Update Scammers

[Stone Tool]

I'm frustrated that app builders who offered a free app are allowed to offer an upgrade at a price amongst free upgrades. To avoid accidentally incurring a charge, one must click each and every app, and go to the page to see if it's free or not. This is dishonest!! Not only are "free" or "pay" not shown on the upgrade page, but there is now way to remove or flag these. There needs to be a way to hide unwanted upgrades, as well as an "upgrade free only". A classic case is Tunein Radio, a free app, that offers an "update", which in fact is an "upgrade" to a paid app for about $5. There are several others. I feel like I'm being conned in hopes that I'll click the "upgrade all" button. This is a dishonest business practice and needs to stop. It is one thing to offer an upgrade from the app page as Pandora does, and quite another to attempt to trick customers into unwittingly spending money.

Howard

 

[Mickey330]

I'm sorry - but I must correct this. There is no app that has paid upgrades mixed in with the "Updates" tab on the AppStore. To date, upgrades are free and, after a Google search, there is no evidence that TuneIn Radio is any different.

Please provide a screen shot of the actions that are happening that cause you to believe you are paying for an update (that is available on the AppStore "Updates" tab).

Paying for upgrades (via the store or an in-app purchase is one thing) - but, paying for updates is not the Apple way [at this time].

Marilyn

 

[ardchoille]

I'm frustrated that app builders who offered a free app are allowed to offer an upgrade at a price amongst free upgrades. To avoid accidentally incurring a charge, one must click each and every app, and go to the page to see if it's free or not. This is dishonest!! Not only are "free" or "pay" not shown on the upgrade page, but there is now way to remove or flag these. There needs to be a way to hide unwanted upgrades, as well as an "upgrade free only". A classic case is Tunein Radio, a free app, that offers an "update", which in fact is an "upgrade" to a paid app for about $5. There are several others. I feel like I'm being conned in hopes that I'll click the "upgrade all" button. This is a dishonest business practice and needs to stop. It is one thing to offer an upgrade from the app page as Pandora does, and quite another to attempt to trick customers into unwittingly spending money.

Howard

Is it possible that you purchased an app, then recieved an update a few days later? Apple typically takes a few days to post recipets and it could be that the reciept arrived on the same day you updated the app - which made it appear that you were being charged for the update. I've had this happen to me. We aren't charged for normal app updates.

 

[Stone Tool]

It's more than a bit insulting to suggest that I'm mistaken in this. Tunein Radio was a free app that I've been using for a number of years. Here are drop box links to screen shots:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cop3faaq9zm25wp/Photo Jul 09, 6 43 19 AM.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/463lmehde9hqn82/Photo Jul 09, 6 59 54 AM.png

The first shows the listing in the updates section of the app store...... Note that it is Not in any way flagged as a being an update you pay for. The second shot shows what you get when you tap the selection to read about it. Note the price of $4.99

Note that I just clicked "update" to see what would happen..... The app store immediately updated it..... I'll know before long if they charged for it.

Being new to this forum, I'm not sure how it works..... I tried to attach photos, but don't see them.... hence the drop box links...


Howard

 

[leelai]

Hi Howard and welcome to the Forum!

There is no insult intended - Mickey330 and Ardchoille are only explaining how the App Store works with purchasing and updating apps.
I'm sure there is an explanation for this and we will endeavour to find it.

Your photos were uploaded with your post.

Tunein Radio is a free app but the App showing in your photos is Tunein Radio Pro which is a paid app. Some apps are released free and then over time change to a paid app. I'm not sure if this is what has happened here but you do have the paid app and an update to this app would be free.

Can you point out where it does say $4.99 as I can't see it.

I do know that when I look up an app which I already have in the App Store, that I will see the price of it for just a second before it changes, maybe something like this is happening here.

I'll include a screenshot of the 2 different apps.....you will notice that here in Australia we pay more than other folk for our apps.

 

[J. A.]

There's even a visible difference between TuneIn Radio and the Pro version:





I'm using the free version, as you may see from my screen shot. I downloaded it months ago All I did since was update, nothing else. I never was forced or tricked to upgrade to the paid version.

 

[Mickey330]

...[snip]...I do know that when I look up an app which I already have in the App Store, that I will see the price of it for just a second before it changes, maybe something like this is happening here....[/snip]...

This happens to me (all the time, actually - though more on installs than updates). The app will show a price and when I go to download it, I get a notice that reads something like "you've already paid for this - you still want the free upgrade?"

I'm sorry if I sounded insulting - I did not mean to be. It's just that it's one of the selling features of the AppStore - you buy an app and get free updates to that app ever after. If you actually have an app that you've paid for twice (once on the initial buy and then again on the update - and it's not an upgrade as is shown here with TuneIn regular versus the Pro) - then you definitely need to get with Apple because it is completely contrary to how the AppStore works.

Marilyn

 

[Stone Tool]

I apologize for getting a bit testy about this..... Interestingly when I decided to snap that screen shot it was showing a $4.99 price, but by the time the photo was snapped it had changed to "update"........ I never looked at the screen shot carefully. I suspect that I had never noticed that it changed if I left the page open for a bit as someone else mentioned. I just saw the price and closed the page. On repeating the experiment today I tried to snap it with the $4.99 price, and couldn't. By the time the screen shot had been taken the price had been replaced with the word "update". Apparently my error. I don't have any tolerance for being scammed, and jumped to the conclusion expressed in my original post. I never purchased the "pro" version, so the appearance was of an attempt to con me into doing so.


Howard

 

[JasmineCharlotte]

you dont pay for updates. ive updated loads of apps today, and havent been charged for a sinlge one. sometimes u get the billing sign because you have an outstanding bill from games ect.. but you dont get charged for updates.