SolarToaster

Had an eerily similar experience trying to set up a fresh personal iCloud account for my Mom. Effectively, feels like she's permabanned based on the phone #. Exhausted all possibilities and gave up.

Yeah, give me some sunshine and relative obscurity and we're golden.

If brakes unnecessarily when the car ahead takes a highway exit.

Yep. My workaround is basically hanging back or just being prepared to gas it a bit so it doesn't freak out.

Citi Bank's credit card "Merchant Offers" showed some offers as expiring in "-1 days".