Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

hey.paris

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

761–770 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#761

Post by MichaelZuo »

totallymike wrote: post #758
MichaelZuo wrote: post #735

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it seems like nobody under this entire post has actually fully read the TOS for any Apple service. I have once for iCloud... and the impression I got was that they must think close to 100% of the population on Earth are potential scoundrels for them to put in so many clauses and escape hatches. I don’t think it’s possible to fully read any modern TOS from a bigco and not get an inkling of that. The real issu…

At Apple’s scale, the likelihood of someone pulling any weird or shady nonsense that can be imagined is not potential, it’s eventual.

Even so, on the record subordinating yourself to a superior entity by definition… must turn the end user into an inferior.

A direct, on the record, formal agreement to be an inferior.

And then people wonder why they get humilitated and mistreated in complex edge cases.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#762

Post by griffzhowl »

bambax wrote: post #665
tonymet wrote: post #492

I back up regularly using Google Takeout and similar tools, but I don’t think it’s fair to shame this author . Even if you have backups , your recent and essential content and credentials will be locked out . 1% of your content is the most important We all depend heavily on cloud storage and sso . Everything works fine until you are locked out . And using them isn’t fully voluntary. They are necessary for collaborati…

I have content on Google and Dropbox but I have live backups. It would be very annoying to be locked out of Google, but I would not lose any data. Anyone can have a NAS, you don't need a while basement or to live inside of one (??!?) Yes, those companies should absolutely be forbidden to behave like this, and punished heavily when they do. But until it happens (which doesn't look like it will), your data is your resp…

Yeah, the living in a basement comment was a strange rhetorical exaggeration, as if you have to be feeding and caring for your server 24/7, haha

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#763

Post by nullfield »

cyanmagenta wrote: post #722
rvnx wrote: post #657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In… 5 years, and the prejudice won’t accumulate because your claims will still be based on 5 years ago :/

Monetary damages generally accumulate during the pendency of litigation. Also, it seems unlikely that this would take 5 years to resolve—Apple would presumably just reactivate the account and argue the case is moot now. I mean, maybe they want to establish precedent here to avoid opening the floodgates to this type of litigation, but more likely they’d just settle this one out quickly and quietly and fight the issue…

Even a small claims filing in the US, which might have a $10k limit, does damage to Apple far enough above the effort it takes them to “just intelligently fix it” to make it worth their time.

If Apple doesn’t show up, they’ll lose and the filer will get a default judgement, for which they hopefully asked/made the case for $10k. I’m sure they can arrange to have it enforced against a local Apple Store to seize not product, but operational working assets, if they’re creative a bit. If Apple has anyone competent in Legal they won’t let it get that far, though.

Then again, if they do show up, they’ll pay a lawyer well more than an hour of time, probably by a lot, and still have to argue against a likely well-prepared person, with proof of purchase, etc., (legitimate) sob story of lost time, digital assets, and the like, and likely won’t endear themselves to the court.

And of course for a business, an actual court filing (or arbitration if it gets forced on them, with competent counsel) could be even worse.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#764

Post by orthoxerox »

This sucks, I hope you can somehow reach Apple and get them to unfuck your account.

My own experience with big tech account bans was much milder, so I learned my lesson without much pain. I got a "free Azure credit to learn cloud computing" email from MS, redeemed the credit, created a VM, started clicking around the settings and got locked out. Raised a support ticket, asked what I did wrong, told my account was flagged for suspicious activity. I asked what I did wrong again and got a reply that my case had been reviewed by a human and that my Azure account wouldn't be reactivated. Thankfully, my primary MS account didn't get banned for that.

Conclusion #1: it's frankly insane that a big tech company can fully terminate your account with no means of recourse. People like to mock the EU and its lawfare, but I think it is the best candidate to force the tech firms to implement some sort of firewall between their various services, so they can't terminate your access without prior notice or without compensation.

Conclusion #2: those who are reading this, don't put all your eggs into one basket and teach your friends and relatives to do so as well. That is, if you have to use the services of various big tech companies, spread them around. Have a boring account with one company that you use for free stuff, a boring account with another company that you use for paid services (if you can purchase services X and Y from two different companies, do so), a boring account with a third company that you use for getting paid, a fourth account that you use for shitposting and getting into arguments with internet strangers.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#765

Post by nullfield »

evanelias wrote: post #460
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“This isn’t just an email address; it is my core digital identity” If he doesn’t think like that, then why does he act like it?

[flagged]

Re: AI writing: AI tends to (and might be getting better) use commas for such claims, in the form of, “it’s not just X, but [optional:also] Y”.

Even if it feels sus, remember that AI is trained on what it sees: even the posts here will make it more and more effective at “writing like a human”.

As for the OP, the claims to exist and have published books, etc. are relatively easily publicly verifiable.

No, $500 isn’t a large amount, doubly so anymore. I consistently have to try to re-anchor, but $100 is the new $20 (sadly).

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#766

Post by someNameIG »

darrmit wrote: post #392

This is horrible and a big reason why I refuse to go “all in” on Apple, Google, or Microsoft (among other reasons). Apple is the one I’m closest to given my hardware, though. Given how invested you are in the Apple ecosystem I can’t fathom why you would go get an Apple Gift Card from a store to do this kind of transaction, though. It wouldn’t even cross my mind to do it that way.

OP is in Australia. Most stores that sell gift cards have loyalty cards that give points for gift card purchases. And a few times a year they give bonus points (e.g. 10x) on gift cards, that can result in an equivilent 10-15% saving.

You can even use this to get an effective discount on hardware, as you can use your Apple account balance to buy from Apple.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#767

Post by nullfield »

bragr wrote: post #445
KPGv2 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is why I don't use an os that depends on cloud functionality built into the os for much of its fuctionality. macOS doesn't require this. My Apple account has a handful of apps purchased over the years, and that's it. I could've bought them directly from the vendors, but the store makes it easier to update.

>macOS doesn't require this Technically true but I tried using a mac without creating an Apple ID and gave up. You can't access the store without it so you are locked out of Mac apps that aren't installed by default, and all apps that only distribute through the store now.

You don’t need the App Store to install most apps, and can just download .dmg or even .zip files with them; I feel like only a handful of developers go full-App Store-only (with good reason; it not only imposes extra restrictions on certain functionality but also takes a big cut of your sale).

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#768

Post by f33d5173 »

graemep wrote: post #269
ryanjshaw wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this argument conflates “what’s possible” with “what’s reasonable”. In a complex modern society, we can’t all be expected to have backup plans to the Nth degree. Is it possible to bore for my own water supply, install solar+inverter/battery backup for electricity, get a medical degree to treat my own wounds? Sure but most would say it’s not reasonable. It’s why we have regulations and ombudsmans for healthcar…

> Is it possible to bore for my own water supply, install solar+inverter/battery backup for electricity, get a medical degree to treat my own wounds? Sure but most would say it’s not reasonable. Bad analogy. A better one would be having a torch in case of power cuts (done that) having some extra food in the house in case the grocery delivery fails, having some basic medical supplies in the house, having mobile intern…

Ordinary backups don't aim to replace the full service. When you have a stock of food, you don't have enough to last you a lifetime. You have enough to weather a storm. The equivalent for tech would probably be having an offline copy of your "essential" data, but not of every photo you ever took. It would protect you from temporary internet disruption, or if a provider suspended you for a few days, but not if they banned you completely with no recourse.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#769

Post by mike_ivanov »

ljlolel wrote: post #755
mike_ivanov wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporations play the role of gods in our society. edit: about the same role as Greek or Roman gods.

Equal chance of them replying to your prayers and offerings

miracles happen

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#770

Post by f33d5173 »

djoldman wrote: post #713
jbstack wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this sort of thing shouldn’t be possible any more than a bank deciding to take all your money with no recourse. (They can close your account, but they can’t keep your money.) I once had to help a relative sue a bank who had closed his account after he refused to answer their very intrusive questions (they wanted to know details about distant relatives living in another country). They also refused to return his mone…

I'm curious how big the bank was and what country this is in? It's my understanding that banks really don't want your money once they've closed an account, they want you to take it back. Bigger banks, at least in the US, usually do this.

If they thought you were money laundering, maybe giving it back would be a liability.
Post reply on HN