Charged twice for in-app purchase

[greenteq]

I purchased a "pile of gems" for $1.99 through DragonVale. However, I received an iTunes receipt showing that I was charged twice for the purchase. I confirmed that I received only one pile of gems (50 gems). I followed the steps in iTunes to "Report a Problem" with this purchase, but it turns out that clicking that "Report a Problem" link for an in-app purchase merely opens an internet browser window taking me to http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/.

Navigating to the correct support page (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1933) yields the following paragraph: "Note: For issues with an in app purchase, you will need to contact the developer. The developer's contact information can be found on the application's information page from the App Store." I contacted the developer, who replied:

"Unfortunately, we are unable to give refunds directly since the billing is all done through Apple, but you can request a refund from Apple. The link below has instructions on how to ask for a refund:
http://www.knowyourcell.com/apple/a..._get_a_refund_for_an_iphone_app_purchase.html "

Has anyone experienced a similar situation? Any suggestions on what I should do? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[vettori]

Having integrated in-app purchases in one of my app these days I can explain you how it works with 'fresh' information :

No developer can issue refunds because developers don't have any customer information, it's all handled by Apple with iTunes. The link is correct, following the steps there one should be able to send a request to Apple and they should contact back in a couple days.

The support document is referring to the developer because for some kind of purchases the developer has a record in his system. Only non-consumable (i.e. buy once for the life) in-app purchases don't require the developer to keep a record on his system.
This means that the app developer probably has recorded two payments but has sent you only one pile of gems instead of two. This thing can actually be verified by the developer.

So what I think is that you probably will be able to get another pile of gems from the developer. In your case I'm not sure Apple can issue a refund.

Hope this helps.

 

[greenteq]

Thanks so much for your helpful reply. I contacted Apple support and was told I would receive an exception to the no refunds policy. I haven't received the refund yet, but hope that it will be processed soon.