It's been about two months, and I'm still all a swoon over my relatively new Apple iPhone. Apps, I love them! Too much ... obviously. I have three pages/screens of them so far. Family members have witnessed my obsession first hand & gave me some lovely iTunes gift cards for Christmas. Aw! In the hopes of receiving such a bounty, I had several iTunes items pinpointed for my Boxing Day purchasing pleasure. Oh, yes! Don't you just love when you wish for something and then you get it? But ...my uncomplicated love for my phone hit a hiccup. My purchase of my first post-Christmas iTunes app did not trigger my gift card balance to slither down one cent. Nothing. Download completed & my full balance still on parade. Figuring that the iTunes site must be suffering from some sleepy holiday glitch, I emailed the Apple gang to spell out my difficulty. Please bill my gift card balance and *not* my credit card, please & thank you. Sounds simple enough, right? Right.
Til this morning, that is... when my inbox broke the frustrating news. Apple does not allow the purchase of apps via iTunes gift cards in Canada. And that's not all...Canadians cannot buy games with gift cards either! So it's just music then? Maybe a TV show or two? Why not apps... or games? I checked the very teeny print on the back of all three of my gift cards and there was not ONE mention of this glitch...not a peep. Same goes for their iTunes site. SERIOUSLY!!!! On the page where you can redeem your gift cards, there's a neverending list of terms & conditions but NOT ONE WORD concerning usage -- or the lack thereof - of iTunes gift cards for the purchase of apps or games.
Am I the only person who thinks this practice is totally wrong? What gives? Can our friends in the States, or England buy apps and games with iTunes gift cards? Are us Canucks the only ones stuck at the till with gift cards that cannot be used for what we really want from iTunes?
Horrible business practices, Apple!! You dangle these delicious apps and games like some forbidden fruit in your TV commercials but when we want to use, heaven forbid, gift cards to snap them up, we're prohibited without explanation. And what's worse.. their "customer service" reps didn't even acknowledge my displeasure! I received emails that look like an automatic drone-worthy reply... "I am glad I could assist you today" -- Excuse me? No, you twat...you didn't assist me AT ALL. You didn't even type one iota of a sentence that even recognized that I had a complaint *at all*.
I'm sure my fury at iTunes will pass *someday* but for today, tomorrow....this month maybe, Apple is just rotten to the core. Blech.
Buyer beware!!!
1 comment:
Oh that sucks! And to think, I got my niece (in Ontario) an itunes card for her birthday this month. Lucky for me, I THINK she uses it for music, but still...very good to know for future reference.
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