Ask HN: Has anyone dealt with Apple locking their balance? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Has anyone dealt with Apple locking their balance?

3 pointsCobaltFire6 comments

I used some AMEX points to purchase Apple Gift cards to treat myself to a new Studio, and Apple canceled the purchase. They also locked my Apple Account balance (not the account itself).

I imagine I flagged some kind of fraud prevention algorithm, and CS so far is unhelpful. They've said they escalated it, but I've heard nothing and online chatter (reddit and the Apple forums) indicates that this can be a permanent lock. I have a not insignificant amount of money in that account, as I didn't realize it has a daily limit so have used it on several occasions to purchase phones by putting gift cards into it.

With how many people here use Apple machines daily I figured that someone may have dealt with this, and that this can serve as a PSA for those who haven't.

So if anyone has dealt with this or has advice I'd appreciate some guidance. So far I'm hoping I can work through this system without too much more headache.

Update a few hours later for anyone who stumbles upon this later:

Apple has unilaterally disabled my account and told me to create a new one. They will let me know in 5-10 business days if they will refund the balance in my account.

There is a slight chance that the refund process will resolve the account issue as it is being elevated to an engineering team in the fraud department.

Update a couple of days later in case someone comes upon this:

I emailed tcook@apple.com and the Executive Relations team reached out to me. I was able to provide everything they asked for and they handled getting my account unlocked. They told me to go ahead and reorder the Studio the same way I did, as I had a window where their automated system wouldn't be involved for my account. I did so and am now REALLY hoping that my account doesnt get locked again!

Gift cards + large purchase tends to be very fraud-prevention triggery but you're, at a minimum, going to get your money back.

They never charged the gift cards; those are still good.

My Apple balance is locked and unusable though. I'd like that to be freed up, and I'd still like to buy the Studio!

It's right around the start of a long weekend so you have the (dubious) advantage of not being able to do much about it for a few days. On Tuesday you can rain down righteous indignation upon them - 'you've locked up my money for days and days!'.

Thats basically what my wife said!

Really hoping that it gets sorted out. I had no idea gift cards were such an issue; I rarely use them.

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