[dcurtis]

I didn't expect that tweet to get so much attention. I plan to write more about what exactly happened when my accounts are re-activated.

But to clear a couple of things up:

1. I've since learned that the reason this happened could be due to an unusual confluence of events including Apple Card, autopay, and the online Apple Store.

2. The disabling of iCloud, App Store, and Apple ID accounts is actually an Apple Card policy for overdue accounts, and they have a team dedicated to handling these account de-activation issues. (I think this is absurd, which is why I am drawing attention to it.)

[zepto]

> The disabling of iCloud, App Store, and Apple ID accounts is actually an Apple Card policy for overdue accounts

Do you have any more information on this?

It sounds alarming when stated without further context, because it makes it sounds like a slightly overdue payment could cause an instant shutdown of ones account.

You originally seemed to be saying this is what happened, but now you are saying it’s not that simple.

I would be very surprised if my Apple account was locked out after 15 days of non payment of my card.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was locked out (for example) after 100 days, especially if I hadn’t communicated with them.

Another reason for it to be locked out might be fraud detection, in which case I might actively want that, even thought it occasionally causes inconvenience.

One is indeed absurd and very salient to all Apple users, the other two would be unsurprising and frankly of no real concern. At this point we don’t know where on the spectrum the policy actually lies.

So without more context, #2 seems like a potentially very serious claim that could later turn out not to be so bad.

This is a common way damaging misinformation starts to spread.

I’m not for a second suggesting this is your intent, but I am pointing out that this is a likely effect, dependent on what the context actually turns out to be.

Edit: also worth noting that the tweet, and the HN headline are worded in an unequivocal way. It seems like as written, they may simply be false based on what you have now said.

[komocode]

> The disabling of iCloud, App Store, and Apple ID accounts is actually an Apple Card policy for overdue accounts

My understanding is that the Apple Card policy is referring to "account" as "Apple Card Account is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA", and not the iCloud account issued by Apple.

[the_economist]

Did you happen to do a chargeback in the past month?

I'm aware of a situation where a user wanted to cancel an account with an app they had subscribed to via the app store. To do so they did a charge back on their credit card. Because he bought via the app store he ended up charging back Apple.

Apple then blocked his icloud.

[barnaclejive]

Do the right thing and delete your twitter post.

[wbronitsky]

This poster continues to fling accusations at Apple and has yet to provide any proof of any of these suppositions whatsoever. I’m not sure why the commenters are so eager to believe a comment from a random Twitter account posted to HN. Confirmation bias is strong, I guess.

This is a heavy accusation and I think the burden is heavily on the accuser to provide clear evidence that lack of payment for anything somehow locks you out of your Apple account. These comments and posts also seem to be conflating different accounts, like Apple ID, iCloud, and the Apple Card Account.

I’m in no way trying to defend Apple, this just seems like an incredibly user hostile policy, and also one that doesn’t exactly follow sound business logic.

If this is true, can you point to this policy? Can you share the “unusual confluence of events”?

[notJim]

The level of evidence you're expecting is unreasonable given the events. Consider it from his perspective, which is what most of us are doing:

You suddenly notice that you can't access any of the stuff you need to live out your life. Oh fuck. You make a tweet in a panic, and maybe hoping to get some attention, since the faceless trillion dollar company doesn't give a fuck about you.

The tweet blows up, and wbronitsky comes along demanding more information. A clear timeline, strong evidence, legal arguments etc etc. Meanwhile this poor guy is just trying to get his shit back.

Trust me, Apple pays plenty of people to run interference for them. You don't need to do it for free.

[jefftk]

> I’m not sure why the commenters are so eager to believe a comment from a random Twitter account posted to HN.

dcurtis isn't a random Twitter account; he's a regular here (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dcurtis) and made svbtle.

He has credibility here, and I think a lot of the upvotes (including mine) are based on expecting he wouldn't say something like this without a good reason.

[Bud]

Downvoting of this comment is ludicrous.

This is a very serious accusation and it's irresponsible to fling around such charges without evidence.

There's no way Apple is doing this.