Your account has been disabled in the App Store and iTunes

A little over a month ago I encountered a very serious problem from Apple.

I am writing this post only now, as I have just returned from a long trip.

I can no longer fully use my account - download apps I bought, update apps, use my balance, renew subscriptions. And all of this affects all of my Apple devices - two iPhones, two iPads, a Macbook Pro and an Apple Watch.

The reason I was told by one of the 30 operators I managed to talk to on the phone after spending about 12 hours of my time was "you activated several gift cards too quickly and they were of different denominations".

I've been with Apple products for a bit over 10 years now and have used a variety of devices and gadgets. And in the last 3 years almost completely turned my whole team of 20 people to Apple devices and ecosystem. And up until that point I thought it was a mutually beneficial and friendly relationship.

I've been traveling a lot in the last 10 years and living and working in different countries. For this reason, I have multiple Apple ID accounts in different countries. Since not all apps, especially banking or food delivery and cab apps are available in all Apple Stores (the rules say you can have no more than 5 accounts). And I usually use gift certificates, because it helps me not to think about where the card is tied to and when it will expire. And it seems that I've been using them since my first introduction to Apple products for the past 10 years.

In early July 2022, right on my birthday, my Macbook pro 15 2019 stopped working. While it was being repaired, I decided to consider upgrading my working computer. After choosing the right configuration, I activated my supply of gift cards to my account. I still had receipts for almost all of the cards, as well as the cards themselves.

A few days later, when I started to place an order for a new working laptop, I found that I got an error message "Your account has been disabled in the App Store and iTunes" when I purchased it. After that, long calls and conversations with technical support began, which did not lead to a solution. As a result, I was left without a new laptop, and most importantly - all the digital content that I bought on my iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro - I can no longer use and update. And that's dozens of subscriptions, Final Cut licenses, Logic Pro, and a lot of other software. Tech support gave me only one solution - create a new account and buy everything again. And this is not one hundred, and not even one thousand dollars.

As I see it, the tech support is in no mood to solve my problem or help solve it in any way. Phrases like "yes I understand you" will in no way return the lost time to call and earn money that I spent shopping in the AppStore, which Apple has taken away on its own whim with very doubtful justification.