Yesterday, we covered a story about Dustin Curtis’ experience with his Apple ID being disabled when his Apple Card payment failed. Apple today released a statement to 9to5Mac clarifying the situation. The company says that the Apple Card and Apple ID are not linked in the way the blog post claimed, and that the company does not disable Apple ID services because of missed payments with the Apple Card.
The situation arose because the exchange process was not resolved and Apple was following its standard procedures in matters of money due; this is not something specific to the Apple Card. When an account is marked as undocumented, the use of Apple ID services is restricted; things like Apple Music or App Store purchases. ICloud is completely separate and is not disabled in any way. You can read Apple’s full statement on the matter after the break.
When a customer makes a purchase using instant exchange, the customer has about 14 days to send the item to Apple. In most cases, the item is received and the sale is completed.
However, if the item is not received, Apple communicates with the customer by email and phone. If the exchange is not yet completed, Apple charges the exchange value back to the registered customer’s payment method, on the account that was originally used to purchase the product from the store. However, if that charge fails, the account will be marked as undocumented. Customers are asked on several occasions to correct their billing issue or provide an alternative payment method.
If the problem persists, Apple disables all paid services for that Apple ID until the money is recovered – since the account is essentially in debt. That means things like Apple Music, iTunes Store and App Store. (iCloud services are not disabled, so customers can still access their personal data, such as photos).
In the case of Curtis, the payment method used was his Apple Card. However, Apple’s statement states that the steps above are not related to the Apple Card in any way; it’s just following standard retail store policies when customers don’t pay outstanding invoices in a timely manner. There is no change in procedure because an Apple Card was used, which would be the same for all payment methods.
Here is Apple’s full statement:
We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience that we may have caused this customer. The issue in question involved a restriction on the customer’s Apple ID that would disable purchases from the App Store and iTunes and subscription services, except iCloud. Apple provided instant credit for the purchase of a new MacBook Pro and, as part of this agreement, the customer should return their current unit to us. Regardless of the payment method used, the ability to perform transactions on the associated Apple ID has been disabled because Apple was unable to collect funds. This has nothing to do with the Apple Card.
Obviously, Curtis was just trying to replace his old laptop when buying a Mac M1. For some reason, the exchange process has not been completed and has not been resolved. But the consequences of this are not related to the fact that he used an Apple Card to pay.
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