Google Play has its nifty way of checking if a player has requested a refund on a product so that you’ll be able to remove said purchases in the app. But, is there such a functionality or some tricks to get this to work for iOS?
I also have the same problem.
Apple’s policy doesn’t seem to let people know who is refunding, so many malicious people will make a refund by falsifying the reason and then selling the illegal account to make money.
I plan to record the time of the server and the money of the item purchased when the result of the purchase is “purchase success”.
And then reconciliation when the bill is received, if the bill money does not match the recorded money, compare the time on the bill.
But I am not sure if the IOS bill will be given so detailed, I hope someone can explain it.
I didn’t think that Apple supported refunds., You can only call store.restore() for iOS if the user physically presses a button. There is no refund options that I’m aware of. Apple if they issue refunds, may just be absorbing the refunds.
Rob
Yeah, my concern isn’t really with who pays out the refunds and how.
I’d just want to, as vb66r55 also already pointed out, to prevent some users from trying to cheat the system, e.g. purchasing 99$ worth of premium currency only to get a refund for it 5 minutes later and still retain the premium currency that they now didn’t pay for.
If it’s a consumable, even store.restore() won’t report them. This Stack Overflow article, with a post from Apple confirms that there is no way to know about a refund. You can learn about subscriptions being cancelled.
To get a refund, the user has to plead their case as Apple’s policies are that all purchases are “Final”, but there are appeals that have to go through a human to do. It doesn’t sound like Apple grants them all that often.
I don’t think this is something you need to worry about.
Rob
I had also found that article, but as it is over 8 years old, I was hoping that things would have changed.
I guess I’ll do just that then and let this issue be. Thanks, Rob!
The answer with 6 votes that contains the quote was from Dec 2018, just barely 6 months old.
Rob
Hi;
For what it is worth, I have a pretty standard email reply to players when this happens. Although it is not often, the Apple Store does mess up occasionally. It seems that Apple 'sometimes" does issue a refund – but I haven’t seen or heard of this consistently happening. This is what I write to my customers:
We (the game designers) have no way to access the individual purchase records or directly issue a credit – Apple keeps all those records themselves (which is fine).
But, there is a simple way for you to request your money back. When you receive the “Store Receipt” (they e-mail it to you within 48 hours after any purchase), there is a link on the e-mail receipt labeled “Report a Problem”. If you report this problem . . . that is how to request a refund. Could you do me a favor? After you have found the “Store Receipts” and reported this problem, please let me know so that I can be certain that everything worked out for you.
Also, Apple has a special page that will list your store purchases (if you log in) and you can report a problem on a purchase there. The link is: https://reportaproblem.apple.com
Steve
Thank you for sharing that, Steve; it’s very nicely put. I’m definitely adding it to my responses file!
One comment- it looks like Apple has changed their receipt format slightly and “Report a Problem” is now “Visit Apple Support”.
I also have the same problem.
Apple’s policy doesn’t seem to let people know who is refunding, so many malicious people will make a refund by falsifying the reason and then selling the illegal account to make money.
I plan to record the time of the server and the money of the item purchased when the result of the purchase is “purchase success”.
And then reconciliation when the bill is received, if the bill money does not match the recorded money, compare the time on the bill.
But I am not sure if the IOS bill will be given so detailed, I hope someone can explain it.
I didn’t think that Apple supported refunds., You can only call store.restore() for iOS if the user physically presses a button. There is no refund options that I’m aware of. Apple if they issue refunds, may just be absorbing the refunds.
Rob
Yeah, my concern isn’t really with who pays out the refunds and how.
I’d just want to, as vb66r55 also already pointed out, to prevent some users from trying to cheat the system, e.g. purchasing 99$ worth of premium currency only to get a refund for it 5 minutes later and still retain the premium currency that they now didn’t pay for.
If it’s a consumable, even store.restore() won’t report them. This Stack Overflow article, with a post from Apple confirms that there is no way to know about a refund. You can learn about subscriptions being cancelled.
To get a refund, the user has to plead their case as Apple’s policies are that all purchases are “Final”, but there are appeals that have to go through a human to do. It doesn’t sound like Apple grants them all that often.
I don’t think this is something you need to worry about.
Rob
I had also found that article, but as it is over 8 years old, I was hoping that things would have changed.
I guess I’ll do just that then and let this issue be. Thanks, Rob!
The answer with 6 votes that contains the quote was from Dec 2018, just barely 6 months old.
Rob
Hi;
For what it is worth, I have a pretty standard email reply to players when this happens. Although it is not often, the Apple Store does mess up occasionally. It seems that Apple 'sometimes" does issue a refund – but I haven’t seen or heard of this consistently happening. This is what I write to my customers:
We (the game designers) have no way to access the individual purchase records or directly issue a credit – Apple keeps all those records themselves (which is fine).
But, there is a simple way for you to request your money back. When you receive the “Store Receipt” (they e-mail it to you within 48 hours after any purchase), there is a link on the e-mail receipt labeled “Report a Problem”. If you report this problem . . . that is how to request a refund. Could you do me a favor? After you have found the “Store Receipts” and reported this problem, please let me know so that I can be certain that everything worked out for you.
Also, Apple has a special page that will list your store purchases (if you log in) and you can report a problem on a purchase there. The link is: https://reportaproblem.apple.com
Steve
Thank you for sharing that, Steve; it’s very nicely put. I’m definitely adding it to my responses file!
One comment- it looks like Apple has changed their receipt format slightly and “Report a Problem” is now “Visit Apple Support”.