Unintended Charge for Bakery Store App

[pdmike]

I bought Bakery Story and put it on my iPad. It said the app was free. This month, I see an $89.99 charge on my Visa bill which I have traced back to the apparent cost of this app at iTunes.

WTF?

[Unregistered]

Sounds like you got caught in the "inadvertently purchased" gems trap.

[pdmike]

Sounds like you got caught in the "inadvertently purchased" gems trap.

I didn't inadvertantly purchase this app - I purchased it on purpose. It said it was FREE. Then came the Visa bill. $89.99 from iTunes, thank you very much.

I repeat: WTF????

I am not familiar with the "inadvertantly purchased gems trap." What is that?

[Unregistered]

More importantly, what can I do about it?

[Unregistered]

First, look at your iTunes bill itemization. It will tell you where the charges are from. As you did not specify whether your iTunes charge was from Team Lava, that's your first thing to determine. If they are from BS, your iTunes bill will clearly say "Bakery Story?, 275 Gems, Seller: TeamLava, LLC " (or however many gems you purchased). If they are not from Bakery Story, then please take it up with another vendor.

Second, you stated this:


I didn't inadvertantly purchase this app - I purchased it on purpose. It said it was FREE. Then came the Visa bill. $89.99 from iTunes, thank you very much.

Stay calm and don't jump to conclusions, as the previous poster was simply being helpful. Nobody said you inadvertantly purchased the APP. The previous poster said that you inadvertantly purchased GEMS (which are acquired within the app). Gems cost real money. There are gem "traps" in the game where it's very easy to inadvertantly purchase gems if you're not careful.

On a side note, since you need to log into iTunes and click multiple "OK" confirmations when purchasing gems, it's not as easy as a slip of the finger. There are popups along the way that tell you what you're doing, even if you're within the 15 minute iTunes password save. I believe that the actual gem "trap" is that it's easy to inadvertantly purchase items for gems once you have the gems. For that, there are no confirmations. Anyhow, I digress.

Anyhow - tell us how it goes. 1.) Are the charges on your iTunes account actually from Team Lava? (check this through your account info - payment history in iTunes, or refer to the email bill that you receive every time you get an iTunes charge); 2.) if yes, the charges are for GEMS, not the app itself. The app itself is free.

[Unregistered]

First, look at your iTunes bill itemization. It will tell you where the charges are from. As you did not specify whether your iTunes charge was from Team Lava, that's your first thing to determine. If they are from BS, your iTunes bill will clearly say "Bakery Story?, 275 Gems, Seller: TeamLava, LLC " (or however many gems you purchased). If they are not from Bakery Story, then please take it up with another vendor.

Second, you stated this:



Stay calm and don't jump to conclusions, as the previous poster was simply being helpful. Nobody said you inadvertantly purchased the APP. The previous poster said that you inadvertantly purchased GEMS (which are acquired within the app). Gems cost real money. There are gem "traps" in the game where it's very easy to inadvertantly purchase gems if you're not careful.

On a side note, since you need to log into iTunes and click multiple "OK" confirmations when purchasing gems, it's not as easy as a slip of the finger. There are popups along the way that tell you what you're doing, even if you're within the 15 minute iTunes password save. I believe that the actual gem "trap" is that it's easy to inadvertantly purchase items for gems once you have the gems. For that, there are no confirmations. Anyhow, I digress.

Anyhow - tell us how it goes. 1.) Are the charges on your iTunes account actually from Team Lava? (check this through your account info - payment history in iTunes, or refer to the email bill that you receive every time you get an iTunes charge); 2.) if yes, the charges are for GEMS, not the app itself. The app itself is free.

On my Visa bill, the charges are from iTunes. I was able to reach iTunes through Apple, and iTunes is going to refund my money by crediting my Visa account next month, since I had already paid the bogus charge before discovering it. We'll see what happens next month.

I am told I can set my iPad Restrictions to prevent something like this happening again. I went in there and saw that I incurred these charges while the In-App Purchases section of Restrictions was OFF. Can I assume that if I turn it ON, my iPad (and my credit card) will be protected from any further, such unrequested charges?

[Unregistered]

Hi. I'm not sure about your restrictions but wanted to add something.

For detail on the source of the charge you'll need to look not at your Visa bill but on your iTunes bill. You can do this by opening iTunes on your pc and viewing your account info. Also, iTunes purchase detail are emailed to your iTunes registered email addy within 24 hours of the purchase typically. Either of these two sources will let you know from which app the charges originated.

I'm glad that iTunes is issuing a refund. That must be a relief!