Apple Accounts “Permanently” Blocked

Unfortunately, stuff like this is becoming all too common across the entire industry.

I've had Dell, Paypal, eBay and others refuse to do business with me because of some secret fraud-detection algorithm that nobody understands, nobody can explain and where their customer support people have no power to do anything but apologize (without any explanation).

I don't do business with them anymore as a result of their stupidity. If Apple gets like that, I may have to drop them as well, which would really suck because I like their products.

> To the extent possible, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

This. We've become too dependent of too few corporations.

This is why I won't buy media from Apple, Amazon etc and why I don't use Optimized Storage - all data in iCloud is also on the local disks and in local backups. Bad enough that i will lose any apps I bought if this happens.

I’m pretty sure this amount of control over my digital life was why I started moving away from Google.

It's really sad that the only way to have this kind of problem fixed is to get publicity on social media.

I don't use cloud services where I can avoid them and strongly prefer to do business with smaller local providers, where there's a better chance to talk to someone who can acutally fix your problem.

But in the case of app and media stores there is no alternative off course. Therefore I think we need better laws to give customers more leverage when dealing with account blocking issues. Creating a new account is not an adquate solution if it means loosing access to hundreds of Dollars worth of software licences.

Something seems off.
For years I use only iTunes Gift cards bought at Costco for one reason, they're usually 10% cheaper. Never a glitch.

If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps.

... except on those few occasions where it does.

The solution is to abolish DRM, of course. The idea that "the market knows all" in the face of such towering monocultures is absurd. Nobody can help you replace your purchases, even if they can sell them back to you. And no law can guarantee the viability of a corporation, or guarantee against loss or sabotage by its employees, without a trustee of digital ownership who could never satisfy either party. Just abolish DRM, FFS. Tell your legislators.

Wow. No one has mentioned that if Apple shuts down your account you lose access to all of your photos stored in iCloud! Not to mention your contacts, calendar, and email. And everything in the Documents folder on your Mac that hasn’t recently been downloaded. Hope it’s in Time Machine. What a nightmare!

> It's really sad that the only way to have this kind of problem fixed is to get publicity on social media.

Not that there does not need to be fundamental change in what it takes to get this type of situation resolved, but to be fair, executive customer service resolved this situation in the two examples above that are noted as resolved. I’ve had similar good experiences emailing not only Tim Cook (on a completely unrelated issue) but also the then-CEO of AT&T when I was getting the run-around about honoring a promotion for adding lines. The Consumerist (RIP) had a great guide for the executive escalation. It shouldn’t take that level to fix the problem, but the good news is if it gets to their eyes, there’s a much better chance that substantive change of the underlying issue going forward will result.

@Nate Comendant said that he did not lose access to his iCloud stuff, though perhaps he would have been prevented from signing into iCloud on a new device.

It seems to me that denying the use of a product for which one has paid (apps, at the very least), with no explanation to boot, is not something that any company can legally do without risking a lawsuit (were one inclined and disposed to file one). This part seems very straightforward to me.

Severing the relationship and forbidding future use of the service may be at the company's discretion, but I do not see how they can not then owe the user a refund for the portion of money paid for services or products which are no longer accessible.

I'll amend my previous post: while the contract may stipulate that violation of terms of service may result in termination without refund, it should certainly not be legally defensible to not provide any explanation or evidence of same, and an opportunity to contest it.