Brother used card to buy £250 app we already have

abbas5001 · 8 July 2018 at 4:50PM

Hi all,

I'll try and keep this brief and straightforward. My brother has autism and a learning disability. He was provided an ipod touch to help with his communication as he is non-verbal, there is an app the school uses to help non-verbal kids communicate and it costs £250, which we got.

I set up the ipod under my Apple ID, as previously he had an ipod which he lost, at least this way i could use the 'find my iphone' feature to find it if it got lost again. This was all about 18 months ago.

I received my credit card bill a few days ago and there is a charge of £250 on it. My brother, although he has autism and a learning disability can be remarkably smart. He has set up his ipod under a new Apple ID of his own name (i presume this has meant the previous apps were deleted, or maybe he has formatted the ipod and thats why he has created a new ID?). Anyway, the app must no longer have been there so he must have went and got my credit card and used it to purchase the app.

Now £250 is a lot of money to spend twice. I am pretty annoyed, but just wondering if i have any rights, who should i try and contact to see if they will be sympathetic to a refund? Apple, the developer of the app or my CC provider?

JJ_Egan · 8 July 2018 at 5:00PM

Its fraud so the police and then your CC provider .

agrinnall · 8 July 2018 at 5:34PM

Contacting the police, while possibly correct, would be a ridiculous thing to do in this situation. I would contact the app developer to explain what has happened, if they are involved with autism they may understand how this sort of thing could happen and be sympathetic to a refund.

shaun_from_Africa · 8 July 2018 at 6:45PM

agrinnall wrote: »

I would contact the app developer to explain what has happened,

This is also the way I would suggest they you deal with it and only contact your card issuer as a last resort.
If you were to tell the credit card company what happened, they might claim that you were negligent in leaving your card where others could get hold of and use it and thus make you liable for the charge and it's possible that they might revoke your card.

When you contact the app developer, make sure that you have details of both accounts that the app was purchased on along with all the relevant payment details so you can show them that you already had the app so there was no reason for the 2nd purchase.

unholyangel · 8 July 2018 at 8:35PM

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

This is also the way I would suggest they you deal with it and only contact your card issuer as a last resort.
If you were to tell the credit card company what happened, they might claim that you were negligent in leaving your card where others could get hold of and use it and thus make you liable for the charge and it's possible that they might revoke your card.

When you contact the app developer, make sure that you have details of both accounts that the app was purchased on along with all the relevant payment details so you can show them that you already had the app so there was no reason for the 2nd purchase.

Because its a credit card, even if OP failed to take reasonable care (for example if the brother had previous history of doing this and OP left his card out in plain sight on the fireplace), the CCA would limit their liability to the first £50.

shaun_from_Africa · 8 July 2018 at 8:50PM

unholyangel wrote: »

the CCA would limit their liability to the first £50.

I never knew that.
You learn something every day (well, almost every day).

unholyangel · 8 July 2018 at 9:00PM

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

I never knew that.
You learn something every day (well, almost every day).

Was a bit surprised myself when I heard it the first time. The driving force behind it is apparently so people aren't potentially left with thousands of debt for items/services they never ordered/received.

Also applies to debit cards if an overdraft is involved.

Fen1 · 8 July 2018 at 9:12PM

It might be worth setting an alert text or email message every time your cards are used. That way you can keep track of things immediately.

I am not sure if there is a system whereby a transaction over £x requires verification, but that might be worth investigating as well. ( Does anybody know if this process is available? I'm sure it would be an useful feature for everybody.)

Armorica · 8 July 2018 at 10:29PM

1) Ignore most (nearly all) of the advice in this thread. (I'm afraid even the well meaning ones)

2) Follow Apple's refund process. It applies for any transactions in the last 90 days (and strict online selling rules apply for anything within 14 days). For the avoidance of doubt, this will need to be with his login details.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/ht204084 (The app developer probably can't deal direct anyway because of the cut apple takes... they didn't receive £250...)

The process is fairly easy to follow and should result in a full refund. I believe it is apple that makes the decision not the developer so the value should not come into it - especially if you explain the circumstances and provide the user name for your account.

3. Going forwards, you should link your accounts through family sharing. This means you can switch on the ability to authorise accounts (ever so handy). It also conveniently means he will be able to share apps that have been bought on your account. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/ht201085

marliepanda · 9 July 2018 at 7:46AM

We don!!!8217;t know that it was in the last 14 days and from experience anything over 14 days will not result in a refund unless there is a problem with the app itself, which there is not.

peachyprice · 9 July 2018 at 7:48AM

As above.

Contact Apple, they're usually very good at refunding purchases made in error by vulnerable people.

Brother used card to buy £250 app we already have

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