In app purchase can we refund the In App purchase - iphone

Is there a programatical way in which an In App purchase is refunded back to the user?
I have an application with a certain buyable feature. The user buys it but somehow doesnt like it. Is there any programatical way in which I can make the user get back his spent money?

I don't think it is possible. This is the same as with buying an app from the AppStore - you cannot say that you did not like the app, return it and get your money back. This is one of the reason why there are free lite versions of some apps. This allows users to check the app for free before they buy it. Maybe you could use the same mechanism in your app? Give some content for free and if the users see that it is what the need they could buy more of it.

No. The user will need to contact Apple Customer Services who will then decide whether or not to issue a refund. The refund will be taken from your apps earnings, I believe.

Related

In-App Purchase and App Rejection iOS

I am new to In-App purchase feature in iOS.
I am working on an iOS app in which I'll be showcasing my products along with its price, and when the user wants to purchase a products he can do so by tapping on shopping cart, which will launch a web-view and displays my mobile webpage from where they can buy the selected product. My products are tangible and will be delivered outside the App.
My question is:
Do I need to implement In-App purchase, even if the user transaction is done in my mobile web-page?
If I have to implement Apple In-App purchase, how will I know if the user has purchased the product, so as to inform the Apple that a product has been purchased?
It really depends on the type of product you are selling. If it's a tangible good. i.e. a Plane ticket, or some other physical item. You can use your own payment mechanism. If it's something that can be consumed in the app, or could otherwise be conceivably delivered via Apple's IAP mechanism then you must use IAP. If you don't you will most likely be rejected.
To answer your questions. 1) If the transaction is done via the web, and is for a none-IAP type item as described above, then you cannot use IAP. 2) If you did have something that could be purchased via IAP, Apple is responsible for the transaction, and they take the typical 30% off the top.
Check out section 11 (specifically, 11.2 and 11.3) of the review guidelines
Apple will not allow you to direct the consumer to purchase something Within the app. Unless it is with an in app purchase.
The way we have gotten around this. is to let the user request information about it. or sign up an invoice. which will be delivered to their email address. and they can continue the purchase outside the app.
Apple has graciously accepted our app with this feature.
If you want them to provide a credit card number within the app, then you will need to use In app purchases instead.
Another way around this may be to have them sign up on your site and add a credit card for them to purchase with. And use that purchase method when the user buys something.
Not requiring them to put in their credit card on the app is I believe the main concern.

Providing In-App Purchase, in a free app

I want to submit a free app with In-App purchase in the Appstore which can be available in all geographies and not restricting to any particular geography.
However,I do not have financial account for all geographies,say, i just have a account in US .So, as i am making the app freely available for all geographies but do not have financial accounts for all geographies,how can a user outside US buy any enhancement through In-App purchase? Does Apple restrict such transactions any way? Or, does Apple reject such applications?
Supposedly,If this app gets approved by apple and goes to app store and any user outside US downloads this app and tries to buy any enhancement using In-App purchase, how will the financial transaction happen?
I may be way off here but doesnt apple handle all the payment transactions themselves? I thought they processed everything, took their 30% cut then gave the developers their share. If that is case, they probably handle the international transactions and give you your share the same way they would any local transaction. It wouldnt make sense for you to have to have accounts all over the world in order to sell an international app.
Also, I dont believe this would have any effect on weather the app is approved or not. Apple wants as many people doing in-app purchases as possible so they can make as much money as possible.

Different options to make payments inside an Application

I am exploring options which would enable the user to make payments from within the Application.Right now i am aware of 2 options through which a user can make payments from within the App.
1 In-App Purchase (Already implemented).
2 Pay Pal (Exploring).
So is there any other way to implement purchases. Any links , APIs ,advices will be welcomed...
PS: I intend to release this app on US App Store.
Cheers.
I can tell you, that for an in-app purchases PayPal is most definitely a no go, but you will find this out by yourself :)
Apple will only accept payment for such activities through in app purchases, no other methods of payment are allowed.
There is a workaround for these type of purchases (especially PayPal); do them not within your app but from mobile Safari. That will work and is (for now) an accepted method used by more applications.
In app purchase is the only (reliable) way to do 'feature purchasing' and if you want to be in the App Store. If you want to accept donations, you can use in app purchase or PayPal in a UIWebView. There really isn't a whole lot of choice for it on the iPhone.
The reality of the situation is that you are going to want to use in app purchase. Users are going to be more willing to pay if they can just press a button and have it show up on their bill. If you use any other service, they're going to have to go get their credit card, etc... It'll just be ugly.
Another alternative is accepting funds through SMS. This may only be appropriate for donations to charities/non-profits. There are services for supporting SMS giving such as mGive (http://www.mgive.com/), Give on the Go (http://www.giveonthego.com/), or giveByCell (http://www.givebycell.com/).

How to take credit card payments from user in iPhone applications?

I am new to credit card payment applications, I am developing an iPhone application which requires to take credit card payments from the user. In this application I am just providing a coupon to the user and if the user uses the coupon I just want to collect $1 from the user's credit card.
I have read In App Purchase guide but this doesn't suit for this requirement it seems since my coupons are just builtin-App products.
can anyone provide other method which best suits for my requirement or if IAPP suits for my requirement, how to approach.
some help will be appreciated.
I don't know how you are planning to distribute your app. Apple says it will reject almost any app that takes payments via anything other than in-App purchase. There may be some narrow exceptions, but you should take a very careful look at part 11 of their approval guidelines (from the link).
The easiest way is to implement in App purchase for every coupon and the in app purchase just unlocks the content(which must be stored in the application or downloaded from your server).
super easy.
But I would recommend you to implement a feature like buying credits for the app.
You can create an in App Purchase for let's say one (1$) 3, 3$) and so on. This can be send to your server(of course you need to make the billing management on your own) and the iPhone User can identify himself by an User Name and an Password to get access o their Credits and redeem them instantly in the App. In this Situation you could even extend your service by adding PayPal Payment(in an WebView inside the Application).
I Hope this helps. Good Luck.

AppStore approval of a free application with paid content

We have developed an application that allows a user to download audio content. The use of application itself is free, but we charge for the content. In our current business model, we accept payments using premium-rated SMS (which increases the in-app user's balance), however, Apple rejects the app since they do not allow this model for their applications.
Is there any other way (except In App Purchase API) we can accept the payments with?
Apple will only accept in-app purchases for this type of business model. Even then, you still have to submit each and every "in-app update" for approval at least a week prior.
Like Liam said, they want their piece of the pie too and they also don't want people slipping something past them (for instance, highly offensive content, pornography, etc.)
Per Apple:
You can create In App Purchases on both Free and Paid applications. Every product you want to offer in your store must first be registered with the App Store through iTunes Connect. When you register a product, you provide a name, description, and pricing for your product, as well as other metadata used by the App Store and your application.
There's no other way with this type of business model. More info here around page 116
Another option would be offering the same service via an ordinary website and then offer the app to allow users accessing their existing accounts. Take dropbox as an example - they offer paid memberships which you purchase on their website. The dropbox app itself is free but lets you access your dropbox account, for which you paid elsewhere.
In your case maybe you could offer "credits" for purchase (payable by premium-rated SMS) on your services website which the user could then spend by accessing his account from within the app.
This is less "direct" (requires the user to visit your website to pay for the content he will download later) and I wouldn't even bet on apple's approval (if the website appears to be merely a place for buying credits without further functionality, they'll propably reject the app too for circumventing in-app purchase), but then again, there are (propably) no alternatives. However, I'd talk with apple about this option before implementing it, to avoid wasting time and money. After all, in-app purchase is the way apple wants people to go if they want to spontaneously purchase content using only their device, so they'll defend it.
The easiest was to look at this is to work out why they refused the application, which is because it is not in their interest. You are selling a product to their customer and they are not getting any commission. In order for them to accept the app I would imagine that you will need to provide an in app purchase mechanism, but you could do this in addition to the Premium SMS as long as the app doesn't send the message