Accidental in Game Purchases

SO here’s the big question. Doesn't it seem like a scam to everyone that any game on the iPod or iPhone would charge $30 - $50 for some gold or in game bonus when the app itself is never more than $4.99? And here's where I get irate: FREE APPS ARE ALLOWED TO DO IT TOO?!

SO I go to install free apps because for 1 I am poor and there’s plenty of great free apps and more importantly I assume free apps wouldn't be trying to get $30 - $50 in game bonuses. Anyway to install a free app you have to "log in" right? Once logged in you're in for some secret time which I don't know but during that "secret time" if unknown to you when you install the free app there happens to be in game bonus purchases guess what? If you accidentally click too fast without reading what you are doing you automatically purchase the in game feature.

My son is 3 he doesn't know what he is clicking, when I first installed the "free" racing car game I had no idea that at the start of the game there was 6 cars to buy as in game purchases! And because it is a new game that he hasn’t yet learned the actual "driving time before crashing and returning to the car purchase area is about 7 - 10 seconds.

And the funny part is that witching 3 minutes or less he had purchased all of the cars on that front page. Install it and try it out. You drive for 4 - 7 seconds and you will crash.. and then you have option to buy a car... You click on the free car (because that is the one you already tried and you want to give it a 2nd shot), but to your surprise again you drive for a few seconds, die - your right back there again offered to buy a new car!!

Bored that the first car died so fast 2 times already, why not choose the next car to try? So you click on the blue car, and it pops up a window talking all about how cool the car is with a button to buy it for some gold. Well 30 seconds ago you just installed the app, and because you die in 4 seconds every time you drive, there’s no possible way you have enough gold. Would you like to buy more GOLD from ITunes pops up, and with iTunes patented "1-click" bam -you’re $30 out. And no need to login because the app being only 1/2 mb, it installs in seconds and you're already logged into the iTunes store! I guess after 5 cars were bought on my account I have just learned my lesson in app development!

I can’t blame my son or myself in this case because this is a "free" app. Upgrades for $1.99 or whatever to remove ads I can understand. But when a free app is installed I don't like that there's $30 purchases right on the home screen with "1click".

So when accidental purchases occur the first thing you think is "How could I be so dumb?" The second thing that occurs is "How did this happen so that I can avoid it?" and then finally which leads me to write this article: I realized "Why is it that logging into install a "free app" considered the same authentication as purchasing a $30 in game bonus. In fact, you don't even need to authenticate again to make the 1 click $30 purchase I mean you’re already logged in for installing the free app that must mean obviously you want to buy something on the iTunes store for $30.

I am not just angry at the way the "free" app was designed to trick the user into ordering a car by making it too hard to play and putting alternative cars right there that kids would have no other choice but to try to buy but also that "1 click" = a $30 loss but I discovered that the login mechanism is not easy to "log out" after installing free apps! It's buried inside Settings > ITunes > Logout. Not something you can do with "Just one Click." Its just one click to purchase - but surely enough if you cant yet read, and you're 3 it is impossible to log out to avoid purchases.

To be frank here, I always thought you had to enter your password a second time when making "in game purchases" that had been my experience up to this point. I don't even want to go look for accidental purchase policy. I already assume that the people making this website and the iTunes store as well as the app developer who designed that crap car app are in this to make money. That is what we do in the technology industry.

Time to go make my first app. And It will be a free one. But you will be automatically buying a $30 in game bonus on the start the screen. I will make the gam impossible to play and super fast to install.