My grandson loves to play with our Apple iPod Touch. He plays all kinds of games which keeps him entertained. Most recently, we received an email that said there were purchases of some coins in a game called Monster Mayhem. The charges ranged from $19.98 to $99.99 made through iTunes.
We thought, how can this be?
Come to find out, our iTunes account had in it a specified credit card–probably from long ago when the account was first created. My grandson, in the course of playing Monster Mayhem, touched some buttons which activated the purchase of thousands of coins needed to enable various options in the game. Note that we didn’t even know this until we got the email notification about the purchase.
Undoing the In-app Purchase
The first thing we did was to see what we can do on iTunes to undo the purchase. We followed the instructions but the online links just goes around in some circular link reference. We could not find the place where we can undo the purchase!
Next we called up our credit card company to dispute the charges. Since the charges weren’t really fraudulent, the credit card company didn’t refuse the charges, but they did get me in touch with Apple customer service.
I received instructions from the Apple support representative on how to undo the purchase.
Apple Contact Us
- Go to the Apple.com support page
- From there click the Contact Us link
- Next click the Express Lane for iTunes Player and iTunes Store
- From the product categories tab, click iTunes, then iTunes Store, and select Purchases, billing, and redemption; click Continue
- You will then be taken to the issue description page, select “my topic is not listed” and provide a short description of your topic. I used “unintentional in-app purchase, need to undo”, then click the ENTER button.
- You’ll need your order number to complete the rest; make sure you have them
- Upon completion of the process, you will get a case number; you will also get an email
For our case, the response to the problem was quick and sent via email. They credited my credit card and added credit to my iTunes account. Whew! I’m glad it’s over.
That takes care of undoing the in-app purchase. Now on to preventing future unintentional in-app purchases since I know my grandson will continue to play games on the iTouch.
Preventing Future Unintentional In-app Purchases
Part of the response Apple sent us were instructions on how to prevent unintentional in-app purchases.
Before doing this, the smartest thing to do is to remove any trace of your credit card on your iTunes account. This is the sure-fire way of avoiding unexpected iTunes purchases.
However, if you do occasional purchases, you’ll want to follow the instructions we got from Apple.
To prevent In-App Purchases from being made in the future, you can block them on your iOS device by following these steps:
- Tap Settings on your device’s home screen.
- Tap General.
- Tap Restrictions.
- If necessary, tap Enable Restrictions and enter a pass code. This pass code will prevent restrictions from being disabled without your permission.
- Scroll down to the Allowed Content section. Switch the In-App Purchases option to OFF. Enter your Restrictions pass code if prompted.
That’s it!
If you found this tip useful, please share and comment below and let me know.
