Oh, I am not so worried about what the blindness community would do. But you
know that it wouldn't take long for some blog, or whatever, to pick up on the
fact that, hey, if you don't like an app, tell them that you are blind, use
VoiceOver, and for the life of you, you just can't figure out how to get this
app to work with VoiceOver. So, you know, you need a refund. I would rather
them just institute a refund period, maybe 24 hours, to ask for a refund. That
would make Apple look as if they really care about their customers, and benefit
everybody, including the VoiceOver users. Unfortunately, to cut down on the
abuse, they might have to set a maximum number of refunds for a given time
period, but I could live with that.
Arnold Schmidt
----- Original Message -----
From: Cara Quinn
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2013 4:28 AM
Subject: Re: Bad experience with iTunes Store support regarding app refund
Hello Arnold,
thanks so much for your note.
I'm personally not willing to give into the worry of the least common
denominator principle. If anything, what we've seen so far in the case of this
community when it comes to asking for refunds for apps, is that people have
been more than upstanding, patient and forgiving. -to a fault if I may be so
bold. If I may also say so, this is not always the same in other circles of
blind / visually impaired users of technology I've encountered, so it honestly
warms my heart to say what I have just said about people being upstanding here.
:)
Because of this, I still believe it is reasonable to ask for a policy for
refunds if we are not given the opportunity to know ahead of time whether an
app is usable with VO.
If we can get a descriptive blurb, then a refund would simply depend on what
such a blurb says. I.E. if an app's main advertised features were not
accessible with VoiceOver and a customer chose to purchase said app anyway,
they would not be eligible for a refund. Simple as that… :)
Regardless of the feelings on either side of this issue, I feel this does
need to be brought up in a real and meaningful way. It's best we don't
inadvertently sweep this one under the rug because we may not have a good
answer for this yet. Better for this to be discussed and refined at length if
necessary.
Thanks so much for your note!
Smiles,
Cara :)
On Aug 3, 2013, at 1:02 AM, Arnold Schmidt <arno...@mindspring.com> wrote:
As I state in another message, I would be much more willing to support a
general refund policy, such as Google has, or at least use to have, rather than
an it won't work with VoiceOver policy. That is just too open to abuse.
Besides, a general refund policy would be an even better way to let developers
know if people didn't like their app, a bunch of them all requested refunds.
It might even improve accessibility.
Arnold Schmidt
----- Original Message -----
From: Cara Quinn
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2013 2:58 AM
Subject: Re: Bad experience with iTunes Store support regarding app refund
Sieghard and All,
Let me encourage you and actually everyone on this list to write Apple
Accessibility to request that there be reasonable accommodation in place for
VoiceOver users to receive app refunds in cases like Sieghard's. I'd also
suggest that Sieghard's note be attached to your own.
I believe this issue needs to be brought into the forefront in a positive
and decisive way. We are almost 2000 people on this list and this is a very
good opportunity to make this point heard.
This discussion has come up before of being alerted of VO accessibility
ahead of time in the App Store and though we've not come to a set conclusion on
the best way to do this, having some indication that an app has been found to
be accessible to some degree with VoiceOver before we purchase it is a
completely reasonable request. If this is not possible, then it is more than
reasonable to ask for refunds if we cannot use an app which is not accessible
to us with the available Apple universal access paradigm.
the email address for Apple Accessibility is:
accessibil...@apple.com
These are very caring people so please keep this in mind when you write.
I've known some of them personally. They want to help though there may not be a
clear way of making this happen just yet. Just let them know this is important
though. Make your voice heard in a friendly way. they will listen to you even
if they do not know the best answer yet. :)
Thanks All, for your time.
Sincerely,
Cara :)
On Aug 1, 2013, at 11:09 PM, Sieghard Weitzel <siegh...@live.ca> wrote:
Hello List,
Requesting a refund for an app which turns out not to work with Voiceover
has come up a few times and the iTunes Store support email has been posted in
connection with that. So I thought I post my recent experience with contacting
iTunes Store support via their email.
I had bought a couple of package tracking apps in order to find out which
one I liked best. I have been using Track This which is awesome, but I am in
Canada and for some reason they don’t support Purolator and CanPar which are
both major carriers here. I contacted Track This support twice and never
received a reply.
Anyhow, back to iTunes Store support. I provided all the information
including order numbers, purchase date, my Apple Id etc. I explained how I
really enjoyed my iPhone and the fantastic accessibility, but that
unfortunately these two apps I purchased were not voiceover friendly and there
was no Light version offered which I could have tried first. I also mentioned
that I contacted both developers and after almost a week had not received a
reply. In short, I was friendly, explained everything and even waited to see if
the developers would reply to see if they were willing to make Voiceover
improvements.
I received a prompt reply in which the agent explained that all app sales
are final, but that given the situation they would refund me the $6.72 or
whatever it was for the 2 apps. However, she also continued to give me links as
to their terms and conditions and said that this was a one-time curtocy and
that in the future they could not provide any more refunds and that it was up
to me to make sure I didn’t turn on one-click ordering and accidently purchase
apps or read the app description to be sure it was what I wanted. It was
strange because all of this gave me the impression this person did not at all
get the point about Voiceover and all that, but on the other hand she said they
would give me a refund given the situation. According to what she said I should
see the refund back on my account within 48 hours and since both apps were
purchased using store credit it would come back as store credit. This is now 2
weeks ago and I replied twice to the initial message to explain that I still
had not received the credit and I am getting no more replies.
I guess what I want to say here is that those who have done this and
received refunds are lucky, but it appears one should definitely not count on
getting a refund even if an app turns out not to work with Voiceover. I
certainly will not buy an app again thinking I might as well try it because if
it doesn’t work I can always ask for a refund.
Regards,
Sieghard
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