Comment by pwinnski
5 years ago
This is Kafka-esque in parts, and not at all what I'm accustomed to when dealing with Apple. Absolutely bizarre, and not at all consistent with other people's experiences missing Apple Card payments.
It looks like they're treating failed auto-payments dramatically differently than "normal" missed payments, and a host of other weird things too.
So, so bad.
I found Apple to be super fantastic as long as you don't get them to go off script, and then their support is useless. If you have a problem that fits into the general concerns like shipping, returns, repairs? It's a really great experience. In person? It's a great experience. Remotely? Well it really depends what you are asking.
Their "trade in" program is run by a third party who seem to have just given up at some point and stopped doing their job, and Apple itself doesn't seem to have any avenue for responding to that. If you call you get no option for general assistance, if you intentionally call the wrong one to simply speak to somebody you get stonewalled looking for order numbers that don't exist, or whatever. I eventually just gave up and didn't bother trading in my old MacBook, after they lied for months that they were sending me return shipping materials and that the order was mysteriously canceled, or there was nobody available to take the call and to try tomorrow, etc.
> If you call you get no option for general assistance, if you intentionally call the wrong one to simply speak to somebody you get stonewalled looking for order numbers that don't exist
This is a trend. So many companies selling a supposedly premium experience insist on ramming you through their AI phone trees and assume knowledge of every possible reason for your call.
AFAIK Apple has departmental walls for information access, linked by AppleID #. If you route to the wrong group they will likely not have the training nor the information access to help you.
That said, I usually have done really well just asking them to route me to the right group.
It looks like they're treating failed auto-payments dramatically differently than "normal" missed payments
I wonder if this is standard in the industry. A few years ago I accidentally selected the wrong checking account to pay my Bank of America card, and because that payment failed, BoA will no longer let me pay online.
Chase did this with a friend that deposited a check using their app. He entered a lower amount by accident than what was written on the check and they permanently blocked him from depositing checks from his smartphone.
I have made the same error with my Credit Union's app (and their form on the website where you upload pictures of the checks), but they just email me that the dollar amount of the check has been amended to the correct amount...
It's always baffling when people talk about depositing checks via forms and apps. The US banking system is moving sideways instead of forwards.
A question from a perplexed non-US person — why do people get credit cards and use them and then pay for them when they have enough money on the account where they get their salary? Why go through credit cards and debts at all instead of just paying straight from that?
Credit cards in Canada and the US generally give you benefits. It isn't uncommon to get about 3% of your purchases back in various benefits. Sometimes direct cash off your bill sometimes hotels or flights, even insurance for purchases made on the card (example rental car insurance or phone insurance).
This money comes from the very high credit card fees which aren't added on to the price, so if you don't use credit cards you are basically leaving money on the table. This isn't as much of a thing elsewhere (I know in the EU) because credit card fees are much lower so the benefits passed to the consumer are minimal.
Additionally many cards give you more options for chargebacks than debit. So there is a level of safety when you are using your credit card especially for online purchases with unknown retailers.
Yet another reason is that credit score is very important in the US. Having a bunch of credit cards with large limits (even if you don't use them) that you pay off consistently is one of the easiest way to build a good credit score.
Debit cards often can't be used online.
Another outdated reason is that many debit cards had charges per-transactions, sometimes with a very low free allowance. However many banks now offer free debit card usage. Credit cards almost never have a per-transaction fee, and most have no fees at all (assuming you pay it off).
So all-in-all life becomes much more difficult if you don't have a credit card in Canada and the US. The card is less about the "credit" part for most people and just the way that people make payments.
In the UK credit cards have much better legal protection - you can essentially dispute any charge and no money will leave your actual account until they've proven that you authorised the charge. Whereas if you pay via debit card, direct debit, or cheque, then the money is removed from your account and while you can dispute the charge and will probably get the money back eventually, in the meantime your account is empty.
Pay with cash or debit card, and I pay $100 for $100.
Pay with a credit card, and I pay $98 for $100, plus if I spend the saved $2 on travel, it's actually worth more than $2. Plus other freebies for spending at least $X per year on the card.
In the US, I wish I could use one of my cash-back cards for literally everything.
And this is on a no-fee credit card! There are even better benefits available if you pay an annual fee.
It's quite possible. At the very least, there may be rules and limitations imposed on Apple by Goldman Sachs.
At this point I think the only sane way to interact with these companies is to make sure that your life can go on if they decide to lock down your account. Never be too dependent on any single company or account.
Which is why as Apple is trying to make their ecosystem increasingly sticky I am doing my best to diversify away from their services.
I agree in theory, but it's easier said than done.
I mean, if you use a smartphone, it's likely tied to either Google or Apple. Are you going to carry two phones in case one account gets closed? Do you buy all cross-platform apps twice, and enter all data on both phones?
Ultimately, I think the best you can do is spread things around so that a single company deciding you're persona non grata only means you lose some percentage of your stuff, rather than 95%.