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@parisba Call up whomever represents you in govt. They have regulatory power over companies, and it's quite likely that Apple will take their calls.

After that, no matter how this pans out, never trust any big company that much ever again. They don't care about you, and never will.

@parisba the post reminds me, Doctorow's "Walkaway" is the next on my reading list.

@parisba Not a criticism or victim-blaming, genuinely curious why you had a $500 card in the first place?

@parisba

This is the system, it's what capitalism has always done and can continue to do with impunity because people play by the rules that capitalists set, disregard and change as it suits them.

Forget the American dream, the anti-socialist propaganda, and smell the coffee.

We can change this, but only by building alternatives and not playing their game. Their rules. If we do that we will automatically lose.

Fuck Apple, Fuck capitalism.

@parisba that’s terrible mate / something that also intermittently worries me, being similarly deep in Apple ecosystem for life, family & dev work. Hope the attention gets it resolved soon for you. Your story reminds me I need to continue automating my off-cloud Apple backups…

(fellow Tasmanian?)

@parisba judging by the id.au address for your email address, you might have access to Australian consumer law via your state consumer regulatory body.

As far as you're concerned, they stole money off you. Most bodies will help you out, but you'd need to take them to the consumer administration tribunal in your state. They'll have to prepare a case, which might be enough to trigger a review

@parisba

There's good reason that Steve Wozniak left the company decades ago.

@parisba writes "20 years of digital life gone in an instant thanks to Apple".

I am seriously considering going back to Linux, not because of the above post, but the above post is a further incentive.

The only reason I moved to Mac is that its CPU's are so fast and my university offered this in 2021.

Perversely, my university doesn't offer Linux as a possibility any more.

In any case, I use my Mac as a Linux computer anyway. Homebrew for GNU tools, work from terminal, Firefox (oops, not the same as before), etc.

I don't think I use any Mac app other than Finder (because I have to) or Settings. Not even Viewer do I use for reading PDF's.

So why am I still using a Mac? I want to go back to Linux. I still do have a Linux computer I use as a server, and I love it every time I have to use it.

Sigh.

@parisba This another big reason why I can't stand those walled gardens. If you get kicked out, all the stuff you left inside is just gone. Just like that, in an instant, all gone. Corporations shouldn't have the ability to do this to people but we give it to them.

If you ever get your account back, this is a wakeup call. Migrate everything you can to stuff that you control, not them.

Obviously that only helps if you can get in. Maybe persistence is your most promising option there? You're probably getting mostly automated systems rather than humans (I doubt even a LLM) so it may be a matter of rewording how you try to contact them such that maybe some keyword might get through.

@parisba The new book will be called self-hosting on used Apple hardware.

#humor #appleYouCanDoBetter #VictimBlaming #allApplesInOneBasket #thisIsWhyWeCantHaveNiceThings #VibeCodedFraudDetection

@parisba it should be illegal in this day and age to lock out legitimate users from their digital life like this with no recourse or appeal

@parisba Have you considered purchasing a single share of Aapl and calling investor relations?

No kidding, that trick is more effective against many companies than it would otherwise seem.

@parisba You need to send what’s called the “executive email carpet bomb” wherein you send a powerful email to every executive you can find, to on one email. Sending to Tim Cook is not enough. You need to CC other c-suite people, legal, pr, EVERYONE. Find out their email addresses methodology and start finding names to add to that TO field.

If you carpet bomb them with this email, you should finally land on someone’s radar who is appalled by the situation and will get you a resolution.

@parisba

There seem to be a remarkable number of mean-spirited replies here (judging by a quick sample), apparently by a very particular strand of Linux users, perhaps young ones or recent converts.

They don't usually turn up in my particular feed, though I do hear the occasional complaint - mostly in a humorous vein, though. Here they really are unpleasant.

I hope this particular issue is resolved. I wouldn't mind if the underlying problem were addressed, for that matter ...