iTunes causing big problems in Japan

I found out about this on the evening news last night.

Apparently there are many Japanese getting billed by iTunes for purchases they did not make.
But what they are really anger over is how Apple is handling the situation... (or more precisely how they are *not* handling the situation.)

At first they tried Apple's rule #1 of what to do when someone claims a fault or problem in Apple's products... the Jedi Mind Trick.. they waved their hands and said "no, there is no problem... you must be mistaken..."

However, the force must be with the Japanese consumers because they didn't fall for that and they are angry and publicly calling out Apple to handle the situation better. They demand that Apple give numbers of fraudulent purchases reported, etc.. which Apple denies citing "privacy issues". They are also mad that Apple only provides email support for this issue and that they should provide phone support as well....

The Japanese get a little bit crazy (from a non-Japanese standpoint) when bad things like this happen and unless people are on their knees crying begging for forgiveness and doing everything they possible can so that it never happens again... no one will rest and will keep bringing up the issue as long as physically possible.
(I am still shocked to see on the news about incidents that happened several years ago and should be history now but people still bring up because too many people felt like the people in charge were not punished enough or post-incident handling was inadequate, etc...)


More about this issue in Japanese.