The KB article is definitiely misleading on that account. It's not only IAPs that the window abides by... it's also regular purchases, or even any activity where you need to enter your itunes password. You can try this yourself if you wish to prove me wrong. Unless of course this is something that can also be controlled by the app, not just by a general iOS rule, but I highly doubt that.
Definitely report it to apple.. Apple has the power to reverse the payment, it doesn't matter if gameloft like it or not, I've gotten refunds a few times from apple.. They have a rule where if the purchase was unintentional, you get refunded. However, I'm not sure if that's the same with consumable IAP but I have had like 5 apps refunded from unintentional buying, or game changing to free, or copyright game issues.. I'd definitely explain your situation to them.. You have much bigger chance of apple refunding the money because apple employees are often sympathetic and they don't get any of the money anyway, so they are happy to reverse the payment.. Where as gameloft is a company that survives on instances like these..their business thrives on toddlers accidentally pressing buy! It'd be a cold day in hell before gameloft refund you, in my a summer opinion anyway.. Contact apple.. It's as easy as an email! Otherwise, enjoy your my little pony pinkie pie and friends.
LOL, but how exactly do I contact them about it? The report issue link is bogus, just another of Apple's half-cooked attempts at being consumer-friendly.
Ah OK, so it seems the only way to be able to actually report a a purchase issue is to first receive the confirmation email from Apple which has a working "report issue" link. Of course this then requires iTunes to be installed on the PC. So I have to wait for the email now, great.
After a few clicks - https://expresslane.apple.com/ There, select All Products -> iTunes -> iTunes Store. Let it load... Purchases/billing/etc -> the topic is not listed -> type in "Accidental Purchase", click Continue and it will give you an option to email them directly. Fill out the form and (according to them) they'll get back to you in 24 hours. Convoluted? Hell yes. Oh, they'll ask you for your order number which you can get from your iTunes purchase history via a computer.
Fwiw, developers perspective: Apple does refund consumable IAP. Developers on iOS have no possibility to trigger a refund. Approach Apple timely (which you try), explain briefly what happened. Stay friendly if you can (the person you will be talking to did not have any say in that design decision . And I agree fully with you, the protection should be on by default. If you want to let Apple know, the refund request email is not the right place but you can (should be able to if the link works send them feedback through the website. Don't have the uk link. Good luck!
Thanks a lot to all your advice! I've now also succesfully opened a ticket with Apple, hoping for a refund.
Amazingly enough, Apple has responded within an hour and said they'd refund me as this was deemed an unintentional IAP.
I did exactly as you advised earlier in the thread. Oh, and a big FU to Gameloft for even thinking a 45eur IAP might be a good idea.
I don't know why no one has said this yet, but there is an option for you to lock out all IAPs, period, whether the password has been entered or not. It's not Gameloft's fault you were too stupid to do this before giving the iPad to a 3-year old.
I sure hope one day you accidentally click on a pricey IAP/app while you've forgotten to turn on the setting and then we can all laugh at your own inability/stupidity to turn this stupid setting to ON. But seriously, are you the only one not realizing that people really have more important things to do than making sure their default App store settings will prevent something like this from happening in the first place?
ABSTRACT: If you don't want to read a wall of text just read this summary, never trust Gameloft with your credit or debit card. Apple have never refused me a refund request, I have not made many in the last 3 years and only a few. However, they never refuse to refund me because I am always as polite as possible but I always quote the law too. In the EU there are distance selling regulations which apply to online purchases, this means that within 7 days the consumer has the ability to reject any distance purchase and may legally be refunded in FULL. In the united kingdom there are also sales of goods acts that can be used if you do a title bit of research on how to do it skilfully Finally, as far as America goes I hear they have a simillar equivalent to the EU distance selling regulations but I haven't done any legal research into that. Don't ask for refunds if you don't need to but if it is absolutely necessary if you know your stuff, neither apple nor Gameloft have a chance. If that fails take the law to the banks and they will be on your side (I have never had to go that far, for the three to four times I requested refunds apple were always polite in return and in few cases actually sympathised with my situation.) On the whole the app store is good but it never hurts to do legal research for the worst times (like a personal insurance policy) and you don't need to be a lawyer to do it. Long emails help, detail situations in full and they will take you more seriously than if it would be a small email. Long emails show that you mean business but also you can explain how the situation came about and how it wasn't just a mindless mistake. I feel that if you give them meaty information to read and explain succinctly there is no reason to turn a refund down, especially to a loyal customer and app store user (any one). My most recent refund was in fact regarding IAP purchases and how secondary currency in a freemium game disappeared too easy on something that I did not want... Not my fault at all (apple agreed of course) but I have learnt that most freemium games are shameless. Also never ever trust a Gameloft server, because it was one of their games that screwed me over last week. Gameloft, people are waking up to your freemium crap.
I think this is why iPhones are adults only... With IPods you can only buy what you put on it. Anyways I'm preety sure alot of devs make a good bit of money just from mistake purchases. Alot of games it can be accesed in 2 or 3 buttons...
