That may be an overreaction. If you read through the transcript, the problem clearly wasn't the Apple Card. It would have happened with any credit card. OP told support that his Apple Pay had been compromised, and was continuing to be compromised monthly. They correctly concluded that the fix was to stop the ongoing Apple Pay fraud by denying the attacker access to his Apple ID. He tried to blow them off but it was too late.
As an Apple Card user myself (and not without my own criticism of the service, to be honest), I'm not sure how I'd end up in a similar situation. The card sends me a push notification in real time when a charge happens. So I'd have seen every one of those months of WaPo subscription. I'd have deduced it was a subscription, and that the WaPo isn't selling retail goods and so it isn't likely a fraud issue. Apple Pay would have had it's own notifications as well. The easiest answer would be to tell WaPo to stop. The next best answer if that didn't immediately work would be to ask Apple how to stop a subscription I signed up for, not tell them I don't remember doing it and therefore it's unauthorized fraud.
I think Apple has earned plenty of criticism, but let's keep it real, at least.
> The easiest answer would be to tell WaPo to stop.
I see you've never used WaPo or NYTimes before :)
I do obviously deeply regret engaging with support on this issue, and my god I would have paid $100 nevermind worrying about $10 to not have to deal with this (still ongoing) issue.
But think about how bad all of the things are here:
1. A product named "Apple Card" that requires "Apple Pay" and feels like the same thing, but apparently is 2 different things.
2. Not only 2 different things, but 2 different companies. "Apple Card" is really "Goldman Sachs Card", but you don't find that out until something goes wrong.
3. But then Goldman Sachs somehow can interact and control your Apple Id account.
4. But there's no communication between support at the 2 companies, and all context is lost when you switch to Goldman Sachs.
5. If you at any point in time mistakenly say "Apple Card" and not "Apple Pay", or vice versa, even though I only ever use both together as a consumer, they will say "oh actually I think you're in the wrong department, let me transfer you", and then you have to start over.
On and on and on. Absolutely atrocious.
But the bottom line, the root cause, is this: payments providers should be on the side of the consumer, and not the merchants. I used to work at Visa. I know how the system works. I know anything is possible. The idea that Apple can't show people all recurring subscriptions and allow 1 click to cancel is bullshit. They absolutely can build that. It would be the right thing to do for consumers. But this is the Goldman Card. Not the Apple Card. And I don't see Goldman as a champion of the end user.
As an Apple Card user myself (and not without my own criticism of the service, to be honest), I'm not sure how I'd end up in a similar situation. The card sends me a push notification in real time when a charge happens. So I'd have seen every one of those months of WaPo subscription. I'd have deduced it was a subscription, and that the WaPo isn't selling retail goods and so it isn't likely a fraud issue. Apple Pay would have had it's own notifications as well. The easiest answer would be to tell WaPo to stop. The next best answer if that didn't immediately work would be to ask Apple how to stop a subscription I signed up for, not tell them I don't remember doing it and therefore it's unauthorized fraud.
I think Apple has earned plenty of criticism, but let's keep it real, at least.