The Whoop fitness tracker famously had an offer on personal Chase Sapphire cards for (effectively) a free device and year of service. Buyer’s groups were paying above $230 for sending them your free device, usually straight from Whoop which worked well for early adopters. Later though, Whoop realized what was happening, put together a list of known buyer’s groups addresses, and then instantly banned any credit cards used one of those addresses for shipping for that order and for all future orders.
There was a way around the ban though, and it should give you an object lesson in probing:
- Buying with Apple Pay side-skirted the ban
Why did this work? Well, from Apple’s lips to your eyes: “The card number from your credit, debit, or prepaid card is not provided when you use Apple Pay.” In other words, Whoop didn’t have the actual card number used for purchase to reference with their ban list.
When your card is the issue, try:
- PayPal
Google PayAndroid PayGoogle Wallet- Apple Pay
- Curve Pay
- Kasheesh
- Even more obscure options
Good luck friends!
The Apple Terms and Conditions, err, apple.