Apple Offering Refunds to iTunes Customers who Purchased Final Season of 'Breaking Bad'

[PerformaUser]

That's a waste of taxpayer's money? Giving citizens that were actually misled a chance to try their case? The real waste of taxpayer money was on phonetic spelling in public schools...now nobody in this country under 30 can spell lose or loser.

Ha! You come with a spelling lesson? Surely you can do better than that.

Yes, this lawsuit IS a waste of taxpayers money. Think about this; People get murdered, assaulted, put in harmful situations, hurt children, abuse others, et cetera. I could go on about societal issues for days before I get to this pathetic reason for a lawsuit (and maybe I will misspell a few for you). The problem is we, as taxpayers, have to pay a judge to listen to some clown cry about their iTunes account... Come on!!

Perhaps if YOU could read but more importantly digest what it is you are reading then you would have something to say before you just spray $#it comments all over the place. I would come with a better argument than the correct placement of letters.

 

[JamesMay82]

**edit...I see, I just don't have to redeem the code. Cool. Fair is fair, and I paid for what I expected. I'm not going to take money out of their pockets.

your not taking money out of Apples pockets as it won't cost them a dime! it will be coming out of the studio's (AMC) pockets. I imagine they will charge them for every season pass they sold, although if they are feeling generous they might charge them for just redeemed codes.

All AMC's fault for being greedy and using underhand tactics.

 

[EasyRider]

They're refunding the price you paid. You're able to apply that to The Final Season, if you want, effectively getting you each season at $12. Are you still gonna complain about that?

No, I thought they were just refunding people that bought the "final season" so my question was if people who bought season 5 would get access to the "final season".

I see now that I did get refunded for season 5. Thats above and beyond of what I expected. I expected to pay for season 5, and get the full season 5 (including the "final season" episodes).

 

[Jsameds]

No one else offers season 5 as a whole.

Actually Microsoft did on their marketplace.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-us/TVShow/Breaking-Bad/Season/5/a05fa4a2-dde9-4d19-94a0-9d8ead71df5d

When it was on the mid-season break, the above page read:

"This season is in progress. Get this season's current and future episodes."

See the WebArchive page here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20120926...eason/5/a05fa4a2-dde9-4d19-94a0-9d8ead71df5d?

 

[kokako]

AMC gave all vendors - Amazon and Apple "The Fifth Season, Season 5 and the Final Season" as Pre-Order titles, AMC are to blame for this.
So once again Apple has to pay up for someone else's mess, I hope AMC/Sony is paying Apple for this blunder.

 

[MTShipp]

Some still paid a tax

Like some, when I purchase items from the iTunes Store, my State requires Apple to charge me a tax. When I purchased BB for $22.99, I paid a whopping $1.61 in tax. Today, I received my credit for $22.99 towards a future iTunes purchase. So the next purchase will have tax deducted again.

I thought I would point this out. Perhaps someone will sue the government over double taxation

Back to reality....

I was one of those that thought when I purchased BB last year it would include all episodes that carried over to now. Yes, I was not happy at paying but, it was only $23 and I enjoy the show enough to justify it in my head. Glad gave me a refund but I was not going to cease purchasing from them for it.

Now let's go look at the reviews of BB in the store to see if all of those 1 star reviewers changed their story...

 

[barkmonster]

Why would anyone in the right mind pay Apple's prices for TV shows anyway?

Even with the refund, you'll still pay a lot less for a Blu-Ray or DVD copy of an entire series of anything than Apple charge.

You can already Pre-order the complete collection of Breaking Bad on Blu-ray for £82. It's released in November and you can bet that's not only uncensored but it's far higher quality than Apple's low bandwidth encodes.

 

[JackieInCo]

Why would anyone in the right mind pay Apple's prices for TV shows anyway?

Even with the refund, you'll still pay a lot less for a Blu-Ray or DVD copy of an entire series of anything than Apple charge.

You can already Pre-order the complete collection of Breaking Bad on Blu-ray for £82. It's released in November and you can bet that's not only uncensored but it's far higher quality than Apple's low bandwidth encodes.

Not everyone in the world owns BR player or even wants one. I also don't pay for cable or satellite and buy all my shows and movies on iTunes. It's cheaper than paying for cable or satellite.

I haven't bought a DVD in years and went all digital. Why wait till November when I can get each episode a few hours after airing?

 

[iapplelove]

I own season 5 but didn't buy the compete season but a few at a time . Guess I'm the unlucky one lol

----------

Why would anyone in the right mind pay Apple's prices for TV shows anyway?

Even with the refund, you'll still pay a lot less for a Blu-Ray or DVD copy of an entire series of anything than Apple charge.

You can already Pre-order the complete collection of Breaking Bad on Blu-ray for £82. It's released in November and you can bet that's not only uncensored but it's far higher quality than Apple's low bandwidth encodes.

Blue ray ? Buying off iTunes is so much better. I can buy once and play on multiple devices, tvs, computers, laptops, phones and tablets . Who wants disks anyway?

 

[MattG]

This is another win for the people who can't read and whine like little babies. Congrats guys!

What does this have to do with "people who can't read?" Please correct me if I'm wrong but, as far as I'm aware, nowhere did it say "this is only for the first half of Season 5" when people were originally purchasing it. Season 5 is Season 5, period.

Why would anyone in the right mind pay Apple's prices for TV shows anyway?

Even with the refund, you'll still pay a lot less for a Blu-Ray or DVD copy of an entire series of anything than Apple charge.

You can already Pre-order the complete collection of Breaking Bad on Blu-ray for £82. It's released in November and you can bet that's not only uncensored but it's far higher quality than Apple's low bandwidth encodes.

Convenience. For most people, including myself, they're not going to notice a difference. The only time I ever buy Blu-Ray anymore is if I find them really cheap, and then I just rip them to iTunes and put the discs in storage anyway, never using them again. Otherwise it's just not worth my time, all that encoding and BS that goes along with it.

 

[AndyUnderscoreR]

I paid for it, and I wish they wouldn't have caved. This isn't Apple's fault. This is how AMC marketed and sold the show...and now Apple is footing the bill because of a bunch of indignant freeloaders. No one else offers season 5 as a whole.

Apple just bought everyone (who bought this) a season of Breaking Bad. I suppose I'll get a credit even though I don't expect it.

**edit...I see, I just don't have to redeem the code. Cool. Fair is fair, and I paid for what I expected. I'm not going to take money out of their pockets.

Come on, do you really think it's Apple who are paying for this refund?

AMC misled Apple, AMC misled Apple's customers, AMC put Apple in a situation where's reputation has been damaged, AMC's behaviour resulted lots of negative media coverage for Apple. AMC's behaviour also resulted in Apple ending up on the receiving end of a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit.

Apple are one of the most litigious companies in the world, Apple have one of the strongest legal teams in the world, and Apple wrote every word of the monumental one-sided legal contract suppliers have to agree to in order to get their content on to the iTunes store.

Do the math.

 

[Gasu E.]

Season 1 is the first 7 episodes and is $15. Then for 13ish episodes, S2 is $25, S3 and S4 are $30, S5 (part 1 as we know) is $22. "The Final Season" is also $22. Can we say MONEY GRAB? No wonder AMC got priced out of my Dish Network package.
.

It's actually called "capitalism." AMC has improved their product greatly, so they can charge more. If they could not charge more, they would not have made the investment to improve their product.

Don't agree they have improved their product? No problem! Just don't watch "Breaking Bad". I'm sure "Duck Dynasty" is readily available-- I've heard that is very popular.

 

[samcraig]

Good guy Apple.

Did people really expect to get a full season for $15/23?

Apple is being nice, and I'm just mad I couldnt get in on this.

I'm not sure Apple is being "nice" - they were sued. I didn't see if the won or lost the case. But if it's still pending and/or they lost - then this isn't about being nice. If they won - please someone link me to the judgement.

 

[SonoViva]

Why? You only paid for a half season, not a full season. Apple owes you nothing.

PSA: OP was quoting Breaking Bad.

Walter White: Say my name.
Dude in the desert (with sudden realization): ...You're Heisenberg.
Walter White: You're goddamn right.

 

[mrxak]

Apple did the right thing here, even though it wasn't really their fault. Better to just refund everything, earn some goodwill, and I'm sure they'll be more careful next time in reviewing what the content creators are trying to pull.

 

[TEG]

I wasn't expecting this, as I knew the deal, but now I can put that $23 towards another deserving show, like "Longmire".

 

[fabianjj]

When you buy a season pass, it says you're buying all current and future episodes. There is zero indication how many you will eventually actually get.

Precisely, from what I understand it was initially sold as "Season 5", and even AMC's website lists the newer episodes as "S5E12" or similar. If I would've bought a season pass for "Season 5", I would have been a bit upset that for some reason it didn't include "S5E12" etc., regardless of whether or not "X episodes for $Y is not that bad of a deal".

 

[boubou1961]

The right business move for three reasons.

I received my credit and i am thankful cause i know apple did not owe me anything.

But I think it is the right business move for three reasons :

With their pricing scheme on iBooks being harshly debated in court (and they are not winning) the last thing apple needs is a class action suit on pricing. Espescially for the pricing confusion of a third party, on a high profile show (the day after their Emmy win, may I point out) that would have made front page news. I doubt they would have made the same move for Low winter sun !

Secondly, don't think Apple is the only one footing the bill. AMC and SONY are surely not getting all their dues on this ( if any). They probably concluded a deal to get the goodwill going for the future.

Finally, it allows Apple to reinstate that iTunes too is part of the binge-viewing phenomenon that is changing the rules in television. Breaking Bad is the poster-show of this phenomenon and Netflix is getting all the credit.

 

[fwhenin]

Cool, but...

So this is nice, I didn't expect it at all. I knew what I was getting when I bought 'The Final Season' from iTunes....but I still haven't gotten an email for the refund...should I be mad? lol I'm kind of disappointed I didn't get the email, I don't feel bad that I'll take that money back, I buy stuff on iTunes all the time that i think they should start a rewards program lol

 

[Brian Y]

I paid for it, and I wish they wouldn't have caved. This isn't Apple's fault. This is how AMC marketed and sold the show...and now Apple is footing the bill because of a bunch of indignant freeloaders. No one else offers season 5 as a whole.

Apple just bought everyone (who bought this) a season of Breaking Bad. I suppose I'll get a credit even though I don't expect it.

**edit...I see, I just don't have to redeem the code. Cool. Fair is fair, and I paid for what I expected. I'm not going to take money out of their pockets.

I would bet every penny I own this isn't coming out of Apple's pocket . I imagine AMC are footing the bill.

 

[GizmoDVD]

What does this have to do with "people who can't read?" Please correct me if I'm wrong but, as far as I'm aware, nowhere did it say "this is only for the first half of Season 5" when people were originally purchasing it. Season 5 is Season 5, period.

Thinking you were getting 16 episodes in HD for $23. Yeah, great math skills. Apple just decided THIS ONE TIME to give such a big discount on a show.

 

[bigcat318]

Are people getting refunds if they ended up purchasing both 'halves' of season 5? Or is everyone who bought a season 5 pass being refunded?

 

[JackieInCo]

Are people getting refunds if they ended up purchasing both 'halves' of season 5? Or is everyone who bought a season 5 pass being refunded?

I got the full refund and I didn't buy the season pass, I cant afford to. I just bought each episode individually. Complete my season says I can buy the season for about $2.00 now with one episode left. I redeemed my code and got the full credit on my account. I'll complete the season this week.

 

[bigcat318]

Thinking you were getting 16 episodes in HD for $23. Yeah, great math skills. Apple just decided THIS ONE TIME to give such a big discount on a show.

They also decided THIS ONE TIME to split the season in half

Season passes clearly say you get all episodes in the season. Doesn't matter what the price was. They don't specify the number of episodes.

 

[gmcalpin]

I'm not sure Apple is being "nice" - they were sued. I didn't see if the won or lost the case. But if it's still pending and/or they lost - then this isn't about being nice. If they won - please someone link me to the judgement.

You don't seriously think the legal process works that quickly… in America?

The class action lawsuit didn't get to court yet. Apple's lawyers probably crunched some numbers and said, "You know what? Give them refunds, look at it as PR, and it'll probably cost you about the same in the long run."