[AdamDZ]

Nah, these screens are for a new 10" iPod Touch...
A.

[john0879]

I have to agree wtih bjojade. Why should the developer give people a refund. They didn't pull the plug on the service, Google did. And for that matter, Google is not required to offer a service for free forever.
I don't have AT&T service, so I don't know how much ad-hoc text message cost, but even at $0.10 a message, you only need to send 10 messages to get your $1 worth. Any more and you saved money. So why exactly does anyone deserve a refund?

[Peerb]

Can't help but thinking that it would just encourage Apple to further policing the App store if buyers of this application sought to get their money back.

[hempadvocate]

Because that is good customer service... let's say you hired me to build a deck off your back door using a set of plans available for free on the Cities website and you paid me $100 upfront but the City denied the building permit so I couldn't actually build the deck using the Cities plans. Don't you think you'd be owed a refund?

[Angry_Drunk]

Golf11 said:

I don't get it, there is this sense of entitlement with some users of Apple's stuff (they spend a fortune on the hardware and whine about a $1 because they've spent their allowance on expensive hardware).

Dude, don't screw with the Apple sense of entitlement. It will totally...well, actually, all it will do is whine loudly on web forums. But isn't that bad enough?

[JoeC]

Really? Big Brother? Let's get real, here. Google was footing a rather large bill and getting nothing in return. What company in its right mind would allow that to continue?

If I started charging all my bar tabs to you every night, how long before you would cut me off?

[context]

Blame, blame, blame. It's the American pastime. Nobody is to blame here. Unexpected things happened, as they sometimes, do, and there is an unfortunate result. There was no malice or deception.

[Golf11]

hempadvocate said:

Because that is good customer service... let's say you hired me to build a deck off your back door using a set of plans available for free on the Cities website and you paid me $100 upfront but the City denied the building permit so I couldn't actually build the deck using the Cities plans. Don't you think you'd be owed a refund?

NO. What dont you get, just because it's FREE doesn't mean someone HAS to let you do something with it. And using your exapmle, if you didn't check the zoning requirements and were denied, you're SOL. NOTHING in life is free and the sooner we all grasp this the better..we end up paying for it somehow.

[hempadvocate]

Is Google being charged for every SMS that is sent through this service?

[meta]

Yes, it costs Google money every time an SMS is sent via them. They were offering the service to entice people to use Google Talk and Gmail.

If the iPhone actually had a decent IM client, there wouldn't be an issue. So ultimately it comes down to Apple's presumably deliberate crippling of the phone to increase AT&T's SMS revenue.

[Golf11]

hempadvocate said:

Is Google being charged for every SMS that is sent through this service?

What difference does it make? It BELONGS TO GOOGLE, it adds to their cost, bandwidth, etc. You paid for something that is designed to mooch off of someone else's property. You purchased this app to avoid having to pay for it with the added expense of buying the more expensive iphone or to avoid paying the charge that the phone company imposes for SMS messages.

[hempadvocate]

It's not about blame... it's about good customer service. I guess if you went to a coffeeshop and ordered a $3 coffee and they gave you a $1 tea because they ran out of coffee you'd just say, "unfortunate things happen."

[john0879]

You're ignoring the point that you only need to send 10 text messages (assuming $0.10/message) in order to get your money's worth out of the application. I would venture a guess that most of the people who bought this application send a lot of text messages and don't want to pay AT&T for the service. They have probably gotten more than their money's worth out of it. Noone is owed a refund. People just want everything for free.

Your deck example is flawed. For work like that their should be a contract envolved that would stipulate the terms of a refund on the up front payment. If I don't do my part before signing and get the City permit I am not owed a refund unless the contract states that I am. Would I be upset that I am out $100? Yes, but I would not feel that I am owed the money back.

How about what is fair for the developer? They spent time and resources creating and supporting the application. If they were to refund everyone's money, then they are taking a loss on this application that I assume worked as advertised until Google pulled the plug.

[hempadvocate]

The denied permit issue wasn't about a zoning requirement but about an arbitrary decision by an employee to deny your permit while your neighbor was granted a permit to build the same deck on their house two days before you. To think that you could have bought something on Sunday that stopped working on Wednesday and not have a chance for a refund is poor customer service.