I want to appeal a refund decision

They won’t I did a 7 day free trial on a game. It literally billed me seconds later $59.99 apple has denied my request twice. I was told I could report this to the FTC because they are letting the app developers get away with theft. How does a 7 day free trial turn into $59.99 in 2 seconds! And they refuse to answer that question.

[Edited by Moderator]

Absolutely complain to the FTC. If enough people complained they will see a pattern and act. Apple is estimated to have 1.4 billion users. Can you imagine how much money they are making by unfairly denying refunds?

Cancelling a free trial is easy when the trial was started using an in-app purchase. It just needs to be done 24 hours before the trial period is going to expire.

If you want to cancel a subscription from Apple - Apple Support

You will find that some companies will prefer you to start a free trial on their website where they can manage the subscription themselves. This bypasses Apple as being in charge of managing the subscription where it can be easily cancelled and those have to be cancelled on the website where it is started. I agree that these type of trials are much more difficult to cancel and require you to work with them directly or dispute the charge with your credit card if they are not responding to you. There are many companies that also have apps using this method to manage their own subscriptions including Walmart, Netflix, YouTube and much more.

Me too, I’m tired of being overcharged and twice in the last couple of days having my appeal denied. I have now deactivated the game I was playing as I no longer trust the system

Kweenb1 wrote:

I’m not really sure why this type of thing happens to me ……. I can’t ever catch a break! Having children in the house I try to keep an eye on my phone and acct a, but there may be times I’m just to busy . For the second time in a year Apple has needier me a refund of money paid to them by a year old ! I find it funny that out of my probably 10 requests for app purchases to be refunded immediately only 1 has ever been denied until today , it been the most expensive ever until today when I was denied refunding of all three apps that I didn’t authorize .$ 50 . Yep had $1 , got $50 my birthday and before I even knew it Apple swiped and is refusing. To return it ? How proud you must be , to know that you have taken food from my babies mouth and caused unnecessary stress to a 47 year old woman in stage 4 of her fight with Brest cancer . Thank you Apple for showing such compassion and I must say I’d love to know exactly how that $50 directly benefited whoever denied my claim ? What did you get out of it ?

The first thing you need to do is use one of the many methods to prevent your kids from making these purchases. Apple offers many methods to prevent this from happening and will depend on if the purchases are happening on your device or if they have their own. These options include:

• Ask to Buy - Approve what kids buy with Ask to Buy - Apple Support
• Require Password for Purchases - Require a password for App Store and iTunes purchases - Apple Support
• Use Parental Controls - Use parental controls on your child's iPhone and iPad - Apple Support

Apple may issue a refund for an accidental purchase, but it is expected that you will make the necessary changes to prevent that from happening again. They provide the tools to do that, but they need to be used. You cannot expect them to continue to provide refunds when nothing is being done to prevent it. Expecting them to provide refunds 10 times sounds a bit excessive to me.

Remember that if you give someone your Passcode/Password, you are authorizing them to use the device and that includes purchases, It is up to you to prevent what the person is allowed to do.

GemmaV27 wrote:

Hi. My 2 year old baby accidentally purchased a subscription on Apple TV and almost immediately I called the company to request a refund to let them know that I did not authorize or make the purchase. Apple TV keeps denying the refund which is very unfair, and to make matters worse you can’t even talk to a live agent to fix the problem.

Cancel the subscription first.

click here ➜ How to cancel Apple TV+ - Apple Support

Then contact Apple Support directly to request the refund by clicking the link below, then on the call or chat options at the bottom of the screen.

click here ➜ Contact Apple Support for a refund for a cancelled subscription - Apple Support

Kweenb1 wrote:

For a company that offers 1000s of apps most of which are free or offer a free trial, they should make certain that cancellation of free trials is effortless instead of impossible!

While not exactly "effortless", it's certainly pretty easy to cancel a free trial:

If you want to cancel a subscription from Apple - Apple Support

Whenever I download something with a free trial, I put an event on my calendar for 48 hours before.

But, if you won't put the security on your phone and are handing it over to a two-year-old, bad things are going to keep happening.

Developers cannot issue refunds, what they can do is give you Free Promo Codes for in-app purchases in their app. Refunds are handled by Apple and in most cases all transactions are final. At times, Apple may provide a compassionate refund.

As for being legal, those are the terms for using the App Store as detailed here:

All Transactions are final.

Legal - Apple Media Services - Apple

Contact information for Apple is here:

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

Man, I had $80 for groceries for my 2 year old and me for the rest of the week and apple took $76 and refuses to refund me for an app I barely use and cancelled the membership for.

Its Apple's decision to grant or deny refunds. They are under no obligation to grant them. You need to go through them to appeal any decision and again are entirely free to deny the appeal.

If you keep requesting refunds, then Apple will no longer find them valid and start to deny them.

You say you are being overcharged, but if its happened more than once, then you may simply not be understanding what you are being charged for.

I would make sure I knew what I was supposed to be charged for, and cancel any subscriptions relating to this "game" before blaming Apple.

Man, I had $80 for groceries for my 2 year old and me for the rest of the week and apple took $76 and refuses to refund me for an app I barely use and cancelled the membership for.

It makes no difference on how often you use the app. If you signed up for a subscription, you are obligated to make those payments. Cancelling the subscription should prevent future charges, but you do not get a refund for the unused portion of the subscription. Did you cancel the subscription at least 24 hours before the charge appeared?

You seem to think that there is a refund policy and there is not. Apple clearly states that all transactions in the App Store are Final. Even then Apple may offer compassionate refunds in certain cases, but that does not mean that you should expect a refund.

A purchase requires you double click the side button with the amount showing on the screen followed by verification with FaceID/TouchID or Passcode. This is not something that is done by accident.

Some apps will offer you a free trial to try out their app and that will be a subscription if it is not cancelled by you. If an app does not offer a free trial, you don't get to make every app a free trial by trying it out then requesting a refund. If you want to try an app out first, then choose one with a free trial and make sure you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial period ends to avoid a charge.

Tstalls wrote:

I have to disagree with you on the part of “double “ clicking etc… I was playing a game and was able to purchase extra items etc… once I tapped the for instance $1.99 symbol it immediately charged me $99.99 with no option to accept or decline or the option to cancel the transaction whatsoever , this is the game developers way of screwing people over and getting by with it .

• What is the name of the app?
• Does the charge show the developer name or Apple?
• Games aren't required to use in-app purchases (due to court rulings), and if you have given them your information directly, usually by signing up for an account on a website, then that gives them permission to bypass Apples ability to verify your purchase and they can bill you directly.
• You can allow future purchases without authentication within 15 minutes. This should be set to authenticate every purchase. Go to Settings > [name on top] > Media & Purchases > Password Settings > Always Require.

You must authenticate your account before making In-App Purchases – separate from any authentication to obtain other Content – by entering your password or using Touch ID or Face ID. You will be able to make additional In-App Purchases for fifteen (15) minutes without re-authenticating unless you have asked us to require a password for every purchase or have enabled Touch ID or Face ID.

Legal - Apple Media Services - Apple

To use Face ID to purchase content from the iTunes Store, App Store, and Book Store, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and make sure that iTunes & App Store is turned on. Then follow these steps:

1. Open the iTunes Store, App Store, or Book Store, then tap something that you want to buy.
2. When asked to pay, double-click the side button, then glance at your iPhone or iPad. If you're wearing a face mask that covers your mouth and nose but Face ID with a mask isn't set up, tap Pay with Passcode and enter your passcode instead.
3. Wait for Done and a checkmark to display.

Use Face ID on your iPhone or iPad Pro - Apple Support

When did you attempt to cancel the free trial?

Was it at least 24 hours before the trial period was supposed to end?

Apple will be able to see when the trial was started and when you cancelled, so it should not be too difficult to determine. Have you requested a refund and provided those dates to be verified?

Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple - Apple Support

koko296 wrote:

They won’t I did a 7 day free trial on a game. It literally billed me seconds later $59.99 apple has denied my request twice. I was told I could report this to the FTC because they are letting the app developers get away with theft. How does a 7 day free trial turn into $59.99 in 2 seconds! And they refuse to answer that question.

• What is the name of the app?
• Did the developer also have a free trial on their website that was used?

We have seen where a user will use a Free Trial with an in-app purchase, then tried to sign up for a Free Trial on the developers website. It is that last attempt to use another free trial that is billed immediately and this is done directly from the developer.