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iPhone App Store needs a very IMPORTANT change. Read on...

A

Amino Man

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 25, 2010
301
3
If I purchase an app, I can download it any number of times if I'm on the go and it's not on my iPhone. I'll show you what happened and this is why the app store needs to change on the iPhone.

I was out and about. I wanted to re-download an app called "Where To?". Knowing that I've purchased this app before, I went right to it and clicked the price and then "Buy" (by the way, all apps state their price whether or not you've purchased it in the past). So I was expecting the usual "Type in your password dialog" and the "You've already purchased this app before", but the second dialog never came up.

A few days later, I get an email receipt from iTunes saying that I purchased "Where To?" at it's full price!

I then check my computer and sure enough... I have 2 versions of the same app. The OLD app never got over-written!

Now, without being near a computer, how am I supposed to tell the apps that I purchased apart from the apps I haven't purchased?

Now, remember from earlier when I said that ALL apps in the app store list their price and make you hit "Buy" before you can proceed to download it for free again? This is what they need to change. Instead of listing a price, the iPhone should be able to see that you've purchased this app before and then display a "Free" button. This way, you know right away that you're not going to get charged for downloading this app.

Now I have to contact Apple and tell them I purchased another copy of "Where To?" by mistake so that I can get my money back for this silly App Store flaw.

Thoughts?
 

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I agree. I have two iTunes Store accounts (Portugal and US) and sometimes I don't remember which one I used to buy something. If I try downloading it again with one of my accounts I risk getting charged again because there's no way to distinguish if you have bought that app or not.
 
jessica. said:
I think it was more of a glitch, that's never happened to me.
Click to expand...

Ah, since it never happened to you, then the current App Store layout is just fine?

Why does it list the price if you already bought the app?

What if you bought an app a year ago. Let's say it's called Camera XL for example. You're on the road and you think "Hey, I'd like to download that app again", so you click on "$0.99" and hit download. Come to find out, the one you purchased back in the day was the "Free" version, but you've forgotten that it was the free version that you bought. Now you're stuck paying "$0.99" because the icon and name looks exactly the way you remember it from a year ago.

If the app store was different, you would have said... whoa... this says $0.99, I guess this is not the app that I had and you would've known right away that iTunes was going to charge you $0.99


anjinha said:
I agree. I have two iTunes Store accounts (Portugal and US) and sometimes I don't remember which one I used to buy something. If I try downloading it again with one of my accounts I risk getting charged again because there's no way to distinguish if you have bought that app or not.
Click to expand...

Thank you! That's another valid reason that things need to change.

I can't believe some people think "If it hasn't happened to me, it must not be a problem" (not talking about you. I'm talking about Jessica). Sheesh.
 
I see the merit in the idea, it just didn't happen to me. It'd be nice to know what I bought on the go.
 
I've thought about this before, it's a bit unnerving to click the "buy" button on an app (particularly if it's over $10 or so) if I've already purchased and I just need to redownload. I'm always afraid I'll get charged twice.
 
The reason you have two different versions of 'Where To?' is because the app has been under 3(?) different owners.

I do agree this problem must be fixed, perhaps with a 'Redownload' button instead of 'Buy'. (This would cause more server loads and look-ups, though)
 
I agree with the OP, it's such an annoying problem, it's always been like this, you would have thought they would have implemented a new kind of system by now or at least a way to view a list of apps that you have already paid for in the past
 
Word. I always hate not knowing if when I click on the Buy if it is going to charge me again.

Same thing with ringtones. Shouldn't have to buy them more than once either.
 
I'm not confident Apple will fix this anytime soon. It would have to access your entire purchase history then display different .png for every App in the AppStore after checking the above criteria.
 
This would be an easy JB add-on to make. The iPhone keeps a property list of all your downloaded apps on file stored by their bundle name, even the ones you don't have installed on your iPhone.
 
I feel the OP's pain, I've been burned like that when redownloading the Air sharing app without realizing they'd released a new pro(er?) app. The app store needs a way to distinguish apps you already own. I always find it funny that I'm told 'hey you already own this app' AFTER pressing buy.

BTW a tip to tell if you already own an app or not is to go the ratings section and press 'Write a Review' and enter your password. If you can write a review you own it, otherwise you'll get a rejection popup saying you need to purchase it. A bit longwinded but useful for when you really can't remember.
 
I wish iTunes would just keep track of everything I purchase and keep it in one, simple list. They probably don't want people to realize how much they've actually spent.
 
What if they just added an extra dialog?

Click Buy, dialog comes up saying "Are you sure you want to purchase this app?" and if you already own it, the dialog would then tell you that you own it already.

Would that be a good idea? Basically a safety net.
 
Agreed hate hitting that button hoping it still says you already own this app.
 
moussekateer said:
I feel the OP's pain, I've been burned like that when redownloading the Air sharing app without realizing they'd released a new pro(er?) app. The app store needs a way to distinguish apps you already own. I always find it funny that I'm told 'hey you already own this app' AFTER pressing buy.

BTW a tip to tell if you already own an app or not is to go the ratings section and press 'Write a Review' and enter your password. If you can write a review you own it, otherwise you'll get a rejection popup saying you need to purchase it. A bit longwinded but useful for when you really can't remember.
Click to expand...

Yup, thats what I use, and its saved me a few dollars :p Was just gonna post that
 
It think Apple changed the policy so that you can't redownload apps for free to prevent people from sharing apps by logging in on other peoples phones. I'm pretty sure it's been this way since iOS3
 
cambookpro said:
No, they haven't.
Click to expand...

+1

I downloaded Car Spotter and Ambiance (the old Ambiance too, the crappy .99cent one) close to 2 years ago now and I just got both for "free."

This surprised me, especially with Ambiance because the version I paid for was 1/3rd of the price and 1/16th of the functionality.

Car Spotter... was the biggest waste of .99cents I've ever spent but I figured if I got it back for "free" then maybe they made some functionality revisions to it... Nope. Still garbage.

On topic, it would be nice to know if you'll be paying for the app, before you click on it. If I had to pay another .99cents to Car Crapper then I'd of been pretty upset.
 
At least you are allowed to freely re-download apps you have bought (most of the time, apparently :p). I wish the iTunes Store allowed you to freely re-download music/videos you have bought from them. I accidentally deleted an episode of a TV show and had to buy it again...
 
Same thing happened to me when I decided to give ESPN Radio another try but I didn't bother with a refund. Like above stated, they need to add music/ivideos to your purchase history so you aren't charged twice. iTunes in the cloud could solve that problem.
 
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