they will be assuming a decent portion of the free trials won't be taken up.

I would lean towards a 90-180 day free extension being a better offer to those impacted, offer them something that doesn't really impact Apple but on the otherhand the consumer can get some value from and then hopefully for Apple they will be more likely to sign up for the service at the end of the free period.
 
If you had paid 30 bucks for something got home and it didn't work, then you found out the shop had charged you 7 times for it and your credit card was frozen, you would be p155ed. Granted you would get a refund but to speak to someone would help!
 
Not signing up for Mobile Me through Online any more...

Well, THAT DOES IT...

The only SAFE WAY to actually sign up for Mobile Me is to just buy the DANG BOX at the Apple Store....

Sure, it's wasting paper, but it's better than losing $210....
 
Push Email Advertising Campaign Fraud

jbernie said:
I am on the fence about this one, I give kudos to Apple for the apology and working to rectify the issue as they should, but given the amount of money involved I am not that comfortable with the extra 30 days which is pretty close to nothing in Apples eyes given how many "60 day free trials" they will be offering anyway and no doubt they will be assuming a decent portion of the free trials won't be taken up.

I would lean towards a 90-180 day free extension being a better offer to those impacted, offer them something that doesn't really impact Apple but on the otherhand the consumer can get some value from and then hopefully for Apple they will be more likely to sign up for the service at the end of the free period.
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It's not working right now anyway. Synch is not working and they are still having problems.

If you've been paying for it (thankfully I "HAD" a trial and my card wasn't charged) you are being ripped off for a service that is not working.

Push email was a fraud advertising campaign and it still can't synch in 15 minutes on all accounts.

I'd be curious how many purchased a MobileMe account for the fact that is was true Push email and synched in seconds and not on 15 minute intervals.
 
I got this email:
Dear MobileMe Member,
Apple has identified and resolved an issue that caused an incorrect, temporary authorization hold of 121 EUR to be placed on your credit or debit card when your MobileMe trial account was created. We have addressed the issue and want to apologize for any inconvenience.
Typically when you create a new trial account, your credit or debit card is verified by authorizing a small charge (equivalent to USD $1). Unfortunately, an error caused the incorrect amount to be preauthorized for your card. Be assured that this is not a charge, but only an authorization hold. The hold is released by the card-issuing bank after a predetermined period, usually between a week and a month. Where possible, Apple is working to have these holds removed earlier.
To show our appreciation for your continued loyalty, we have extended your free trial period by 30 days. This extension is in addition to the 30-day extension of which you were notified on July 16, for a total of 120 days of free MobileMe service.
Look for the extension to be reflected in your account settings in the next few weeks. You may now enjoy MobileMe free of charge until 08/11/08, after which your annual paid subscription will begin.
Thank you for being a MobileMe customer.
Sincerely,
The MobileMe Team
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121 EUR instead of 121 pounds. I live in Belgium.
 
mike12806 said:
Yeah, once you've p*&sed someone off by screwing/overcharging them, especially when the funds may be held for a month, you are not going to see them back as a customer. It's really sad Apple botched this launch so badly, it looks like a promising product idea.
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Somehow I doubt that. What about all those PC users who've had and still get their security jeopardized on the internet from using Windows XP. Thousands of people have had their bank account passwords stolen through spyware and had money extracted from their account.
Microsoft has never apologized for this and in fact they have recommended people to just start using Vista for better security.

Guess what, those same victims are still using Windows XP and buying more Windows machines regardless of the security breach. Microsoft hasn't lost too many customers.
People don't say, "F U" and give up as easily as you think. Dare I say it, this world loves drama.

Although I have to agree with everyone on this one, Apple certainly has messed up big time with MM launch.
 
RyanG said:
lol jesus, all these people crying because mobileme is a luxury, not a basic need. if you're that strapped for cash, don't pay yearly for the service. you don't need it.
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That may be the case, but a Free trial shouldn't cost £121.

There's a difference between being "strapped for cash" and being sensible.

If you know you can afford to buy something, do it.

In this case, many people thought they could afford "free".
 
wtf? my email hasn't been working for almost 2 days and i've had my account since 2005. I hate mobileme, bring back dotmac.
 
blehpunk said:
wtf? my email hasn't been working for almost 2 days and i've had my account since 2005. I hate mobileme, bring back dotmac.
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Don't worry, it's an upgrade. Trust Apple.

I had to re-install Vista on my computer 4 times before I went back to XP.
I had to waste countless hours asking vendors to reauthorize my applications because I had installed too many times (in other words I was a pirate software person).

Believe in Steve Jobs he's kind of like Moses. Yet all that are following him and waiting on every breath he speaks are Sheep following him to Snow Leopard (Vista).

This is only the beginning...
 
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