Apple Clarifies When It Locks Your Apple ID Because You Owe Them Money

Statement from Apple to 9to5Mac, regarding yesterday’s much-publicized story about Dustin Curtis getting locked out of his Apple ID:

We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience we may have caused for this customer. The issue in question involved a restriction on the customer’s Apple ID that disabled App Store and iTunes purchases and subscription services, excluding iCloud. Apple provided an instant credit for the purchase of a new MacBook Pro, and as part of that agreement, the customer was to return their current unit to us. 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.

Seems like a more reasonable situation than it first appeared, but, still, good to know that this is how it works.

The heart of Curtis’s saga is that he got instant credit for an old MacBook, didn’t send it back to Apple on time, and changed the bank account backing his credit card so Apple’s chargeback for the device trade-in didn’t take. When I, or family members, have sent devices in for trade-in (iPhones, usually), we haven’t been credited for the trade-in until after Apple has acknowledged receiving the old device.

★ Wednesday, 3 March 2021