App Store Refund
26 Feb 2010 - JaapSuter.com
Most software in the iTunes App Store costs $0.99, $4.99, $7.99, or gratis - nearly always under ten dollars. Throw in one-click purchasing and you have a recipe for muscle memory impulse buying.
I recently bought a Novatel Mifi device – which has a GPS unit – and wondered if my iPod Touch could give me turn-by-turn car navigation. Not doing much research, I found TomTom’s GPS software on iTunes, priced at $7.99 - or so I thought.
The answer to my curiosity; no, it doesn’t seem like an iPod plus Mifi gets you in-car navigation. If anybody knows of a product or solution, let me know.
Oh well, nothing lost…
And then my iTunes receipt came in the mail, and I noticed the skewed decimal. That is to say, the actual price of TomTom’s GPS software (at the time) was $79.99, not $7.99.
I suppose if the program did what I hoped, it may have been worth that still. But right now, I had spent 72 dollars more than planned, on an application I couldn’t use.
Yes, I’m an idiot. My fault, no one else to blame.
Based on past experiences with buying and selling digital goods, I was skeptical that I’d have any chance of recovering the money. If it was possible at all, it’d probably require four emails (one of which has to go to Steve Jobs), two phone-calls (with a combined time zone difference of at least nine hours), and a notarized letter (that can’t be faxed).
Luckily, four million lines of C++ are a dog to compile, and my computer was plowing through about that many. Thus killing some time, I looked online for iTunes support, submitted a ticket, and was immediately asked to join a support chat.
Call me skeptical…
Welcome to iTunes Store Chat!
Hi Jaap, my name is Katrina.
It’ll be just a moment while I review the comments you provided. You’d like a refund for the TomTom GPS navigation app, correct?
That is correct, thank you. My order number is MGB7XVY790.
I’ll certainly see what options are available. One moment, please, while I bring up that order.
Great, thank you!
Thank you for waiting, Jaap. The refund of $89.59 will be posted to the card that was charged in 3-5 business days.
Beautiful, thank you so much.
I imagine that iTUnes will automatically just remove the app from my iPod? Which would be okay, and complete this rather surprisingly smooth experience… (I’m a software developer, I expected this to be really painful, thanks again.)
Nope, we can’t remove anything from your iPod or iPhone (or computer, for that matter).
Oh, ok. I’ll delete it myself then… no worries. The app is not particularly useful for me right now anyway.
Kinda weird though (as a general observation), since it seems that this is an honor system. Oh well, I’m happy. Thanks, have a great day!
You too!
Thank you for chatting with us. Please click the blue “Close” button on the top left of the chat window to tell us how we did today.
Done.
Call me pleasantly surprised.