On Tuesday <https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/02/apple-id-held-hostage/> we
covered a story regarding Dustin Curtis's experience with his Apple ID
getting disabled when a payment to his Apple Card failed. Apple has since
shared a statement with 9to5Mac clarifying the situation. The company says
that Apple Card and Apple ID are not linked in the way that the blog post
alleged, and the company does not disable Apple ID services because of
missed Apple Card payments.
The situation arose because the trade-in process was left unresolved, and
Apple was following its standard procedures in matters of money owed; this
is not anything specific to the Apple Card. When an account is marked as in
bad standing, use of Apple ID services is restricted; things like Apple
Music or App Store purchases. iCloud is wholly separate and is not disabled
at all.
When a customer makes a purchase using instant trade-in, the customer has
around 14 days to send off the item to Apple. In most cases, the item is
received and the sale completes.
However, if the item is not received, Apple communicates with the customer
over email and phone. If the trade-in is still not completed, Apple charges
the trade-in value back to the customer's payment method on file, on the
account that was used to buy the product from the store originally. However,
if that charge fails, the account is marked as being in bad standing.
Customers are prompted on multiple occasions to fix the billing issue or
supply an alternative payment method instead.
If the issue persists, Apple disables all paid services for that Apple ID
until the money is recovered - as the account is essentially in debt. This
means things like Apple Music, the iTunes Store, and the App Store. (iCloud
services are not disabled, so customers can still access their personal data
like photos.)
In Curtis's case, the payment method used was his Apple Card. However,
Apple's statement affirms that the above steps are not related to the Apple
Card at all; it's just following its standard retail store policies when
customers do not pay outstanding invoices in a timely fashion. There is no
change in procedure because an Apple Card was used, it would be the same for
all payment methods.
Here's Apple's full statement:
We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience we may have caused for this
customer. The issue in question involved a restriction on the customer's
Apple ID that disabled App Store and iTunes purchases and subscription
services, excluding iCloud. Apple provided an instant credit for the
purchase of a new MacBook Pro, and as part of that agreement, the customer
was to return their current unit to us. No matter what payment method was
used, the ability to transact on the associated Apple ID was disabled
because Apple could not collect funds. This is entirely unrelated to Apple
Card.
Obviously, Curtis was just trying to trade in his old laptop when buying an
M1 Mac. For whatever reason, the trade-in process did not go through and was
left unresolved. But, the consequences of that are unrelated to the fact he
used an Apple Card to pay.
By <https://9to5mac.com/author/benjaminmayo/> Benjamin Mayo
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