Apple Now Preventing Updates and Reinstallation of Refunded Apps

That's reasonable. I don't see how anybody can have an issue with this.

Should be a no-brainer

Strange this wasn't already the case.

No reason to object to this.

I’m sure _some_ people will squawk about this. I suspect they’ll be the same folks I see who eat the entire meal first, then complain and ask for their money back

D.T. said:

I’m sure _some_ people will squawk about this. I suspect they’ll be the same folks I see who eat the entire meal first, then complain and ask for their money back

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I knew about this and I’ll admit it was nice to have it. I bought a fairly expensive navigation app a couple of years ago and I asked for a refund as it only kept crashing. I discovered that I was still able to use and update it, even though I could not download it again (iCloud didn’t exist back then). It’s still on my hard drive and I did use it occasionally for a while, as the crashes were addressed at some point.

It surprises me that Apple didn’t address this earlier. There is some serious potential for abuse and I’m glad that it’s fixed now.

This is not new, apple implemented this late last year. I guess not many people try it.

It is definitely new.

My little one purchased 1 Password, while on sale, after I had signed in and bought the Wolf Among Us episode 2 and 3.

I had been reading reviews on it and left my device unattended (my error). Apple refunded me and I deleted the app.

Even after the refund if I went to the App Store it showed the cloud download icon in place of the price ... now though it shows the price again.

No issue with it.

Did you try re downloading and installing it?

Earlier this year I got a refund and had left the app on my phone not thinking about it. When there was an update this is the error I got. I deleted the app at the time and tried reinstalling and got same error. This happened to one of my friends as well. I promise it's not brand new

If you're refunded, you shouldn't get updates. If you want updates, pay.

No brainer

barefootman said:

That's reasonable. I don't see how anybody can have an issue with this.

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Agree. People that are dishonest make these things happen.

I've been getting that error with stuff I HAVE paid for.

I'm kinda surprised this was actually possible before today. Whoever would even attempt that…..?
I mean you get a refund for a reason. Imagine trying that with a 'brick-and-mortar' store.

Jessica Lares said:

I've been getting that error with stuff I HAVE paid for.

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Same here. Contacted the developer who replied that many of their customers are in the same situation, and there is nothing they can do about it until Apple fixes it themselves.

The problem is not that your refunded apps won't get updated. The problem is if you ever change your mind and want to buy that app again you cannot. You will get this error upon trying to repurchase. I've been going back and forth with Apple about this for a couple weeks now. A few months back I requested a refund on an app that crashed continuously. Months later the dev fixed the issue and I decided to legitimately purchase the app again. Nope. Get this message. So, this is the issue.

Does this mean that the folks who bitched and moaned about FCPX and got a refund but could still download and use it are now SOL?

I hope those that got refunds from FCP X are banned from using any Apple product related to video in the future, I bought FCP X at the time it came out, and I was one of those wanting a refund, I stuck with it, did my time, and now I cannot see a better product than FCP X....

If they had a refund and it works, if I was Mr T Cook, I would link the refunded software to a in app purchase system and make them pay back through paid updates...Software free, functionally paid!!

Like others have echoed, this seems to be no-brainer. However, reading that pop up message, I noticed it said something about apps purchased on a different AppleID. I'm guilty of (and I know others are) "sharing" apps, i.e. installing an app on another device using the AppleID that was used for purchasing. Seems like this won't allow that anymore.

You people assume too much.

If people wanted to steal FCP in the first place, they would just pirate it. The majority of people who would do such a thing don't have $300 in their bank accounts lying around to buy it and then demand a refund.

And honestly, the people who bought it had the right to complain. It's professional software that went bad for people that relied on it as a daily work tool. It was more than just bugs, and it caused a lot of people to look at other options.

It wasn't just some message board that got angry about it either.

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Considering that my iOS purchases are taking forever to actually be billed to my PayPal at the moment, I think this is the sign of refunds coming to the App Store. It'd be interesting to see how they handle it.

iosquattro said:

The problem is not that your refunded apps won't get updated. The problem is if you ever change your mind and want to buy that app again you cannot. You will get this error upon trying to repurchase. I've been going back and forth with Apple about this for a couple weeks now. A few months back I requested a refund on an app that crashed continuously. Months later the dev fixed the issue and I decided to legitimately purchase the app again. Nope. Get this message. So, this is the issue.

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This is the kind of situation that I thought of as soon as I saw this. Not the "refund then reinstall" suedo piracy that everyone else seems to be concerned with. If the ban is indefinite, then that means that the decision can never be reversed, regardless of changes in the situation.

This needs to be addressed. Buy once, dislike and get a refund. If you choose to buy again, no refund will be available.

Finally! Apple is protecting us developers from piracy!

There's been a couple of times where an app was purchased, the buyer left a bogus review on why the app supposedly didn't work , then to see the app was refunded. I'm sure they kept using it, as there was nothing wrong with it to begin with.

This makes my day.

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Snowy_River said:

This needs to be addressed. Buy once, dislike and get a refund. If you choose to buy again, no refund will be available.

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I agree with that.

Hmmm, that's interesting. Maybe Apple was testing this when I tried to update my apps (none of which I had claimed a refund of) couple of weeks ago.

I'm surprised this wasn't there the first second apple gave the first refund. It should have been

This is fine, now give people a refund period after they buy an app. I know within a few minutes if an app is bad. So even a 60 min refund window would be great.