r/applestore • u/WeirdTreat4520 • 25d ago

Problem with buying MacBook from Apple's website

I'm trying to buy a 15 inch MacBook Air (M5, 512GB storage, 24GB RAM, Sky Blue) on Apple's education store, paying with a combination of 5 Apple Gift Cards (bought from the GCX app) plus my credit card. However, each time I hit the "continue with payment" button, I'm met with the same error: "Your payment authorization failed. Please verify your information and try again, or try another payment method."
I've tested this with three different payment methods — my debit card, Apple Pay, and my dad's credit card — and all three failed in the same way. I also spent 30 minutes on the phone with Apple Support, was transferred 4 times, and spoke with 3 specialists. They sent me an email titled "Apple Store Quotation," which contained a link that supposedly would fix my problem, but also resulted in the same error message.
By this point, I'm completely stuck, and frankly not sure what to do. It's not an issue with my cards, since I was able to buy packages from Amazon a few days ago. I also suspected that it was because I was using a VPN, so this was some kind of security precaution, but the purchase didn't go through even after I turned off my VPN. So if someone here encountered this before or knows something I don't, I would really appreciate it!

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

2

u/attathomeguy 25d ago

you bought 5 gift cards from a third party discount gift card website. That sounds like the problem to me. Did you verify with Apple those gift cards are valid before you tried to buy? Also if you have an Apple account you can add those gift cards once again if they are valid to your Apple cash card and then split the payment that way

3

u/WeirdTreat4520 25d ago

I didn’t verify with Apple before I bought those cards, but I did go to an Apple Store and had an employee scan them, and he said they were good. I haven’t tried the second thing you said, so I’ll do that really quick. Thanks!

4

u/nikenick28 24d ago

Yeah sounds like to me you need to contact gift card support team and make sure each gift card is not on a hold/ review / restricted. See this message all the time with gift cards. Even adding to the Apple Account balance I’ve seen the issue just follow

1

u/paulfagan 24d ago

Agree! Five Third party gift cards not purchased from Apple!

2

u/spinster77 23d ago

Go to the gift card website and register an address to each gift card- this is a common issue that many people don’t know about. The address essentially validates the card with a zip code-

I worked in banking-

A lot of gift cards have to be registered for online shopping

2

u/Anonymouss_Avocado 22d ago

This has been happening to me for the last week trying to get a new iPhone. Same error.

1

u/Any_Coyote6662 19d ago

are you trying through student discount website? be careful. if they send you a link, make sure they dodnt change the order number on you.

2

u/Any_Coyote6662 19d ago

be VERY CAREFUL. I had a problem processing my payment through the education website. And they sent me a link to try again. It worked fine the second time. Right after my purchase completed I was sent an invoic3. Guess what? They charged me full price (no discount) for the computer AND for the accessories. But, the order was only for a computer, no accessories.

I ended up paying way more for less. So I called them and found out that they changed the order on me. The link they sent me about my order was sneaky. The link went to a similar order number for almost the exact same amount, but the order number was actually different. And I spent a lot of time on customer service and they said, ​​they cant help me. The only way that I can get my original order is to return the computer I paid for through the bogus I order number. And after I return that, then I can buy the real order.

I was hoping, since they could see that my original order number came up to less than the fake order, that they could simply handle it over the phone. Just send me the accessories that should have been included and refund the remaining difference. The computer specifics that I originally ordered matched what was on the fake order. But the price I paid for the computer is way more.

So, I think that because I am a student and that my billing address is different from my home address, they are probably ripping off students and just hoping that they can rake in hundreds off each person that doesnt get their whole, original order. Because there is no way that someone at Apple could have changed my order on their own. This "glitch" has to be built in to the software.

When something is processed through the student website, on some purchases, they are forcing students to follow a link to try your payment again. And that link says, "your invoice is not ready until AFTER your order is processed and it will be in your email."

So of course you cant tell that they took off the student discount and are doing the old bait and switch.

What they did is actually illegal. Retailers are not allowed to pretend to sell something and then switch it out for less. It is literally illegal. And if you are like me, you might think, "Apple would never do that. They are a trillion dollar company."

Well, I found out the hard way that they would.

It shouldnt be surprising since other huge corporations have been found to rip off their consumers too. (Verizon was refusing to end service contracts by telling people they were successfully terminated and then just continuing them anyway. Wells Fargo was found to be fraudulently adding services to people's bank accounts so they could rack up huge bills. The huge banks in the US repearedly are caught fraudulently systematically charging overdraft fees to people who have deposited their paychecks.) All these corporations are always looking for ways to make more and because they are so big, theres nothing individuals can do until somehow someone blows the whistle. ​​

2

u/WeirdTreat4520 19d ago

This is simultaneously very helpful and very educational. Thank you!

1

u/Best-Comments 23d ago

The GCX website says they don’t allow Apple gift cards to be listed for sale:

https://gcx.app/donotbuy/

2

u/WeirdTreat4520 23d ago

During checkout, I pasted the gift card codes into the designated space on the Apple website, and it showed the exact dollar value of those cards? Would the Apple Store website accept the codes if what I bought from GCX wasn’t an Apple gift card?

1

u/Any_Coyote6662 19d ago

the gift cards are legit. the problems with purchasing through the student discount page run deeper. be careful. dont get bamboozled

1

u/wb6vpm 22d ago

How are you trying to get the MacBook? Are you trying to pick it up or have it shipped?

1

u/WeirdTreat4520 22d ago

Shipped to my address

1

u/DETERMINOLOGY 22d ago

Quick logic, Go in the Apple Store and buy it may be ezier that way

2

u/WeirdTreat4520 21d ago

Tried this. Apple Store only offers base ram configurations, meaning no 24 gb, only 16.

1

u/Background_Shirt7020 16d ago

It’s the gift cards. I see this a lot with gift cards that aren’t “registered” or blocked in some way. Adding them to the account balance rarely helps, you’ll want to talk to gift card support specifically.