I really can’t believe I’m writing something that sheds such a negative light on Apple. They’ve always done the right thing in my book, and I’ve been able to get support where needed. Well, today that table just turned. Aggressively.
I’ll let you read my original post, but to sum it up I was basically denied a refund request despite my offering video evidence of the app failure. I tried to appeal, but was again denied. I called Apple and got nowhere (except for the first agent erroneously stating he could help and initiating refund requests for the wrong items).
So, even though purportedly Apple does not monitor the Apple Communities forums, I decided I would post there and see if anyone else had encountered a similar situation. I really didn’t want to initiate a chargeback with my card. So, I wrote a long, partially ranting but honest post. I provided some guidance for anyone else just starting on the “refund” route. About an hour after making the post, I was surprised by a notification that I’d received an email from Apple regarding my post! I hurriedly opened the email only to find that, yes — an Apple employee DID, in fact, read my post. However, because it wasn’t constructive they just went ahead and deleted it for me. And they thanked me for being an Apple customer and gave me links to buy some more Apple stuff.
REALLY?
So an Apple employee took the time to read about the situation that I was in, genuinely not wanting to initiate a chargeback on my Apple Card — and instead of at least offering even a morsel of help, they just deleted my post for me and went ahead and made sure that I couldn’t get any insight from any “Apple Community” members. Not much of a Community when there are employees roaming the forums whose sole job is to eliminate any material that might cast a negative light on Apple. And empty the Trash after you remove it, too!
Well, Apple, I’m sorry to say but — for the time being, you aren’t able to impede on my free speech outside of your “Community”. I’ll be giving things a serious re-think over the coming days. In an interesting twist of fate, I ordered an Android phone today before all of this happened. It was just going to be a spare, and something I could use to “keep up” with the latest Android OS changes.
I really want to believe that everything that’s transpired has just been a series of extremely rare aberrations. At any rate, it would appear that gone are the days of Apple actually listening to their customers. Oh, you can get on a live chat nearly instantly if you want to buy something.
I’ll include the email I received from Apple also, and here’s my original post that I put on Apple Communities:
This is only for $8.96 in in-app currency, but in my response to Apple’s declined refund request I offered to provide video evidence of the error in the app wherein the currency was delivered but instantly disappears. I was floored to see that they still denied all 4 requests even when I offered to send them this evidence.
I really don’t want to perform a chargeback, but it seems like Apple has left me no choice. I did call in and the first agent said he could help, but he requested refunds on the wrong purchases so I canceled those refund requests. The second agent I spoke with told me there was nothing she could do.
She said that I needed to just dispute the transaction, after which I will have to call Apple to get my account re-enabled. She said “It’s no big deal for just one chargeback, but if you have another one they will ban your Apple ID for life. But you should be fine to do one!” I asked, “does this mean that I lose access to my 4TB of iCloud Drive storage, digital assets, purchases, etc?” She said that I would retain access to my purchases, but my Apple ID would be disabled permanently. So I’m not exactly sure how that would work. But if they ban my Apple card from being used for Apple purchases, well that quickly eliminates one of the primary benefits of the card.
I’m just ranting and disappointed that there’s nobody to contact at Apple whom you can actually explain the circumstance of your problem to. Because obviously whoever reviewed my comments when I requested further review, either didn’t speak English or didn’t actually read my comments. I’m leaning toward the latter because all four “re-decline” notifications came in, one after another — with about 5 seconds in between each.
I spend easily over $100 per month on Apple digital purchases, so for them to overlook the account longevity and decline a refund for $8.96 really has me wondering where the humans are at Apple. Because they’re obviously not customer-facing. At least, not where it matters.
It’s the principle of the matter.
If anyone has any suggestions for alternatives to my filing a chargeback/dispute, then I’d greatly appreciate your sharing. I’m sure that I’m not the only one in this predicament.
For anyone that happens upon this post, if you haven’t already then the best place to start is at the https://reportaproblem.apple.com website. Sign in with the Apple ID used for the purchase, and review the list of charges. You’ll hear back from Apple within 48 hours or so after submitting the refund request.
–Josh
