Many customers have become frustrated with Apple’s policy not to combine Apple IDs. Whether people start using iTunes, and later sign up for MobileMe or iCloud, want to retire an email address, etc, Apple does not provide a way to consolidate purchases between two Apple IDs.
I have personally been frustrated by this on numerous occasions, as my main Apple ID is now firmly attached to an old, rarely used Gmail account, with no way for my to migrate it to my MobileMe account, which I signed up for 3 years ago.
Apparently a lot of people feel this same concern, as it’s been brought up often enough to be included in Apple’s FAQ on Apple ID’s. Currently, it’s Apple’s policy not to combine accounts, but I wonder why – it seems really stupid for Apple to ignore their consumers in this manner. Perhaps it’s high time that Apple considers changing this unfortunate and ill-conceived policy?
This becomes especially annoying when you consider that Apple is restricting logins for automatic downloads. Essentially, this means that if you’re one of the unfortunate many that are trying to juggle multiple Apple ID’s, it’s that much easier for you to forget which one is logged in, and accidentally duplicate an app or iTunes download, and given that Apple will only help you out with one or 2 such incidents, there’s certainly reason to be concerned.
One might wonder why Apple has such a policy in the first place. My suspicion is that they did not foresee the issue when they first instituted Apple ID’s, so there is no method in place (at all) for them to transfer purchases or migrate an account.
Could Apple change this policy? Of course they could. It’s their purchase infrastructure, and they certainly have enough talented people to make short work of this task. The question is: given that they’ve clearly been made aware of the issue, why aren’t they doing anything about it? The answer is unclear.
Fortunately, as TUAW points out, there is a way for those of you that agree to send your feedback to Apple over this matter. On the iTunes Support page, there is a section titled “iTunes Store Account and Billing.” If you select that, and then “Managing your Account,” it will provide you with an avenue through which to share your comments. Just remember that the lackey on the other end reading this won’t have the power to make these changes, so just state your case politely and professionally and hope it moves up the chain.
While there’s no guarantee (and in fact, little likelihood) that Apple will ever change this policy, you can nevertheless rest better knowing you had your piece.
Your thoughts? Sound off in the comments!