Comments on: What’s Your Take on 24 Hour Market Return Policy?

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:33:35 +0000

Has anyone actually received a refund? Over the last year, of the many, many apps I have returned easilywithin the 24 hour limit, (some after only 10 mins or so), I have not received one refund. I can see the money going out of mybank account, but not one depoit of a refund.
This refund carot is a marketing scam.

By: Orlando

Orlando — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:13:20 +0000

No, it’s not necessary for the android market to provide more than 24 hrs to sample the apps, for Gosh sakes most apps are a DOLLAR, you can even consider it a low scale tip for us, developers and let us keep it.
Many complain of “crappy apps”, well how can we make quality apps (which require a team of developers and artist) when we are making just a few dollars as developers, because a lot of people returns the app or gets it pirated. While people don’t spend money and google fixes the crappy android market I don’t see myself wasting time developing nothing else for android.

By: Opticfibre

Opticfibre — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:09:47 +0000

As a new developer to the Android Market, i must say the 24hr returns thingy it is a bit of a shock after selling on the iPhone App Store.

The orders come in and then you have a nail biting 24hrs pacing up and down like an expectant father, constantly checking to see if the customer has returned the App!

It does however encourage developers to make sure their app is worth keeping by making it unique or quirky or tempt them with updates, nuggits, of even easter egg features.

One good point is that the 24hr return is a once only deal. If you buy the app again its FINAL!

By: Quentyn

Quentyn — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:26:56 +0000

Agreed with most of the comments here. Crap apps need to be weeded out, and buyers should be protected and this is the easiest solution for now

By: chris

chris — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:02:30 +0000

YES, we in the uk have paid apps today, adn i am liking the new pricing system!

By: muon

muon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:34:42 +0000

If people don’t want to continue using it, you don’t deserve to get paid for it. The fact that you spent time making an app that someone doesn’t want for more than 5 minutes doesn’t mean you deserve a paycheck. It means you didn’t have something good to put out there in the first place, suck at your job, or you weren’t trying very hard. A customer can’t tell if you’ll like an app until trying it so a closed return policy would be unfair. No one would buy half the stuff out there and the developers would earn even less. Maybe they should set it up more like a shareware model where you can try apps and then they either expire after a while or you pay for it if you want to keep it. Otherwise, I say put it on your own website instead of the market and let people find it on their own if it’s really so good.

By: Bas'

Bas' — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:37:21 +0000

Hi all. What is the difference between the 24h return policy and a 3-days unlimited trial version ? (Limited time but unlimited features).
Every desktop computer application has a trial period. Their developers aren’t (that much) afraid of people using the trial then not buying it. Or at least, it as been accepted now.
Maybe the problem for the Android apps developers is that they are *paid*(almost) so they fill they *have the money*, then there is a refund so they fill the *money is taken back*.
In anyway, consumers need to test/try because ratings are not enough. What do you think about 2 options :
- 24 return policy apps
AND
- Apps with a trial version and an unlimited version
and developers could choose what they prefer ?

By: zlander

zlander — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:18:42 +0000

To the developer complaining about the 70% drop in sales, bcuz no one buys the crappy apps…its developers like yourself who made google add a 24hour return policy, google as a brand doesnt want to be labeled as a corporation that supports a half ass product, like your trying to sell with your apps…anyone that’s taken a few programming courses would be making apps on this Os and taking money from people with real jobs…no if wyou get on your job, and be innovative, and also provide a well developed app…u would be rejoicing in a 70% increase in your sales..soo stop complaining and make some good apps, or shut the hell up, and go work at mcdonalds..thnk u

By: Froogloid

Froogloid — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:47:22 +0000

Thanks Josh. Our strategy is likely much different than most android developers. We want to build a “business”, not just some one-off, half functional application. Thanks for noticing and I certainly appreciate your positive comments!

Chris

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:36:06 +0000

@Froogloid

You are unlike most developers with their applications in the market place. You have a youtube video about the app, a website and provide direct support all listed on the details page for you app in the market place. This gives the user the ability to preview what they are going to buy. You are an asset to the community.

With almost all applications/games in the market place I don’t know what I am getting and can only rely on the reviews. These reveiws are hard to qualifiy as usable since most of them seemed to be written by some one with the comprehension of a 13 year old.

By: Russell

Russell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:19:38 +0000

A 1-2 hour return policy would make a lot more sense.

By: Ed Burnette

Ed Burnette — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:46:05 +0000

To offset lost sales due to returns should the average price go up?

By: Carmex

Carmex — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:49:25 +0000

Abe has a good point about games. Reading through marketplace comments of several games you’ll find numerous posts to this effect: (5 stars) “Great game! Really well done but I beat all 100 levels before the 24 hours were up so I got a refund!”

This has to be frustrating for developers. They make an admittedly excellent product, get good ratings, but people still don’t end up paying them for their efforts. I’m not saying the refund period should be eliminated, but it would be nice if there were a good solution to keep people from taking advantage of the market.

By: Froogloid

Froogloid — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:48:05 +0000

I have mixed feelings but overall I think it’s good. To be perfectly honest, we’ve experienced a very low return rate with a2b.

Why? Several reasons:

1) a2b works! and works really well! We’ve found zero defects in production!

2) Our price is extremely competitive ~ 99 cents!

3) a2b offers more features than other paid apps in our class (travel) [compass, GPS, camera, voice recording, free text notes, unlimited stored locations…on and on and on)

4) product support ~ I personally email every single person that purchases our app to say thank you and let them know if they have any issues they can personally contact me. If someone returns the app I follow up to see why they returned.

5) 4.67 stars out 5 with positive comments

In conclusion, build a solid product, support your customers, sell it at a reasonable price and returns should be a non issue.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:34:01 +0000

I feel for the developers, and I know alot of them work hard and are eager to put out an app early so users can beta test or to show the world their creation. But there are alot of developers building poor applications and saturating the market making it harder to find well developed apps. I do beleive some developers buy their $1 app on multilple accounts and give it 5 star rating to bump sales. So I think the return policy will help the developers that are trying, its just not going to be the same as the iPhone market, but you don’t have the restrictions either. The good Apps will show in the ratings and rating count and users will pick up on this.

The market could correct a bit of the return policy woes by showing the rating count below the stars from the main screen. It takes too much effort to go into each Application to see how many users there. This would give a quick oversite to how many people have tried. Another idea would be able to sort the Applications by rating and rating count.

Also the market definetely needs screen shots now with the paid apps as other posters comented. A secondary page/link that would show a couple screen grabs and more details would be nice. I would be more inclined to buy and probably return less because I can see what I am purchasing. The seperation of demos makes it hard to tell wether an app has a lite/free/trial version avaiable.