Robert Herskowitz says he was double-charged for a song he downloaded from the iTunes Music Store. Now he wants his money back. Plus he’d like $4,999,997.42 as a little something for his troubles. He claims Apple “double-bills” with “troubling regularity” and is suing the Cupertino company for $5 million.
AppAdvice.com reports that Herskowitz says that after making his $1.29 purchase from iTunes, Apple charged him twice. He claims to have contacted Apple, and says he received this response:
Your request for ‘Whatya Want from Me’ was carefully considered; however, according to the iTunes Store Terms of Sale, all purchases made on the iTunes store are ineligible for refund.
This policy matches Apple’s refund policies and provides protection for copyrighted materials.
Herskowitz claims Apple violated their own terms of agreement, and for good measure, California state and common laws. He also contends that the agreement governing use of Apple’s digital stores “says no such thing” about all purchases made on the iTunes Store being eligible for refunds.
However, a look at Apple’s Sales and Refund policy says otherwise. In it Apple specifically states: “The following products are not eligible for return: electronic software downloads, subscriptions to the Software-Up-To-Date program, Apple Gift Cards, and any Apple Developer Connection products.”
The store’s Terms and Conditions say it even clearer: “All sales and rentals of products are final.”
AppAdvice tried to duplicate the events leading up to Herskowitz’s lawsuit, but were unable to achieve the same results he claimed.
They ordered one new song in iTunes. Upon downloading the song, they once again attempted to purchase it. They were alerted that they had already purchased the tune, and could download it again at no charge.
They then checked their purchase history, which showed they were charged once for the song. They performed similar tests in the App Store and Mac App Store and had similar results.
AppAdvice: “Finally, we attempted to find the song Herskowitz claims he purchased twice, “Whatya Want from Me” for $1.29. In the U.S. iTunes Store anyway, there is no song by that name at that price. However, there are four songs that are listed by similar names. Each sells for $0.99.”
It is possible that Herskowitz’s charges are true, and Apple double-charged him for his song. Time will tell what the courts have to say about it. Herskowitz’s federal class action suit was filed in California and covers the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore, and the Mac App Store.
Have you ever been double-charged for a song, movie, book, or app in any of Apple’s online stores? If so, how did you handle it? What was Apple’s response? We’d like to hear your story in the comments section below.
