Mac App Store

[John.Murray]

Woke up to a *very* depleted Bank Balance this morning, only to discover that my recent purchase of Lion has been repeatedly applied against my credit card ($1726.24). 

I've spent the better part of the day discovering:

• There *is* no phone number to iTunes.  The Apple Representative said this is for "your security".
• Wandering around the site, I finally discovered an obscure link, if you happen to hover your mouse over the order number after bringing up account history....
• 4 hours later I get a response via automated email, advising me that my iTunes account has been closed, and to be sure to file a report with my credit card company.

Not good apple......

[francois]

I feel for you and I fully agree that the lack of support phone number is a shame.

It looks like you're not alone with this issue (multiple charges for the same item):

Apple Charges Customer 122 Times for Lion

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/27/apple-charges-customer-122-times-for-lion/

[PierreVandevenne]

The number of abysmal attitudes they have, while managing to avoid actual consequences on the market, is staggering. It's an interesting case study in the amount of pain that can be inflicted on customers when you do it the right way. I am "only" at two automated blind charges right now, On the other hand, I have one of my own customers extremely angry because he had to wait 14 minutes after his purchase for us to call back and respond to his tech support query. I of course refunded him, telling him we were so sorry we hadn't been able to support him in a timely manner (in reality, I would have paid not to have to deal with him :-) ) and yet he keeps coming back.

The sad truth is that an automated support, hard to find, made of automatic canned replies (those are always timely, barring a spam filter issue), is the probably the best strategy to deal with today's consuming masses.

And to top it all, I have already had requests for our OS X app to support the new "full screen mode" of Lion. Well, the last time I wrote a full screen app must have been in 1995. One never stops progress....

[Graeme Nattress]

I got double-charged for a free developer copy of Lion / Lion Server. I used the redeem code from the dev site to get a free copy of both - that bit went ok, then later in the day I noticed there was two extra paid purchases of both on my account that I absolutely and certainly didn't purchase.

I emailed the app store customer support and they refunded the phantom purchases.

I think Apple have a serious issue here with phantom purchases. They also have a "no refunds" policy which under any sane consumer protection law would be illegal. Also, these phantom purchases are not accidental or unintended purchases by the consumer, but exactly what the word "phantom" says - not by the user at all, but in some way by the system.

Graeme

[John.Murray]

I think Apple have a serious issue here with phantom purchases. They also have a "no refunds" policy which under any sane consumer protection law would be illegal. Also, these phantom purchases are not accidental or unintended purchases by the consumer, but exactly what the word "phantom" says - not by the user at all, but in some way by the system.

Graeme

Agreed!  My Credit Union has been wonderfull, promptly refunding any and all fees that have been incurred as a result of this.  Since I've posted, there have been an additional 2 charges pending, until all pending charges are cleared, my accounts cannot be credited.

My idea of a transaction involves 2 parties - working toward a common goal.  When there is a problem with that transaction, my expectation is that the same two parties work together to resolve the issue.  Obviously this is not the way Apple works

[Graeme Nattress]

Apple refunded me pretty quickly, but indeed that's not the point - they have a problem and it's strongly discouraging me for any App Store purchases.

Graeme

[Graeme Nattress]

Dear Mac App Store Customer,

We are contacting you with regard to your iTunes Store account, which due to an error was charged for re-downloading Lion. We have identified and refunded the charges to the original payment source. The funds should be available within 3-5 business days.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this situation may have caused you. If you have any questions about your account, go to http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/.

Sincerely,

iTunes Customer Experience

[kiefers]

That's a bummer. I feel for you though. That is why I delete my credit card information on my apple account when I am not doing any purchase so that I would have no problems with it. I would not mind the extra procedures when you are getting paid apps the next time but it would somehow avoid this type of incident.  I don't think you would have a hard time having them reverted the charges but that is not good for them.

[Graeme Nattress]

I got the charges reversed ok, but for me, Lion+Server was a free redeem coupon purchase from my developer account! There's something seriously broken with the Apple store that gives me no confidence in purchasing from it.

Graeme

[John.Murray]

My account is finally credited, in *no* part due to Apple.  I've recieved no communication from them beyond the original automated message.

My Credit Union was wonderfull, reversing all fee's associated with this.

At this point, I have no iTunes Account, and no way of purchasing and/or redeeming any software, etc from Apple, despite purchases of Lion / Lion Server and Final Cut Pro X

So be it....