Still missing: App Store Refunds
With the iPad, application functionality and prices are increasing. Sadly however the App Store program still has no concept of a demo period or a refund. Swallowing $1.99 on a bad buy isn’t too bad for a user but when apps start costing $50 there is a huge leap of faith that this app will work for them.
Officially the App Store is a no refund zone, all sales are final. You can however fight through a few layers of the iTunes customer support system and eventually get a refund. I recently did so for a $9 game I bought and found unplayable 5 minutes in. They did say in the email however:
Please note that this is a one-time exception, as the App Store Terms and Conditions state that all sales are final.
Related is the recent news that OmniGroup is now extending their previous 30-day refund policy of desktop software to iPad/iPhone software.
Starting today, we are offering the same 30-day money back guarantee on all of our iPhone and iPad apps as we do with our other software. This applies to OmniFocus for iPhone, OmniGraffle for iPad, and OmniGraphSketcher for iPad. If you find that you’re unsatisfied with your purchase, email sales@omnigroup.com with a copy of your App Store receipt and the reason for return, and we’ll refund your money.
Keep in mind if you bought a $50 app from Omni and they give you $50 back they are losing the $15 that Apple got from the sale and still has. Since Omni wouldn’t have access to the credit card transaction there is also a lot of manual labor involved in cutting checks or issuing PayPal payments.
All in all, the lack of proper demos and refunds in the App Store sucks. I was really hoping to see some news on this at yesterday’s Apple event but no luck.
Posted on: April 9, 2010 – 2:35 PM
Hi. My name is Mike Zornek (
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