It appears the end of MobileMe is now upon us… or the end of paid subscriptions to MobileMe at least: a number of subscribers to the $99 a year service are reporting that Apple is automatically refunding renewal fees, but why?
Steve M. set his MobileMe account to auto-renew every year, and when his subscription came to an end this week, he was charged for another year just as expected. What Steve wasn’t expecting, however, is that shortly after the money went out of his checking account, Apple put it back in again. Isn’t that nice?
Recent speculation has led us to believe that iCloud will take over MobileMe when it launches, and that certain services – such as email, contacts, calendars and online file storage – will be free. By refunding MobileMe subscriptions in the run up to WWDC, Apple is certainly indicating that there will be big changes to the service later on today.
Have you had your MobileMe subscription refunded?
[via TUAW]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
61 responses to “With Apple Automatically Refunding MobileMe Renewals, Will iCloud Be Free? [WWDC 2011]”
well, that seems to give the tone for the day right??? i think it’s gonna be interesting.
No I have not been refunded (subscription renewed in April), and right now I can’t access me.com….says “loading mail…” but no page….interesting, but really frustrating if me.com was my main e-mail address….
I just signed up to the trial so hopefully they stop charging! I was gonna cancel before they charged anyway
No issues with my MobileMe account. Running smoothly. No refund either, and I just renewed in May 12.
How about those who’s TRIAL account is ending soon? Apple asked me to start the paid subscription. Should I ignore it?
I suspect that certain parts are going to be free and the rest they are not going to assume that everyone wants to play (and thus pay).
So those that renewed during their general CS ‘return’ period were refunded and those further out will receive a notice that allowing them to adjust what they are paying for and receive a pro-rated refund for the rest as appropriate.
My auto-renew happen on May 14th and I’ve yet to have seen any refund on my credit card as of today (June 6, 2011)
Mine works perfectly, able to send and receive mails…
Mine works perfectly, able to send and receive mails…
No refund for me. I just renewed May 31 for a family account. Let’s see what happens at 1PM Eastern!
Nope, no refund (billed on 5/23) and my me.com is working fine without any glitches today. Are you sure this is correct?
My MobileMe renewed about a week ago and so far they have not refunded me the fee.
I just accessed my Mobile Me mail, so it works fine for me at this tome.
We’ve been seeing rumors about MobileMe going free for quite a while haven’t we?
It makes no sense for them to charge for mail, calendar and the browser syncing features, those are services provided for free by so many now.
The cloud music and cloud storage service makes sense to have to pay for but the rest, not really.
mine ended about a week ago. i didn’t renew it because i was waiting to see what they announced today. i just went to check and see what would happen if i switched it over to a paid subscription, and they were going to charge the full $109. i’d say just wait till this afternoon and see what’s up then.
I hope they get rid of the God-awful ‘me.com‘ domain name; it’s frankly embarrassing when I have to give people my email address
Working now…
So just give them the email address with .mac . It will be the same? wouldn’t it?
Cos it’s @ at you
I’ve always only used the mac.com address. But that is how it was created. If you created it after the me.com started, could you use mac.com?
Well I assumed he stared with a .mac.com cause Clyde is embarrassed to give his email out. Why did he sign up when it became me.com only to complain now. :)
Pretty sure you can only use “mac.com” if you signed up before MobileMe. They are grandfathered in, but not in current use.
That being said, the name “me.com” addresses are very popular and even if all of MobileMe goes, they are likely the only thing to remain.
do you really want an icloud.com address? me.com is much better.
tried to log in to my account which i didn’t renew 6 months ago, it once use to let me still access account settings ect but now it says the account can’t be renewed and to click Learn More for details which takes me to a 404 page
No refund for me, either -> Just paid on 4/21 $99. Hoping ….
just spoke with mobileme customer service & requested refund for the renewal i purchsed two weeks ago.
this was the response i received:
“Betty, I completely understand your concerns with requesting a refund due to the recent announcement. At this time, there has not been any information provided in regarding refunds at this time, as the only option to receive a refund at this point is to cancel the account.”
she almost cancelled my .mac account !
gads!
Yes, .mac was only available prior to MobileMe & can be used, but a .me address exists as an alias.
I receive email regardless of whether it is addressed to .mac or .me.
If .mac ever goes away, I’ll be sooo sad!
If you are due to renew it already has been for free until the end of June 2012.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT…
I just spoke with Apple Support Express Lane, the only option for a refund for MobileMe is to cancel the service. If you are in the first 45 days, full refund. Anything over 45 days the refund is prorated based on length of service. I think that it is BS that my MobileMe just renewed 13 days ago, and all I can do is cancel it to get a refund.
I was actually sent an email informing me that my subscription was set to auto-renew on June 3rd and that my credit card had been charged. On the 3rd, I saw that the payment was pending on my credit card bill. Today, June 6th, it’s no longer on my bill.
I just chatted with a MobileMe representative. They would NOT acknowledge that people are being refunded and said that they would only speak with me about my account. I also forwarded the link to the article and they were not interested. I was just charged for renewal and I ended up canceling. It’s the principle of the matter now. I can wait a year to get it free, if necessary. Wait time was over 45 minutes and to chat with a Supv was another 20-40 minutes.
Well, I paid the $99 on 5/31/11 and they WILL NOT refund. I figure I’ve spent at least $5,000 with Apple in the last 18 months (started up a business) and they would not budge. And this from a company that prides itself on customer service. My freaking credit cards have refunded that much to me a couple of times when I was one day late. I guess there is something to be said for competition!