Original iPhone $100 Store Credit Stolen

[xenuprime]

Maybe I am missing something, but how is this not Apple's fault?

They let someone else spend a customers credit either through hacking their system or some other means.

Also, they can't say on one hand "sorry, you spent it" and on the other "we can't tell you where we shipped it because it wasn't you".

 

[Surrix]

Sorry, sucks.... but how is this apple's fault? You're asking a rep to figure out something that happened 3 years ago and that upsets you? Let it go and move on with your life. Call the police and tell them your story.... they can use a good laugh every now and then. I'm sure they'll send a car right away to get your case rolling.
How does the apple rep know you are who you say you are? They're not going to give out people's names and addy to a total "stranger", use your head man.... would you want a company to give out YOUR info?

I think it's completely reasonable to call it Apple's fault if true that this happened to a lot of people, ie. that Apple's credit system was hacked for information or the codes cracked to generate legit keys.

They should honor the store credit.

IMO.

 

[Block]

You think the police are going to "investigate" an allegedly lost or stolen $100 store credit even if you THINK you might know where it went ? Even if it were 3 weeks and not 3 years old? You really can't be serious. At the MOST you can file a report but that report won't get you anything. When you walk out of the PD they will just roll their eyes and file it in the "WTF" file.

I highly doubt they will do anything. But if you provide as much information as possible and the job seems easy enough, they might do something. They have their annual goals that they have to meet, and if it's an easy task that helps meet that goal, I'm sure they'd jump on it.

 

[wesk702]

U sure? I thought the iphone credit was valid for only one year.

 

[jfyrfytr25]

you guys are probably right. The police will probably not do anything about it. But what you may not realize is that when something like this happens you feel used, vulnerable, and violated. You're right, it will probably sit, but it is not a waste of his time. Because, at least he feels he did everything he could do. to do nothng would kinda feel like you let him get away with it.

I say file the police report and ask them to get the name? and address. It just requires a phone call and maybe a fax, not much of the PD's time.
then file a small claims case in the jurisdiction of the address it was shipped to. after you file the case, contact apple again and ask them to give you all the info they have on the transaction and provide them with the court documents to show them the matter is in litigation and they should be more inclined to help.

 

[Consultant]

LOL. You paid $500 or $600 for the original iPhone and "saves" the $100 credit for a "big" purchase?

Cool story bro.

Gift cards are just like cash. Someone could possibly guess the gift card number and use it, or it might have expired.

There's no cut off or expiration date for the store credit. I think it's also California law that you can't make gift cards expire (unless the store goes under or something). But the Apple store had told me they had used some of the store credits for people buying the iPhone 4, so they knew it should work if there was money on the account.

there may be rules defined by the laws of your state that require Apple to terminate your right to use your Apple Gift Card if you have not used it within a specified number of years

http://www.apple.com/go/giftcards/faqs.html

 

[cenerentola]

LOL. You paid $500 or $600 for the original iPhone and "saves" the $100 credit for a "big" purchase?

Cool story bro.

Gift cards are just like cash. Someone could possibly guess the gift card number and use it, or it might have expired.




there may be rules defined by the laws of your state that require Apple to terminate your right to use your Apple Gift Card if you have not used it within a specified number of years

http://www.apple.com/go/giftcards/faqs.html

I was in grad school at the time and saved up my money to buy the new iPhone, not knowing the price was going to drop. I don't buy a lot of stuff and wasn't going to waste the credit on phone covers or something I didn't need. This is the first purchase I've made from Apple since the original iPhone. So yeah, I saved it.

If it was just like cash, someone would have to take the actual gift card, not steal it electronically.

And it didn't expire. That has been explained elsewhere in this thread, but the store even said if there was money on the account, I could have used it.

 

[cenerentola]

I think it's completely reasonable to call it Apple's fault if true that this happened to a lot of people, ie. that Apple's credit system was hacked for information or the codes cracked to generate legit keys.

They should honor the store credit.

IMO.

Yeah, that's what I was curious about if it was a common problem. Although other than a couple posts saying they've heard about it, I am guessing it wasn't.

I do wish they'd honor the store credit, but without knowing exactly what happened, I guess I can't expect them to.

 

[cenerentola]

you guys are probably right. The police will probably not do anything about it. But what you may not realize is that when something like this happens you feel used, vulnerable, and violated. You're right, it will probably sit, but it is not a waste of his time. Because, at least he feels he did everything he could do. to do nothng would kinda feel like you let him get away with it.

I say file the police report and ask them to get the name? and address. It just requires a phone call and maybe a fax, not much of the PD's time.
then file a small claims case in the jurisdiction of the address it was shipped to. after you file the case, contact apple again and ask them to give you all the info they have on the transaction and provide them with the court documents to show them the matter is in litigation and they should be more inclined to help.

Thanks jfyrfytr25... it's good to know that some people on here understand. And thanks for the advice. I'll keep you all posted on whether anything does come of it (but don't hold your breath).

 

[RetiredInFl]

I highly doubt they will do anything. But if you provide as much information as possible and the job seems easy enough, they might do something. They have their annual goals that they have to meet, and if it's an easy task that helps meet that goal, I'm sure they'd jump on it.

I can assure you from direct inside experience they will do nothing.

 

[ugopj]

I can remember not using my credit for several months, don't recall how long. I then tried to use it and was informed by apple online store that it was only good for a certain length of time and I exceeded that period. Something doesn't add up here.

 

[aethelbert]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (webOS/1.4.1.1; U; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.0 Safari/532.2 Pixi/1.1)

LOL. You paid $500 or $600 for the original iPhone and "saves" the $100 credit for a "big" purchase?

Who are you to dictate how someone spends their money. After all, it's just like cash.

there may be rules defined by the laws of your state that require Apple to terminate your right to use your Apple Gift Card if you have not used it within a specified number of years

http://www.apple.com/go/giftcards/faqs.html

And guess what? It wasn't issued under the same terms and conditions as their typical gift cards. But good job pulling up easy-to-find, irrelevant links at their webstore.

FWIW, the credit never expires; the issue that some had was that they didn't apply for it before the cutoff date. Good luck in trying to get it back.

 

[wesk702]

I can remember not using my credit for several months, don't recall how long. I then tried to use it and was informed by apple online store that it was only good for a certain length of time and I exceeded that period. Something doesn't add up here.

Yeah that's what I'm saying. I specifically remember it having an expiration date because I had to reference it at the time

 

[Charadis]

Perhaps ..possibly... the guy could have been given a similar gift card code, except a change in a digit/character or two, and when the guy ordered the iPod, he accidentally entered your code instead of his by typo..?

In any case, sorry to hear about your loss. You have every right to pursue justice, regardless how the results turn out. And $100 is no small amount to me.

-C

Sent from my iPhone 4.

 

[socco]

U sure? I thought the iphone credit was valid for only one year.

This is how I remember it too. I had a friend use mine when he was buying an ipod, because I wasn't going to buy anything in the next year.

 

[elistan]

The $60 remaining of my original $100 store credit for the first-gen iPhone refund went towards an iPhone 4 purchase a couple weeks ago. The other $40 went towards some accessories a couple years ago.

Sucks that yours got hacked. I wonder how it happened.

 

[iTouch]

Really if the user wants to hold onto the credit then it's no ones business. I hate that too bad it's your fault when it isn't attitude. And gift cards in some states do not expire like in CA unless it's a special promotion.

 

[outphase]

Really if the user wants to hold onto the credit then it's no ones business. I hate that too bad it's your fault when it isn't attitude. And gift cards in some states do not expire like in CA unless it's a special promotion.

That's only for when they are purchased. That is not the case for these credits.

 

[marksman]

I used my store credit like a year ago or so. I had it saved up, and then lost it, but found it in my email and reprinted it out and it worked fine.

As far as I know they never expire.

 

[ntrigue]

How could this happen?

That is my obvious question. How did some guy in New York get access to your 16-digit code for $100?

 

[aethelbert]

That is my obvious question. How did some guy in New York get access to your 16-digit code for $100?

When the credits were originally issued, some people were getting the same codes as another person. After they caught onto the bug, it let people get a new one if they had been issued a duplicate.

So if you applied for it within the first two weeks that it was available, this is probably what happened.

 

[cenerentola]

When the credits were originally issued, some people were getting the same codes as another person. After they caught onto the bug, it let people get a new one if they had been issued a duplicate.

So if you applied for it within the first two weeks that it was available, this is probably what happened.

That is interesting. I had asked the manager if there was a chance someone else could have gotten my code because I don't want to criminally charge someone who didn't commit any crime, and he said that wouldn't have been possible.

But now that you mention that, I did find this thread about something similar: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5352407

I think I'll call Apple's customer service tomorrow and see if there is a chance of that. I did download the code on September 17 (I have that printed on the sheet), and the program launched September 14, I believe. So it is very possible this could be one of those glitches. Too bad it's been so long because it probably would have been easier to prove if I caught it early on.

 

[Robby C]

Sorry, sucks.... but how is this apple's fault? You're asking a rep to figure out something that happened 3 years ago and that upsets you? Let it go and move on with your life. Call the police and tell them your story.... they can use a good laugh every now and then. I'm sure they'll send a car right away to get your case rolling.
How does the apple rep know you are who you say you are? They're not going to give out people's names and addy to a total "stranger", use your head man.... would you want a company to give out YOUR info?

You're not that arrogant, are you? Ok yeah, it's $100 but I don't see why you have to be so sarcastic and impertinent to the OP. You would be pissed too.

And for the record, that "stranger" is the original card holder. I personally feel he should have every right to see who used his card. It would be one thing if he found this card lying around and then wanted to see who used it. But that's not the case, somebody somehow found out this man's card number and used it.

And nobody wants any companies to give out personal info. Especially not thieves.

 

[Block]

That is interesting. I had asked the manager if there was a chance someone else could have gotten my code because I don't want to criminally charge someone who didn't commit any crime, and he said that wouldn't have been possible.

But now that you mention that, I did find this thread about something similar: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5352407

I think I'll call Apple's customer service tomorrow and see if there is a chance of that. I did download the code on September 17 (I have that printed on the sheet), and the program launched September 14, I believe. So it is very possible this could be one of those glitches. Too bad it's been so long because it probably would have been easier to prove if I caught it early on.

Try to talk to a supervisor, they are more willing to work things out for you.