I just had my mom purchase a $100 gift card for my son. Now I have to go to the Apple Store to redeem it… how fun
Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
131–140 of 479 posts
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could buy from a provider that advertises non-use of DRM like GOG, or on Steam, it lists third party DRM, so you can know whether you have the tools to remove it (and whether you have the tools to remove Steam's DRM, or whether the game appears on a web list of games that don't use any DRM). You could also refund it if you can't verify you're able to successfully back it up and run the backup on a computer or use…
Why do you think it's different with GOG? Both GOG and Steam allow you to use local copies of games, and both would deny you access to your account to download more games once banned. Steam allows you to install games without DRM from their platform.
Unless they've changed recently, I thought GOG's platform itself does not have DRM? Steam does provide DRM and doesn't tell you if a game uses it, though as far as I know there are generic tools to bypass it.
GOG also specifically advertises games that don't have DRM, e.g. [0]. Steam versions of the same game (e.g. Skyrim) often require Steam to be running and enforce mandatory updates that aren't always desirable with no rollback ability.
[0] https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_anniv...
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#133> Update 18 December 2025: We’re back! A lovely man from Singapore, working for Apple Executive Relations, who has been calling me every so often for a couple of days, has let me know it’s all fixed. It looks like the gift card I tried to redeem, which did not work for me, and did not credit my account, was already redeemed in some way (sounds like classic gift card tampering), and my account was caught by that. Obvi…
Banks can’t legally just take your money and lock you out permanently. There are some actual regulations. Plus they have a proper handle on your actual human identity, which means you ought to always have a route to going somewhere in person and proving you’re the rightful owner of your money.
“Online” accounts have zero regulatory requirements, plus many of them aren’t necessarily directly paid-for, so they frame themselves as doing you a favor by letting you have it in the first place. And they usually don’t have a route to prove identity because they don’t record a legal identity (passport/SSN/etc) to begin with (not that that was an issue here, of course - in this case Apple didn’t dispute that they were the owner, just asserted that they were some kind of criminal.)
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#134The risk of this happening seems low, but the impact on my life as an Apple ecosystem resident would be catastrophic. It's an easy decision for me - I won't buy or redeem an Apple gift card again.
Not an expert in the issues presented, but I see increasing numbers of single-point process failures, like what happened to Paris, being designed into our civilization.
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple makes money on hardware and a 30% tax on developers. They might have some goodwill but are not making any money on privacy.
Yup. But not on advertising. I wasn't defending Apple. I was merely pointing out that one of these, is not like the other. Like I said, it seems that we have a hard time understanding business models other than "Harvest and sell data." Posts like the GP, seem to reinforce this appearance. Upton Sinclair is known for a quote, referencing this kind of thing.
There are ways to abuse advertising other than harvesting and selling user data - which is a big one. Which apple has already done (https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-france-ads-fine-illegal-dat...)For example, the app store places unadvertised apps further down the list on searches or doesn't even show them at all.
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I want to know is why does it always have to go straight from 0 to 100? There's seemingly no concept of proportion. For most online services, your account can be in one of two states: Totally good and "banned for life". There's no warning, no investigative period, no concept of scale (was the fraud $10 or $10,000?), no way to serve your time and come back if you actually were bad. It's just instant, silent BAN H…
At the scale these companies operate and the number of actual scammers they block because of their 0 - 100 policies, I can see how they got there. I bet all of us have had the luck (?) of out card being blocked because someone out there was able to get a hold of the credentials. Collateral damage like this, as devastating as it is to the individual, is probably a drop in the bucket for the company. I'm not excusing t…
It's not just corporate policy, it's regulatory requirements in the US.
You must block financial activity, and you must not communicate any details to the customer, upon reasonable suspicion of money laundering activity. There's a process and a prescribed timeline for getting things resolved. There is no penalty for a false positive, but there are large penalties for false negatives.
Having watched hundreds of these things happen, all of the details point squarely to an AML problem. For closed loop gift card programs, the merchant, program manager, issuing bank, and possibly the seller all get involved. It takes time.
This doesn't require shutting off a user's access to their data though -- just preventing financial activity. Apple might not have adequately fine-grained permissions around account suspension to support this, and obviously they should fix that!
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#137The real problem is that companies do not offer any accessible, powerful, and intelligent customer support. Even if they have real humans to talk to, they simply follow a script. Those agents do not have the ability to investigate a situation or the power to use their discretion to take meaningful action. We should impose, by law, the following rules on all companies that offer accounts to their customers. 1. If they…
Usually I'm not a big fan of legislation, but in this case I completely agree. Companies unilaterally taking away anything you've paid for is effectively no different from theft, and ToS shouldn't be able to escape that. Or even if it's a free service but it's something you've built up value in -- a history of photos, messages, emails, etc. -- it's similarly effectively theft. I agree there absolutely needs to be a f…
> Usually I'm not a big fan of legislation
Corporations need to be heavily regulated. They won't just do the right thing for its own sake.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Corporation/Joel-...
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could buy from a provider that advertises non-use of DRM like GOG, or on Steam, it lists third party DRM, so you can know whether you have the tools to remove it (and whether you have the tools to remove Steam's DRM, or whether the game appears on a web list of games that don't use any DRM). You could also refund it if you can't verify you're able to successfully back it up and run the backup on a computer or use…
Why do you think it's different with GOG? Both GOG and Steam allow you to use local copies of games, and both would deny you access to your account to download more games once banned. Steam allows you to install games without DRM from their platform.
With GOG you can download the games's installer, vy backing up those you can still install your games even if you get banned
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#139A core concept here is that of ownership. People think they own their accounts and data. Stories like these, and unfortunately the law, make it clear that they don't own anything. I personally think it is false advertising of companies to even hint at ownership. Words like 'buy' shouldn't be allowed since it implies owning. They should only be allowed to say 'rent' or 'grant a limited license'.
I would rather the law make it such that you really are buying, than codify that you own nothing. The ambiguity isn't great, on that we agree, but why would you weaken the citizen's standing to remove it?
Re: Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is no meaningful way to exist in society today without an Apple or Google account As is the case for many other infrastructure companies, such as your local electricity network operator (or even supplier depending on market liberalization). We also didn't solve that problem by ensuring everyone's right to run a generator in their backyard or heat their city apartment with a coal oven. If tech companies have b…
I have neither a Google nor an Apple account. Well, to be fair, I do create an ephemeral Apple ID every time I get a new phone… But I immediately log out of iCloud after downloading the two or three apps that I use. I have no idea what my Apple ID or password is… I would have to go look them up. Further, if I lost said Apple ID, I would lose nothing of value. I believe, as you say, I exist meaningfully in society.
> I do create an ephemeral Apple ID every time I get a new phone
In other words, you do have an in-use apple id at (pretty much) all times.