Upset with Apple.com store and customer service

[SyncSpin]

This is a long post after a long day so hang with me if you can.

Today at 9am I decided to purchase a new MBP 15 (non retina). These are the ones in stock at stores and online. I ordered on Apple.com and chose store pickup where it would be available. I paid with my paypal debit master card. The store took my order and I got a thank you page.

About 30 minutes later I got an email saying that my payment could not be authorized. I thought that was interesting because apple.com already confirmed the order and showed approved. So I logged into paypal and saw that the amount was still showing negative and pending to apple.com.

I then called Apple who said they did not get the authorization. I then called Paypal who said the payment was authorized and it all went as normal.

Hmmmm

I call Apple again and ask what the heck I do next? As of this point my money is NOT in paypal, and apple says they dont have it. They say all I can do is cancel the purchase and resubmit. I proceed to do so. Now the new problem is my money is lost in cyberspace. As you all know when you do something like this the money is not returned to your card quickly. Takes days.

I call paypal again and ask what I can do to get my money back sooner because I need to purchase the laptop today. (Need it for work) They say apple can fax them some info and they will release it back sooner than a normal authorization cancel would do. I was pleased paypal wanted to help even though the problem was on apples side, and not paypal.

So after another TWO calls to apple they fax the info needed. At this point, 6 HOURS later my money is back in paypal. I was relieved! I call apple again and ask what my next option should be, do I reorder or what? They say yes, that whatever happened was an anomaly and no one had heard of this before.

I now go back to apple.com and order it again. This time apple.com reloads and says that the card was declined. Um, ok. No biggy, I figure because of the two charges today I went past my daily limit of $3000. I then login to paypal and to my surprise it shows -$1700 again! So while apple.com said it was declined, apple.com STILL took the money! So here I am at the exact same spot AGAIN at 6pm that I was at 9am. Apple did NOT create an order, it said declined but again took the money. WTF IS GOING ON!

So the calls start again, first to apple. They say there is no order. I say NO KIDDING! But you still took my money from my card! I get supervisors, etc. No one can explain why the site took the money when it was supposedly declined.

After a long talk they say they want to take care of me. I asked them at this point, "Should it really be this hard for me to give you $1700 for a laptop"? The guy takes my info and says he will work on getting me setup today. He understood the importance as my business relies on this. (Sold my iMac to purchase the new MBP).

2 hours later he calls me back and says there is nothing he can do for me. Nothing worked. He instigated the money be returned to me but it can take days. He is hoping tomorrow.

After all of this I am posting it here to warn others. Something is wrong with apple.com in some situations, and I was unlucky enough to find two of them in the same day. Now after ordering twice, paying twice, I am sitting here 10 hours later with NO macbook, and NO money(yet).

While the manager apologized he offered me nothing for my trouble. Just to go into the store once my money arrives and NOT order on apple.com as there is obviously an issue. Well, he did say if I ever order anything on apple.com to contact him and he can give me a discount or something for my trouble, but as the previous sentence said he just got done telling me NOT to order on apple.com because of the issues. So what good is offering me a discount only at the .com store when I cant use it??? I am very unsatisfied with the resolution I was given after all of this. My frustration level after today is beyond anything I can explain.

Thanks for reading if you are still there. Heres hoping tomorrow my money is available. I was really let down by Apple not being able to fix the issues with the store.

 

[184550]

So after the headache it caused the first time, you thought it was smart to do the same thing again?

 

[SyncSpin]

I called them to do it over the phone to avoid Apple.com and was told to order online as it would be no big deal. That whatever happened has "never happened before".

You're right, I shouldn't have trusted them.

 

[Jessica Lares]

It is a PayPal issue. Do not use PayPal for Apple orders unless it's for iTunes, don't even use THAT card on iTunes. Seriously. The problem is that when you pull money from your PayPal card is that it'll authorize the amount, but then Apple wants it that same day, which PayPal won't do for fraud protection, especially when it's $1,000+. So if Apple can't get it, they'll simply say it was denied and cancel the order.

This is an issue that has been going on for a good 5 years now. I have called PayPal in the past about using their cards with Apple because they were denied and they told me that they couldn't process those charges for whatever reason. It has to do mainly with iTunes gift card fraud and them trying to protect themselves as well as their customers.

 

[SyncSpin]

I am not so sure Jessica. Apple manager said it was an issue on their end. And I have used my paypal mastercard on itunes, and on apple.com before with no issue.

This is the first time I have had something like this going back to a year ago. I even purchased my iMac on apple.com the same way with this card.

 

[malman89]

Mistakes happen. Debit and credit card charges - and especially refunds - are not instantaneous to process. Unfortunate luck, sorry to hear it, but oh well.

 

[yg17]

Don't use a PayPal debit card for such a large purchase. Or ever, because PayPal blows. Apple might be accepting the blame for it, but I guarantee you wouldn't have had this problem if you used a credit card, or even a debit card from a real bank.

My guess as to what happened:
apple.com authorizes your card for the purchase price - this is just a temporary hold never intended to post. But it's a hold nonetheless. When the Apple Store gets the order, they put another hold on your card until you come pick it up, which, at that time, they send the order through to post the transaction. I've seen this happen at other stores when using in-store pickup (never used Apple in store pickup though). After the first $1700 authorization, your PayPal balance is down to nothing, and the second authorization doesn't go through.

It's an annoyance, but is a perfect example of why you shouldn't use a debit card for any large purchase like that. If you use a credit card, you're hopefully using it responsibly so that your current balance isn't even close to your credit limit, so you don't even notice the second authorization.

Not even going to ask why you're keeping $1700 in a PayPal account. Open an account at a real bank (or better yet, credit union). I'd feel like my money is safer in cash stuffed under the mattress than in a PayPal account.