At $29.99, Lion was priced so cheap that everyone could afford the upgrade. Everyone except John Christman, that is, who found that his PayPal account was charged $3878.38 by Apple.
According to Christman, his PayPal account was charged 121 times the amount of the Lion upgrade, while both Apple and PayPal pointed fingers of blame at each other.
Now he’s broke. Even though Christman says his PayPal account lists the purchases as refunded, he hasn’t seen any money back.
“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.”
Christman, for some reason, believes the issue is related to the new iCloud feature allowing you to automatically download previous purchases, but to us, this sounds like something bigger… and sure enough, the Apple Support forums are filled with complaints about similar issues.
[via MacRumors]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
46 responses to “Some Users Being Charged Over 100 Times For OS X Lion”
My debit card hasn’t been charged at all…. I just checked my checking account balance… nothing from Apple for $29.99
ummm. perhaps you can read the article again and then rethink that headline. not some users…1 user. this kind of “journalism” needs to stop on this blog.
They’re taking a page out of CNN and FOX’s books (and all cable TV news channels for that matter)
He should contact his funding bank and issue chargebacks against the extra charges. Most banks will have the money replaced in 24 hours via temporary credit while they do their investigation. He can then pay his mortgage.
Next time buy this stuff on a credit or debit card and not Paypal.
I’m confused. Is Christman paying his mortgage via PayPal? Does he have his PayPal account automatically linked directly to his bank account or credit card (a very bad idea)? If linked directly to bank or credit card, it should be easy to simply call them up and tell them to stop payment. It’s obviously a goof. There’s too little information for this to really make sense. How does PayPal impact the guy so that he has no money left?
yeah there is something weird about his story, seriously who uses a paypal account/card to pay their mortgage ? Paypal has a very bad track record for freezing or not refunding money back to people, so nothing new there… I cant even use it to buy gas because i will pump $20 worth of gas and paypal holds 50 additional dollars then takes 3 weeks to have those 50 back…
This guy is an idiot… or hes not telling the real story
for journalism, see elsewhere
Seriously dude?
He obviously has his payment method set to his bank account and debit card, when he pays for something via PayPal it gets deducted from his account. The $3,800 was taken from his bank account when it was only suppose to be $30 and now has no money in the bank account to pay his bills because the purchase cleared out his account. Those who have it tied to a credit card have to worry about Maxing their credit cards and losing current interest rates and paying fees for going over. Those with bank accounts tied to PayPal may face a 0 balance and some even face overdraft fees.
He is not the only one, click the link in the article and you will see that this is an issue for nearly everyone paying via PayPal… So who is the idiot?
PayPal has to be linked to an account, You can add money to PayPal account via Checking account and Pay for purchases via PayPal. You can also you a debit or credit card to use PayPal to pay for things. People use it so they don’t need to create an account for each site and don’t have to put their credit card details on different sites. He can try and get a chargeback from his credit card company or bank.
ummm. perhaps you can read the article again and then rethink that headline. not some users…1 user. this kind of “journalism” needs to stop on this blog.Perhaps you could read the article and visit the Apple support page that is filled with numerous of PayPal users experience this PayPal problem and stop making us Mac users look stupid. Some users is the right headline!!!
Anyone with a website can be a “journalist”.
So there are multiple people who have been charged for downloading Lion over a hundred times? That would have to be true if the headline is “some users.” If it is only this guy, it should say “A user.”
ah you are right, my oversight. It would have been correct to say Users overcharge for OS X Lion Purchases, or PayPal users since it appears to be limited to them. For the current headline to work it should really be One User charged.
My apologizes…
To clear your confusion, have a paypal account and see how it works. It is connected to our bank account, anything deducted from Paypal will automatically deduct from bank directly.
This isn’t as rare as you might think: it happened to me when I purchased OS X Lion Server for my Mac Mini Server. I was charged for 24 copies of both Lion and Lion Server! I got on the phone to the Big A in a hurry and they are in the process of repairing the damage. It will take up to five days to see a refund. I hope it goes well.
So, to those who are skeptical of this being a factual account, I can attest to it that it HAS happened to others, and I was one of them.
I already have a PayPal account which I hardly ever use, but it is purposely NOT linked to my bank account because I consider it horribly insecure. With identity theft on the rise, there’s no way I’d even think of doing this.
Ironically spoken, and with mastery. But at the base of it, whether Brownlee calls himself a journalist or not, he just doesn’t take his job very seriously.
And it looks bad on Cult of Mac. I know Brownlee’s been around for a while… maybe that’s why he doesn’t care… but I think that if I were running CoM, I’d be a little more concerned about the quality of output and the reputation that comes with bad quality.
I am a Mac owner and I love Apple’s product lines but that is as far as I trust them. At least PayPal acknowledged the error. Apple claims there was only one transaction? My ass there was only one transaction. Apple has the whole three grand and they are gonna make this poor bastard get his money somewhere else.
Now I am not calling him a poor bastard out of complete sympathy. He just learned his lesson. Personally, I think anyone who uses a debit or PayPal account, or any account that provides direct access to your checking account is just asking for trouble down the line. I have had Apple pull the same crap with my debit account and all Apple had to say was that it wasn’t them.
This issue isn’t an uncommon one for Apple. All you have to do is Google this issue and read the horror stories. Apple will not claim responsibility for any electronic transaction error even if the transaction doesn’t make sense, nor will your bank in most cases. Even given the fact that your bank statement lists the transaction in front of your very eyes, Apple will deny that they ever received the money.
So…..after reading some of these posts, it looks like there are some here who will probably learn this lesson as well. To those, I wish you luck. I really do.
Another “QUALITY” piece by John Brownlee….
Why did he not use a credit card, for which there are significant legal protections? Had this shown up on a credit card bill, he could have disputed the invalid transactions and never been out a single cent.
Why would anyone allow Paypal to withdraw money directly from the bank account from which they pay their mortgage? Is the person mentally “challenged”? That’s like going to the grocery store, handing the cashier your life’s savings in a duffel bag, and asking him/her to take out the appropriate amount while you load the groceries into your car.
Another person recommended a “debit card” as a means of paying. That’s just as dumb. The money is gone from your bank account as soon as the transaction takes place and you’re left trying to get it back.
P.S. Don’t waste your time with “I don’t have a credit card” postings. If you’ve f****d up your life to the point where you can’t get a credit card, even a secured one, then you should not be buying things you don’t need — like OS X Lion upgrades.
While why don’t you see if there is a job opening?
you know I’m vein serios bout dat
There’s a difference between not caring about your job, and being lighthearted about your job. John doesn’t take himself too seriously, and that’s what makes his posts unique from everybody else. Everybody has their own reporting style, and with John you can tell it’s his story without even reading his name, you know it’s his because it’s funny, ironic, and unpretentious.
That’s the reason why I return to this blog every single day, because it isn’t afraid to look at the lighter side and isn’t too pretentious.