Inadvertent $1500 in app purchase Tap Zoo - warning!

Tonefox:

"You cannot argue the clarity of that. You are told straight away of the potential problem, and are told how to prevent it. Beyond sending someone around to read it aloud to you, what more can Apple do?"

As others have said, they should prevent it by asking for a password any time you make an in app puchase (which I assume iOS5 does now?)

alanfromwickford

"Trouble is there are those who legitimately allow free billing and can afford it, they would claim it is 'nannying' so how do the companies appease them?"

Easy - the parent tells the child the password, so they can enter it when making purchases.

I'm surprised some of you don't think you should let a child use an iPad, because you wouldn't let them use your credit card on their own. My son, who's 3, needs help with his fine motor skills, and he finds the iPad really engaging and practices dragging his finger along the page in apps (including Tap Zpp, and ABC alphabet [which teaches children to write]).

Ryan

"Why would you attach your credit card number to a device that you clearly don't understand how to use?"

Is it possible to use an iPad without connecting it to itunes, which has to be connected to your card? It's not like you've got your iPad and just decided to put your credit card details in so that anyone can buy stiff without having to go through security. The default should be for it to ask for a password, we shouldn't have to find out how to set that. Particular with many applications being specifically designed for children.

Special Needs Mom wrote:

I'm on the verge of a lawsuit with these people. My daughter has special needs and is on the autism spectrum and she has repeatedly charged In-App purchases to the tune of over $3000. The first time - after several days on the phone with these inept I-Tunes customer service people - we managed to get a refund. Now they just say NO. We have changed our code several times and we have also turned off In-App purchases on all Ipads, etc. Yet - our Visa is still charged!!

APPLE TAKES ADVANTAGE OF AUTISTIC AND SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN!

While the Apple, the IPad & App. Store pride itself on creating software and applications for special needs and autistic children, Apple is, in fact, taking advantage of these children's disabilities.

In App purchases at $99.00 each are structured so that most children, not only special needs children can just press on their Ipad, Ipod touch, etc. and incur hundreds of dollars in charges for their parents who cannot afford them. When representatives at Itunes/Apple are notified - they are not helpful at all and will not provide supervisors numbers, names, etc. In fact, the only way one can lodge a complaint is to search through pages of information to find a customer service rep who has no authority or knowledge. At that point, the grieving parent can only email that person. The Customer Service Rep say "NO" and the poor parent is expected to take that as a definitive answer.

this happened to you once, after much struggle you got a refund. after that did you think to yourself "hey, let me delete these games that allow in-app purchases and find some games that are similar, yet without in-app purchases"?

I just had a whole bunch of fun reporting right and left, quite a lot of you don't have anything productive to say. I don't see how anyone could not read Line 3 of the app description and then say "Here you go, son! I'm going to leave you all by yourself now. Have fun using my iPhone!"

Apple shouldn't allow children's games at all. Children do not have their own credit cards, and it's up to the parents to let them use theirs.

Some have suggested that you remove your billing info, but then how do YOU make purchases? My advice is to get an iTunes Gift Card, which can be used as a spending limit for your child.

Those in app purchases practices are really unconscionnable. Options need to be defaulted to not allowing this and should be unlocked on case by case basis using the user's credentials and password with a captcha test. Looking forward to some further regulation and some of those dev being bankrupted asap. When you make tiny children free or low cost games that contain items that can be bought for a disproportionate amount in relation to the initial investment, it is a scam. Anyone not seeing this is simply intellectually dishonest. Every one who harbors or distribute such material should share in the responsiblity. Those games should simply be removed from the store and the dev should receive a 1 year ban from the store. Don't blame the parents and guardians - the Apple "experience" is made to be simple, non technical, family oriented and safe. If it cannot be like that then it is no better than offerings from other vendors.

What should happen first is before an adult hands an iDevice to a child they should first read the manual themselves and learn how to make restrictions for their children starting with restricting in-app purchases and Safari (don't want the little urchins going to inappropriate sites). If in-app purchases are restricted before handing it to a child then those expensive purchases cannot be made, or at least the adult can be the one that makes the in-app purchases if they want to.

I just came here because I was intrigued. I do not possess those devices so I'm not entitled to report any of this. I was speaking out my first impressions on that issue. It seems to me Apple prides itself as keeping what goes into their store quite close to their chest, so I'm suprised to see thrash like this. I believe it's going to be central as platform based appstores become the main repositories for software for non tech oriented people that very strong control and guidelines be implemented and that offending apps and devs be severely punished. Using children's attraction for novelty to suck their parents moneys for virtual garbage is really really low in my opinion. I don't want to single out this app really. In mean in general. It's despicable. How can they justify a 99$ treasure chest? Anyways, I have sympathy for those parents, whether they properly supervised or not etc. To those blaming the parents I would simply say: shame on you.

Honestly no. I don't believe parents have to read all the doc and figure out all the settings. This is an Iphone or an Ipad. It is marketed as THE lifestyle, simple, usable, intelligent device. ALL those settings should hence be blacklisted and unlocked with proper credentials. Think different really. In the sense, think non tech-savvy people with limited time and tons of responsability. Seriously. Or is this device setup as a casino slot machine would be?

As for Apple's liability, well, I'm not sure technically. But I'd argue that the burden should rest on any business(Apple, credit card emitter, dev, etc) before it should rest on the parents.

@deggie, well your argument is some form of neoliberal market freedom statement. Fair enough. I just believe in further protection for the consumer than that. I believe in more solidarity and less of that "it's not my business" rhetoric - more compassion really. But I will think about this whole ordeal further. I'm reacting to this issue and I've never been faced with it before. I may benefit from further thinking... I just think you shouldn't be judgmental or condescending. Further more, there is such a thing as predatory practices and there is legislation in force against such practices so it's simply wrong to imply that the market is a free for all and that a merchant can set any price for anything. You might benefit from further thinking yourself.

Good luck.

p.s. Steve this started as a reply to you but my post is really more a reply to the few posts I've read in the last couple of pages. It is not geared at you specifically.

I am not blaming the parents either. What the bleep is going on in those developers' heads, charging $99 for a chidren's game, even an in-app purchase.

However, when the parents go so far as to blame Apple for their charges, that is where I draw the line and THAT is the parent's fault.

There are many games, adult and children's, in the Apple Store that have in-app purchases at various levels. This app, and others have been around for a year or longer, in fact since Apple enabled in-app purchases. There has actually been relatively little activity here about this app and others. You just don't hear from the responsible parents here, they just read the manual and set up protection when their children use it, or they monitor their usage and don't walk away. It is not my job, Apple's job, or your job to determine what is a reasonable amount to charge in any of these games. They don't have to justify a $99 treasure chest, if you don't want it don't buy it. I don't feel sorry for the parents, they can deal with Apple to get a refund if possible, and it isn't my job or Apple's to raise their children.

I agree totally with everything you said.

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.

There are stronge arguments either way in my opinion, baically yes any adult you should read the game description and you knowing the person to be left in charge is less capabke of realising these costs, but the again Apple knowing this CAN and HAS happened, is it morally right to have a $99 DLC (an astonishing charge tbh - more than COD3) without further checks or further restrictions?

If you take you car for a safety check, i would not expect the garage to then to replace tyres even if they were dangerous, down to showing the braids so very moral safety reasons, without checking with me first - and them expecting to get paid!

On the other hand would i send a child (in this case a much loved but more vulnerable one) to a sweet shop to get a ice lolly with a $1,500, having ended up wth $1 change - and blame the shop keeper entirely? While might ask where the child got the money, online with your password active as far as they are concerned they are dealing with a responsible adult - you can't do transactions without a credit card, and you can't have a credit card ubtil your an adult.

Tbh i'd be very annoyed at my OWN stupidity, thoughtlessly placing this basically honest beautiful child in such an unfairly tempting position - and so no doubt would my WIFE!

As Judge Judy might pronounce 'When you add it all up this is simply an expensive 'own goal' - case for the defendant learn from it!

Just had this experience over the weekend. My 12 year old let a 7 year old neighbour play with her Ipod, within a few minutes the kid had downloaded Tap Pet Hotel and incurred over 200 dollars in purchases. 2 Bags of treats valued (?) at 99 dollars a piece. Since discovering this I have;

Removed the App

Restricted in-App purchases

Contacted Itunes and received a refund.

My credit card was cancelled by my bank because the purchases got flagged as fraud.

Itunes support is hard to contact for In-App purchases. The report a problem button on your invoice does not work for in-app purchases and you need to go to Itunes Support and open a ticket ... complicated navigation to get ther on their page. Don't bother calling because the blaberynthical ivr system will eventually send you back to the website ... then it will hang up on you.

I am kinda ****** off with Apple. My kids play a lot of games that can include enhancements that you can purchase. It kinda irks me to spend money on something "Virtual" but occassionally I do. In other games (Habbo, MapleStory, WOW) even the really specially enhancements are under 10 bucks. A bag of treats in the Tap Pet Hotel was 99 dollars. Its pretty clear that the Vendor is taking advantage of situations where kids are playing the game and the In-App restrictions have not been set. There is no way that any in-app purchase should be valued at 99 dollars and it is clearly a quick way to grab cash before the problem is discovered by a parent. Apple should not be distibuting apps from vendors like this, or allowing then to bill exhorbitant items through Itunes. Someone has to ensure that the Apple Business Partners who are allowed to market their products through itunes provide quality items of value and relflect the integrity that Apple aspires to.

I am sure that Apple gets dozens, hundreds? of complaints about these Apps every day. Why do they incure the cost of support agent time to investigate and refund these purchases? Apple must be making a lot of revenue of this too.

Developers can charge as much as they want for in-app purchases in their apps. Not Apple's fault. Apple does not remove the games because the majority of users rate the games high ratings and enjoy them. It is also not Apple's fault you chose to enter your billing information on your kid's iPod.

Well ... it may not be apples fault but at the time I set-up her Ipod it would not allow us to download even free apps without entering billing information and a credit card number. I had tried to enter a Itunes Card ... but that didn't seem to work. Perhaps that problem was solved a long time ago. My kids and I have a rule that they don't buy anything on itunes without asking me. I have also warned them about in-app purchases. I think I also hear that the in-app restriction was not available on earlier versions of the OS. The itunes interface on the ipod demands a password for downloading free games so I suspect that

My kid let 7 year old play on the ipod

My kid entered a password to download the free game

7 year old bought two items for 99 dollars each within the 15 minute grace window.

I think thats all a little bit too easy. Other online games have several levels of validation that you have to go through to purchase items and enhancements.

... and I disagree with you. Apple supplies the interface and the billing mechanism and I think they do have some responsibility in ensuring that the products that they allow to be marketed through there have integrity and don't exploit children or weakness's ipod/itunes product security.