[ishanjain28]

Play store still has this and the return window is 15 minutes. A refund button will appear on the application page in play store if you uninstall the app within the 15 minute period after purchasing.

Apple on the other hand unfortunately has nothing like that. If you want refund, You have to go through the hassle of creating a ticket and they may refuse to refund for whatever reason.

[pockybum522]

15 minutes is such a strange period. "Hey sorry if this is a complex app you might get through most of setting it up. Good luck"

[freedomben]

Agreed. I think they started it because people would grab a paid app for a one-time need and then return it after using. I saw this happen a couple times with an app that identified plants from a picture, another that scanned and removed apps that show full-screen ads, and a couple others, so the use case makes sense.

But still I think it's a mistake because 15 mins is not enough time to know if the app is going to work. Sometimes it takes that long just to get the damn thing installed! Especially if on a mobile connection or the app is big. I once got screwed because I bought an app that didn't work on my device, but I couldn't find out within 15 minutes because my storage was too full and the Play store refused to install it until I cleared out more room. It took a while to go through all my stuff and back them up to the cloud, so by the time I actually got the app installed and found out it didn't work, it had been 20 minutes or so. Now I'm very hesitant.

[zare_st]

If someone is good with using it just once he wouldn't pay anyway.

A 1 day return period should be enough. Once you return the product you cannot trial it again without purchase.

[freedomben]

Strong points. In addition to being better for the real paying customers, it also has anti-abuse protection baked in. Seems like a no-brainer to me to go with a 24 hour return period

[graftak]

That might hurt game sales fundamentally if they can be completed within that time frame.

If there’s gonna be a short timer it should start the moment the app is first opened instead of the purchase time.

[Wowfunhappy]

Just give games and applications different rules. They're both software, but one is an artistic work, and one is a tool.

[neurostimulant]

IIRC a long time ago, game devs would complain to google about people abusing refund policy by buying their games, complete the whole playthrough in a day, then requesting refund. This was before in-app purchase become the norm though, so you can buy full games upfront instead of unlocking it bit by bit via in-app purchases.

[jrockway]

I think the workaround in the Apple community is to make the app free, and then have an in-app purchase for the full version. This often has a free trial.

As an example, I recently tried a sleep tracking app. It is a subscription service but has a 1 week free trial. I tried it for a few nights, hated the mechanics of making it work, so I canceled the free trial and uninstalled the app. $0 spent on a paid app, completely supported by Apple.

It should be something available by default, but the workarounds seem pretty widespread. The advantage of this approach is that many developers offer "pay per month" or "pay a lot once" for their paid apps. The user can choose which one they like better.

[FredPret]

They may refuse, but do they ever? I’ve refunded many apps, days after purchase, no issues.

[ishanjain28]

Yes, they have refused it a few times.