ITunes is Trying to Charge Me TWICE for BA Expansions

[steveshaw]

I have been playing BA for many months on my iPad 3. A few weeks ago I bought the expansion campaign Blitzkrieg France.

BA displayed the following message before the purchase - "Select OK to buy this expansion via in-app purchase. Note: you will never lose expansion purchases. Should you need to download them, simply follow the purchase process again. ITunes will know that you own the expansion and you will not be charged.".

The in-app purchase went well and I am now enjoying Blitzkrieg France and have since bought three other BA expansion campaigns.

I have now bought a new iPad Mini with retina display. I have installed my existing Apple iTunes account on this new iPad Mini and started to download apps that I had previously purchased for my iPad 3. I downloaded BA to the iPad Mini. The download worked and the Blitzkrieg campaign works well. When BA downloaded onto the iPad Mini, the four expansion campaigns that I had purchased did not download. This was expected. I then tried to download Blitzkrieg France and got the same old reassuring message (see earlier in this post). So I continued through the "purchase" process and finally reached a message from iTunes saying that if I continued I would be charged £6.99. When I really purchased these games some weeks ago this message about £6.99 was the final step after which the money was debited from my bank account.

So when I got this message on the download onto my iPad Mini I was worried. Was I going to be charged £6.99 again for a game I had already bought? So I decided not to continue. Instead I decided to post this question to you on the forum.

IF I TRY AGAIN TO DOWNLOAD BLITZKRIEG FRANCE TO MY NEW IPAD MINI AND GO THROUGH THE WHOLE PROCESS WILL I GET CHARGED AGAIN? THE MESSAGE FROM ITUNES APPEARS TO SAY THAT I WILL BE CHARGED AGAIN.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[pipfromslitherine]

Hmmm. That does sound a little odd. You should get a message saying you already own the IAP. If you were not using the same Apple ID then it would have asked for payment for the app itself I imagine.

Unfortunately this stage of the purchase process is all on the Apple side. There do seem to be some bugs they have introduced which only affect iOS 7. So we will add this odd behaviour to the details we are sending to them.

Can you double check that you are logged in with the same Apple ID when attempting the IAP purchase.

Cheers

Pip

[steveshaw]

Hmmm. That does sound a little odd. You should get a message saying you already own the IAP. If you were not using the same Apple ID then it would have asked for payment for the app itself I imagine.

Unfortunately this stage of the purchase process is all on the Apple side. There do seem to be some bugs they have introduced which only affect iOS 7. So we will add this odd behaviour to the details we are sending to them.

Can you double check that you are logged in with the same Apple ID when attempting the IAP purchase.

Cheers

Pip

Dear Pip,

Thank you very much for your reply. Interestingly I have found a post on an unrelated forum where the person was having the same type of problem as myself in trying to download a different game app on an iPad Mini when the origininal app had been purchased on an iPhone. This other example may not be a good match to my problem as the post is from March 2014 (i.e. Pre IOS7).

Yes, I can confirm that the Apple ID on my new iPad Mini is identical to the Apple ID I use on my existing iPad 3. Further I am running the same version of IOS on both iPads - IOS 7.0.4 (11B554a).

In case Apple want to know, my iPad Mini with retina display is 128GB with wireless and cellular. Just to reiterate, the point at which I Cancel is the point where the iTunes message says it is going to charge £6.99 unless I Cancel.

Please let me know if Apple can explain a solution to this problem. Could you also let me know if Apple say ther is no solution.

Regards,
Steve.

[ElizLestrad]

I have been having the same problem and having seen that this seems to be a common issue is not very reassuring. Between that and another rather big issue, I'm hoping I can get iTunes to issue a refund so I can get the pack for Panzer Corps (which works fine) instead. This has been the first iTunes purchase I've seriously regretted even after doing research.

[pipfromslitherine]

I'm not sure what to say. The store will never charge you twice for an expansion you already own, provided you are logged in with the same account. It would also be useful if you would tell us what the "rather big issue" is too . It is most definitely not a common issue, literally 1000s of people do this without issue.

I would suggest (checking, again, that you are logged in to the correct Apple account) just following through the purchase process (it should tell you you will not be charged). If it DOES end up charging you then it is a problem at the Apple end and I am sure their customer support will issue the appropriate refund. If Panzer Corps works fine then Battle Academy will also - they literally use the same code for IAP .

Cheers

Pip

[glenghiscan]

I've just upgraded my iPad to a newer one BA installed no problem I then went to install the expansion packs that I've already paid for and been charged£20.99 so I contacted iTunes who've informed me it is your selfs that have charged me again ? I do I get my refund ? Also I've lost all my player created games so if anybody as upto date LST files can you send me them as I don't want to go through every page on the forum trying to find them seeing as the majority are dead files

[pipfromslitherine]

The App Store should not have charged you for something you have already purchased. However, if you had purchased all the expansions separately, but then attempted to 'buy' the "give me everything pack" to reapply them all, then it is possible that iTunes charged you for it as it is a different item of IAP. Is that what happened? Whoever you spoke to at Apple is very much wrong - we are unable to charge you for anything at all in terms of the app store - it is they who need to refund you the money (my guess is you got someone who perhaps isn't the star of their department...).

Cheers

Pip

[steveshaw]

The App Store should not have charged you for something you have already purchased. However, if you had purchased all the expansions separately, but then attempted to 'buy' the "give me everything pack" to reapply them all, then it is possible that iTunes charged you for it as it is a different item of IAP. Is that what happened? Whoever you spoke to at Apple is very much wrong - we are unable to charge you for anything at all in terms of the app store - it is they who need to refund you the money (my guess is you got someone who perhaps isn't the star of their department...).

Cheers

Pip

Dear Pip,

Since my original post at the start of this topic I see that the problem has not resolved itself. I certainly still cannot download the expansions that I have bought down onto my new iPad Mini. My wife and I suspect strongly that your interface with the Apple world is not always setting the correct flags to say that an in-app purchase has previously been made.

Is there any further information that I can supply you with that will help this problem to be resolved?

If there is, do not hesitate to get in touch.

Regards,

Steve Shaw

[pipfromslitherine]

The App Store should not have charged you for something you have already purchased. However, if you had purchased all the expansions separately, but then attempted to 'buy' the "give me everything pack" to reapply them all, then it is possible that iTunes charged you for it as it is a different item of IAP. Is that what happened? Whoever you spoke to at Apple is very much wrong - we are unable to charge you for anything at all in terms of the app store - it is they who need to refund you the money (my guess is you got someone who perhaps isn't the star of their department...).

Cheers

Pip

Dear Pip,

Since my original post at the start of this topic I see that the problem has not resolved itself. I certainly still cannot download the expansions that I have bought down onto my new iPad Mini. My wife and I suspect strongly that your interface with the Apple world is not always setting the correct flags to say that an in-app purchase has previously been made.

Is there any further information that I can supply you with that will help this problem to be resolved?

If there is, do not hesitate to get in touch.

Regards,

Steve Shaw

Sorry you are still having issues.

There are no flags to set - when you originally purchased the item it passes back a response to tell us that you have done so. When you attempt to go through the process again, all the UI you see is the iOS store UI. The game just sits waiting for the same 'yes they have bought it' response. My job would be immeasurably easier if there was some way for me to ask Apple whether someone had purchased a given piece of IAP

If you go through the process and are actually charged again, then you would need to contact Apple support. From their end they can see (a) that you did indeed purchase the items in the past and have been charged twice (which their system should never do) and they will refund it or (b) that they have no record on that account of your earlier purchase, at which point you would need to find the original e-receipt I guess. Either way it is a problem at their end. We literally never see transactions nor internals - we just ask iOS to pop up its purchasing UI for a given IAP and then wait on a response.

Cheers

Pip

[glenghiscan]

I did click on give me it all ! I'll keep you updated

[glenghiscan]

Apple are unable to refund the charges due to the age of the original purchase the robing gits ! Which is good of em it needs to be made clearer that you reinstall map packs separately as opposed to the give me it all option which I did even though I had it all I still have to pay again the world is full of people trying to part you with your money

[pipfromslitherine]

Apple are unable to refund the charges due to the age of the original purchase the robing gits ! Which is good of em it needs to be made clearer that you reinstall map packs separately as opposed to the give me it all option which I did even though I had it all I still have to pay again the world is full of people trying to part you with your money

Well that is pretty poor Surely they can refund the most recent purchase (of give me everything) for you? If you have no further joy then please send an email to support@slitherine.co.uk including your details and a link to this forum thread. I don't know if we can do anything to help, but we can certainly try.

Cheers

Pip