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My Ridiculous Back And Forth With iTunes Technical Support Staff Because iTunes Won’t Let Me Enter The New Security Information

By Thomas on April 27, 2012 in Apple

So, a few days ago Apple decided to add some additional security questions “to protect the security on your account”. You’ve undoubtedly seen it by now. I blogged about it the other day. The problem is, at least for me, after I attempt to set the (ridiculous) questions iTunes pops up an error telling me the request can’t be completed.

Request completed

I tried again later but the same. I tried from my iPad, the same. I tried from the Mac App Store. The same. iPhone, the same.

So, anyway, since I can no longer buy anything from iTunes I went onto the support site and filled out a support request:

While attempting to purchase an item on the iTunes store, I was asked to enter the new enhanced security questions. However, after choosing the questions, and filling out the answers, I click on ok and I get the following error message “Your Request is temporarily unable to be processed, please try again later”. I have tried this several times now and It keeps giving me the same error. As a result I am unable to purchase anything from the iTunes store. I have tried this on my iPhone and iPad too both with the same result. Each time it says unable to process request. Please help as there is an app that I really need right now

Pretty straight forward, or so I thought. Here’s the response I got back….

Dear Thomas,This is [NAME REMOVED TO PROTECT THE INCOMPETENT] from iTunes Store Customer Support team and I’m glad to help you today.I understand that you are unable to purchase as you were prompted to answer 3 security questions. I can certainly appreciate your eagerness to get this resolved and I would be more than happy to help you out with this today.

Thomas, from time to time, Apple enhances the security of our valued customer’s iTunes Store accounts.

I do apologize for any frustration this may have caused. These changes are not meant as an inconvenience, but rather to further help safeguard your account details and activity.

Just so you know, when a purchase is attempted from a new device or computer, the store selects, at random, two of the three challenge questions for your Apple ID to verify that you are the account owner. If the questions are answered incorrectly several times, your account becomes temporarily locked.

When your account is locked, you cannot make purchases using any device that has not previously used the Apple ID. It also prevents you from changing your challenge questions.

You are still able to make purchases using a device that was previously associated with the account.

To re-set this feature, Apple has pre-set the questions on your Apple ID. As you are not able to access your account, I can clear the challenge questions for you.

Once this is done, you will be able to sign in and add your own challenge questions. You will also have the option to enter a “rescue” email address. This option will allow you to send a message to the rescue email, should you forget the answers to the challenge/response questions in the future.

Now, in order to clear the questions for you, Apple requires that you provide at least one of the following for your security:

- the order number of one of your purchases – the last four digits of the credit card used for your iTunes Store account

And two items from this list:

- your birth date – the billing address listed on the account – the phone number on the account

Upon receiving your response, I will verify your information and clear the pre-set challenge questions.

Thank you for your understanding and for being a valued iTunes Store customer. I look forward to your reply.

Have a wonderful day!

Ok, except that’s not the problem I was having. I wasn’t attempting to purchase from a new device. I can access my account fine. It’s not asking me for the answers to the questions, it’s asking me to set the the questions. Perhaps I wan’t clear. As it took 24 hours to get a reply, the next day, by the time I got this answer, the request to enter the security information had disappeared and I could purchase from the store again. Anyway, I responded back to clarify what I needed to do. I should also point out that I did a search on twitter and numerous people were having the same problem.

Here’s my response

I’m not entirely sure that you have understood the problem that I have encountered. You said in your email…

To re-set this feature, Apple has pre-set the questions on your Apple ID. As you are not able to access your account, I can clear the challenge questions for you.

That is not the case. I can access my account fine. It was asking me to set the security questions for the first time, and when I had completed the questionnaire and set my answers for the chosen questions, and supplied the rescue address, iTunes was unable to connect to the server to send the answers.

This has been widely reported on both twitter with numerous people having the same problem.

This morning, I am able to purchase again as it is no longer asking me to set the security questions, so I suspect your engineers have realised that there is a problem. I can still log into my account from iTunes. I strongly suggest you contact your supervisors and ask for clarification on this issue as your solution does not seem to be for the problem I was having I can still send you the information you request if it is necessary, but I think you need to check that this wasn’t a widespread outage, because as I said, it was widely reported. I can currently make purchases, I can log into my account and iTunes no longer requests the additional security information.Yours Sincerely

Thomas Fitzgerald

And so another 24 hours passed. At this time I could purchase from iTunes again, and any request for the security questions had vanished. Here’s the email I got back this time:

Dear Thomas,Thank you for writing back. I appreciate your quick response.Thomas, I have consulted my Senior advisor, as per his advice, I would like to suggest you to sign out of your account and restart your device and then try again purchasing the app.

If the above suggestion doesn’t work, try purchasing the app on your computer and then you can sync the app to your device.

If you have further queries regarding this issue, please reply back to this email, I am more than happy to assist you.

Again, the “solution” appears to be for a problem other than the one I was having. Anyway, it was working again, so I was willing to leave it, but then, this evening sure enough as I go to make a purchase the dreaded “please enter the additional security questions” dialog pops up. Once again I entered the required information and once again I get the same error message. I tried logging out and back in again. I even tried jun a different location on a different internet connection, all to no avail. So furiously I wrote back to support again. This time I used my inner voice:

Dear Sir I am very upset with how this support request has been handled. Each time I have communicated my problem to you you have given me an answer that is completely unrelated to the issue I am having. I would really appreciate it if you read my emails properly and take time to understand the issue or If you are incapable or have language difficulties please pass this on to someone who understands the issue. I will lay this out as clearly as I can. Here’s the problem in a series of bullet points. 1. I attempt to purchase something from the app store or iTunes

2. I enter my user name and password

3. A dialog appears telling me I need to enter additional security information to protect the security of my account4. The store then brings me to a place where I can select a series of questions and enter my chosen answers

5. I enter the chosen answers and my recovery email address

6. I press OK

7. The store reports an error “Your request is unable to be processed – please try again later”

8. I wait several minutes and try again

9. Store continues to report an error

10. As I am unable to get past the request to enter the additional security information because it won’t process the information, therefore I am unable to purchase from the store. I have attached a screenshot of the error

The following are NOT problems I am having. 1. I have no problem accessing my account. I can log into my iTunes account no problem2. My Account is NOT locked. It is merely asking for the additional security questions3. The problem is NOT that I can’t purchase an app on my device but can on my computer. This problem occurs on every device I own whenever I try to make any purchase using my Apple ID

A little harsh, yes. The jab about english may seem rude but it really seems like they’re not understanding what I’m saying. Amazingly enough though, I got a response quite quickly:

Dear Thomas,

Thank you for responding back. I appreciate your quick response.

Thomas, if you continue to experience this issue with your account “XXXXXXX”, the iTunes Store Customer Support team will reset your password and test the account. For your security, Apple requires that you provide one of the following:

- the order number of one of your purchases – the last four digits of the credit card used for your iTunes Store account – the answer to one of your security questions

We also ask that you provide two items from this list:

- the day, month, and year of your birth – the billing address listed on the account – the phone number on the account

When we receive your response, we’ll verify your billing address, reset your password, and perform any necessary tests. Then we’ll email you the test results and your new password.

When you get your new password, change your password to one that only you know. It must also be a password that you haven’t used in the past 12 months.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

It still just doesn’t seem like he understands what I’ve been telling him and is just picking the nearest response off a list, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt this time, and as this is going nowhere, I just gave in and sent him the information. The best bit though is that one of the requests is “the answer to one of your security questions” which is ironic since I CAN’T ENTER THE DAMN SECURITY QUESTIONS.

And, if you change the password on my Apple ID which is also my email, how am I supposed to receive the email with the new password in it as I won’t be able to check my email? Or would that go to the new recovery email address that’s in the security questions THAT I CAN’T ANSWER.

This is the worst ever experience I have had dealing with Apple customer service. In fact, it’s the worst Apple related experience I have ever had. I’m shocked and appalled at the way this is being handled and I’m only publicising the emails and responses because I suspect it may be the only way this gets resolved. Someone needs to get their ass handed to them in Apple over the way this security upgrade was rolled out because this is just nuts.

While I think the security questions themselves are stupid, I appreciate the need for it and I have no problem entering the information, if it would let me. I don’t know how widespread this issue is but I”m definitely not alone as others have reported the same problem. So, this latest exchange will probably be a wild goose chase, and on top of everything, I’m going to have to change my password across all my devices and on my email which is a royal pain in the ass at the best of times. So thanks Apple for possibly the stupidest customer support experience I have ever had to put up with.

[UPDATE]

I finally managed to solve the problem, entirely on my own I might add. It seems that entering an email address in the optional field was causing it not to connect to the server for some reason. I have emailed back support to tell them to stop the request to change my password and examine the account, but I’m not optimistic. Here’s hoping!

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Apple’s Enhanced iTunes Security Arrives in Europe – Breaks iTunes

By Thomas on April 23, 2012 in Apple

I went to download an app on my iPhone this morning and I was greeted with the much publicised “enhanced security” questions that Apple are insisting you fill out before you can continue with your purchase. This is all to protect the security of your account, apparently. Anyway, the first issue I have with this is that the questions are stupid. And there’s not a lot of choice either. I had a hard time coming up with questions I could answer in all three categories that I would remember.

So, that’s not the worst part. You go through the whole process, which is quite tedious on an iPhone, and half way through it all my answers were reset, so I had to enter everything again. Then, finally I managed to get to the end and clicked ok, and it gave me an error saying “could not complete your request at this time, please try again later”. And of course all my answers were erased. Another attempt and the same error coupled with a “could not connect to iTunes error”

Getting annoyed now, because I need a particular app, I decided to try it on my computer. Sure enough the same security questions popped up and at least the interface on the computer is a little less annoying to fill out. Again though, on hitting done, I get the dreaded “could not complete your request” error. So basically, iTunes is now broken, because you can’t buy anything without entering the new security info, but you can’t enter it because it won’t connect to the server. Im assuming the same goes for the mac app store too.

I have to say, in all the years using apple products I have never seen such a disastrous or ridiculous user experience. It reminds me of the hoops I’ve had to jump through trying to change the billing on my xbox live account one time. Shame on Apple for dropping the ball like this.

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How to add a USB Blu-ray player to your Mac for $39

By Thomas on April 12, 2012 in Apple

Handy tip from 9-5 Mac.

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Why America Needs Apple

By Thomas on April 2, 2012 in Apple

Great article from Time Magazine that looks at the impact Apple has had on the economic and industrial progress of the US. I wrote a while ago that this was the kind of stories people should be writing about Apple and it’s good to see a publication like Time doing a non negative piece on Apple.

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3 Million and counting

By Thomas on March 19, 2012 in Apple

You’ve probably seen this news by now, but Apple has just announced that it sold 3 million iPads in four days. To realise just how impressive that is consider that the original iPad took an entire quarter to sell that many. Combined with the news today today that the company is planning to offer dividends and buy back shares, Apple’s stock is now trading over $600.

The company that couldn’t survive without Steve Jobs at the helm is doing pretty damn good right now.

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Thoughts on the revelations surrounding Mike Daisey and This American Life

By Thomas on March 19, 2012 in Apple

There’s not much more I want to add to the discussion on the revelation that Mike Daisey lied to Ira Glass and his team at This American Life this that hasn’t already been said. I think the best piece I have read about it is this article in the New Yorker by Evan Osnos who has actually lived and worked in China. His essay reveals that one of the bigger issues with Daisey’s interpretation of the truth is that he represents China in a way that is ill-informed in its perceptions of the country and its Culture. It is a stereotypical view of a country that he really knows very little about.

Part of Daisey’s conceit was that he presented himself as a clear-eyed naïf: he would show up at the factory gate in a Hawaiian shirt (that part was true, by the way) and ask people simple questions that exposed uncomfortable truths. But, in a curious way, Daisey’s undoing was that he turned out to be naïve in a way that he didn’t understand. He thought that China was so exotic and far away that it was uncheckable; that it was okay to take “a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard,” as he put it in his follow-up interview.

But China, it turns out, is not so far away. Daisey’s fiction was predicated on the notion that China is essentially unknowable, that reporters never go to factory gates, that highways exit to nowhere. And he might have gotten away with it twenty years ago. But these days, it’s no longer so far away at all.

It’s a very good piece and I suggest you read it. But why did This American Life fail so badly here? I think part of it is that the traditional sources of news are under so much pressure from the perceived advantages of social media that they are failing in their duty for due diligence when it comes to reporting the facts. By relying on sources such as social media and questionable “experts”, traditional journalism is losing the one big advantage it has over other sources of news – trust. Having said that you have to hand it to Ira Glass and NPR for issuing the retraction. They admitted they were wrong and dealt with it in a mature and responsible way.

I find it curious but not at all surprising that the numerous blogs which referenced Daisey in their quest to vilify Apple have yet to issue retractions or admit that maybe their assertions may have been wrong. It is that which still separates real journalism from those bloggers who claim to have the credibility of journalists but lack any kind of accountability. (Not to undermine the work being done by the few people who do blog and yet also hold themselves accountable).

The response on various comment streams has been interesting too. On the one hand, we have people upset that NPR failed in their vetting. On the other we have a bunch of people who are saying that essentially: “we all know Apple is guilty, so even if he did make a few things up, we all know it’s really the truth anyway”. Which is kind of sad really. People are so caught up in their ideology of hating Apple that even when presented with evidence that some of their beliefs are based on lies, they refuse to acknowledge it.

The other thing I find curious about this is that very few people are talking about how Apple has been wronged by this. Everyone is feeling upset about how this has affected journalism, and how a great icon like This American Life has been misled and lied to, but no one seems too concerned about how this has affected Apple. After all Apple’s reputation is also a victim of the lies perpetrated by Daisey.

Of course people will point to the New York Times piece on Apple’s factory conditions as proof that Daisey’s lies are only minor fibs, but if you read through that article, much of their report is based on hearsay and little on hard facts. It certainly wouldn’t stand up in court, but the big difference between their reporting and Daisey’s imagination is that they didn’t try to claim it was witnessed first hand by the reporter writing it. I’ve already made my observations on what was wrong with the New York Times expose so I won’t go over that again here, but my assertions still stand, and it should in no way be used as an excuse to let Daisey off the hook.

At the end of the day, that Daisey was ever considered an expert on the issue when he was well-known for taking liberties with the truth (not to mention the fact that he is an entertainer) shows that something is fundamentally wrong with journalism. Some people will argue that social media is the answer, but I have to disagree. in fact I think by rushing to compete with, and embrace the world of social media, the bastions of journalism have failed themselves. To be true to the ideal, they should make sure that they are the antithesis of what social media is. They should be doubling down on their core principles, not abandoning them. In the excellent Documentary about the New York Times, “Page One”, there is a segment where the director interviews Nick Denton of Gawker. Denton describes how they track what is being talked about on social media and across their blogs, and the topics that people are most commenting on, no matter how banal are what they write about. He touts this as their advantage over the mainstream press. The problem is, that’s not the job of News. It’s not up to journalists to give people what they want to read, its to give them the truth. And that I believe is why journalism has lost its way.

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The Story That People Should Be Writing About Apple

By Thomas on March 10, 2012 in Apple

This week saw another product launch from Apple and another round of negative nonsense about the company. It seems that the more success Apple has, the more some pundits express eagerness to see the company fail. This weeks launch of the iPad saw such a concentration of negative energy that it tore a hole in the fabric of time and space and travelled into the past to declare the new iPad a failure before it had even been announced.

Something struck me about all this while watching the replay of Tim Cook’s keynote address. It was the striking image of the opening of the Grand Central Apple Store and the crowds filling the concourse.

This was a powerful image, because it’s the kind of thing you expect to see at a political rally and not at the opening of a consumer electronics store. It strikes me that Apple has now transcended even the traditional super brand status of a company like Nike or Coca Cola, and become something else entirely. It has become a cultural phenomenon all of its own, like nothing that has ever come before it. Perhaps that is why technology writers have such a hard time understanding and writing about the company. The cynical try to portray this phenomenon as just the obsessions of a bunch of hipsters or deluded Apple fans, but look at that crowd. That’s a lot more than just “hipsters” and “fanboys”. It’s a crowd of people from all walks of life, from college kids to professionals to young families, and they seem pretty happy with Apple.

Here, in the midst of a powerful, albeit hopefully waning recession, we have an American company defying all the odds and being incredibly successful. Not only that, it has created an entire subculture of success around it. It has given birth to an entire industry of App developers and accessory makers. Even if you doubt the accuracy of its statistics, there is no denying that the company continues to create thousands of jobs in a flat economy and the knock on effect that it creates, employs or keeps thousands of others employed. Getting back to the Grand Central image, it has even emerged that trade is up in other stores in the station since the Apple store has opened.

Given the perilous state of the economy in the US, you would think that there would be some degree of patriotism towards a homegrown company being one of the most successful in the world right now, and yet many are eager for it to fail, despite the economic consequences. The Apple story should be one of inspiration, a shining example of American excellence in business and technological leadership. I know Apple isn’t perfect, but I believe, if you strip away all the nonsense written by tech bloggers, the positives far outweigh the negatives. If people actually reported on those positives more often, it might prove an inspiration to other struggling up and coming businesses and even the rest of the public. I’m not saying that people can’t write anything negative about Apple or that the it should be given a free pass because it is an American company. Surely though, it would be more productive to examine the reasons that Apple is successful and what lessons can be learned from that, rather than constantly try to invent new reasons as to why the company is about to fail. There are numerous boundaries both technologically, culturally and business wise that are continually being pushed and broken through by Apple, yet some in the media can’t seem to get past the fact that it is a success at all. The Apple story is the epitome of the American dream: two guys in a garage start a company that becomes bigger than the GDP of many countries. They should teach its success in school. What people should be writing about is that even in economic darkness, you can succeed no matter how the odds are stacked against you. Instead the story of the week was that the company is doomed because of Tim Cook’s untucked shirt.

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Rebecca Greenfield doesn’t understand economics. Blames Apple

By Thomas on March 3, 2012 in Apple, Technology

The other 210,000 jobs Apple attributes to the app economy, which Apple has a lot to do with, but again, involves other technology companies. And it's not clear how dependent on Apple any of these app makers are

Rebecca Greenfield at the Atlantic

It’s not clear to you Rebecca. It’s clear to most other people, especially those in “the App Economy” which wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Apple.

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Gloriously Geeky Retro Macintosh iPhone Cases

By Thomas on February 21, 2012 in Apple

PC World has a story about some seriously cool retro iPhone cases, designed to look like previous Apple products.

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iOS ’86

By Thomas on February 21, 2012 in Apple, Design

Another one from a few days ago, but I felt it was worth posting. A very clever concept from Anton Repponen

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Interesting Under The Hood Tid Bits for Mountain Lion

By Thomas on February 16, 2012 in Apple

There are some interesting tid-bits of information about under the hood improvements scheduled for Mountain Lion in the official press release:

Hundreds of new APIs give developers access to new core technologies and enhanced features within OS X. The Game Kit APIs tap into the same services as Game Center on iOS, making it possible to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A new graphics infrastructure underpins OpenGL and OpenCL and implements GLKit, first introduced in iOS 5, to make it easier to create OpenGL apps. Using Core Animation in Cocoa apps is easier than ever, and new video APIs deliver modern 64-bit replacements for low-level QuickTime APIs. Enhanced Multi-Touch™ APIs give developers double-tap zoom support and access to the system-wide lookup gesture. Kernel ASLR improves security through enhanced mitigation against buffer overflow attacks.

It’s interesting to see Apple throw its weight behind Games development on the mac, an area it is often criticised for not properly supporting.

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OS X Mountain Lion

By Thomas on February 16, 2012 in Apple

Apple have just announced the next version of OS X, called Mountain Lion. I have to say, I did not see this coming. Great Coverage from John Gruber here, and Macworld here, here and here.

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The New York Times Attempts to Justify Its Singling Out of Apple over China Working Conditions

By Thomas on February 14, 2012 in Apple

While other companies have been criticized for conditions at their operations overseas, Apple has received particular attention because it is the biggest — its market value is more than the combined value of Google and Microsoft — and among the richest. Its stock closed Monday at $502.60, up more than 20 percent this year. The company also has a vast overseas presence, with its contractors employing 700,000 people in China and elsewhere.

The New York Times

In a piece about Apple’s press release form Monday that it has asked the Fair Labor Association to perform an Audit of it’s manufacturing partners, The New York times throws in this little ditty as a way to justify its lack of balance when reporting on conditions in China. Of course the writer fails to point out that the chief reason that “Apple has received particular attention” is because his news paper put that attention on Apple.

Sorry, but this is a weak excuse and I stand by my previous conviction that singling out Apple does more harm than good.

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