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Apple refunds in app purchases to the tune of $32.5m
FlyinBrick
Posts: 1,571 Forum Member
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25748292
Well at least they're doing the right thing in the end.
Well at least they're doing the right thing in the end.
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/15/ftc_apple_in_app_purchases_settlement/
Told you it was loose change to Apple :yawn:
Yeah, it's always heartwarming to see stupid people being compensated.;-)
With the exception of some not very bright parents not wanting to take any responsibility for their own mistakes, there were some publicised cases of repeatable in-app purchases of £70.00 (straight after a smaller purchase of £0.69p) on games aimed at very young children. Many of those apps have since been encouraged to clean up their act. The parental controls/restrictions have improved too in recent months - but still require parents with half-a-brain.
Agreed, stupid people will always exist and they should share some of the resposibility, but the whole setup reeked of being designed to fleece those very same stupid people.
They can pay for it out of the money that Samsung owe them.
" Tim Cook told Apple employees that the FTC's proposals were in line with the company's own intentions."
That intention apparently is to ignore everyone outside of the US. At the moment those intentions read good but in reality stay bad.
A media campaign on behalf of UK customers would help.
If they ever get round to "Doing the right thing" it will apply to the UK and everyone outside of the US. They are simply following FTC orders/advice.
Of course we make use of the restriction settings provided in iOS and completely lock down the App Store and in app purchases. If they want to buy something new, they have to go through us
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/18/eu_in_app_complaints_apple_google/
"Google has played ball...hese include not using the word 'free' at all when games contain in-app purchases, [and] developing targeted guidelines for its app developers to prevent direct exhortation to children," the EC stated.
But Apple has sat on its hands and decided not to act at all,"
Getting in first, quite obviously only Google has stupid users.
:rolleyes:
"In a statement, Apple said it was doing "more than others" to protect parents."
Whilst the word 'Free' now does not appear in the Play store, I'd also suggest allowing a permanent filter to remove in-app purchases from view. Though I'm quite sure Google has an extremely low percentage of credit card details compared to Apple.
I wonder if 'Free' liking Apple still uses that small trickery to get lots of credit card details.
Remember reading this a while ago and it is a piss take.
http://www.baekdal.com/opinion/how-inapp-purchases-has-destroyed-the-industry/
Is this why EA gets onto editors picks?
http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/25/both-apple-and-ea-deny-money-exchanged-to-keep-plants-vs-zombies-off-android/
Back when it happened I recall suggesting likely EA got well promoted by Apple, not actual cash.
If you were to play that game as an RTS as originally intended it would cost hundreds of pounds to complete, for a game costing a couple of quid to buy. Editors choice my arse, if that constitutes doing more than anyone else god help the industry.
Wow, a 1 year old story which was denied at the time and no further evidence provided in all that time. It must be true;-)
So let's try and have a sensible conversation about this and maybe you can suggest how they do it.
For example, one of my kids plays candy crush and has done for (what seems like) a year. In all that time the total cost of the app has been £0. Now if I go to the App Store and look up candy crush, not only does it tell me there are in app purchases, but it also gives you the prices.
You obviously don't think that is enough. Do you thank that an app you can download and play for free should have (for example) the total cost of if you bought all the in app stuff? If you do, I would suggest that would be totally misleading for the consumer.
Anyway I would suggest it is not misleading.
Take the game I have referenced above (watch video), not playable as you would expect a RTS game to operate and as such to play and complete the game properly will cost many hundreds of pounds.
Now there are various games some more playable than others without purchases i concede. However free to play when clearly not as it becomes impractical or useless is not free to play.
Listing a game as free to play but somewhere under saying if all in app purchases for this game a bought the total cost would be £xx is not an issue and provides clarity up front.
But if there are that many, who the hell buys every in app purchase available for a game?
I just think this is yet another case of people not taking responsibility for what their kids do and not taking responsibility themselves to prevent situations arising (it is as easy as not having a credit/debit card linked to the google play / apple account being used by the kid, or making sure the account has in app purchases turned off, or set it so every purchase requires your password which you do not tell the child).
I think we are now talking about different things and we might even agree.
If a game cannot be completed without in app purchases then I think it should be made clear the purchases will be required and it should identify the minimum price it would take.
I think that is different to making purchases to speed up the game completion.
I do think it is removing responsibility from the parent. My kids apple accounts have no payment options linked to them, and I just provide them with gift cards every now and then.
That simply is not a coherent argument.
if you take the personal responsibility argument you could apply that to anything. It is your responsibility to ensure that the credit card you use for xbox live subscription is not automatically used for in game purchases, even though you never intended or authorised it. It is an old person's responsibility to ask that pushy salesman to leave, if they don't and buy something their choice. It is your personal responsibility to know whether something is genuinely in a sale or just pretending to be, if you choose to buy it your problem.
Laws are their to protect us from scams and dodgy and unfair practices, you cannot simply say it is your responsibility so if your too stupid tough.
I don't think it is, in that video £70 for a pack that allows you to complete something like 12 walls or whatever.
it is simply scandalous to charge that much for a pack that won't even be sufficient to complete the game. The consequence is waiting for 24 hours to complete one wall
it is so clearly aimed at ripping people off and is totally without justification, no one in their right mind would purchase that game at hundreds of pounds outright. That is the very reason it is structured in this way to catch the dimmer members of society and/or children. it is a scam and should be stopped.
of course the other way to avoid in app purchases in through social media postings or promotions (your candy crush) which Apple want to stop, so payment then becomes necessary.
When do people take responsibility for their own actions or the actions of their children?
It is not solely about children anyway it is also about those more vulnerable in society who are clearly being targeted. When something like this is so clearly designed to take more money that you would never agree to in a one off purchase it is wrong. Simply put I consider it to be sharp practice at best and more likely unfair trading.
In the example you have given, you don't have to pay the money, you can just wait. And there are numerous controls to stop money being spent accidentally.
Is it just a money issue then, and not a moral one? Why is it not ok to charge £1 for a feature, but it is ok to get someone to advertise your app for free.
If the store allows you to spend money without knowing, that should be sorted, and that is why apple made the payments (at some point I'm sure google will get round to doing the same), however, there are now numerous checks and I'm not sure apple should be deciding how much either an app provider should be charging, or how much someone should be paying.
Is choice not one of the buzz words we like in this forum?
It is also not just about charging cards, if I was to say buy my kid a voucher for £40 for his birthday and it allowed him to build 10 walls in this game i would consider he has been ripped off.
laws prevent profiteering so charging hundreds of pounds for a game that can be purchased outright for say a fiver is simply not right. Especially as it is done in such an underhand way as this, go your only buying lovely 'gems' it will help you go faster.
The reason you have to wait 24 hours (which in itself is simply ludicrous) is simply a way to con kids into buying such gems. It is a targeted scam simple as that.