Inadvertent $1500 in app purchase Tap Zoo - warning!

$1,145 CD over here!

i do appreciate the tip re: settings, and am going to try very, very hard to get the money refunded. but i'm not optimistic.

apple must be enjoying all this extra income they're getting from CHILDREN. and that is truly disgusting.

traefromon wrote:

$1,145 CD over here!

i do appreciate the tip re: settings, and am going to try very, very hard to get the money refunded. but i'm not optimistic.

apple must be enjoying all this extra income they're getting from CHILDREN. and that is truly disgusting.

The extra income goes to the game developers not Apple, why aren't you supervising your children better?

actually - apple gets a cut of all apps. they're not a charity. they're in it to make money. but i do congratulate you on your ability to focus on what's important to the subject.

and i do supervise my children, thank you very much. these purchases were made all w/in two days. as itunes provides receipts days and days after purchases, i had no way to knowing.

but thanks for your erudite comment! i can tell you were motivated by an urge to help, as i can't imagine what type of person would be so churlish on a subject that is obviously a reoccuring problem on purpose. although, it must be nice to be omnipotent!

You can get a refund from Apple. My credit card company also denied the charge (they called me because their system had allerted it as a fraudulent charge).

Its a little difficult to contact Apple on this stuff. You need to go to the Itunes support page and send an email to Itunes support. They were a little non-commital ... but persistence and a regretfull email from my daughter seemed to do the trick. They said it would be a "one time only" refund and that if it happened again I would be responcible for the charge. Obviously I have changed the setting on the Ipod to disallow in app purchases and to remove the 15 minute grace period from password entries. I think others have had success by approaching the App vendor.

... and for all the haters. I am a good parent, I do monitor my children ... I guess I didn't read the manual closely enough when I set-up the kids ipods ... that being said ... I think the charges are a cash grab that Apple enables. I think the problem could be solved simply by;

1. Setting the Security option for In App purchases to "disallow" by default.

2. Providing a setting to limit the dollar value of In App purchases.

3. Provide immediate notification/invoicing of Itunes Purchases ... most online vendors do this, why can't Apple?

traefromon wrote:

actually - apple gets a cut of all apps. they're not a charity. they're in it to make money. but i do congratulate you on your ability to focus on what's important to the subject.

and i do supervise my children, thank you very much. these purchases were made all w/in two days. as itunes provides receipts days and days after purchases, i had no way to knowing.

but thanks for your erudite comment! i can tell you were motivated by an urge to help, as i can't imagine what type of person would be so churlish on a subject that is obviously a reoccuring problem on purpose. although, it must be nice to be omnipotent!

You could have disabled in app purchases, you could have removed your password for purchases, instead you did nothing, I guess you are not responsible for that, so who is?

holy cow. you must really enjoy when other people suffer.

apple is supporting this company, moreover, promoting them on their twitter feed. even w/this much controversy, no changes have been made. so, yes. i blame apple. and unless you also get a cut from apps, not sure why you care so much.

there are currently 18 pages on this thread. taking out the comments by winning people such as yourself, that's still quite a few people who had the exact same thing happen to them. complaints dating back at least two years ago. so obviously, this is not simply bad parenting (although you seem to prefer that explanation).

its a predatory system, which children being the target. because they're children. you clearly think that's a-ok, but the majority of the people on this thread, and further areas online, don't. so if you don't have anything constructive to add, why do you feel the need to respond? i'd rather keep my notifications on in case someone else joins in w/solutions, or asks me a question. so don't bother to respond w/more of your stellar comments.

traefromon wrote:

holy cow. you must really enjoy when other people suffer.

its a predatory system, which children being the target. because they're children. you clearly think that's a-ok, but the majority of the people on this thread, and further areas online, don't. so if you don't have anything constructive to add, why do you feel the need to respond? i'd rather keep my notifications on in case someone else joins in w/solutions, or asks me a question. so don't bother to respond w/more of your stellar comments.

No, you are the target, the children are the vector to get your money, take precautions!

Hi,

After the short "googling" on this shameless and basically illegal apple's activity of draining parent's accounts through their children I found the following link to already existing legal actions against apple. Please consider further actions in correspondence with already existing case. The practice of "expensive free games", implemented by apple should be stopped completely and it is our responsibility to protect our children and our walets. There will always be loopholes in the legal systems and we as consumers should make all efforts for protecting ourselves from companies like apple which are very good in finding theses loopholes. I would recommend everybody to make this a big issue and tell about this matter to as many people as you can.

Let the world know and decide!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/04/apple-facing-class-action-lawsuit-over -kids-in-app-purchases.ars

http://ia600603.us.archive.org/9/items/gov.uscourts.cand.239431/gov.uscourts.can d.239431.1.0.pdf

Legal action? Really? If you'd read the terms and conditions you agreed to upon downloading the application, you'd see that it mentions in app purchases. Also, there is a way to restrict in app purchases. It's all too easy to blame Apple, or the app developer, but really parents need to take responsibility to what's going on and step up.

Here's the text from a post I made back in November on this same thread:

Last night I downloaded a game called "Snoopy's Street Fair." (Yes, I am an adult, but I like Peanuts and this game is very fun.) Here's what it says in the app description section:

"PLEASE NOTE: Snoopy’s Street Fair is free to play, but charges real money for additional in-app content. You may lock out the ability to purchase in-app content by adjusting your device’s settings."

It also says this:

"ADDITIONAL NOTES:

iOS will keep you logged on for 15 minutes after an initial in-app purchase. Additional purchases won’t require a re-entry of the password during this 15 minute interval. This is a function of the iOS software and not within our control."

So, parents need to read the manual and adjust settings accordingly. Don't gripe about something that is entirely in your control. Apple is not "preying on" or "taking advantage" of anyone.

Really? Let me guess: when you had to agree to the terms and conditions, you just hit "Agree" without actually READING them, right? Apple has no way of knowing who is purchasing the in-app purchase, all they know is that it was made on YOUR account.

In fact, it even asks you to confirm: "Are you sure you want to buy 'zzz' for $0.99?"

I mean, this is like going to the grocery store, and then your kid throws a box of cookies in the cart without you noticing, you pay for it, and then later on you take legal action against the store.

Two links averaging eleven months ago? Was Apple brought down?

I am recently victimized by this in App purchases, I never expected this to happen since I have no idea about this, of which I am punishing myself now for not caring to know more. But I think Apple should also understand and admit that by allowing this to happen and no matter how we say that as parents it's our responsibilty, charging this much on a children's game is too much and really ridiculous. Why do they really have to make it so complicated and make it as such that it ends up being blamed to the user and in this situation to the parents by letting our children enjoy the wonders of these amazing games not knowing that eventually will just ruin our wallets. Charging an App for free to download and then making you pay hundreds of dollars for in App, and mostly appears on children's games doesn't sound fishy to you? Why don't they just charge you upfront for the Apps and let you play for what you pay for? But they just won't do the right thing, they like being tricky and greedy.

That is the way the developer set up their app. You are more than welcome to play their game for free. But if you want some added features or extra coins or whatever the game offers, THEN you can pay. So that is why they list it as free: because you can play the game, and extra features are optional.

The prices are not up to Apple. The developer can charge however much they want for in-app purchases or the game itself.

Hi Canamuk and other posters,

My name is Spencer Ante.I am an editor at the Wall Street Journal.

If you would like to discuss your situation with me I would welcome it.

I think you make some good suggestions for how to deal with this problem.

best regards,

Spencer

<Email Edited by Host>