When I recently wanted to re download a previously purchased Application from the Mac App Store, I ran into issues which I could not have imagined !
But lets start from the beginning:
On 04/19/12 06:10 AM, I bought Final Cut Pro v10.0.4. At that point in time my Apple ID’s Country/Region was set to the United States.
When I initially setup this Apple ID, the AppStore was only available in the US, and thats why I registered it in the US.
In June 2014 I changed this accounts Country/Region to Germany unaware that this will lead to multiple issues for me in the future.
I think in the same month I also added a 15 Euro German iTunes Gift card which I got as a present from a friend to that account.
So far so good. Well, approximately 4 weeks ago I deleted Final Cut Pro from my Macbook Air as I was in need of disk space and under the impression it would be easy for me to re-download it when needed - how wrong I was !
Yesterday, when indeed I wanted to download Final Cut Pro again, it was not shown in my Purchase tab of the Mac App Store App (in fact any other previous purchase done at the time my account was set to United States wasn’t shown).
I spend estimate 1 hour with Apple support on the phone to figure out my change from US to Germany in Country/Region was the reason for my missing software in the Purchase tab of the Mac App Store. In the end the suggestion was to change the Country/Region setting of the account back to the US.
Alas, this change back was also not simply possibly as I had still some credit (14.01 Euro) as part of the iTunes gift card added to my account. So the suggested way to get my previous 300USD Final Cut Pro purchase back, was to spend the 14.01 Euro first, then change the account to US and then re-download !
(Alternatively the seniour!! support person named "Pearl" suggested me to buy FCP again!!)
I followed the advice to spend the credit (due to time pressure on some apps, which I did not really need) just to be able to change the account.
However after I ran into another issue. While the store accepted my US address, it did not accept my credit card (German one) - while this was totally possible when I initially setup the account. So I just ended up storing no payment data.
Fortunately after the change of the account to US, I was able to re-download Final Cut Pro (and other purchases I did in the past).
Still I am now stuck with an account for which I can not add a credit card !
To summarize, I spend more then 4 hours with various phone calls to Apple support, to get my old purchase back.
Well to Apple I have the following suggestions to
improve customer experience:
But lets start from the beginning:
On 04/19/12 06:10 AM, I bought Final Cut Pro v10.0.4. At that point in time my Apple ID’s Country/Region was set to the United States.
When I initially setup this Apple ID, the AppStore was only available in the US, and thats why I registered it in the US.
In June 2014 I changed this accounts Country/Region to Germany unaware that this will lead to multiple issues for me in the future.
I think in the same month I also added a 15 Euro German iTunes Gift card which I got as a present from a friend to that account.
So far so good. Well, approximately 4 weeks ago I deleted Final Cut Pro from my Macbook Air as I was in need of disk space and under the impression it would be easy for me to re-download it when needed - how wrong I was !
Yesterday, when indeed I wanted to download Final Cut Pro again, it was not shown in my Purchase tab of the Mac App Store App (in fact any other previous purchase done at the time my account was set to United States wasn’t shown).
I spend estimate 1 hour with Apple support on the phone to figure out my change from US to Germany in Country/Region was the reason for my missing software in the Purchase tab of the Mac App Store. In the end the suggestion was to change the Country/Region setting of the account back to the US.
Alas, this change back was also not simply possibly as I had still some credit (14.01 Euro) as part of the iTunes gift card added to my account. So the suggested way to get my previous 300USD Final Cut Pro purchase back, was to spend the 14.01 Euro first, then change the account to US and then re-download !
(Alternatively the seniour!! support person named "Pearl" suggested me to buy FCP again!!)
I followed the advice to spend the credit (due to time pressure on some apps, which I did not really need) just to be able to change the account.
However after I ran into another issue. While the store accepted my US address, it did not accept my credit card (German one) - while this was totally possible when I initially setup the account. So I just ended up storing no payment data.
Fortunately after the change of the account to US, I was able to re-download Final Cut Pro (and other purchases I did in the past).
Still I am now stuck with an account for which I can not add a credit card !
To summarize, I spend more then 4 hours with various phone calls to Apple support, to get my old purchase back.
Well to Apple I have the following suggestions to
improve customer experience:
- The purchase tab in Mac App Store, should list ALL previous purchases of the account REGARDLESS in which country the purchase was done
- A change of the country/region setting should be possible regardless of any iTunes credit (from gift cards). Of course I understand that it may not be possible to use for ex. a EURO credit in the US AppStore. But why can't I have multiple credits in different currencies ?
- I should be able to add (use) my German credit card (or any credit card) in any country/region. Similar to normal behavior in the real world, where you expect a store which accepts your brand of credit card does not distinguish in regions. I am sure US citizens would find it strange of their Master Cards being rejected in a Starbucks in Rome (and being suggested to get an Italian Master Card).