ITunes Gift Card PITA Factor

My son recently purchased an Apple ITouch mp3 player. Today he got a gift card (first one) and came to me trying to figure out how to activate it (he's a smart kid, and had quickly figured out how to use the ITouch when he purchased it). On the back of the card was a set of four steps. The third step was to enter the code shown.

Which code would you enter? Well, there are three "codes" shown on the card - the one below the barcode, one on the lower left, and one on the lower right. Entered them all, none worked. So much for Apple's intuitive user interface and specific instructions.

So we did what any self-service customer would do, which is to find some help online. After exploring a few links, we came across this page and picture:

This solved our problem instantly and my son was able to register his card and start spending. What we can't figure out is why the instruction shown in the above example isn't integrated into the card itself (in our book, we call this an Embedded Tool). If Apple had to devote a page on its website to communicate this simple action (even lottery cards have this instruction), it seems logical that lots of other people are having this problem.

Anyway, we've now passed through the learning curve so usage of future cards will be easy. But the first experience was a pain in the ass (the PITA factor) and is very inconsistent with Apple's easy-of-use experience promise.