20 Years of Digital Life, Gone in an Instant, thanks to Apple
hey.paris
Summary: A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple Developer ID, and everything associated with it, and I have no recourse. Can you help? Email paris AT paris.id.au (and read on for the details). ❤️ Update 14 December 2025: Someone from Executive Relations at Apple says they’re looking into it.

Wrote books on Apple software. Bought five figures of gear over decades. Then bought an Apple giftcard, & suddenly permabanned in spite of raising issue with internal contacts.

932 comments: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252114

  • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    16·
    5 days ago

    Impressive. And perhaps also clever, depending on whether that was what you predicted would happen! :)

    And you never mentioned anything related to litigation, it was just a polite recording request? Maybe you mentioned the dishonesty, or kept it generic…

    • Mose13@lemmy.world
      3·
      5 days ago

      Now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if it was actually public relations and not legal. This was back when M1 was just coming out. Regardless, just ask them for all the call recordings and make them think you’re gonna do something with those recordings (sue, go to the press, etc.). It was crazy how their tone shifted immediately from we’re not gonna give you anything to how can we make this right.

      But maybe it doesn’t always work, as your Apple ID story was obviously published. Maybe it depends on who you get it maybe Apple is different today 🤷

      Maybe reach out to Apple with a link to the blog post, and ask if they would like to comment before you reach out to Gizmodo or something. I’m not a lawyer so don’t sue me if it goes badly.