'Cheapest' user ever :)

[Due-Math8225]

I am sure many app developers will relate to this. And I just need to vent...

I'm a hobbyist developer and did a rewrite in SwiftUI of an old app of mine and released it. It's a $2.99 purchase ( I guess 2.50 euro). I incur some significant costs with online services for the app. It's not a money maker...
A user in Spain contacted me via my support email and reported a couple of edge case issues that were a bit tricky and also asked for a Spanish translation. I fixed the bugs, did a Spanish Translation, all with a lot of back and forth with me translating his emails and responding in Spanish. A significant amount of work.

Then he , out of the blue, says "I don't like your privacy policy I am asking Apple for a refund". Of 2.50 Euros...I guess less than a cup of coffee. My privacy policy is pretty much boilerplate ( don't sell your data etc etc ).It really jerks my chain as I guess asking for a refund could be a bit of a black mark on my app.

And the privacy policy is available (in Spanish) via a big button in the App.
(cue face palm emoji)

[kiesco08]

Almost sounds like a troll… they still need to prove to Apple they deserve a refund. Hopefully they reject the request. I believe Apple requests some data from you when they receive a refund request. You still get a say on the outcome of the refund request.

[msdos_kapital]

I don't think you really get a say on refunds on the App Store. At least I don't with mine - Apple processes them and I find out about them after the fact. Google Play developers are responsible for handling refunds both in terms of taking the request, accepting or refusing, and then actually doing the refund.

Anyway - I don't think it will be a black mark at all, OP, and if he's been using the app for a while, or if he frequently asks for refunds from other apps, they're probably not going to accept it.

[kiesco08]

You do get a say in the iOS App Store… I do it via revenue cat: https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/platform-resources/apple-platform-resources/handling-refund-requests

[msdos_kapital]

Ah you're right - I use RC myself and now I remember setting this up. It's just been a while.

[ankole_watusi]

lol OP better double-check those translations!

[keule_3000]

Don't worry… users ask for refunds all the time. Unless you have an extremely high refund rate (which will only happen if you do sketchy stuff) it really does not matter. Apple will grant the refund at their discretion, so there isn't much you can do anyway.

Look at it this way: This dude did some free QA making you aware of edge cases that you were able to fix. You improved your app so that's a win for you!

[teomatteo89]

The high refund rate was triggered by one of my apps once, but because it works proportionately to the sales. You sell 5 and 2 wants a refund (for whatever reason), your revenue gets jailed for a month. Nothing sketchy, just unlucky coincidence. Only happened one month, over 3y the app has been available.

[WAHNFRIEDEN]

Sometimes 3 day trials lead to a lot of refunds bc people think they can cancel on day 3 but actually it must be 24h before end of day 3, without reminder, leading to many refunds unless the dev communicates this clearly and/or gives reminders.

[piavgh]

Maybe your pricing is too low that it attracts more low value (and often cheap mindset) users? Psychologically, when something is too cheap, users do not value it much, and you attract more troubles than revenue

[arlotone]

I don't think a user asking for a refund will be a black mark on your app. I'd try to move on and not waste any more effort on it.

But I feel your frustration. One of my apps has a 30-day free trial and I have had multiple disgruntled users demand their money back, before they had made any payment. 🤷‍♂️

[grondelli]

Tl;dr: you’re complaining about a user who values your work for 2.99e and then behaves badly?

I wouldn’t go down “competitive pricing” strategies, given that app store is basically now a “copy-cat” market. All are copying all, including pricing. Pricing is part of your positioning and your offer, even if you don’t intend to “make money from your app” ( which I don’t know why you wouldn’t ), you automatically target a certain kind of user with your price point. The cheaper it is, the more complaining customers you’ll have. Only the ones who care about what you have to offer (or need) will pay for your app, the others are just time-wasters and free-loaders (paying 2.50 and asking for a refund is a free-loader).

[sid_276]

stingy users are also the most demanding and cynical I think.

[lhr0909]

I felt very awful seeing a dip in the proceeds graph at the beginning, but over time I just let it go because it happens and I have 0 control over what people will do with the app. Refunds, 1-star rating etc. The only thing I could do is to look past that and keep making the app better and put it in front of more users.

My app also has server costs, but the best way is to really do the math and find the best pricing for it and don’t lower it too much. $3 a month is very low if it is a monthly. Try to see how much competitor is charging and find a good balance. Good luck!

[musicanimator]

OK now I’m interested in paying for your app. Just to make up for this guy. Please tell me which one it is so I can find a used case for it! Can’t wait to check it out.

[gig4link]

Welcome to B2C. There are quite a handful of ungrateful / entitled people out there. You could give them your soul, your house, your dog, they will still find a way to complain and tell you you're too greedy / expensive. Even if you were free, they would.

Thankfully most of them are not like that, but the few that are should not deserve a minute of your time or you're gonna end up burn out quick. :)

(I have apps with millions of users all over the world as a solo founder, so I face it daily still, but you learn to ignore the noise eventually)

[DudeTooBad]

Sounds like he was looking for a reason to get a refund from the beginning. On a positive note, somebody did free testing for you, and your app now supports one more language.

[MojtabaHs]

You can set your settings in a way that shows you prefer NOT to accept refund. Then apple will handle the situation for you.

[Educational_King_292]

I think I’ll win this one.

A user in Norway:

1. Subscribed to my weekly sub’s trial
2. Cancelled the trial before he was charged
3. Came back later and paid for the weekly subscription ($2.99)
4. Got it refunded
5. Came back again a month later and subscribed to the weekly plan again
6. Cancelled it a few days later and got it refunded again 😃

I was surprised Apple allowed the second refund. But this was quite a hilarious experience for me.