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alymaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2022
3
6
Valencia, Spain
A little over a month ago I encountered a very serious problem from Apple.
I’m posting it only now, as I have just returned after a long trip.

I can no longer fully use my account - download apps I bought, update them, use my balance, renew subscriptions. And all of this affects all my Apple devices - two iPhones, two iPads, a Macbook Pro and an Apple Watch.

As I was told by one of the 30 operators I managed to talk to on the phone after spending about 12 hours of my time on it, the reason was that "you redeemed several gift cards too quickly and they all had different face value".

I've been an Apple products user for a bit over 10 years now and have used a variety of devices and gadgets. And in the last 3 years my whole team of 20 people almost completely switched to Apple devices and ecosystem. And up until that point I thought it was a mutually beneficial and friendly relationship.

I've been travelling a lot in the last 10 years and living and working in different countries. For this reason, I have multiple Apple ID accounts in different countries. Since not all the apps, especially banking, food delivery and cab apps, are available in all Apple Stores (according to Apple you can have up to 5 accounts). And I usually use gift certificates, because it helps me not to think about which card is used and when it expires. And it seems that I've been using them since my first introduction to Apple products 10 years ago.

In early July 2022, right on my birthday, my Macbook pro 15 2019 was suddenly showing no signs of life. While it was being repaired, I decided to consider upgrading my working computer. After choosing the needed configuration, I redeemed my supply of gift cards to my account. I still have receipts for almost all of the cards, as well as the cards themselves.

A few days later, I was about to place an order for a new working laptop, when I found out that I was getting an error "Your account has been disabled in the App Store and iTunes" when trying to purchase something. After that, long calls and conversations with technical support began, and it did not lead to any solution. As a result, I was left without a new laptop, and most importantly - all the digital content that I bought on my iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro - I can no longer use and update it. And that are dozens of subscriptions, Final Cut licences, Logic Pro, and a lot of other software. Tech support gave me only one solution - create a new account and buy everything again. And this is not one hundred, and not even one thousand dollars.

As I see it, the tech support is unwilling to solve my problem or help solving it in any way. Phrases like "yes I understand you" will in no way compensate for my lost time I spent over the phone with them nor earn the money that I spent buying apps that Apple has taken away on its own whim due to some very questionable reasons.
 

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nick42983

macrumors 6502a
May 18, 2009
549
424
Warsaw, Poland
Your behavior of using gift cards from various countries instead of credit cards was what triggered this problem for you. I can't imagine how you're paying taxes properly when engaging in what sounds like dodgy international business practices "because it helps me not to think about which card is used and when it expires". Assuming you had no ill intent, it's still hard to sympathize when you were doing the same type of thing that scammers do and this finally triggered some safety protocols at Apple. If you really spent a dozen hours speaking to 30 different people, you can assume that Apple is not interested in hosting the potentially illegal activities that you're engaging in on their platforms and they don't want you as a customer, regardless of how many products and gift cards you've purchased for your "team" over the years.
 
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alymaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2022
3
6
Valencia, Spain
If you travel, you may encounter the problem that so many applications are only available in local stores.
And another example of banks and cards - for example in Spain, half of the sites accept cards ONLY from local banks. Yes, you can't buy a ticket for an event if you don't have a local card.
 
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diego.caraballo

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
611
1,573
A little over a month ago I encountered a very serious problem from Apple.
I’m posting it only now, as I have just returned after a long trip.

I can no longer fully use my account - download apps I bought, update them, use my balance, renew subscriptions. And all of this affects all my Apple devices - two iPhones, two iPads, a Macbook Pro and an Apple Watch.

As I was told by one of the 30 operators I managed to talk to on the phone after spending about 12 hours of my time on it, the reason was that "you redeemed several gift cards too quickly and they all had different face value".

I've been an Apple products user for a bit over 10 years now and have used a variety of devices and gadgets. And in the last 3 years my whole team of 20 people almost completely switched to Apple devices and ecosystem. And up until that point I thought it was a mutually beneficial and friendly relationship.

I've been travelling a lot in the last 10 years and living and working in different countries. For this reason, I have multiple Apple ID accounts in different countries. Since not all the apps, especially banking, food delivery and cab apps, are available in all Apple Stores (according to Apple you can have up to 5 accounts). And I usually use gift certificates, because it helps me not to think about which card is used and when it expires. And it seems that I've been using them since my first introduction to Apple products 10 years ago.

In early July 2022, right on my birthday, my Macbook pro 15 2019 was suddenly showing no signs of life. While it was being repaired, I decided to consider upgrading my working computer. After choosing the needed configuration, I redeemed my supply of gift cards to my account. I still have receipts for almost all of the cards, as well as the cards themselves.

A few days later, I was about to place an order for a new working laptop, when I found out that I was getting an error "Your account has been disabled in the App Store and iTunes" when trying to purchase something. After that, long calls and conversations with technical support began, and it did not lead to any solution. As a result, I was left without a new laptop, and most importantly - all the digital content that I bought on my iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro - I can no longer use and update it. And that are dozens of subscriptions, Final Cut licences, Logic Pro, and a lot of other software. Tech support gave me only one solution - create a new account and buy everything again. And this is not one hundred, and not even one thousand dollars.

As I see it, the tech support is unwilling to solve my problem or help solving it in any way. Phrases like "yes I understand you" will in no way compensate for my lost time I spent over the phone with them nor earn the money that I spent buying apps that Apple has taken away on its own whim due to some very questionable reasons.

Another user posted a similar case. Maybe it can be helpful.

You need a lot of patience and have the case escalated to a senior advisor. Try to not over-explain you issue, just say that you had your account disabled and that you are ready to sent the proof-of-purchase receipts for the gifts cards. No need to mention the multiple Apple ID accounts or that you travelled a lot, etc. Refrain to the necessary information only.
 

rpmurray

macrumors 68020
Feb 21, 2017
2,148
4,319
Back End of Beyond
As I see it, the tech support is unwilling to solve my problem or help solving it in any way. Phrases like "yes I understand you" will in no way compensate for my lost time I spent over the phone with them nor earn the money that I spent buying apps that Apple has taken away on its own whim due to some very questionable reasons.
THere are two lines that you can use that always work when calling Apple.
  1. Do you know who I am?
  2. Let me speak to your manager!
 
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maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,410
43,304
As I see it, the tech support is unwilling to solve my problem or help solving it in any way.
OP, without accusing you, your behavior looks to have raised a number of red flags and as such Apple is doing their due diligence to protect itself and its customers as it seems scammers are always trying to get away with things, and because you're holding multiple apple ids that are being used in different countries (to circumvent geofencing) and using multiple and varied gift cards probably in some sort combination of your many apple ids.
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
5,707
4,275
Will ditto what others have said re: triggered some fraud alert. Most people aren't inputting many gift cards of various denominations at the same time. Even Apple Store has a limit (5? 8?) that you can input when buying hardware, need to show up with physical or ecards to use more than X cards.

And to the part of trying to buy a new MBP, this had little to no chance of working, as gift cards are country or region specific. So trying to buy in Country A with Country A, B, and C gift cards is not possible. And can't "merge" different accounts' balances as one.
 

alymaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2022
3
6
Valencia, Spain
UPD:
I got a call today (4 days after the problem was publicly announced) from Apple Retail Executive Relations department.
They made manual review of my account and restore it.
Problem solved.
Thanks everybody for your advice and support. I'm sure our discussion helped to get the problem noticed.
 

PauloSera

Suspended
Oct 12, 2022
908
1,384
UPD:
I got a call today (4 days after the problem was publicly announced) from Apple Retail Executive Relations department.
They made manual review of my account and restore it.
Problem solved.
Thanks everybody for your advice and support. I'm sure our discussion helped to get the problem noticed.
You're incredibly lucky, because there are other people who have had their accounts permanently disabled as a result of this kind of shady activity.
 

Tkpgirl

macrumors newbie
Dec 19, 2022
2
1
Hello. I’m so sorry to bother you. I’m new here. How did you publicly announce it. Im having a crazy situation with them as well and I’m in shock I can’t get anyone there to use common sense and look at the proof I’ve provided in order to reinstate my id. Any advice would be so appreciated- all the voicemails from my grandmother before Alzheimer’s took over is more valuable than the business backups and I will do anything to get these. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Mine was not disabled for same reason. I had fraud charges I disputed after I had my whole life hacked and had thorough investigations done by police, banks, etc. but apple will not even let me send them these records they just cut me off and say see the t and c’s.
 

BugeyeSTI

macrumors 604
Aug 19, 2017
6,805
8,664
Arizona/Illinois
Mine was not disabled for same reason. I had fraud charges I disputed after I had my whole life hacked and had thorough investigations done by police, banks, etc. but apple will not even let me send them these records they just cut me off and say see the t and c’s.
Apple doesn't have a presence on this forum so coming here for help isn't boing to amount to anything. The forum member you asked how to make it public emailed the retail executive relations team at Apple. He made three posts here and hasn't been back since September 30th (his final post on this thread).
 

Tkpgirl

macrumors newbie
Dec 19, 2022
2
1
Apple doesn't have a presence on this forum so coming here for help isn't boing to amount to anything. The forum member you asked how to make it public emailed the retail executive relations team at Apple. He made three posts here and hasn't been back since September 30th (his final post on this thread).
Ok. Thank you so much for your time and info. I appreciate the honesty!
 
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