BACKGROUND
I'm helping a 3rd party host 3 apps that they paid me to write (they've given me access to their Apple credentials - created expressly for this app - in order to manage the iTunesConnect process).
Because of this, I get access to all of the sales data, etc. through iTunesConnect. We currently have all 3 apps released, two of which are first-time releases and one of which has been on the store for a few months and updated a couple of times. The first app was initially released with a $1.99 price point as an introductory price, which went up to $3.99 after about a month.
ACTUAL QUESTION
I just got my daily report from AppFigures.com (highly recommended, by the way; it's a relatively cheap way to get a good amount of automated data and analytics about app sales), and I noticed that app #1 had 3 refunds yesterday. We've only had 7 refunds ever, and all 3 of these refunds were originally purchased at the $1.99 price point. Therefore, this has made me very curious as to why they got the refund NOW. We had bugs earlier on that have subsequently been resolved by updates, so I don't understand why someone would have a legitimate reason to ask for and receive a refund at this point.
Please note: I'm fully aware that I'll never get the information to tie back directly to the user. I understand why, but it's a bit of a shame (and it's why we included a voluntary contact/feedback mechanism in the app itself). I'm just wondering if I can see from Apple the reason they selected for requesting the refund.
Basically, I'd like to answer the following question:
"Why did Apple think it was justified to refund this user's money?"
I'm guessing it would be a helpful piece of information for us; if there's something wrong with the app and we're not aware, this could help us fix it. Does anybody know how/if that information is available?
I did what Injuanj suggested and contacted Apple directly.
Here's their (completely unhelpful) response:
Thank you for contacting us about your Sales and Trends reports.
I understand that you are wanting more information regarding refunds.
You can find Refund information for your content by filtering your Top
Content dashboard to Transaction Type > Refund. Refunds will be
indicated as negative values.
Apple does not provide customer or refund information at this time.
If you have further questions regarding your sales reports, please let
us know. We're happy to help.
Best regards,
Julie
iTunes Provider Support
I already knew how to view my refund/return count, which is how I knew to send the email in the first place!
I didn't ask for customer information. I know Apple's not going to give that. Duh. I actually specified this in my original email.
I guess the real answer here is this:
Apple does not provide customer or refund information at this time.
Related
My app is having a refund problem, you can see the following picture to better understand.
https://developer.apple.com/forums/content/attachment/7a0c3996-a3a3-4766-b989-09caad397be3
I suspect that users are taking advantage of Apple's refund policy to use my app for free. I am looking for a way to check if the user has had a refund to prevent them from accessing the app.
Currently, my guess is that when a user refunds their receipt their receipt will be revoked, so I plan to check "AppStoreReceiptUrl", if this field is null or empty then I will prevent them from using the app.
Is this correct way?
I hope to get your help.
If you are referring to an actual paid app, that is, an app that you must pay to download, Apple already do this for you. If a user refunds their app, the app will not launch on any device with the corresponding receipt/s thereafter.
If you are experiencing refunds en-masse, you might want to look into why people are refunding the app and/or collecting feedback from users. It's likely a case of users feeling as though they aren't getting value for money if you're seeing large numbers of refunds.
So I’m creating an app for a guy who runs a local auction (a mini ebay meets craigslist if you will, but for more in person transactions). I’m doing it as a favor, but to also build my portfolio, so hey we both get something out of it. Now I’m running into a bit of a thinker on the “payment system”. The idea we came up with is when a seller completes the transaction, and confirms the sale, the money is held “by a middle man” until the buyer confirms the item (kind of like how Pay pal can release funds early if the buyer of an ebay item says it’s a good sale).
The client wants it set up this way so that he doesn’t miss out on his cut (10% of the sale)– as in I buy an item, meet the seller in person, then we just do an exchange there having used the app as more of a means to meet. I know Uber charges your card automatically upon GPS once you reach your destination, but it would be better to pull up the “buyer” portion of the app to confirm the sale, thus moving it from the middle man to the seller.
Aside from ensuring the client gets his cut, this can also build confidence that the “sale is funded” when the buyer is on their way.
Anyway, are there API’s out there that can help be build something like this for speedy transactions?
Not sure if this helps, but we will be using Parse as the back end.
Thanks!
There are several payment APIs for the iOS, and I can recommend Stripe which has everything you need. They have an excellent support and documentation for integrating with iOS. You can check the documentation here. Also it works really well with Apple Pay and it's implementation is no brainer.
I have been extensively searching through Internet but I could not able to come across so far then I have decided to ask the following question in SOF.
My idea is to implement a selling and buying product in my application. There will be no charge from both sides(seller or buyer). However, I only want to receive user feedback to increase my app reputation in the AppStore.
I would like to know how to check whether or not that an app user rate or leave comment for my application in the App Store. I need to know because I want to give him more advertising opportunities within the app.
Sorry again, I wish to provide a sample code but I could not able to come anything to start with.
As far as I'm aware, there isn't a way to do this. Most apps just direct people to the app store and then assume they rated the app. You can have the user copy and past their review into your app and store it so you can double check that they actually did it. That will ensure more people don't try to cheat the system. Essentially, the more work you make it to unlock the feature, the less likely people are to cheat.
From Apple via #Paulw11's comment:
Developers who attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store with fake or paid reviews, or any other inappropriate methods will be removed from the iOS Developer Program
link: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#metadata
So I know that there are no promo codes for in-app-purchases in iOS. What I am wondering, is will Apple reject this mechanism:
Provide two in-app purchases, one at full price, say $9.99 and one at discount price say $7.99 (for the same thing)
When you click on the $7.99 one, you are first asked to input a coupon code to be allowed to use the discount price. This discount code would have been found elsewhere - bloggers giving it away, coupon sites, etc.
Thoughts?
I believe your proposed method would work because a) you are not linking to an outside site to purchase the product (i.e., you are still using the App Store iAP method) and b) there are other programs that use similar features (e.g., entering in your OpenFeint username to enable that service).
Good luck!
I really think only Apple can tell but it is a good chance that it is okay.
I sometimes just went ahead and called them and often I was lucky and had a real competent guy on the phone telling me answers to stuff like that right away sometimes I had someone more cautious but pointing me into the right direction within the legal contracts. And whatever they said at the end the very much shielded app approval team (no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses) will decide. The worst that can happen is that you have to resubmit your app without it. Costs you time but no more.
I always used this link for phone numbers I think they still work.
I had same problem... so I called to the apple developer IAP helpdesk and they redirect me to email the App Store Review section.
Next day they wrote me:
We understand that you would like clarification about a business model you are developing for your app.
We are unable to provide pre-approval or guidance on app ideas or concepts. After you have submitted your app, we will provide feedback during the review process, if applicable.
So I wish you luck... There is no one clear option 😔
I'm looking for a workaround to allow many users (100+) to download my paid app via a unique code of some kind.
I'm aware of Apple's limit of 50 per release but this will not be enough. Is there a way to gift an app en masse? What about a third-party solution for promo codes? If you've successfully found a way around this limitation, please let me know.
As you mention, Apple only allows you 50 promo codes per update (NOTE: doing an update allows 50 more codes. If you're ok releasing the codes 50 at a time over several updates, this will work for you.)
One thing that you can do is build unlock codes into your app. You can either hard-code the unlock codes or, for a little extra effort, make the whole thing server based. This blog post talks about one such way to do this.
NOTE: in-app unlock codes will only let you give away content to people who already have your app. If your app is in the store with a price associated, and you want to give it away, this won't help you.
You can also buy copies of your own app and give iTunes gift codes to people. This has the downside of costing you 30% (Apple's cut.) That is, if you pay 99¢ for a gift-code for your app and send it to me, you get back 70¢ for the sale, but Apple gets the other 29¢.
You could change the price of your app to free for a day or two and only tell certain people about the sale dates.
If you're a big company (5000+ employees), you can use the enterprise license, but the tone of your question makes me think this might not apply.
That's about it for choices. As one commenter pointed out, any sort of gaming the iTunes system will likely result in your losing your dev license and is probably not worth it.
Good luck!