I think Apple in the case of these sort of apps is just being greedy; ... Apple has so many streams of revenue that they would be just fine without in game IAP. They’d also be setting a great example and potentially lead other companies to end the practice entirely - Much to the chagrin of devs everywhere I’m sure…
I'm not sure it's Apple's job to be app police in regards to mandating the value of what developers are selling, but I do say that a threshold and penalty system needs to be in place based on the performance of the app in the marketplace.
Example: If three or more customers request a refund in a period of time, claiming unauthorized purchases by dependents, then the developer should be penalized, such has having the app removed from the App Store for 30 days.
This would force the developer to look hard at their business practices and evaluate the price of their "goods". This is not a physical marketplace where kids are spending hours inside of a brick-and-mortar candy store spending their parents' money. So new rules do need to be in place to manage purchases.
Some opt-in protection would be pretty effective for this too. If a user is going to be billed over $50 for the current month, send an email to the account owner to approve it. If it goes above $200, ask for approval. Same for every $500 afterwards. If they approve all of them, that's their choice.
They can allow topup accounts that are topped up weekly/monthly with a set allowance for kids and they only get to spend what's in the account. Kids can request additional topups and it can get approval from the account owner.
Acknowledging that his daughter was dealing with social anxiety and feelings of isolation, which led to her buying these items, he reached out to Apple to ask for a refund twice. Both attempts were denied.
So we have allegedsocial anxiety and feeling of isolation. Exactly what is that? How does that score a pass from Apple?
IT'S APPLE'S FAULT!
What a load. Why do idiots miss the point so badly. I don't care if the daughter is suffering from genuine emotional disorders, there should not have been a refund because of a sob story.
Dad was hit with a bill be cause he gave his daughter access to his card. If she actually has mental health issues, why give her unfettered access to money of any kind. Is he her conservator or not. Two words: parental controls. Did she run up the bill it a month? Otherwise he should have been aware of the spending before the big reveal.
Apple shouldn't have refunded a penny. But if they felt generous, they should have refunded no more then their 30% or whatever cut, and tell Dad to go fish for the rest, from the dev.
Apple could (not should) set up an upper limit that would trigger a more frequent notification of money spent. If he used an Apple Card on his account he'd have been notified every time she bought more whatever.
There despite how many people walking the planet may be beyond stupid, there are even more who's first reaction is to deny responsibility and want someone else to pay for their mistakes.
Apple isn't being gracious, they're trying to avoid bad press and in doing so are enablers. Apple should not have caved.
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They can allow topup accounts that are topped up weekly/monthly with a set allowance for kids and they only get to spend what's in the account. Kids can request additional topups and it can get approval from the account owner.
So we have alleged social anxiety and feeling of isolation. Exactly what is that? How does that score a pass from Apple?
IT'S APPLE'S FAULT!
What a load. Why do idiots miss the point so badly. I don't care if the daughter is suffering from genuine emotional disorders, there should not have been a refund because of a sob story.
Dad was hit with a bill be cause he gave his daughter access to his card. If she actually has mental health issues, why give her unfettered access to money of any kind. Is he her conservator or not. Two words: parental controls. Did she run up the bill it a month? Otherwise he should have been aware of the spending before the big reveal.
Apple shouldn't have refunded a penny. But if they felt generous, they should have refunded no more then their 30% or whatever cut, and tell Dad to go fish for the rest, from the dev.
Apple could (not should) set up an upper limit that would trigger a more frequent notification of money spent. If he used an Apple Card on his account he'd have been notified every time she bought more whatever.
There despite how many people walking the planet may be beyond stupid, there are even more who's first reaction is to deny responsibility and want someone else to pay for their mistakes.
Apple isn't being gracious, they're trying to avoid bad press and in doing so are enablers. Apple should not have caved.
I know, even the idea that businesses have any social responsibility is seen as traitorous to capitalism.
If Verizon and ATT can throttle your data speeds if you use too much, it would be easy to do the same for in-app purchases.
Apple should implement that feature, since they certainly track in realtime such transactions.
It shouldn't have to be $5000 before such throttling takes place.