Ant Smasher: Not Free, Not Fun, and Not Fair!
Post date: Jul 25, 2015 3:26:30 PM
Apple’s App Store: protect yourself from being charged for Apps that Claim to be Free, but charge you $9.99 for in-app purchases
I have been using Apple products and the iTunes store since 2009 when I purchased my first iPhone and iPad. Since then, I have owned one more iPhone and two more iPads and helped my college purchase its first iPad cart. I then reviewed hundreds of apps for consideration for use with my students at Hawkeye Community College, and did extensive research, following several Education blogs for using iPads and continuing to research and download free and paid apps alike. So, I thought I was an experienced Apple user, and understood how to find “Free Apps.”
This past week I looked for a couple of new free games for my grandsons and found one that would appeal to boys of almost any age: Ant Smasher. Little ants literally appear to crawl all over the screen (I quickly handed it to Corbin, age 4, who was delighted). He began to squash the ants and they made a terrible squishy sound as they were smashed. Mason was giggling, so I decided to install it on the second iPad, but when I did, I got a message saying that I would not be charged since I had just purchased it on another device. Huh? Isn't it FREE?
Imagine my surprise when I got a little “ping” announcing an email, and discovered that I had just been charged $9.99 for the “free app.” Even worse, once it opened on the second iPad, all we got was a series of annoying pop-up windows advertising yet more games and when you tried to use the X in the corner to close them, it would launch the iTunes store and that game’s entry. It was maddening, and I was getting very angry. I had a two-year-old who wanted to squash some ants! He saw big brother having fun and he wanted to do it too.
We never got the game up and going on the second iPad. It continued to generate the popup Ads. When I went back to the App store, I looked at the reviews and found many people remarked on the abundance of ads, so it wasn’t just us.
Never one to tolerate being cheated, I immediately went to my email with the charge for the game and responded to the link for report a problem. People like to complain about Apple and how pricey their devices are; however, I got a response back from customer support within a few hours. When I responded with my concerns about the app, I then was contacted by another customer support person. Unfortunately, only after my first response to her did I go back through my messages and discover another receipt with two more charges! We are still corresponding, but they promise to refund my money and tried to explain why I had two separate receipts for this disgusting and disappointing game, misleadingly labeled as free.
How can you avoid this problem?
The folks from customer service reminded me that it is possible to disable in-app purchases, disable purchasing completely or require a password for every purchase. They referred me to several pages on Apple support that explain to set restrictions on your account:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6088 -- Restrictions
Go into settings on your iPad: find General and then restrictions. Enable restrictions: you will need to create a passcode of four digits and then you can select what you want to restrict, whether it is just in-app purchases, or if you do not want your child to download any apps at all. I now have disabled in-app purchases.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4213 -- Parental Controls
What more needs to be done?
I think more people need to complain about the deceptive practices of many apps that look free, but have in-app purchases. It is one thing to offer a “lite” version of an app with fewer options and features; however, to advertise something as free, knowing that as soon as the user clicks on a button, they will be charged, is downright deceptive in my book. I have never seen anything this blatant in all of my years of using my iPad.
If you have children using mobile devices, have you double checked to see how you have set up your accounts? I have to enter my Apple ID even for free apps, so had done that, but I did NOT have to enter it again for the app to charge me. Therefore, I did not realize that we had just “purchased” something until I saw the receipt. Ant Smasher is available for Android as well, so this is not a problem only for Apple users.
After doing some digging, I am surprised that I haven’t run into this before. Apple made a change a year ago to how they label free apps, replacing the word Free with Get. Apparently, there has been a big controversy, as Zac Hall explains: “Apple has taken a great deal of flack from customers and consumer protection groups through the years over apps marketed as free that push in-app purchases. The freemium model has been used in some cases to circumvent the lack of app trials on the App Store.”
Apple also settled with the Federal Trade Commission over a complaint involving in-app purchases within the past two years.
Apparently, the problem has not been resolved. So, watch out for Apps that say “Get” but not a price, because you don’t need the frustration and there are certainly better quality apps out there.
Cherie's Takeaway: Be vocal! Speak up when you get ripped off by apps. Document it with an email to Apple's Customer Service or your Google Play Store. Write a Review. Tell your friends.
Protect yourself and your family by going into the settings of your device and making it harder to make purchases from inside Apps. This is not an isolated case. However, it is the worse one that I have seen so far.
HALL, ZAC. “App Store Changes Free Button to get likely due to in-app purchase controversies.” 9 to 5 mac.com. Nov. 19 2014.
Blog Post #5 for the week of July 25th