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My iTunes Account Was PERMANENTLY Disabled.

I can't believe that after complaining about your misfortune and spending the time to type your misfortunes to us, you haven't made the effort to even call customer service. If I was in your position, I'd be calling them right away. Is there something prohibiting you from calling Apple? Is it really that difficult to dial a number and talk to someone? So what if you're going to be on hold for a long time, and get transferred everywhere. Fact remains... If you don't try you won't know. A phone call is always more effective than an e-mail when it comes to making a complaint.

Stop bumming around about calling Apple. Just do it.
 
as stated, keep calling them. i would. for that amount of media, I'd call every hour until it was resolved.

i'd also email steve jobs and list every apple device you had plus admit you bought off ebay and thought it was a trusted source. apologize for it and tell them you don't do it again.
 
Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but have they actually deauthorized your mac or macs? Can you actually still play the existing music files?
And whilst what happened to you sucks, DRM can be removed. Time and effort but it can be done.
 
This is a mess, I don't understand how Apple could do this if you are willing to pay for the fraudulent cards.

I looked around online and could only find one contact number for support in the US. But I would be calling it non-stop till I found someone to fix this. I'm sure you have this number but the one I found was 1-800-275-2273.
 
Could always call the police.

Apple is preventing you from accessing the music you legally purchased off them.
 
Wouldn't an attorney be a first step before trying to go to the police? Depends on what you're willing to spend to save your account.
 
Cynicalone said:
Wouldn't an attorney be a first step before trying to go to the police? Depends on what you're willing to spend to save your account.
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Police aren't going to get involved with this.

The choice would be to get an attorney to represent you
 
theBB said:
Nope, it is possible to strip DRM without losing quality. Requiem was a bit difficult to locate a few months ago, but I still could get it to work fairly easily.
Click to expand...

Wow, fantastic, thanks for the heads up.
 
Geez, it seems like you should be able to work something out w/ Apple. Keep calling. But I think you should be calling ebay just as aggressively. I agree they could do to monitor, enforce, mediate on their site. Good luck working this out. :(
 
I suppose for future reference for the rest of us .... at least now with the store being 100% drm-free for music, music videos at least, you could buy stuff with gift cards there and limit DRM purchases (apps, movies) to your regular account ... so not risking you entire library ...

This is why i never bought anything from a DRM laiden store ... don't like the thought of someone else deciding what i can do with media i paid good money for....

Law enforcement won't get involved cos this is a right / civil issue ... only thing you can do it argue with apple till your blue in the face but there TOS are clear and you signed up to them when you buy stuff .... still REALLY sucks though ...

I just wouldn't take the risk with ebay stuff unless it was as i described in the top bit
 
belvdr said:
Police aren't going to get involved with this.

The choice would be to get an attorney to represent you
Click to expand...

The problem here is that Apple have done nothing wrong here. What the OP has essentially done is pay for his songs with an unknown to him with fake notes, and Apple has refused to accept them. Any refund for the OP would be an extreme act of goodwill. An explanation of his situation via customer support is the only available option, and any legal action should be against the original seller of the cards. You could always report the seller on eBay.
 
My advice would be small claims court. It is designed to work for things exactly like this. Odds are Apple will not show, and you'll get a default judgement. In my experience, it is shocking how fast a large corporation suddenly wishes to talk to YOU and resolve it immediately. The best part is, you can serve the papers to an Apple store as that is an Apple corporate entity, and hope the store employees throw it in the garbage (this is a case where it's a good thing to get something lost in the trash).

One other thing. Email the major nightly local news channels in your area (local ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS) and find out if they have an investigatory news department (they all do - the one in my area for channel 11 - NBC, I think - is the iTeam). Write them a polite, detailed email describing the situation and what Apple did to you. Once again, one news story and suddenly a large corporation labels the whole thing as a misunderstanding and wants nothing more than to resolve the issue and show how understanding and compassionate they are.

I've done both, and have had very good success with both. Nobody likes summary judgements or bad PR. Shocking.
 
Rich1963 said:
My advice would be small claims court. It is designed to work for things exactly like this. Odds are Apple will not show, and you'll get a default judgement. In my experience, it is shocking how fast a large corporation suddenly wishes to talk to YOU and resolve it immediately. The best part is, you can serve the papers to an Apple store as that is an Apple corporate entity, and hope the store employees throw it in the garbage (this is a case where it's a good thing to get something lost in the trash).

One other thing. Email the major nightly local news channels in your area (local ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS) and find out if they have an investigatory news department (they all do - the one in my area for channel 11 - NBC, I think - is the iTeam). Write them a polite, detailed email describing the situation and what Apple did to you. Once again, one news story and suddenly a large corporation labels the whole thing as a misunderstanding and wants nothing more than to resolve the issue and show how understanding and compassionate they are.

I've done both, and have had very good success with both. Nobody likes summary judgements or bad PR. Shocking.
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:eek:

That's a bit extreme, especially when the OP said this ...

BG Mac said:
And by the way I paid $174 for the $200 in credit.
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On eBay. The warning bells are ringing there. Someone is getting rid of them for less than they're worth. Unwanted gift? Ask for the receipt. Yes, it was £200, but the codes are obviously duff. Calling customer services and emailing them is reasonable action. Complaining about the seller of them to eBay is reasonable action. Making this a national issue is such an over the top reaction, that i'm struggling to comprehend it. The mind boggles.
 
I don't think attempting to get your iTunes account reactivated through either method is a "national issue". I think Apple shutting down an entire iTunes account was a little excessive. Going to small claims court is the exact remedy in this situation. The OP can either recover his account financially or Apple will finally take notice come to an agreement. It's poor customer service to have no way to contact the iTunes store via phone. Makes it very convenient to hand out account deactivations such as this and not have to offer any explanations. This would simply be a way the OP could get the attention of a large corporation who has decided rather than come to some sort of agreement where the OP would reimburse Apple, or hear out his side of the story, they just deactivate the account and walk off with any money they've collected so far..

I have found in the past that companies who like to hide behind blanket "all or nothing" policies suddenly like to talk when it will cost them money, or a news camera is pointed in their direction.
 
Invalidating music someone paid for, sounds like M$ to me. The joys of DRM eh? But really, that seems a bit of overkill to invalidate $5,000 worth of purchases over a $200 fake card. Good luck getting this straightened out.

Apple might be a bit more generous if you could show you are taking active efforts to get back at the bum who sold you the fake card, and convince them you are the innocent, injured party in all of this.

Small Claims Court might work too. :cool:
 
Well, it is not big deal.

The only thing you lose it that you can't purchase anything with your disabled account. You still possess your $5,000 worth media and you can play them, sync to iPod, iPhone, etc.

The only difference is that your future content have to be purchased under a different account. iTunes works great with mutiple accounts.
 
synagence said:
Law enforcement won't get involved cos this is a right / civil issue ... only thing you can do it argue with apple till your blue in the face but there TOS are clear and you signed up to them when you buy stuff .... still REALLY sucks though ...
Click to expand...

Basically, even a well established high profile auction house here, the police said no can do ... since the seller had willingly turned over the title to the car and the keys.

So even though the car was sold to the buyer and the seller hadn't yet been paid, it was a civil problem.

However, due to this problem being internet fraud ... your claim is against the person who scammed you.

And if you file for internet fraud against the seller, Apple should do something to void out that $200 with a copy of the police report. However, it doesn't mean they have to either.

Heck, most credit card companies have stopped jumping until the police report is filed.
 
You should really take this up.

Contact ebay at the very least! See to it that the bstrd's ebay account is killed of instantly! Forward them copies of mails received maybe....... do something.
 
KKKL said:
Well, it is not big deal.

The only thing you lose it that you can't purchase anything with your disabled account. You still possess your $5,000 worth media and you can play them, sync to iPod, iPhone, etc.

The only difference is that your future content have to be purchased under a different account. iTunes works great with mutiple accounts.
Click to expand...

The problem is that the OP is buying a new Mac Pro and he might not be able to activate the Mac Pro to play all the music he bought.

Sounds like a problem to me.
 
And that's why you should buy CDs and never ever buy DRM protected online content.

I do think it sucks, though, Apple should have a better policy, such as suspending your account for anything new but allowing existing stuff to continue.

nick9191 said:
Could always call the police.

Apple is preventing you from accessing the music you legally purchased off them.
Click to expand...

As soon as they're done with the people who've locked themselves inside their own cars and the others who are calling 911 because McDonaldsis out of chicken nuggets, they'll get right on it.
 
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