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> That's not exactly what happened. "they give you a credit at purchase time"

That would still be a refund on the Apple Card. "amount of the credit [...] to my Apple Card balance." means Apple refunded a portion of the balance.

> Anyway, the important point you're missing is that if Apple was dealing with a Chase card, Apple would not be out any money

They sure would if they accidentally credited your Chase card. Apple's site says

"Once we receive it, we’ll inspect it and verify its condition. If everything checks out, we’ll credit your original purchase method and send you any remaining balance on an Apple Gift Card by Email."

If they erroneously "credit your original purchase method", they would, in fact, be out of money. Dustin was erroneously credited. I don't see how it would be any different, other than it seems Dustin got his credit instantly, if his tweets were accurate.

If they instantly credited me and I sent them a lump of coal in the trade in, they would be, in effect, out of money, regardless if it was an Apple Card or a Chase card.

Looks like I was right. Entirely unrelated to the Apple Card. https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/03/apple-card-apple-id-unrelated...

"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."

After looking into it more, I see that the instant credit system is the culprit.

1. Apple instantly gave Dustin the credit (because he opted into paying monthly). From Apple's site: "If you pay monthly: We’ll apply the value as an instant credit to lower your monthly payments."

2. Apple failed to send the box

3. Apple tried to get its credit back by charging the value to the Apple Card

4. Dustin didn't update the bank info, so Apple couldn't get its money back as the card denied the charge.

5. Apple's fraud alarm went off.

Apple gives you instant trade in credit if you pay monthly. While that's unique to the Apple Card here in USA, other countries that don't have Apple Card offer financing too. It's not out of the question that instant trade in credit is offered to countries that don't have Apple Card but also offer financing on Macbooks too.

Everyone is at fault it seems (more on Apple than Dustin). Dustin failed to update the bank info, Apple failed to send the box, and Apple failed to communicate properly.

I did the same with the Apple Watch. I bought my last Apple Watch using monthly payments, so I got instant trade in credits. I was sent a trade in box, but my cousin wanted to buy the Watch off of me so I never sent in the trade in. Apple simply charged the trade in credit on my card after not receiving the trade in.

Problem solved.

> if Apple was dealing with a Chase card, Apple would not be out any money, because Chase pays Apple for any charges to the card

Unsubstantiated statements like this suggest you do not understand how card authorization and liability work for merchants, and it doesn’t seem like you’re interested in finding out.