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why can't I buy email gift certificates

Tried to buy my daughter an email gift certificate yesterday, and got the error message "this account is not currently eligible to buy gift certificates". Changing credit card, updating iTunes, no effect. So I emailed Apple support and got the following amazing response: "Graeme, regretfully iTunes Store Customer support is unable to provide further comment or information regarding the eligibility requirements for purchasing a Gift Certificate from the iTunes Store."

Might the CIA have classified the information? Anyone got other ideas or a way of fixing this?

TIA,
Graeme Forbes

G5 1.8GHx DP, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jun 2, 2009 11:27 AM

Reply
15 replies

Aug 25, 2009 6:55 AM in response to forbes47

Sorry, but there is no way to fix the problem. For some reason that the iTunes Store has not detailed, but that is probably related to the spate of counterfeit gift certificates that flooded out of China a couple of months ago, email gift certificates are not available for most people (if not everyone). Your only option will be to purchase an iTunes gift card for your daughter.

Sep 23, 2009 8:11 AM in response to mesrep

? I like buying gift cards 10-15.00 at a time instead of my credit card being "hit" all the time.

Gift cards can be purchased from the Apple Store or any number of retailers. It's gift certificates that are at issue.

Why don't they simply verify accounts on by one

All several million of them? And it's not the account that's at issue; it seems (from reports - Apple's never confirmed) that it was the code generation that was cracked, which if correct makes it unrelated to specific users but rather the entire gift certificate mechanism.

Anyway, no one here has a definite answer nor any solution so further discussion will be rather fruitless. You can submit your comments to Apple via their feedback page, if you wish:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Oct 17, 2009 12:59 PM in response to forbes47

I can add my voice to those that cannot send gifts to others. In my case it was an audiobook. Bought myself a copy without difficulty, but cannot turn around an send it as a gift. Collapsed into the much reported "Credit card was denied" to account page endless circle.

At this point, iTunes looses a sale and is close to loosing a customer. I can get my audiobooks from audible.com or amazon with much less hassle and aggravation.

Sending feedback ranks right up there with a letter to the North Pole.

Oct 23, 2009 8:34 AM in response to Monte Harvey1

If you select to burn an MP3 CD, the songs must already be MP3 format.
If the songs are in a different format, they will not be included on the MP3 CD.
To convert songs to MP3 format, iTunes prefs -> General. Click the *Import settings* button and set it to MP3.
Now select the songs then right click *Create MP3 version*.
This will create a new copy of the song in MP3 format. The previous version will still be there.

Add this new MP3 to the playlist and burn an MP3 CD.

Dec 1, 2009 12:53 PM in response to dupreeblue

Ditto for me too...

I was locked out by trying multiple times to make a purchase (purchase kept failing with a weird message about if I lived in or outside of the incorporated area of the county where I reside, strange, huh?). That freezes up your entire account. Ditto for using multiple cards. Apple thinks fraud is being committed. Which is what the first support person accused me of, during an online chat. She was extremely rude. If she thought I was committing fraud, she should have handled it in an appropriate way, rather than the rude condensing way that she chose. I only finally got help because I called back to complain about her and I got a different apple person on the phone that admitted that my account was frozen and then went out of his way to get an email about my problem over into the billing department (that fix frozen accounts). But it took over a week to get resolved. Then the actual email gift card purchase failed anyway...

why can't I buy email gift certificates

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