Not surprising, since they have control of the platform and the market. But it's ethically questionable.
When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
281–290 of 583 posts
Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#282Does this mean if there's a developer I don't like, I can buy their stuff and refund it to arbitrarily cost them money at no cost to myself and there's nothing they can do about it? That seems ... not great, especially these days. What happens when mobs of internet morons decide review bombing isn't sufficient and realize Apple will help them cause direct financial harm instead?
I think this is part of what is holding back iPad software. You can't charge $100 for Sketch and lose $30 when someone asks for a refund. Apple designed this around $1-$10 apps where losing $2 at volume is fine. What is worse, is that Apple doesn't remove the app from the user's device. When you get a refund of a paid app it is on the honor system for them to delete it. It is removed from their account, so they can n…
> What is worse, is that Apple doesn't remove the app from the user's device.
This. Is. Ridiculous.
We all know this is an intentional design decision by Apple and that they would absolutely not have designed the workflow this way if they had to dogfood their own platform.
Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#283Does this mean if there's a developer I don't like, I can buy their stuff and refund it to arbitrarily cost them money at no cost to myself and there's nothing they can do about it? That seems ... not great, especially these days. What happens when mobs of internet morons decide review bombing isn't sufficient and realize Apple will help them cause direct financial harm instead?
I think this is part of what is holding back iPad software. You can't charge $100 for Sketch and lose $30 when someone asks for a refund. Apple designed this around $1-$10 apps where losing $2 at volume is fine. What is worse, is that Apple doesn't remove the app from the user's device. When you get a refund of a paid app it is on the honor system for them to delete it. It is removed from their account, so they can n…
I'm glad that Apple can't remotely delete apps from my device. It would be somewhat dystopic if they had that capability.
Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#284Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#285I don't understand something here.. let's say I sold an app to someone for $100. 1. Someone pays me $100. 2. Apple takes 30%, so I only get $70. 3. Customer asks for refund and gets back $100. 4. Apple takes back the $70 from me. If Apple was skimming 30% off from the start, how does that affect me during a refund?
Apple takes back $100 from you. You now owe them $30 more than they ever paid you.
Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#286A Statement of Tim Cook for the House of Representatives claimed that "For the vast majority of apps on the App Store , developers keep 100% of the money they make." [1] How can this be even remotely true if Apple takes a 30% commission for every sale in the App Store? [1] https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU05/20200729/110883/HHRG...
Its wily political speak. The devs keep 100% of what they make. What do they make? 70% of the price on app store. They keep 100% of the 70% of the store price. Truthful statement, just one that is designed to mislead you.
They also keep 100% of what they make after refunds have been processed and yet another cut is taken.
Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#287Payment processors generally don't refund fees on payments when the payments are refunded, this isn't new. It's remarkable mainly because (a) it's 30%, not 3% and (b) the App store doesn't position itself as a payments processor the way Stripe does, so it sounds really weird that they would act like one. If the app store took a 3% chunk and never refunded it regardless of the ongoing status of the transaction, that w…
Credit card companies (i.e., Visa, Mastercard) absolutely do refund fees on payments when the retailer processes a refund. This is why retailers generally require you to use the same method of payment to get your refund. It's uniquely online processors that do not refund fees.
CC Processors like Visa and Mastercard do refund fees on CC processing, but the interchange or % of return is smaller than the actual gross. You don't necessarily get "all" of your refund, if you're a merchant.
Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
Credit card companies (i.e., Visa, Mastercard) absolutely do refund fees on payments when the retailer processes a refund. This is why retailers generally require you to use the same method of payment to get your refund. It's uniquely online processors that do not refund fees.
That's because they're not the same class of processor. The chain is like Your bank account -> visa/mastercard/discover -> PayPal's merchant bank account -> the person you're paying bank account PayPal only replaces the ccs when you pay with their wallet. Otherwise they're just orchestrating the money flow (because integrating with the CC companies is a gigantic PITA)
PayPal is not a credit card processor, it is Money transmitter, different legally
Stripe on the other hand is a credit card processor, and as a merchant you get a Merchant account, the same like Authorize.net who used to be the largest online processor before Stripe.
Back in the day (and I have been out of that market for over a decade) Authorize.net absolutely refunded processing fees on refunds
Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you prove price fixing? Or collusion? If you want to make the claim, then let’s see the proof.
What options are there? Google Play, Apple App Store. How much do they take? 30% and 30%. Is there an option where they take less than 30% or where someone can compete on that cut? No. Is there a different store you can use with the same privileges as these two stores? No. Can you take your payments outside of the store and manage payment fees yourself so as to not give them 30%? No.
I doubt it's news to you, but Android openly allows app stores other than Google's.
Re: When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not the same at all. Payment processing is work, regardless of direction. Marketing fees for non-sales is payment for nothing.
....but Apple processes payments for App Store purchases? And they pay to maintain the store. Storage, bandwidth, updates, those are all “work” as well. I do think 30% is quite high, but this comment seems to consider Apple a charity house that should provide these services for free
Why are there so many pro bono Apple defenders for this? They literally are taking 30% when a user buys an app and 30% when they are refunding it.
30% is quite high? It's highway robbery!