Eleven-year-old Accidentally Downloads $1000 App

[pmz]

1-click orders on Amazon can be changed for an hour or so, and returned officially. I had this happen to me too... I was reading the app description and accidentally swiped against buy. I got a refund, and a warning that Apple was making an exception and to be more careful

It soured me to the App Store experience for sure... the lack of any confirmation whatsoever

lol, your ridiculous (not to mention impossible) mistake soured your App Store experience, even though Apple gave you a refund which they did not have to.

 

[Detlev_73]

You sound like a wonderful human being.

Your sarcasm is inappropriate. This poster has a right to her/his opinion. There are plenty of folks that think that kids are a bad idea, especially in their case. I'm proud of the fact I don't have kids: I'd beat them just like Joan Crawford did in Mommy Dearest.

 

[guzhogi]

There was a similar story a few months ago about the I am Rich app. Some people thought it was a joke so they bought not realizing it was real.

As for wanting / not wanting kids. I don't know. Part of me would like kids one day. On the other hand, I'm afraid I'd mess them up.

 

[Doctor Q]

The best way to avoid unintentional purchases is to use the Shopping Cart. That way, you can consolidate and review your selections carefully and buy them when you're ready.

For the record, Apple removed the Shopping Cart feature when iTunes 9 came out last September. You have to use the less convenient Wish List feature now.

 

[iWonderwhy]

$1000 worth of a beating he'd get if i were his parent. Luckily for kids, i hate them and would never have one. Ever.

Ah, sterile?

 

[TheMacBookPro]

$1000 worth of a beating he'd get if i were his parent. Luckily for kids, i hate them and would never have one. Ever.

You do realize that you too were once a kid as well?

My brother has a android phone mad and if he buys an app from the android market and doesn't like it he can get a refund and it is deleted. I think it is in a 15 minute time gap.

However this would be a nice feature to the apple app store.

What's wrong with Android? My N1 does far more than what a 3GS can do... whatever floats your boat I guess.

 

[houdinize]

If this was on an iPod Touch isn't there a mb cutoff where you have to use your computer, or is that just for 3G and just a suggestion when on wifi?

 

[Danindub]

Apple always refund...

I don't get what is the fuss about - many times I wasn't happy with purchased app, album, or downloaded something by mistake - and never had problems getting refunds from apple...

 

[Longey Nowze]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

I don't get what is the fuss about - many times I wasn't happy with purchased app, album, or downloaded something by mistake - and never had problems getting refunds from apple...

How do you request a refund? Who do you contact?

 

[Ivan P]

Nothing as serious as a $1k purchase, but my (almost) two year old purchased an album from iTunes, by accident, on my iPad last week. I used the "report a concern" link that was on my receipt to report the problem. I got an email from an Apple rep the next day saying that they would give me a refund, but it would be a "one time exception."

From email:

Please note that the iTunes Store Terms of Sale state that all sales are final, so this is a one-time exception.

The best way to avoid unintentional purchases is to use the Shopping Cart. That way, you can consolidate and review your selections carefully and buy them when you're ready. Here's how to use the Shopping Cart:

http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93017

I've come across a way to get a refund without saying it was an accidental purpose, although in my two cases it was an actual error with the store that led to it. On two occasions I purchased some albums and it took my money, but the songs themselves refused to download and wouldn't even show up in my 'Available Downloads'. I had the receipt and they were added to my history, and after a few emails back and forth with store support (who were actually quite apologetic, for Apple) I got a refund. Then a few weeks later, randomly, the albums started downloading. Very weird situation, but I guess something went buggy briefly when I submitted my purchases - and I'm only posting this in case someone accidentally purchases stuff in the future, it seems that doing that is more likely to result in Apple issuing you your refund.

 

[andiwm2003]

'Eleven-year-old "Accidentally" Downloads $1000 App' more like, the kid blatantly knew what he was doing, you can't accidentally buy something, he clicked 'buy', what was he expecting to happen...

Gee, do you have any idea how easy it is to click the wrong thing on an iPhone or iPod touch?

They probably had one click enabled and the kid checked out the most expensive app and accidentally clicked buy.

Can happen.

 

[Danindub]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)



How do you request a refund? Who do you contact?

iTunes > My account > Account history (find app you want to report) > Report a problem

(or something similar anyways).

Now that I think about it - it could be EU thing - AFAIK by law there has to be a way to get refund ...

 

[kirky29]

Ouch, at least they gave them a refund!
My iPhone only lasts a few mins after I've entered my password. So he must have been quick!

 

[Joe The Dragon]

Why is there no spending limit that you can set per purchase?

cable and sat tv lets you set per PPV purchase limits so why not apple?

 

[darkplanets]

$1000 worth of a beating he'd get if i were his parent. Luckily for kids, i hate them and would never have one. Ever.

Had I done this as a kid, I would have been beaten for it.
Not like bamboo cane or whip beating though, just paddle and maybe belt beating. TBH, in retrospect it really wasn't that bad, and I really did learn to be a pretty decent human being. I turned out just fine too, in fact, I'd like to think better than some of my peers. But that's a bit pretentious, so I digress.

There's obviously a large debate over child punishment though, with adamant supporters on either side of the fence. Which one is right is really a gray zone in my opinion, and while I would like to think soft punishment would be sufficient for my future kids, I definitely see the use for the other side. I think moderation is key in this area; I mean you don't want to see kids running around wild, but at the same time you shouldn't beat your kid senseless. Unfortunately, in today's society everything is construed as child abuse, and I fear that we have strayed a little too far left towards "soft" punishment. But that's just me, I'm sure many of you feel differently.

That was a little off topic.

90 day refund policy w/ iTunes, if I do recall correctly; but I'm sure there's many caveats.

 

[ViViDboarder]

Proof?

And you're basing this conclusion jumping on, what? You win for the most ill-informed, knee-jerk, baseless response in this thread.

I always wonder why people decide to respond to the post below mine which says the same thing but with less proof...

Above I said the same thing with a specific example. It's not as fun to argue with someone who makes a good argument though, is it?

http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/apples-iphone-app-refund-policies-could-bankrupt-developers/

 

[Schtumple]

Gee, do you have any idea how easy it is to click the wrong thing on an iPhone or iPod touch?

They probably had one click enabled and the kid checked out the most expensive app and accidentally clicked buy.

Can happen.

In that case, why do the parents have one click enabled on a device that's used by an 11 year old...

 

[goobot]

they deserved it. if the kid is stupid enough to look at a 1000 dollar app and hit download he shouldnt get a refund. hey i just put a gas hose in my car, i didnt expect gas to come out and i had to pay. any how why would the mother give a 11 year old access to her credit card? dumb move. she deserved it too. she could type the pass for him or give him a blank account and buy gift cards for him.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

I believe that there has to be a "cooling off period" - at least here in the UK - after making a purchase at which point you are entitled by law to return the product. Normally that period is 7-14 days but individual stores may be even more lenient than that.

Whether it is a mistake or not, I'm not sure that Apple can refuse a refund if it is a case of genuine mistake. And didn't Steve Jobs have that button he could press to remotely delete an app from someone's device anyway?

 

[SensaiMinstixs]

$1000 worth of a beating he'd get if i were his parent. Luckily for kids, i hate them and would never have one. Ever.

You sound like a wonderful human being.

Your sarcasm is inappropriate. This poster has a right to her/his opinion. There are plenty of folks that think that kids are a bad idea, especially in their case. I'm proud of the fact I don't have kids: I'd beat them just like Joan Crawford did in Mommy Dearest.

So let get this right sarcasm is bad, but advocating the physical assault of children on a public MR forum is ok I'm new to MR so I'm still trying to figure how this whole thing works

 

[kylerey]

It must be a slow weekend before WWDC, because I don't see how this is news. It seems once a year now, somebody reports on this exact story, but with a different app.

 

[spotlight07]

I had this happen to me too... I was reading the app description and accidentally swiped against buy. I got a refund, and a warning that Apple was making an exception and to be more careful

It soured me to the App Store experience for sure... the lack of any confirmation whatsoever

I had the same thing happen to me for a $5 app I didn't even want. They told me to turn on the shopping cart...I was on iPad and there is no shopping cart...but there should be one.

 

[RMo]

I had the same thing happen to me for a $5 app I didn't even want. They told me to turn on the shopping cart...I was on iPad and there is no shopping cart...but there should be one.

With an iPad they told you to turn in the shopping cart? The shopping cart hasn't existed since iTunes 9: "Note: With iTunes 9.0 or later, only 1-click purchasing is available." They recommend the wish list instead, but that's much less convenient--and you have to do add things yourself rather than having them automatically go there instead of purchasing them.

 

[ChrisGonzales90]

Yeah it was on a touch not a computer.

If you have entered a password and the app downloads, and continue to browse the app store it doesn't require a repeat password entry until you sleep your iPod touch/iPhone.

Exactly.

Too many overly techy kids these days anyway.....

+1

I don't really think the kid is rolling with a credit card of his own at 11 years of age. So maybe the mother should think about setting up a iTunes account for her son with a apple gift card or pre-pay visa. That way he can't run wild like Hulkamania with her credit card.... I wish my parents would of let me have free access to there visa as a kid

Kids shouldnt even have iTune or ipods. When I was 11 we had none of this. iPods were just announced and OSX was just born and Mac OS was still being used by a lot.

but it would be a "one time exception."

From email:

Please note that the iTunes Store Terms of Sale state that all sales are final, so this is a one-time exception.

That is a lie. I downloaded an few ipad apps by accident and they refunded me just fine.

You do realize that you too were once a kid as well?

as with you. (unless your one now, given the rolling of eyes)

What's wrong with Android?

Its by google. Nuff said.

My N1 does far more than what a 3GS can do...

Like what?

whatever floats your boat I guess.

lol

 

[al256]

I haven't seen those.To what were they referring?

This would be an example:

sure. apple has no problem giving a refund, as they keep their 30% that the developer now has to pay. that's a cool $300 that apple just ripped off from the developer all to protect their mistake and their idiot customers.