07 Dec 09 How To Redeem A Damaged iTunes Gift Card

Went a little overboard with the card scratching, eh?

Don’t Worry! Here’s How To Fix It!

Every year around the holidays the iTunes gift cards start rolling in. It’s a safe play for distant relatives, friends and colleagues. Needless to say, I’ve gingerly scratched the adhesive backing off many an iTunes gift card. That said, I wasn’t terribly surprised when this time around I scratched too hard and took the gift card’s secret code off with the adhesive. Perhaps I was due.

Granted, it was my fault, but I was out $25.

Moreover, I was relatively unsure of where to start and I had a lot of questions: Do I return it to the store where it was purchased? Should I contact Apple directly? Is getting reimbursed even a possibility?

I was happy to learn that, as suspected, my issue was not an isolated incident and Apple does have measures in place to assist consumers with recovering their iTunes gift card credit. Better yet, it required no phone calls or in-store visit and can be done entirely through iTunes.

How To Obtain The Secret Code

Within the iTunes Store select “Redeem” from the menu options.
Enter as much of the code as you can read and submit. This will produce an invalid code message. Keep attempting to submit the partial code until a “get help” message appears– it may take 5-6 attempts.
Once you have requested help you will be presented with a screen requesting your card’s serial number, activation number (which we can’t read) and your name/email.

Locate your serial number using the diagram in the image, then enter as much of the activation number as you can read– it’s OK if you can only make out a character or two.

That’s it! You should receive an email from Apple noting that they have received your support request and the issue should be resolved in less than 24-hours.

Much to my surprise, I had an email from iTunes Support the following morning providing me with the activation code I had inadvertently removed. Thanks, Apple!

Tags: gift card, help, iTunes, lost code, redeem, scratched