tldr: Bought Tampered Apple GiftCard from Woolies. A lot of back and forth between Apple and Woolworths. Was looking pessimistic. Called Woolworths Customer service instead. Outcome successful (refund). Still, don't buy giftcards from sellers and if you do open it right there in front of sellers.
Story:
There was the 20x point offer deal at Woolies so I thought this would be a great time to buy Apple Giftcards. I had no problems with buying Apple giftcards before, so I thought it was great time to buy 1.5k worth. Waited till it was dad's birthday to open.
Couple months later, opened the giftcards (all looked fine and dandy). Scratched the code off, ready to put the pin in. But the middle part of the code was scratched off. I thought maybe my dad scratched too excitedly that the numbers were gone in the middle for all 4 cards. So I called Apple to see if they can give me the full code so I could redeem. Filled out the report (included receipts, packaging, cards).
5 Business days later, I get an email saying the report failed. I called Apple again and they told me that due to their policy that they can't give me any more info on what happened and to contact the seller (Woolworths) instead. Confused, I went online to see if this happened to anyone AND LOOKY HERE there's been similar cases like this.
I went to the store I bought it from, asked for assistance and immediately they said to contact Apple. I told them I already did, so they took photos of proof of purchase (the cards, packaging and receipts) and forward this case to giftcard specialist. Cool. They told me the response is 4-5 business days. I gave them my contact info so I can find out the response.
NEARLY 2 weeks later, no response. I went instore. Asked if there's any response or what the case number was. They printed out the result of case (jerks the result was 2 weeks ago - I just didn't get any email or phone messages). The result was that the giftcards were redeemed and nothing they can do. Also refund is not possible. Woolies are just sellers for Apple. Go to Apple. :D what/?
Instead of going to apple (I knew the response was going to be talk to woolies), so I contacted the customer support woolies 1300 767 969. Pretty much recounted what happen. Luckily I bought the giftcard with my visa card. Luckily I had all the proof of purchase. And… the refund is approved.
I did have someone call apple for me while I called woolies customer support. Interestingly, Apple has been filling this hole for a while - of deactivating whoever redeemed the codes. GL to them. But yeah. Long process but thought $1.5k was going in the bin.
Some hope if anyone come across this problem.
Apple should blacklist the phones/devices and account. Nobody should be buying a new phone from marketplace anyway.