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Apple Charges Customer 122 Times for Lion

Wednesday July 27, 2011 11:16 am PDT by Jordan Golson

John Christman purchased OS X Lion on July 23, and paid $31.79 after sales tax. Then, his PayPal account was charged $31.79 an additional 121 times, for a total of $3,878.40.

Clearly Mr. Christman didn't need 122 copies of Lion, and something has gone awry. John got in touch with both PayPal and Apple support, but said both sides pointed fingers at each other. "Apple Blames PayPal, PayPal blames Apple. They both are claiming to investigate, but I am stuck broke for three days now."

Christman thinks it is related to the new iCloud feature that allows iTunes to automatically download previous purchases:
I fresh installed Lion, because the upgrade caused a lot of problems. My system needed as fresh start anyway.

I logged into our developer account and got the latest iTunes Beta, and installed it. iTunes has a cool new feature to download all your purchased apps for you.
I clicked download all.

As each download started it charged me $31.79. Some apps came fast, some took longer, but the timing was directly related to when a new app started to download.
He downloaded 116 apps total, but noted that several apps failed to download and needed to be restarted. 116 apps downloaded and 121 extra charges seems too close to be mere coincidence.

Christman isn't the only person to face these issues surrounding Lion and PayPal. There is a lengthy discussion on Apple's support website about the issue, and other bloggers have run into similar problems.

Even though the purchases above say "refunded", Christman says he hasn't seen a dime. "Apple claims there was only one transaction. When I told PayPal to dispute them, they closed the cases and marked the items as refunded on the 23rd. Bear in mind all this money was taken and never returned yet."

"My mortgage is due in 2 days, and thanks to them, I don't have the money."

MacRumors reached out to Apple for comment, who said they would work with John directly to try to get his issues resolved.

[ 417 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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Avatar
Kognito
98 months ago
How do you think Apple made Lion so cheap for the rest of us?
Rating: 43 Votes
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addicted44
98 months ago
If he had followed my motto, he would have been fine.

"Paypal. Just say no."

I don't think there is a more ethically challenged company of similar size than Paypal. Just need to google a little bit to hear all the horror stories.
Rating: 42 Votes
Avatar
alectheking
98 months ago

"My mortgage is due in 2 days, and thanks to them, I don't have the money."
No moron, you clicked on a purchase 122 times and now you don't have the money. Take responsibility for your stupidity.


Did you even read the story? He didnt click anything 122 times, he clicked "download all" and for every app download it also somehow charged him for a copy of Lion.
Rating: 42 Votes
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WeegieMac
98 months ago

I guess he should've linked his itunes account to a credit card. That way he could still pay his mortgage.


Or Apple could have made less of an arse of his purchase in the first place?
Rating: 41 Votes
Avatar
pcmxa
98 months ago

"My mortgage is due in 2 days, and thanks to them, I don't have the money."
No moron, you clicked on a purchase 122 times and now you don't have the money. Take responsibility for your stupidity.


Are you psychic? Did you watch him click purchase 122 times? This isn't the only report of this happening.
Rating: 41 Votes
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ThunderSkunk
98 months ago
Hhahaha

I'll bet it's paypal. About a month ago, I sent someone a $10 refund for a $40 purchase. ...well, it sent them $10 seventeen times. Paypal blamed my bank! ...but then sorted it out to be their own fault later. (how would it have been my bank!?)

Having used ebay & paypal since day 1, is it me or have both gone steadily downhill?
Rating: 40 Votes
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davidjearly
98 months ago

If you're a mere $3K away from being broke and not being able to eat, pay your mortgage, etc., then an upgrade to Lion ought to be considered a luxury item, no?


Why? $29 is a far cry from $3000. What a ridiculous attitude.


Doesn't take a genius to know that is what probably happened. He was inpatient with DL time and kept clicking on it. Now we hold him up as a "victim" of technology. Duh!!!


You fail at understanding how the app purchasing system works.
Rating: 39 Votes
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beeblebrox00
98 months ago
some of you people are hilarious.

I'd venture to say a large percentage of people don't have more than 4,000 in their checking account. That being said, a $30 piece of software if you have 4,000 isn't an outrageous expense by any means.

Guy clearly deserves his money back and in a timely manner. Those who think he deserves to lose it, do you think there is high enough probability that if you purchase a 30 dollar item you may get charged 122 times for it? By that logic, i'd venture to say none of us should take the chance to purchase any items and our economy will come to a screeching holt. As a consumer you can reasonably expect to be charged the price for the item.

The money is gone, so someone has it, either pay pal or apple. And yes he should be paid interest. If I didn't have that money within 48 hours I'd be consulting an attorney
Rating: 36 Votes
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unobtainium
98 months ago

If you're a mere $3K away from being broke and not being able to eat, pay your mortgage, etc., then an upgrade to Lion ought to be considered a luxury item, no?


It's $29 dude. That's like a movie and popcorn in my city.

If people with less than $4000 in the bank refused to spend $29 on an OS upgrade or a night at the movies, the American economy would grind to a halt.
Rating: 32 Votes
Avatar
Stridder44
98 months ago
This is horrible. Hopefully Apple comes to the rescue because I can almost guarantee that PayPal won't. PayPal is one of the shadiest/crappiest companies out there.
Rating: 29 Votes

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