Unable to make purchases in Pokémon GO

OMG OMG I turned off Apple Cash and it worked - You were right!!! Except in my case, Apple Pay is still on, but Apple Cash is off.

First, I removed my bank account from Apple Cash, and removed PayPal from the payment methods for iTunes, and only left the Apple Credit card in the wallet and iTunes, and then I shut off Apple Cash.

Then I tried to make a purchase in the PoGo shop and it worked!!

I think the bank account definitely has something to do with it, because today my bank literally SHUT OFF my debit card without even asking me if the $1.00 purchase for the PoGo ticket was fraud. They just shut it off. And I got a push notification on my phone that the debit card was no longer available for making purchases. And the debit card was tied to Apple Cash. OMG this Apple payment system is SO MESSED UP.

BUT IT WORKED!!!

Yes, the problem is something is stuck in your pending downloads. It is probably something that you tried to get, had a problem, and then tried again and it worked - and the first item is stuck in the "pending downloads" in your Apple account, preventing any other downloads from the app. It's not eligible for refund because the purchase portion worked/went through and it's sitting in downloads waiting.

For me, I tried to get CD research, it failed, I tried again and it worked. But the first one is duplicated in purchase history and is stuck in my pending downloads. I can’t download it because you can only get one special research per CD (which I got), and I can’t download anything else because it’s stuck in there.

So you can either:

• wait for the next CD so it can actually download and then free up future purchases, or
• ask Apple to clear/delete your pending downloads.

So what to do:

1. Contact Apple via [ https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=psp&PRKEYS=PF23 ). I used Apple ID support, Other, etc and got them on messenger.
2. Ask them to delete any pending downloads on your Apple account. You'll need to confirm your Apple ID.
3. Once they delete it, they'll ask you to reboot the phone. Reboot and voila! It was all fixed for me!!

Seems like such a simple solution for so many people having this problem and it took me forever to find the answer!

The key to fixing this is to go into setting wallet Apple Pay and turn off Apple Pay because it’s trying to do the payment through Apple Pay because it’s turned on with no payment method attached. My moms been having this issue for weeks I just went in shut it off restarted the app and now it works perfectly

Now I had an interaction with Apple support that was VERY helpful and gives insight into the problem. I had asked for a refund for the duplicate community day ticket charge, and was refused.

i didn’t give up. I explained the issue at least 4 times in different ways- I disputed the purchase, and also tried by chat, phone, email. The email support person solved the problem. She said that while she couldn’t refund the charge, since that was handled by iTunes, she could see that there was a stuck purchase waiting to be downloaded on my Apple ID as I described to her. She was able to delete this pending download, and the problem was solved.

So maybe instead of a refund, which Apple won’t do, ask them to delete any pending downloads for you Apple ID.

Until Niantic allows multiple community day tickets to be applied to same Pokémon Go account, or until they fix the App Store glitch that makes people buy multiple tickets because they think the first one didn’t go through, this will continue.

Now if this has happened to you, before the next community day, DON’T buy another ticket until you log in to pogo under the Apple ID that won’t allow you to make purchases - some people have found the ticket is already in their bag and the problem is solved.

The good stuff first:

Bottom line: The problem is in Niantic’s code/software. Since only Apple can issue refunds, it appears it’s an Apple problem. The problem occurs when a special event ticket is purchased. For reasons I don’t understand, Niantic charges twice for the purchase and it locks up player’s ability to purchase in shop. When Apple issues a refund (and hopefully charges Niantic back for it), ability to make in-app purchases is restored. Feel free to use this information to end your nightmare. I’m willing to help if I can.

Following are the specifics of my nightmare with this situation: I’m hoping some of you that are still having problems can perhaps direct an Apple rep to this post and the copious notes on my account.

I’ve been battling the inability to purchase in Pokémon Go for almost a month. I had no problems with any other apps, just PoGo. I tried everything Niantic suggested with no change. Niantic insisted the problem was with Apple or my Apple ID so I took my phone into actual Apple store. I watched as they re-did many of the things I had already tried. Finally I agreed to allow a factory reset. Still unable to purchase in Pokémon Go shop. I found this site - was shocked at how many people were having same problem and that it dated back to February.

Although several different things seemed to remedy the problem, the cause - over and over - was linked to a special event purchase. I saw some people were able to request a refund and it fixed the problem - others didn’t get the refund and still have the problem. It’s been almost a month since I purchased an event ticket so I’m sure that was a factor in Apple telling me my purchase was ineligible to be refunded. Rather than submit an appeal, I called and let the agent read the notes on my account and explained this was my last ditch effort to fix this.

She submitted the appeal a few hours ago. I can now make purchases in-app again. I suggested going through the complaints posted on this site and asking whoever to reconsider the denials. I pointed out if Niantic gets enough charge backs for refund of special event tickets maybe they will actually fix the issue.

I allowed one of the agents access to seeing my screen - they can’t change anything and pause when you need to enter a password - and let her read the exchanges between me and Niantic. She wasn’t impressed with them continuously telling me to sign in on an Android to make purchases.

I’ve had the same problem on Pokemon Go for months and have just found the solution.

My phone provider had a £0 cap on my monthly phone bill. I upped the cap to £10 and it works.

I hope this helps

I had my issue resolved after getting a refund from Apple iTunes. The error 3 went away and I realized that the iTunes app was trying to use Apple Cash.

i don’t keep a cash Balance, but had my bank card and PayPal as well as Apple Cash in iTunes account and had recently sent a family member money that way. I did not change my default which was PayPal, which then goes to my Debit card. So I changed the default to Pay Pal again, which it always was and too off Apple Cash for now, at least until I need to use it. Finally bought my GoFest tickets and all is well again. What a pain, but at least it’s fixed.

Hi everyone, I MIGHT HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION!

Here is my story: yesterday (15.07.2020) the Ghastly Commday ticket was released by accident 2h before planned so I made a purchase. It all went through but "purchase succesful" animation didn't show up so I checked my items and nothing was there. I tried again to purchase and it was successful (incl. animation), however the money was taken off twice and since than all I got is: "Something went wrong, please try again (3)".

After reading through all comments here I decided to get in touch with Apple and request for a refund. Do as following: SETTINGS --> iTUNES & APP STORE --> click on your ID (e-mail) --> click view Apple ID --> Purchase History.

It might be difficult but you have to find the purchase (duplication) which causes the issue and ask for a refund or report it.

With this method I started the process to refund both my real Ghastly ticket and other one which was a duplication (I couldn't tell which is which, so I had to refund both). By rejecting the duplication, the problem was solved immediately. I am unaware if I will get a refund and lose the ticket or my refund will be rejected by Apple/Niantic. Will keep you all updated here. Hope this helps.

I was double charged for the Gastly event ticket ($0.99) in an identical situation as many others on this thread.  Didn’t really notice until I started getting the error code 3 whenever I tried to make purchases.  I tried a different apple device, same error. Inthe meantime, I had two purchases (over $80) that appeared to go through and were charged to my iTunes account, but I did not receive the pokécoins for.

After finding this thread I disputed 3 charges - one of the duplicate Gastly event pass charges and both of the following charges for which I hadn’t received pokecoins.  Apple says it’ll take 48 hours to get back to you, but it only took them 24 hours to make a decision on mine, and I was refunded for all three.  Hopefully others can have the same good luck as me.  

I went to reportaproblem.apple.com, signed in with my Apple ID, scrolled to request a refund, scrolled to In-App Not Received, and selected the items I was requesting a refund for.  

Also, as soon as I got the email saying they had made a decision on my refund, I was able to make purchases again. Hopefully this works for you all, too! 🤞🏻

I have to say I am very grateful to have found this forum based upon a fellow player in Discord. I was reading all of the postings and followed the advice of another player that looked in their purchase history to see that the .99 cent Community Day Special Research for the Gastly Community Day was what was causing the issue that I was having. I was charged twice for this event. I contacted Apple iTunes Support this morning and had great success with having them credit back both .99 cent charges and a couple more where in trying to purchase from the store was unable to be for some reason was charged to my account. As soon as the agent removed the charges, I turned my iPhone off and then back on about an hour later and was able to retrieve my free items box without any error messages. Hoping this completely fixed my problem going forward.

You have to either buy coins and items using a different Apple ID (on a different device), which is what Niantic says to do, or you can try deleting any bank account associated with Apple Cash and shutting off Apple Cash in Settings>Wallet and Apple Pay>Apple Cash - slider to off.

Both of these methods worked for me. I used my daughter's Apple ID to buy coins on her phone, and I am now also able to buy coins again using my own Apple ID on my own phone after I shut off Apple Cash.

I got it fixed.

The same thing happened to me on the magikarp community day. August 8, 2020. The problem started when I tried to purchase the event research ticket. Since my first attempt didn’t seem to go through, I tried to purchase the ticket again. Apparently, the first attempt went through, and the second attempt got me locked into this problem, since the game does not allow you to buy two tickets to the same exclusive event/research.

Anyhow, tried reinstalling, logging in and out, changing/adding payment menthod, clearing data, and nothing worked. And you can forget about the useless chat bot that they called “support.”

In short, what you want to do is to clear the second transaction from your purchase history. So first, go to your apple id account, find your purchase history. If you see that there are two “Pokemon Go, Event Bonus,” go ahead and click the detail of the more recent of the two transactions, and ask for a refund. On my note I write that I made the second purchase because the first one didn’t seem to go through. Seconds later, the second transaction was refunded, and I am now able to make purchases on the store again. Hope this works for some of you.

The only thing that's worked for me is to use a completely different apple id on a different device. When I go into my pokemon account on the other device that's linked to a different apple id, I can buy coins and other things in the shop. Then I open my pokemon account on my regular device and I have the items. If I try to use the coins I have purchased while on the regular device linked to the original apple id, I get the same error. It's a bit of a pain going onto the other device to use the shop but at least I was able to buy coins and the magikarp community day ticket event. And this only worked once I reported a duplicate purchase error to Apple and they reversed the charge.

Interestingly, in the Niantic support forum, this error is listed as a known problem but they don't know how to fix. smh.

contacting Apple ITunes Store support and asking them to clear pending downloads worked perfect to solve this exact problem as described by another person who posted this fix. I did spend 45 min in chat with Apple support before they finally said they couldn’t do it but would transfer my chat support to iTunes support. It took 15 minutes but they fixed it% you need to reboot your phone before it will work.

MINE GOT FIXED!!!!!! EITHER TELL NIANTIC YOUR APPLE ID MIGHT BE BLOCKED OR JUST SIGN IN AND OUT OF APPLE ID LIKE 20 TIMES. MORE DETS BELOW.

Hey guys so I had this problem happen to me with the Magikarp community day ticket. After reading all these and talking to Apple and Niantic for about 2 weeks; mine has been fixed. I tried the report/refund the 2 $0.99 suggestion but came back with no luck. After the second purchase was denied the second time I called Apple and they put me in touch with their Technical support cause it seemed to be an issue with the phone. After talking to them, they said it seems my Apple ID may have got blocked on Niantics end when the two purchases happened. They said they can’t do anything from their end since PoGo is a third party app. After this I messaged Niantic back through their twitter support page; they actually were very responsive in our previous conversation and tried to help but no luck. Anyway, I told them what Apple said and that my Apple ID email might be blocked on their end. I didn’t get any replies but when I logged in the next day, which was today, I was able to make in app purchases. IDK if what I told Niantic helped or if me signing in and out of my Apple ID like 20 times fixed it but hey, more coins.