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Tangential to this - no small part of the reason why I like subscriptions in the iPhone App Store is because Apple doesn't let billers fuck around like this. Th

Tangential to this - no small part of the reason why I like subscriptions in the iPhone App Store is because Apple doesn't let billers fuck around like this. There's one place to see everything, and you can cancel anything in a couple clicks. It's part of why I'd probably never use an alternative app store.

peoplearepeople 4y ago
Cancelling subscriptions on apple devices is a dream, I love it
- lp0_on_fire 4y ago
  True, but it makes auditing your bank account slightly more difficult. Charges come through as "Apple" (or some variation) without indicating what the purchase was for. They also roll charges together so they're not hitting your bank account multiple times in a short period. It's not a lot of work to go into your apple account and compare the invoices to your bank account to see what the charge was _actually_ for, but it was a pain in the rear when our credit card was stolen and used by the thief to Nickle and Dime us for 5-10 dollars here and there over the course of 6 months.
  - teeray 4y ago
    I model it as another account in my books. Each subscription has a recurring debit and it gets credited when money actually moves from my bank. It’s a bit annoying if I buy a one-off thing since I have to enter it by hand, but it’s infrequent enough that it’s not horrible.
  - post-it 4y ago
    They also send out the receipt emails a few days later than the actual charge, so when they charge you you can't immediately go check what the charge was for. I've found that spreadsheeting everything at the end of the month is the easiest way to do it.
- nicolas_t 4y ago
  One of my friend maintains a fitness app that uses in-app subscription when subscribing through the app or subscription through the website with a credit card. The apple subscription generate a lot more support requests because a lot of customers are confused on how to stop the in app subscription. Unfortunately, the company can't stop the subscription, it can only be done by the customer through the app store, so instead of just being able to cancel it for confused customers who request it, they have to guide them to cancel it on their side which is a lot of work.
  - jkestner 4y ago
    Your friend should look into deep-linking to the subscriptions screen in the App Store from within their app. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15530794/link-to-app-manage-subscriptions-in-app-store https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15530794/link-to-app-man...
- roflyear 4y ago
  It's just as easy on Android
ljf 4y ago
True, but they still have the '8 day free trial then £59.99 a year billing' for some apps. My wife installed a design app she wanted to try out, forgot to cancel and was stung last week. For such a high purchase price that feels to me like there should be addition verification step before charging. Especially since the app was terrible and the reviews were full of people who were similarly charged and unhappy.
- nickthegreek 4y ago
  What is bonkers about that? Apple let 2 consenting parties enter into an agreement and provides a single interface to cancel that agreement whenever you want from their pocket without talking to anyone. I struggle to think of a better setup.
  - Mavvie 4y ago
    I think the Google Play store also sends you a reminder before a free trial converts to a paid plan, which is better.
    - nickthegreek 4y ago
      That is a great idea, but I could not find any information/screenshots about Google Play doing this.
      - Mavvie 4y ago
        I double checked my email and confirmed I'm not hallucinating! I can upload screenshots later if you want. It seems they email me a few days before a trial ends (the longer the trial, the more advanced notice they give)
        nickthegreek 4y ago
        Ah, an email. I was searching for notifications or some sort in OS warning. That is a plus for Google in my book. Apple apparently does not do this.
robg 4y ago
1000% - just wish they’d drop their fees so that more companies would see the benefits versus rolling their own.
- Kwpolska 4y ago
  Even if Apple's fees were 5%, there would be companies that would prefer a custom subscription system because they could save one cent per transaction and track the customers better.
rootusrootus 4y ago
I tend to agree, with a caveat. If you have a family Apple account and one of your family members has a subscription, you do not have visibility even though it is your credit card getting billed. So for a complete picture you have to log into each of your kids' devices to see if they have an active subscription. It seems to be done for privacy reasons, but I don't agree with how they handle it. I should be able to see all charges going to my Apple account credit card no matter which sub-account originated them.
- chewmieser 4y ago
  You can actually see this information on reportaproblem.apple.com now. Has recent charges by each family member and tells you if a subscription will renew.
- Riseed 4y ago
  In my online credit card account, I can expand each purchase and "show digital receipt" to get information about what app/subscription it was for. For all App Store purchases, Apple will also email the account that made the purchase (even if it's me) to let them know the purchase details were requested. That seems reasonable to me--the payer knows what the payment was for, and the purchaser knows the info was accessed.
johnfn 4y ago
Completely true. One way this has saved me in the past: Audible has an incredibly shady practice where the only way to get books is that their subscription service gives you tokens (1 a month) to redeem books with. However, if you cancel your subscription, your tokens are lost. But, if you subscribe to Audible through Apple, then because of Apple the tokens are retained, even if you cancel.
- galkk 4y ago
  Wow, this is good to know, thanks.
cloverich 4y ago
Also they force subscriptions to make the actual price you pay the most prominent. Common dark pattern is to put "8.99" a month, then under it in tiny text "Billed immediately as 107.88, renews annually". To pass Apple's approval, they would have to write "107.88" in large text, as that is what you are actually going to be charged.
- shortcake27 4y ago
  1Password got me with this. I was getting it for free because my work used it, but when I left, write/autofill was suspended. I had planned to move to a different service as I dislike 1P8, but I was in a hurry to just get things working again, and $2.99 a month is cheap enough to get me by for a few months. I enter my CC details. Get charged $39.47 (10% for GST). I go back and look at the site and realise the monthly price is billed annually. I don’t recall being quoted this price when I entered my CC details, perhaps it was displayed in a way that was easy to miss for people in a hurry. In any case there’s a dark pattern in their checkout flow. It’s disingenuous to to advertise $2.99 and bill $39.47. Imagine a cafe that advertises the price of their coffee as 40c then in smallprint “times 12 made in a single payment”. The advertised price should match the billed price for all products and services.
  - knodi123 4y ago
    > advertises the price of their coffee as 40c then in smallprint “times 12 made in a single payment”. lol, exactly like the mail-order CD club I signed up for back in high school.
  - m3kw9 4y ago
    It’s in the footnote hidden in the middle of 10 other footnotes after scroll a meter to the bottom screen in small grey text
mrbombastic 4y ago
I agree but interestingly had a conversation with my family and they all had the opposite impression. They were complaining about mysterious recurring apple charges on their bank cards that they had no idea what they were or how to find out. I pointed out that you could see all your subscriptions under your Apple ID on your phone and they were all amazed. Long winded way of saying, if anyone from apple is reading this, maybe make this more discoverable and if possible disambiguate the charges on the bill (maybe put the originating app name for the subscription in the charge?).
- shortcake27 4y ago
  I wish Apple would just combine all my subscriptions into a single payment.

peoplearepeople 4y ago

Cancelling subscriptions on apple devices is a dream, I love it

lp0_on_fire 4y ago
True, but it makes auditing your bank account slightly more difficult. Charges come through as "Apple" (or some variation) without indicating what the purchase was for. They also roll charges together so they're not hitting your bank account multiple times in a short period. It's not a lot of work to go into your apple account and compare the invoices to your bank account to see what the charge was _actually_ for, but it was a pain in the rear when our credit card was stolen and used by the thief to Nickle and Dime us for 5-10 dollars here and there over the course of 6 months.
- teeray 4y ago
  I model it as another account in my books. Each subscription has a recurring debit and it gets credited when money actually moves from my bank. It’s a bit annoying if I buy a one-off thing since I have to enter it by hand, but it’s infrequent enough that it’s not horrible.
- post-it 4y ago
  They also send out the receipt emails a few days later than the actual charge, so when they charge you you can't immediately go check what the charge was for. I've found that spreadsheeting everything at the end of the month is the easiest way to do it.
nicolas_t 4y ago
One of my friend maintains a fitness app that uses in-app subscription when subscribing through the app or subscription through the website with a credit card. The apple subscription generate a lot more support requests because a lot of customers are confused on how to stop the in app subscription. Unfortunately, the company can't stop the subscription, it can only be done by the customer through the app store, so instead of just being able to cancel it for confused customers who request it, they have to guide them to cancel it on their side which is a lot of work.
- jkestner 4y ago
  Your friend should look into deep-linking to the subscriptions screen in the App Store from within their app. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15530794/link-to-app-manage-subscriptions-in-app-store https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15530794/link-to-app-man...
roflyear 4y ago
It's just as easy on Android

ljf 4y ago

True, but they still have the '8 day free trial then £59.99 a year billing' for some apps. My wife installed a design app she wanted to try out, forgot to cancel and was stung last week. For such a high purchase price that feels to me like there should be addition verification step before charging. Especially since the app was terrible and the reviews were full of people who were similarly charged and unhappy.

nickthegreek 4y ago
What is bonkers about that? Apple let 2 consenting parties enter into an agreement and provides a single interface to cancel that agreement whenever you want from their pocket without talking to anyone. I struggle to think of a better setup.
- Mavvie 4y ago
  I think the Google Play store also sends you a reminder before a free trial converts to a paid plan, which is better.
  - nickthegreek 4y ago
    That is a great idea, but I could not find any information/screenshots about Google Play doing this.
    - Mavvie 4y ago
      I double checked my email and confirmed I'm not hallucinating! I can upload screenshots later if you want. It seems they email me a few days before a trial ends (the longer the trial, the more advanced notice they give)
      - nickthegreek 4y ago
        Ah, an email. I was searching for notifications or some sort in OS warning. That is a plus for Google in my book. Apple apparently does not do this.

robg 4y ago

1000% - just wish they’d drop their fees so that more companies would see the benefits versus rolling their own.

Kwpolska 4y ago
Even if Apple's fees were 5%, there would be companies that would prefer a custom subscription system because they could save one cent per transaction and track the customers better.

rootusrootus 4y ago

I tend to agree, with a caveat. If you have a family Apple account and one of your family members has a subscription, you do not have visibility even though it is your credit card getting billed. So for a complete picture you have to log into each of your kids' devices to see if they have an active subscription. It seems to be done for privacy reasons, but I don't agree with how they handle it. I should be able to see all charges going to my Apple account credit card no matter which sub-account originated them.

chewmieser 4y ago
You can actually see this information on reportaproblem.apple.com now. Has recent charges by each family member and tells you if a subscription will renew.
Riseed 4y ago
In my online credit card account, I can expand each purchase and "show digital receipt" to get information about what app/subscription it was for. For all App Store purchases, Apple will also email the account that made the purchase (even if it's me) to let them know the purchase details were requested. That seems reasonable to me--the payer knows what the payment was for, and the purchaser knows the info was accessed.

johnfn 4y ago

Completely true. One way this has saved me in the past: Audible has an incredibly shady practice where the only way to get books is that their subscription service gives you tokens (1 a month) to redeem books with. However, if you cancel your subscription, your tokens are lost. But, if you subscribe to Audible through Apple, then because of Apple the tokens are retained, even if you cancel.

galkk 4y ago
Wow, this is good to know, thanks.

cloverich 4y ago

Also they force subscriptions to make the actual price you pay the most prominent. Common dark pattern is to put "8.99" a month, then under it in tiny text "Billed immediately as 107.88, renews annually". To pass Apple's approval, they would have to write "107.88" in large text, as that is what you are actually going to be charged.

shortcake27 4y ago
1Password got me with this. I was getting it for free because my work used it, but when I left, write/autofill was suspended. I had planned to move to a different service as I dislike 1P8, but I was in a hurry to just get things working again, and $2.99 a month is cheap enough to get me by for a few months. I enter my CC details. Get charged $39.47 (10% for GST). I go back and look at the site and realise the monthly price is billed annually. I don’t recall being quoted this price when I entered my CC details, perhaps it was displayed in a way that was easy to miss for people in a hurry. In any case there’s a dark pattern in their checkout flow. It’s disingenuous to to advertise $2.99 and bill $39.47. Imagine a cafe that advertises the price of their coffee as 40c then in smallprint “times 12 made in a single payment”. The advertised price should match the billed price for all products and services.
- knodi123 4y ago
  > advertises the price of their coffee as 40c then in smallprint “times 12 made in a single payment”. lol, exactly like the mail-order CD club I signed up for back in high school.
- m3kw9 4y ago
  It’s in the footnote hidden in the middle of 10 other footnotes after scroll a meter to the bottom screen in small grey text

mrbombastic 4y ago

I agree but interestingly had a conversation with my family and they all had the opposite impression. They were complaining about mysterious recurring apple charges on their bank cards that they had no idea what they were or how to find out. I pointed out that you could see all your subscriptions under your Apple ID on your phone and they were all amazed. Long winded way of saying, if anyone from apple is reading this, maybe make this more discoverable and if possible disambiguate the charges on the bill (maybe put the originating app name for the subscription in the charge?).

shortcake27 4y ago
I wish Apple would just combine all my subscriptions into a single payment.