I tried the Justin Unlimited app and decided it wasn’t for me (no tabs, too beginner focused). I missed the 7 day deadline by less than a day and Apple won’t refund it - tried twice they say the decision is final.
Is there anything I can do about this?
tagging @MusopiaApps @FannyJustinGuitar
Hi, we are very sorry but Apple are sovereign when it comes to refunds of purchases made via the App Store and they don’t allow us access to the order management to process refunds. We are very apologetic but there isn’t anything we can do in this case as Apple are the decision maker for refunds.
If you paid via a credit card perhaps you could pursue with your card company?
Wow what a bad Apple I will be aware of them from now on cheers HEC
In fairness, all these free trials whether it’s a guitar app or Sky Sports/Movies etc. make it very clear that you have to give your credit card details and then cancel within a week, or a month or whatever if you don’t want to continue. You’ve got to be on the ball and cancel in time. When you sign up to the free trial you’ve essentially signed a contract with the supplier and it’s up to you to stick to the conditions of the contract.
I don’t really want to make excuses for Apple but they make it dead easy to cancel free trials and subscriptions, it’s only a click or two… there’s many, many other companies that make cancelling subscriptions much harder (no emails, phone calls etc). You can even cancel your free trial ahead of time and not lose access until the trial ends.
The one time I requested a refund on a subscription I got it no questions asked.
The subscription is also on a device that gives you numerous tools to set reminders
It’s not that I have no sympathy for the person who is out of pocket on a subscription they don’t want, just that I don’t think Apple have done anything wrong
@sairfingers @mattswain I honestly don’t agree with either of you. Of course it’s a contract but companies are not always completely at liberty to make any contract they like with consumers. What’s ironic is that if I’d bought a guitar online I’d have consumer rights (distance selling act etc.) and I’d be able to return it, even though it’s a physical object and the supplier might have to sell it as open box or something and actually lose out. That’s because this law is old school from when politics worked. Now we’re so used to being done over by the massive tech companies that we think it’s fair to not use a product for a year and pay for it when it’s going to cost them nothing to cancel because we didn’t press a button on time and we got shafted. I don’t think it is fair actually. Also if I could just change from Apple Inc. to Pear Inc. they wouldn’t do it would they. The natural monopoly afforded by IT incompatibility and IP allows them to be sharp.
As for making it easy to cancel they could have put a pop up on my phone saying you’re gonna be charged for this in 48 hours, do you wanna cancel? I bet 50% of these subscriptions are unused. Still, I’m not gonna change the world so I’ll need to suck it up. But honestly these comments remind me of the “amazing people the romans” guy from the life of Brian!
I actually think it should be “your free trial is going to expire in 24hrs, click here to purchase a full subscription”.
I personally don’t think it’s a companies responsible to remind you that you signed up for a free trial of an app or to return your money if you miss the dead line. There are thing you have to be responsible for on your own.
Just my 2c
Of course it should. I’ve become so inured to it and don’t even know what doing it right would actually look like.
Fair enough. I think it poor customer service and poor PR.
Sorry @chrisgravity but this is the bottom line. You have my sympathy but learn from this experience.
I agree. While I think a company can offer whatever terms they like for “free trials” and it is ultimately on us to agree or not, I also think that companies intentionally abuse the process with things like requiring credit card info up front and automatically charging you if you don’t opt out in time. Yes, we might agree to it, but that doesn’t make it a poor practice with a bad look. Because of things like this I almost never sign up for any “free trials.”
It doesn’t have to be that way. Companies can offer free trials while not engaging in practices that aren’t friendly to the customer. For example, consider how the Strava (running/fitness) app handles it. You sign up for free and gain immediate access to the free features. After you use those for a while without subscribing to their paid features, Strava enables a 30-day period of free access to the subscriber features. You never need to enter payment info at all; it’s truly a free trial with full access to the app’s feature set. At the end of the trial period you go back to having just the free features, or you can subscribe and get the full feature set at any time. That’s how “free trials” should work. That’s an approach that both “sells” the customer and shows the customer respect, in my opinion.
But surely that is the point. If you don’t like the terms of the contract you shouldn’t sign up.
Of course. And I absolutely agree.
But I also think that companies should be offering better service and terms. I think it would be a net win for them. I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot.
Let’s all remember this is Apple’s policy and if you don’t like it use your right as a consumer and sell your Apple devices and buy the competition.
This isn’t Justin’s or Musopia’s fault and I don’t think it should be hashed out on Justin’s forum.
If you have a problem with this take it up with Apple.
Musopia’s and Justin Guitar are being shafted as well though aren’t they. I’m not even really their customer at all am I? I’m Apple’s customer and I’m being rented out to Musopia’s and Justin Guitar, Musopia’s and Justin Guitar don’t get to control the experience. They can’t even refund me (assuming they wanted to).
I’m hardly about to switch to android because of this am I. Or get a landline.
Anyway I’ll shut up - no one wants listen to me whine on about this. But I still think it stinks.
Unfortunately this is the way the App Store works, Apple runs it all and developers have little control. Google is somewhat similar although the rules are different.
You could try using Apple support and explaining the situation. Use the report a problem button in the invoice email. I’ve got a refund that way before when an app I bought didn’t work, and when my kids bought apps without asking when they were younger. Been years and years since I’ve used it, though.
I’m not sure what they would do about a free trial you forgot to cancel. Might be worth a try.
You wouldn’t be able to return it if you waited until after the return window.