For Christmas, my brother Todd and his family got me an iTunes Gift Card worth $50. I was quite happy, seeing as now I could finally buy a couple games in the iTunes App Store that I’d be wanting on my iPhone for so long. I redeemed my card in iTunes, confirmed the $50 credit, and went to purchase a couple apps… and that’s when things went bad.
I’d removed my credit card from my iTunes account because I mostly buy free apps. The few times when I buy apps that cost, I’ll manually re-add my credit card. My reasoning is that clicking the “Buy” button is way too easy in the App Store and thus I wasn’t about to risk overspending.
Attempting to purchase TouchGrind in the iTunes App Store resulted in no luck. iTunes wanted my credit card, or no go. I didn’t understand… Apple already had my $50 gift card, why did they still want my credit card? After a few more unsuccessful tries, I went googling. My first hits surprised me.
The forums claimed:
You can’t buy apps with gift cards in Canada!
What? You’ve got to be kidding. I decided to go straight to the source, and pulled up Apple’s Terms of Sale for Canada.
Sure enough, Apple’s Terms of Sale strictly (and ridiculously) state:
iTunes Cards may not be used to purchase software, games, or apps.
Apple iTunes Store Terms of Sale (Canada)
Take note: Reading the back of the iTunes Gift Card, and the packaging that came with it revealed nothing about this. They left out this vital piece of information. Coincidence?
Normally, I’d let something like this go. Wait, who am I kidding? No I wouldn’t! So I submitted an email request to iTunes Store support…
I redeemed an iTunes Gift Card for $50. After a very grueling process of attempting to purchase some iTunes Store Apps for my iPhone, I read the terms of sale to find that according to your policy, iTunes Gift Cards cannot be used to purchase software, games, or apps.
I don’t use iTunes otherwise to purchase music, movies, etc. I will NOT be using it to purchase music, movies, etc.
Why am I not able to purchase apps/games using this $50 credit? Is it strictly a Canadian thing, and if so, why?
As you can probably infer, this request was written while I was understandably upset. Here’s the response I received today:
Dear Lee,
I hope this message reaches you in good spirits, my name is [name censored] and I’ll be more than happy to assist you with the problem you’re having. Thank you for contacting Apple about the App Store. We’re glad you’re interested in this new offering.I’m sorry, but you will not be able to purchase games or applications with store credit or an iTunes Gift Card in Canada. Customers residing in Canada may only purchase games and applications using a credit card. I’m not sure why this is, I heard that its some kind of law in Canada preventing anybody living there, from purchasing games or apps with store credit.
Hope to hear from you soon! Have a great rest of the day!
Sincerely,
[name censored]
iTunes Store Customer Support
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/
Yes, he actually said he didn’t know why this policy was in place.
Is Canada so backwards that we’re not allowed to purchase software or games with store credit? That evil store credit! Tearing families apart! Sacrificing small animals! Promoting unsafe sex! … Riiiiight.
I’ve emailed them back and I’ll follow up with another post once I receive another response. Way to go, Apple! Let’s hear it for your awesome policies and clueless support staff!
