With over 200 million iDevices sold and active iTunes accounts, Apple has a big problem in pleasing everyone. Every day iTunes accounts are hacked and every day various hackers steal tens/hundreds/thousands of dollars from customers of the Cupertino company. This time, problems with hackers who hacked a number of customer accounts they generated interest for those from The Daily Mail who investigated the problem. It seems that several people lost the credit loaded from some iTunes Gift Cards and Apple returned the money to them suggesting that this concession was made only once because the problem was all users who did not take care of their accounts.
The exact same thing just happened to me with the order occurring on December 1st, with the same Towson MD zip code put in. Luckily I did not have a credit card connected to the account, so I only used $20.50 in gift card credit. I have e-mailed Apple and am waiting for a response.
Although the users are dissatisfied with the way the company solves the problems, the truth is that it is difficult for a company to find out the truth behind such a request. Apple can't really check if that account was accessed by the user or by a hacker who found out the password, an IP is rarely enough and the company simply has to believe what the users say, in most cases . Problems like this happen frequently and will happen in the future, but Apple seems to be willing to give everyone at least a chance, so if it happens to you, you can ask them for help.
