Apple Making Developers Pay Up For Any Refunded iPhone Apps?
from the restocking-fees dept
Lucretious points to a Kotaku post claiming that Apple is changing the terms for iPhone developers, such that when users ask for refunds, Apple gives them back the full amount but still demands a 30% fee from the developers. For obvious reasons, this is upsetting developers who worry about getting hit with huge chargeback fees. I would imagine that Apple's response is that if developers make a good enough app, they shouldn't have to worry about refund requests. But, in the meantime, it certainly increases the liability of being an iPhone developer.
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Filed Under: developers, iphone, refunds, restocking fee
Companies: apple
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Restocking fee is too high!
This WILL prevent devs from pricing their apps too high.
Imagine the "I am rich" app... even tho he only sold what.. 8 copies? for 9999$ each, he would effectively owe apple 12k for that PR fiasco. Of course, he never would have tried it with that form of risk.
This is a really good idea.. but apple should have put some restrictions on it so as to not scare off the independents.
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Re: Restocking fee is too high!
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Re: Restocking fee is too high!
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How much of warning did they get I wonder?
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Reasonable costs
If you were publishing your own software, on your own servers and customer asks for a refund. You still incur the bandwidth costs, merchant fees, hardware costs of the server etc. Why should it be a free ride if you use the apple platform?
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"Apple will get away with it somehow.
you'll all be singing it's praises by the weekend.
In the real world only Bill Gates gets screwed for doing stuff like this."
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:)
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Re: :)
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wait a minute
What do you mean "Apple still gets paid? If they have to give the customer a FULL refund but only demand 70% from the developer, then they are still eating the 30% costs they are NOT asking the developer to pay. They are only asking for the 70% back that the developer got in the first place!
And isn't this a risk that any developer takes just by being in the business?? Either you produce a product people can and do like and use, or you have to give them their money back when they realize it sucks.
Welcome to the real world - what do people think - Apple will just eat the cost of returns? Not freakin' likely.
If the app store were mine, I'd have put that in the first paragraph, in big red letters.
TANSTAAFL - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!
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Re: wait a minute
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Oh No
Two important things that need to be added here. One, how long do you have to return an app for a refund? Two, what percent of the app price goes to the developer?
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Apple should take a small hit for poor approval process
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Re: Apple should take a small hit for poor approval process
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If the app is under a certain price (say less than $5), there is a good chance most people wouldn't even both to return or complain, they would just delete and move on. More expansive (and I don't know where that point is for his device) and people are more likely to spend them time to complain and get money back.
I don't think this is going to be a big deal for the 99 cent app guys, just for those selling the significantly more expensive apps, especially if they just don't deliver on the promises made.
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RTFA, people!
1. iPhone customer buys an app for $10. Of that $10, $7 goes to the developer and $3 goes to Apple.
2. Customer decides to get refund on app.
3. Apple gives customer his $10 back.
4. Apple charges developer the full $10 - meaning the developer has to pay back not only the $7 he received from the sale but also the $3 that Apple received from the sale.
5. Developer is $3 worse off than if the customer had never purchased the app in the first place.
Great deal for Apple, not-so-great for developers.
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Re: RTFA, people!
For the fanboys trying to justify this as a "cost-recovering" measure, please explain how Apple's costs for serving a $50 app are 10x as much as for a $5 app. Even better, please explain how an app download costs Apple even a penny.
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Re: Re: RTFA, people!
Why not justify why you do not agree and be constructive?
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Re: Re: Re: RTFA, people!
And to those who say that this will keep poor apps out of the app store, I'd have to ask why Apple doesn't spend as much time testing apps for quality as they do rejecting them for arbitrary reasons. I mean, they ARE taking 30% for *something*, right?
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Kind of like this
But beyond that it should push developers into not rushing apps out and making sure for the money the customer is getting feature packed software.. It means now they need to rethink the value of their software before pushing it out to the public. Glitchy or over priced software will be penalized by consumer demanding refunds beyond the usual money back.
And to apples defense they should be paid for their services which made it possible to sell your product weather or not the general public likes or hates your product.
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An opposing view
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