5 ms·

"...I... clicked 'buy'...and it really bought this app...the App Store...It's not being run well...beware!!!" Does this make sense to anyone? Don't click buy!

aneesh 18y ago
> "..I... clicked 'buy'...and it really bought this app" Gee really? What else is clicking "Buy" supposed to do?
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- sc 18y ago
  Normally: prompt the user for a password, then purchase.
  - cstejerean 18y ago
    unless you've purchased something else recently
    - abstractbill 18y ago
      It's bad if the user interface for something this important depends on hidden state that the user might not remember.
- jcl 18y ago
  While I haven't used the AppStore myself, I'd expect the Buy process to take at least two user steps -- a good rule of thumb for an interface action with permanent effects, to guard against accidental clicks. Maybe the user was expecting one more level of confirmation than the AppStore actually had?
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - ken 18y ago
    Does your email program have a confirmation step after its "Send" button? Confirmation steps, in practice, don't really help. After a few uses, people build up the muscle memory that "action, confirmation" is the action. Then the one time in a hundred they want to cancel, they don't realize until too late. One approach to try would be, for any purchase over $5, make a "confirmation step" that looks like a restaurant bill, and require the user to sign it (with their finger). Perhaps "sign name next to a big number" would be enough to jar them. But really, the solution is to make it undoable/refundable. No matter what barriers you put up, somebody will do it by mistake (guaranteed), and is going to want their money back. If I can return a $1000 jacket in real life, I should be able to return a $1000 no-op app.
    - nuclear_eclipse 18y ago
      When I hit Control-Enter to send, it actually does confirm with me that I want to do that; however, it does not when I use the mouse... (Thunderbird) But I still completely agree with you.
    - plusbryan 18y ago
      sending an email != charging your credit card
      - greyman 18y ago
        with $999.99
      - boredguy8 18y ago
        Don't turn on one-click ordering.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
    - tel 18y ago
t0pj 18y ago
Doesn't Amazon hold a patent for "one-click shopping"? Or is this "one-touch" shopping? ;)
- jimbokun 18y ago
  Yes, and Apple licensed Amazon's patent.
  - mynameishere 18y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click#Apple_Computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click#Apple_Computer WTF? Unreal. It was a joke the day is was born. My god, I'm going to patent sitting on one ass cheek, cuz, you know, nobody's actually patented it yet. Think of the license fees!
    - byrneseyeview 18y ago
      A far, far better thing to patent is "One more click buying," -- sell it to Amazon, and they have a monopoly by induction.
jimbokun 18y ago
Yes, point taken. However, I can imagine people seeing "$999" and some pattern recognition firing in their brain interpreting it as "$9.99" because that would be a more reasonable price for an iPhone app, and clicking "Buy" before the rational part of the brain realized the error. So I imagine that the whole point of setting an iPhone app price at $999 was to scam people in exactly this way. Maybe a modification to one-click would be a "are you really, really sure" dialog for suspiciously high prices. This person, of course, does not have this excuse, because they did correctly interpret "$999", and clicked anyway.
- aston 18y ago
  The price, of course, was $999.99, which isn't deceiving at all.
- tstegart 18y ago
  Or possibly it was done because it was the highest possible price you can sell your app for. And since the whole point was to show off your wealth, its likely $999 was picked for this purpose.
- jodrellblank 18y ago
  In what sense was this a scam? Obscured, hard to find or misleading price? Nope. False or misleading promises of what the program does? Nope. So what's the scam? That you think it's overpriced? That he bought it and now doesn't want it? That the author created it with the sole intention of making money? Caveat Emptor, and all that. Yes, I think there should be an "undo" option, a cooldown period, right to cancellation and money back no questions asked - but there's no wrongdoing here - he has no right to feel outraged or hard done by about the situation.

aneesh 18y ago

> "..I... clicked 'buy'...and it really bought this app" Gee really? What else is clicking "Buy" supposed to do?

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
sc 18y ago
Normally: prompt the user for a password, then purchase.
- cstejerean 18y ago
  unless you've purchased something else recently
  - abstractbill 18y ago
    It's bad if the user interface for something this important depends on hidden state that the user might not remember.
jcl 18y ago
While I haven't used the AppStore myself, I'd expect the Buy process to take at least two user steps -- a good rule of thumb for an interface action with permanent effects, to guard against accidental clicks. Maybe the user was expecting one more level of confirmation than the AppStore actually had?
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- ken 18y ago
  Does your email program have a confirmation step after its "Send" button? Confirmation steps, in practice, don't really help. After a few uses, people build up the muscle memory that "action, confirmation" is the action. Then the one time in a hundred they want to cancel, they don't realize until too late. One approach to try would be, for any purchase over $5, make a "confirmation step" that looks like a restaurant bill, and require the user to sign it (with their finger). Perhaps "sign name next to a big number" would be enough to jar them. But really, the solution is to make it undoable/refundable. No matter what barriers you put up, somebody will do it by mistake (guaranteed), and is going to want their money back. If I can return a $1000 jacket in real life, I should be able to return a $1000 no-op app.
  - nuclear_eclipse 18y ago
    When I hit Control-Enter to send, it actually does confirm with me that I want to do that; however, it does not when I use the mouse... (Thunderbird) But I still completely agree with you.
  - plusbryan 18y ago
    sending an email != charging your credit card
    - greyman 18y ago
      with $999.99
    - boredguy8 18y ago
      Don't turn on one-click ordering.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - tel 18y ago

t0pj 18y ago

Doesn't Amazon hold a patent for "one-click shopping"? Or is this "one-touch" shopping? ;)

jimbokun 18y ago
Yes, and Apple licensed Amazon's patent.
- mynameishere 18y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click#Apple_Computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click#Apple_Computer WTF? Unreal. It was a joke the day is was born. My god, I'm going to patent sitting on one ass cheek, cuz, you know, nobody's actually patented it yet. Think of the license fees!
  - byrneseyeview 18y ago
    A far, far better thing to patent is "One more click buying," -- sell it to Amazon, and they have a monopoly by induction.

jimbokun 18y ago

Yes, point taken. However, I can imagine people seeing "$999" and some pattern recognition firing in their brain interpreting it as "$9.99" because that would be a more reasonable price for an iPhone app, and clicking "Buy" before the rational part of the brain realized the error. So I imagine that the whole point of setting an iPhone app price at $999 was to scam people in exactly this way. Maybe a modification to one-click would be a "are you really, really sure" dialog for suspiciously high prices. This person, of course, does not have this excuse, because they did correctly interpret "$999", and clicked anyway.

aston 18y ago
The price, of course, was $999.99, which isn't deceiving at all.
tstegart 18y ago
Or possibly it was done because it was the highest possible price you can sell your app for. And since the whole point was to show off your wealth, its likely $999 was picked for this purpose.
jodrellblank 18y ago
In what sense was this a scam? Obscured, hard to find or misleading price? Nope. False or misleading promises of what the program does? Nope. So what's the scam? That you think it's overpriced? That he bought it and now doesn't want it? That the author created it with the sole intention of making money? Caveat Emptor, and all that. Yes, I think there should be an "undo" option, a cooldown period, right to cancellation and money back no questions asked - but there's no wrongdoing here - he has no right to feel outraged or hard done by about the situation.