Apple AOC Website Not Accepting Gift Cards

LWolfles on 18/08/2024 - 02:23
Last edited 18/08/2024 - 18:19 by 1 other user

TLDR; unable to redeem Apple gift card balance on the Apple AOC website as it is 'blocked'.

Hey everyone, pretty much stuck here so I thought to reach out to forums to see if anyone has had a similar experience.

So today I spent an entire day basically talking with Apple support about using up my gift card balance (which I recently purchased due to Woolworths rewards 20x deal) to purchase a new MacBook Pro 14inch ($3004 option). I have $3000 that I redeemed into my Apple ID.

However, when I add the balance to my account and purchase on the Apple AOC website, it doesn't let me check out no matter what I do. If I try to pay the remaining $4 balance (I was short $4 in gift card value), then it would say pickup not available and to use delivery. When I pick delivery option, it says my card authorisation failed/ Apple Pay payment failure. I have tried like 4 different credit/debit cards (and they all have funds on them)

I went into the Apple Store physically to see if they can help me out. However, they said they can't do the price on the Apple AOC website, and only normal education website. They converted my Apple ID funds (as I had redeemed the gift cards) back into physical gift card form. I even purchased an extra $10 gift card to cover the full cost of the product using one of the credit cards used previously (which is how I know my credit card is not the issue), and it still would not let me check out, with the same issues as above. It also said that card authorisation on the gift cards were declined.

Called apple support again as Apple Store employees said to try them, and essentially, they said that my gift cards are blocked on the Apple AOC website right now and they needed to ask 'back of house' to get them authorised, however need to wait 1 business day for a reply by email. I can redeem the gift cards in store, however would like to not do this as the normal education pricing is ~$100 more expensive. (as Apple stores could not price match AOC apparently)

Wanted to know if anyone has had this experience so far, and whether they found a workaround. This previously worked last year as I bought an iPad Pro using this method.

Related Stores

Apple

• 

  EFC94 on 18/08/2024 - 07:14

  Seems annoying, I'd probably just roll with the education pricing to save myself the headache and wasting a day of my life. Whats the AOC website?

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  RED27APPLE on 18/08/2024 - 07:26

  I encountered a similar issue when the new iPad Pro was released. Although the website showed that stock was available for pickup, I was only able to select delivery when proceeding to pay using my gift card account balance. It seems that Apple may be reserving retail stock for full-paying customers and shipping the rest from the warehouse.

  • 

    KangaDrew on 18/08/2024 - 11:38

    It depends on which one you're buying. The pro with nano glass is only available online as it's not kept in stock for in-store purchase.

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  Wiadro on 18/08/2024 - 07:51

  +1

  Can’t you just load up the gift card into your Apple ID

  • 

    mskeggs on 18/08/2024 - 10:00

    Don’t know why you got begged.
    The same thing happened to me last week, and redeeming the cards to my Apple ID first was the only thing that worked.
    Apple support didn’t know what was going wrong.

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  Hardlyworkin on 18/08/2024 - 08:32

  -3

  An 8 hour day at around $25 minimum wage. Hope the savings were worth the time. Who is the gift for?

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  brendanm on 18/08/2024 - 10:11

  +3

  Sounds like a massive waste of a day to me.

  Edit - also, ADAGCHS

  Edit 2 - all over $100 😂😂😂

  • 

    DoctorCalculon on 18/08/2024 - 22:21

    Edit 2 - all over $100 😂😂😂

    Damn straight!

    Even if this bloke (say) earns minimum pay per hour, I reckon he would have spent more than half a day going back and forth between Apple Store and Phone Support.

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  TALL1one on 18/08/2024 - 10:27

  So much time and effort wasted over $100 when you are willing to pay over $3000 total for item, LOL.

  • 

    theHMASfriendship on 18/08/2024 - 14:12

    Um this is Ozbargain

    • 

      brendanm on 18/08/2024 - 17:04

      +3

      If op had spent the time they had wasted on this ridiculousness on going in to work and doing some overtime, they would be far better off. That would be the ozbargain way, not wasting over 8 hours on $100.

      • 

        theHMASfriendship on 19/08/2024 - 00:02

        Spending 8 hours sorting it out sounds like a skill issue

      • 

        Wolfles on 19/08/2024 - 02:07

        Keep in mind that I was led in a circle by apple support who kept saying to do this and do that. Eventually gave up at the end after realising sunk cost effect was too great

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  Gervais fanboy on 18/08/2024 - 16:52

  Btw OP this is a first
  I have done exactly that multiple times and never had an issue myself.

  So if this is actually happening to you rn, it isn’t your fault ofcos, must be a bug or something that’s acting up.
  Apple support’s generally quite informative and helpful, they eventually forward you to one of their supervisor’s that’s located onshore, that fella can override stuff, compensate you etc etc
  Try going down that route, good luck.

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  keo on 18/08/2024 - 21:02

  +1

  I had the same problem today. Wanted to take advantage of cashrewards 7% and gift cards. Would not accept full payment with Apple account balance from gift cards or partial account balance and credit card. Even credit card payment of $1 was declined.
  Finally managed to make full payment with the account balance with numerous screen refresh, remove and reapply account balance, and try try again. Eventually it just went through and got the confirmation email. Hopefully order is actually fulfilled as my account balance shows that I have not been charged yet.