Have $3,000+ in unusable Apple Store gift cards. Support has kicked me around for last 2 weeks, unable to help

5 to 10 years ago, my family & I traded in old devices to Apple Stores to receive Apple Store gift cards (these are gift cards for Apple Store purchases, not iTunes etc.)

The gift cards look like this (random picture found on internet; this is not mine), with silver Apple logos atop white backgrounds on the front side, and on the back side, 18-digit serial numbers beginning with 63-, and a metal strip covering a 16-letter redemption code beginning with Y-. You have to peel or scrape off the metal strip to uncover the 16-letter redemption code.

The problem: Due to the gift card’s design (and possibly age), a subset of our gift cards (unfortunately totaling over $3,000 in value) are unreadable because 1 or more letters of the 16-letter redemption code have been peeled or scraped off (and cannot be read from the peeled-off metal strip.)

In accordance with instructions found on the gift card & on If you can't redeem your Apple Gift Card or App Store & iTunes Gift Card - Apple Support > Code is unreadable, I called Apple Support 2 weeks ago, and that’s when the nightmare started.

Since my support case was opened in late September, I’ve been run around at least 5 different departments (Wallet, Online Sales, Media Services, General Customer Service, Gift Card Review) & spoken with Senior Advisors in each unit. No one seems to have any answers. I’ve also went to 3 different physical Apple Stores & spoken with their most senior managers on duty, and none of them have the authority to replace these gift cards. (In fact, they can’t even look up the cards’ values with only the exposed 63- serial numbers; they need the 16-letter redemption codes.) The Gift Card Review team is the only one that’s not customer-facing, and they’ve taken 48-72 hours for each escalation, only to leave useless responses (“have them take the cards back to the retailer where they bought them & ask for a refund!” These were not purchased gift cards, or we would have done it long ago.)

I just find it hard to believe that a company as large & reputable as Apple doesn’t have a way to replace defective gift cards. I had to get one replaced from Target a few years ago & got it done over the phone in 10 mins.

Is there any other solution or do we treat these $3,000+ as gone? Thanks for your help!

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(For those of you wondering why we didn’t use the gift cards sooner, we were Microsoft / Google / Samsung users until recently. We were told the gift cards would never expire, so there was little urgency at the time. The Apple gift cards were left in a secure box with minimal dust & humidity all these years.

Apple seems to be aware of the design flaw in their old gift cards, as the new ones don’t require scratching anything off; the 16-letter redemption codes are simply printed right on the card, but wrapped inside an outer envelope.)

[Edited by Moderator]