Lion download charged me 20 time more = $599.80 - Help!!!

I feel for everyone. It must be horrible having assets taken, overdraft charges incurred, etc.

However, it's not Apple that's raiding your bank account, but Paypal!

The big advice around the web is to *never* link a bank account to Paypal, but only a credit card. That way, your money can never be taken, and if there were a problem, you'd have the quite effective credit card block payment ability and dispute process--and could never be out more than $50. (Do not link Paypal to a debit card, either, as that is real money that is immediately taken from your account.)

If you need to link to Paypal for selling (e.g.,, on eBay), do that with an account that is separate from your regular bank account; indeed, set it up in a different bank entirely. That will protect your main accounts. You can do that as a separate Paypal account from the Paypal one you use for buying things.

As soon as this arose, PayPal should have stopped its multiple charges, or provided immediate refunds. Paypal has some 'xplainin' to do!

Given that the glitch appears to being iTunes, then Apple has some fixin' to do-- and should cover documented overdraft charges.

Great thread on these issues with various suggested alternatives for payment. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1199727&page=4

By mentioning this, I don't mean to imply any criticism or lack of sympathy for those going through this--but rather figured it's a good thread to provide advice for us all going forward. I have great empathy and know that I would be both angry and frustrated by what has happened.

So I am on the phone with apple now - it appears that the app store treated my paypal account like a credit card - getting authorizations, and were not answered back like a credit card auth - so, it kept asking. Paypal took each of these "auth" attempts as a sale.

You heard it here folks....meanwhile - I wait for them to give my money back....UGH

And I received an e-mail from Apple today. Now I need to figure out what I've actually still been charged for!

Dear Mac App Store Customer,

We are contacting you with regard to your iTunes Store account, which due to an error was charged for re-downloading Lion. We have identified and refunded the charges to the original payment source. The funds should be available within 3-5 business days.

PayPal, while convenient when it works as advertised, is horrible when you have a problem. As others have mentioned, PayPal IS NOT your friend.

My simple solution might work for most of you. I opened a bank account that I consider my "Internet Throw Away". I keep just enough in it to avoid fees, and link my PayPal account to it. Another additional option is to consider Amazon Pay... More and more merchants are offering the ability to pay through Amazon, just like PayPal, and they are not nearly as sleazy as PayPal.

Another method is to link PayPal to yout credit (not debit) card, disputing charges is much easier with Visa etc in your camp.

This is to everyone whose bank accounts were effectively drained as a result of this faceless and dehumanizing attack by PayPal on their balances.

When the smoke clears, the first thing to do is to visit the various Credit rating sites and make sure this has not damaged your credit rating in any way. Make sure the record is set straight. These kind of things will hang on if not corrected.

I purchased Lion on one machine and later Lion Server on another. Lion server requires another copy of Lion - that should be free! - but this wasn't obvious until I started the download (poorly explained on the website) so guess what? I was charged twice for Lion!

To my annoyance, I later received two invoices for the same download and I was also charged twice for Lion Server (incl Lion for the third time).

I used Report a Problem from my ITunes account to ask what was going on, Apple accepted the first double charge for Lion within hours and a refund was made within a few days. I'm still waiting for the second double for LionServer (incl another copy of Lion) to be made. Apple said this was because I have two Apple IDs (but I only downloaded Lion Server once!).

Apple palmed me off "in the nicest possible way" claiming it was due to authorisations, not to worry there was only one charge and the other charges would automatically go off my account. I contacted my card holder, Amex, who confirmed all the charges had been made as I suspected. Apple were wrong!

I now have little confidence in buying software through downloads if I have to waste several hours of valuable time on each occassion to sort out the mess due to Apple's system failures.

Apple has developed a strange way of writing back to customers - very polite but avoiding responsibility and blaming the customer for making unintentional downloads - cheeky devils! Are Apple developing the complacency so typical of large organisations? Reminiscent of politicians who get too big for their boots, never say sorry and blame others for their mistakes. Banks also frequently claim their systems never go wrong although we all know they do so more than they will ever admit.

Who pays for all these errors - why the customer of course! Sorry for the rant! Got it off my back now!

Grumpy old man

We ordered the Lion upgrade last Sun. and should have been charged (1) $31 instead we were charged (3) $31. Luckily we receive e-mail alerts when a charge goes through PayPal. We notified PayPal to no avail because the next day (3) more $31 charges. We then notified the bank and were forced to put a stop-payment that cost us $25. Well, the bank messed it up and (3) more charges got through. My husband has been in a tail-spin all week. Luckily we didn't get all messed up like many people did. Here's what I have found out:

There is such a thing as Federal Regulation E that was enacted in 1978 to protect EFT's and ACH, etc. The way that I read the law, is that when there are unauthorized charges to your bank account, you notify the bank and they are supposed to halt further charges and have up to ten days to investigate ( 45 days if they are unable to complete the investigation). Since it is unclear at this point who is at fault for the recurring charges, the bank needs to take action. In addition, the bank should reverse the charges until the investigation is complete. I know that quite a few people have been charged overdraft fees and many banks are saying that it's too bad. Check out the law and file a Federal Regulation E Dispute Form with your bank tomorrow. Good luck to you all! btw We're still out almost $200.

Here is an update since my last post. All of my overcharges have been returned to me. It took 9 days since the original purchase for the funds to be returned, including the original Lion purchase. After sharing 6 or so emails with Apple support they are now looking for payment on my original purchase of Lion. They have only offered a few iTunes songs as an apology and directed me to my Wells Fargo and Paypal to remove the overdraft protection fees.

My Paypal account funding source has been changed. I am not sure why 10 years ago I set it up to pull from my bank account but not anymore. Paypal directed me to my Wells Fargo and to Apple for reimbursement for the overdraft protection fees, they said it wasn't their fault and they are caught in the middle. They did cancel my iTunes subscription so no additional charges could happen on my account. They also wrote an email to my bank explaining the addition charges we not my fault.

Wells Fargo last week said it would be no issue removing the overdraft protection fees but I needed to wait until the money posted back to my account. I called this morning and was met with a dead end. They pointed me in the direction of Apple and Paypal for reimbursement of these fees. They told me my overdraft protection worked perfectly and said to thank God that I did not receive $450 in regular overdraft fees. They lady said if I wanted to she could remove the overdraft protection seeing I was so unhappy.

I am considering small claims court but after looking in to it this morning the filing fee is more then what I believe I am owed. Not even sure I can pursue this avenue.

Best of luck to everyone,

We had the same sort of problem.

I check my PayPal account compulsively, and we caught it after the third hit.

Apple did not respond to emails, and the iTunes department is not peopled. So I called PayPal. I reported fraudulent use -- because that's ultimately what it was -- and cancelled the card.

The PayPal employee cancelled the pending charges.

Five days later, Apple wrote back. Apologized and gave us Lion free. Sggested we use PayPal rather than the PayPal debit card because it requires that the password be entered for each purpose, so the dupes wouldn't happen.

I believe we are going to use iTunes prepaid cards from here on out.

In any event, we took the PayPal Mastercard debit card number off the account.

I believe it's been mentioned in this very long thread before, but bears repeating:

Do not ever use anything with Paypal other than your own credit card (not associated with Paypal). I learned that lesson long ago. Do not use your checking account, or a debit card, or any of their cards - they want to be in control of your account. They immediately take out the money and it takes them far too long to issue a credit.

At least, when using your own credit card, you have a much better chance of getting a credit because they will simply "charge back" Paypal - take the money back - as long as you can prove your case.