He said "3-4 years ago" he used his credit card to start the account for a relative. Do we know if he continued to pay for the account? For me it all hinges on this. If it's the same credit card, even if what he says is true, he should own it and admit he f'ed up. If it changed to a different cc, then it's Apple that f'ed up.
And either way, Apple is lame if it takes getting @pschiller involved to try to resolve this. I dig Apple, but they are broken in so many ways.
Edit: typo