iTunes billing query

[happytravels]

Hi

I purchased and installed avplayerhd earlier today. It's working fine and am very happy with it. The price stated in iTunes was £1.99.

I purchased it with a prepaid card (not a gift card) and the card provider charges a commission for every transaction used. Fair enough as I feel safer using it instead of a normal credit card online.

I checked the balance online and there have been two deductions made by iTunes, each for £1.58. Commission has been charged at 2 pence per transaction by the card provider. I didn't download it twice so not sure why I seem to have been charged twice. Also the price charged each time was £1.58 and not £1.99.

Any ideas of suggestions as to why I was charged twice? Happy with app and I realise it's only a few quid extra but it makes me reluctant to make any more purchases and I feel inclined to stick to free apps in the future.

Btw I still haven't received a receipt or confirmation via email from iTunes re: the purchase but its been ages since I've downloaded a new app so not sure if that's something they do or still do.

Any advice re: double charge? I tried looking on apple's website but just went round in circles.

Thanks in advance

 

[J. A.]

iTunes still is sending mails. I got my last mail January 31, 2013.

 

[leelai]

This is all highly unusual so getting in touch with them and explaining the situation is the best way to go. I myself bought an app just last night and am yet to receive a receipt also.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

 

[happytravels]

This is all highly unusual so getting in touch with them and explaining the situation is the best way to go. I myself bought an app just last night and am yet to receive a receipt also.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

Hi

Thanks for your reply and link. As yet, still no receipt and bank account still shows two deductions. I've emailed them using your link so will hopefully hear from them soon. Will let you know their response.

Thanks again

 

[twerppoet]

This is all highly unusual so getting in touch with them and explaining the situation is the best way to go. I myself bought an app just last night and am yet to receive a receipt also.

Contacting Apple for support and service

I don't remember the exact figures, but Apple generally waits until you've either exceeded a set amount or days before sending a receipt. It's some think like $10 and a week, I think.

 

[twerppoet]

I don't remember the exact figures, but Apple generally waits until you've either exceeded a set amount or days before sending a receipt. It's some think like $10 and a week, I think.

Have you tried looking at your purchase history?

iTunes Store & Mac App Store: Seeing your purchase history and order numbers

 

[happytravels]

Have you tried looking at your purchase history?

iTunes Store & Mac App Store: Seeing your purchase history and order numbers

Hi twerppoet

Thanks for the link. It clearly shows my purchase for avplayerhd was only once and the payment was £1.99. Very odd. Wondering now if it's a glitch with my card?? Who knows.

Will keep you updated once I receive a response.

Thanks

 

[twerppoet]

Glad to help. Good luck figuring out what's what.

 

[twerppoet]

Hmm, had another thought.

When Apple confirms a card is valid, it generally charges or reserves (I'm not sure which) a dollar, then cancels it shortly after. The first time I saw this I though I'd been charged two dollars, but closer reading showed the second transaction was a refund/cancelation. It's been a while, so I'm fuzzy on the details.

Since your service charges for each transaction, I'm wondering if that messed up the usual flow of things.

 

[happytravels]

Hmm, had another thought.

When Apple confirms a card is valid, it generally charges or reserves (I'm not sure which) a dollar, then cancels it shortly after. The first time I saw this I though I'd been charged two dollars, but closer reading showed the second transaction was a refund/cancelation. It's been a while, so I'm fuzzy on the details.

Since your service charges for each transaction, I'm wondering if that messed up the usual flow of things.

Hi

I received a reply from a rep at iTunes stating that "..the credit card on file was initially declined. As a result, the iTunes Store tried to charge your card again, that is why you see what appears to be multiple charges for the same purchase. These are actually authorisation holds that are sent to your bank first to ensure that the funds are available on the account".

He then states that my bank should be able to confirm these charges as temporary and that they will expire automatically and the length of time it takes to remove the authorisation depends on the financial institution and to contact my bank re any queries regarding this.

The rep also emailed the link to history purchases. It shows one purchase for £1.99. Where does £1.58 come from??

What the iTunes guy has failed to realise is that it was a prepaid card so there is no way my card would have been declined as I had sufficient funds for the purchase. The deduction was the wrong price and it happened twice. Do iTunes do this regularly with paid apps? Not a bad way to make a few extra bucks/quid on the interest of money that you deducted from the accounts of millions of customers twice and then take your time refunding them.

I'm going to wait until next week and see if the bank statement sorts itself out. Not inclined to reply to iTunes at the moment as they haven't grasped that the card was prepaid, the price charged was incorrect ( and charged twice) and in any event, they seem to want to deflect any responsibility onto the bank.

A disappointing reply from such a large organisation. :-(

Cheers

 

[twerppoet]

Thanks for the update.

I doubt very much that iTunes distinguishes in any way whether a card if pre-paid or not. As far as I know there is no way to know, just from the credit card info, what features a card has. For instance, my card is actually a debit card. iTunes treats it just like a credit card. Only my bank knows otherwise.

As such, I'm sure the iTunes guy told you exactly what they are seeing from their end. The 1.58 charge would have nothing to do with your actual purchase, and would not show up in your purchase history. It's just the amount that iTunes used to confirm the card. Apparently twice, because of some glitch caused your card to appear as declined the first time. Lots of possibilities there, and and it doesn't have to be on either the bank's or iTune's end. A network delay could plausibly delay a response long enough for iTunes to assume it was declined.

Anyway, it sounds like it should sort it self soon, and if it doesn't I'm sure your bank will sort it if you call them.


As for the 1.58 amount, my guess is that's the exchange rate that applied. Apple normally uses $1 in the U.S., and since they probably use the same servers, you bank simply applied the current value in pounds.

Just checked, and the exchange rate is currently 1 USD = 1.5759 GBP.


I'd have said more of this the first time, but my brain needed time to retrieve the information. The hardware is a bit dated.