{"id":947,"date":"2008-09-26T12:18:06","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T03:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-09-26\/947"},"modified":"2008-09-26T12:18:06","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T03:18:06","slug":"apple-customer-care-making-strides-in-automated-cluelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-09-26\/947","title":{"rendered":"Apple Customer Care: Making Strides in Automated Cluelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

I recently exchanged some messages with Apple's iTunes Customer Care\nmail-reading\/replying artificial-intelligence system. As one might<\/span> expect,\nartificial intelligence systems are still not quite<\/i> up to the task\nof replacing the cognitive powers of a human,<\/span> but as you'll see in the\nprogressively-humorous transcript that follows, Apple's\nartificial-intelligence system has evolved enough to mimic the\nquintessential nature of human cluelessness.<\/p>\n\n

I contacted Apple to ask about a restriction<\/span> in how one can pay for\nthings at iTunes. Now that my<\/span> PayPal nightmare<\/a> has been\nstraightened out, and now that I have<\/span> an iPhone<\/a>, I thought<\/span> I'd get some cool apps for the phone at iTunes, paying with the money in my\nPayPal account.<\/p>\n\n

Unfortunately, it turns out that Apple allows PayPal accounts only if\nthe account has a credit<\/span> card registered to it. That restriction sort of\ndefeats the purpose of using PayPal in the first place, and at first\nglance, the restriction seems silly and arbitrary. But I don<\/span>'t know\neverything.... perhaps there's a good<\/span> reason for it. I know they<\/span> won't\nchange their policies for me, but understanding the reason behind the\nrestriction may well assuage the feelings of frustration it has generated, so I\nasked<\/span> them.<\/p>\n\n

Here's what I submitted on the iTunes “contact us” form...<\/p>\n\n

\n

I have plenty of cash in my PayPal account. Why do I<\/span> need to add a credit<\/span> card or debit card to my PayPal account in order to use the money that I already<\/span> have in my PayPal account? I have the<\/span> money and I want<\/span> to give it to you (in exchange for tunes, of course :-). Why may I<\/span> not without some unrelated fourth-party card?<\/p>\n\n

Thanks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n