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If a developer lowers the price of an app are we entitled to a partial refund?

By Joshua Schnell Thu, Dec 24, 2009 @ 2:00 PM

appstore 300x108 If a developer lowers the price of an app are we entitled to a partial refund?If we’re moving to online commerce solutions, and the AppStore is going to be our medium of application sales for our mobile devices, then shouldn’t we be taking a moment to talk about sales policy, and whether or not consumers should be able to recoup sales prices.

For instance, today Tap Tap Revenge 3 was free on the iTunes store. I was super excited to download and try it out. I haven’t played a Tapulous game since the first Tap Tap Revenge was released. It was a win-win for me, but what about those people who purchased the application just before it was repriced, or offered for free? Are they entitled to compensation, much like we’re entitled to compensation on sales items in box stores? If so, what happens to the 30% that Apple took off the top of an App sale? Currently all refunds fall on the shoulders of developers, and despite what some might say, we’re completely entitled to refunds on applications that don’t meet our expectations.

It seems like a common problem, and I’m surprised that no one has brought it up yet. I haven’t had it happen to me personally, but I know some people who purchased an app a week ago, only to have it go to a free version this week. For the most part a dollar isn’t really with complaining about, but it’s the principle of the matter.

Do developers have an ethical duty to disclose that an application will be going free?

I’d argue that they do. I think that any time someone’s willing to pay money for an application, and the developer has decided to make the application free in the following days, refunds should be sent out. The problem is that the developer shouldn’t be on the hook for the 30% that Apple pocketed, but they should at the very least be doing everything in their power to reimburse the 70% in profits that they took in. If it applies to the rest of the sales world, then why doesn’t it apply on the AppStore? Do the have some kind of special status? I know really sure what the legalities are of all of this, considering I’m in Canada, and hopefully someone can fill me in. But, on the surface it seems a little unethical to be taking my full amount today, and giving away the application tomorrow.

Thoughts? I’d love to hear what people think about this.

Edit: Email’s in to Apple.  Hopefully I’ll have something else to add.

  • imajoj

    another example of this is the recently free dogfighting game “F.A.S.T.” by SGN. They made the game free but made the features for the original paid version a $0.99 upgrade. According to the support page they made the base upgrade free for the users who have bought the app before it went free. If only TTR3 went a similar path, even just a free song pack for the people who paid for it would be nice.

    • http://macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      Yeah that a great idea. As you can see by my post, I’m not a big fan of apps suddenly going free. I think it’s a bit of a slap in the face to those people who have paid for the app. There needs to be some sort of compensation.

  • http://markBernstein.org/ Mark Bernstein

    The natural response of developers and publishers, of course, is simply not to have special offers, or to cloak them in thickets of coupons and “invitations” for plausible deniability.

    A willing buyer, a willing seller: a fair bargain.

    (PS: will you give me a refund if you lower your ad rates for someone else next year?)

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      If I charged you 100.00 for a month of advertisements starting on Jan.1, and then on Jan. 2 changed the rate to 50.00 per month, I would refund you half. That would be the ethical thing to do.

      I’m not advocating a complete discount for everyone who has ever purchased an app. Maybe it came off that way, if so, I should clarify.

      I think there needs to be a certain cut off day. If prices change with in a week, then the consumer who purchased the app during that buffer zone is entitled to a partial refund.

      I’m not sure what US Law stipulates for sales prices, but up here consumers are entitled to sales prices, and partial refunds, so long as the purchase was made a short period before the item went on sale.

      • http://markBernstein.org/ Mark Bernstein

        If you have a 7-day cutoff, then the guy who bought the thing 8 days before feels bad.

        If you have a 3-day cutoff, then the guy who bought the thing 3 days before feels bad.

        If you have a midnight cutoff, the guy who bought the thing at 11:00 feels bad.

        (I sympathize with that guy: I lost the wild card in my fantasy baseball league, after 162 games of hard work, because I submitted a final free agent draft at 11:03 and the draft closed at 11:00. I thought it closed at midnight.)

        There’s no ethical question involved, unless you think it’s unethical to negotiate a price and settle on something more favorable to you than your “final offer” price. Are you saying that every Priceline transaction is unethical?
        If that’s the way you feel, OK: I hear you. Let me know where to join you on the barricades. Otherwise, we have a happy buyer and a happy seller.

        In any case, I don’t know many developers (not hobbyists) to whom sales are really important. We do a lot of sales at Eastgate, but we could live without them.