Apple adds another month free for some MobileMe trials

For our friends and neighbors in the UK (and elsewhere: see the update below), the MobileMe quagmire continues to fester. Infinite Loop is reporting that some users were erroneously charged to the tune of £121, and Apple is offering those users another free month of service.

Apparently, when someone tries to create a trial account in the UK, a 50p pre-authorization is placed on the user's credit card. (Not unlike buying fuel and paying with a credit card.) Unfortunately, instead of 50p, someone mashed the keypad, and users were billed £121 instead.

For debit card users, it's worse: the money is actually removed from your account, of course. Once the mistake is corrected it takes as much as a month for the funds to reappear.

Apple is, of course, refunding the charges for credit cards, and "working to have these holds removed earlier" for debit card users.

These users now have four months to try the service.

Update: According to some of our commenters, this affects users in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Canada too. Wow.

View Tags

Source: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/07/22/apple-e…

Categories

MobileMe

For our friends and neighbors in the UK (and elsewhere: see the update below), the MobileMe quagmire continues to fester. Infinite Loop is...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

30 Comments

Filter by:

Kevin G

F-ck this trainwreck that is MobileMe. I can't even log in any more. Seems that the press hasn't truly captured Apple's huge botch with this launch; a bit odd isn't it? Calendar doesn't work, Mail rarely works... NEW BUYERS/SUBSCRIBERS BEWARE. Will continue to spread the word anywhere/everywhere possible. Apple, if you're listening, how does it feel to fail?

July 24 2008 at 10:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kevin G

MobileMe does not work; new buyers beware! Calendar deletes meetings, Mail rarely functions... it's a MAJOR TRAINWRECK.

July 23 2008 at 10:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jash Sayani

Can anyone post a link to Apple Support KB Article saying this ?

July 23 2008 at 9:15 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

didn't have any problems with being charged the wrong amount for the trial here, i'm in austria.
i never got any mail from apple regarding a longer trial/outage or anything, they extended it until oktober 12th thought (got the trial account on 14th this month) as i can see in my account preferences!
regarding the outages, i've only had some mail problems, i.e. no mail, yesterday but it seems like everything is working fine now for me!

July 23 2008 at 3:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jash Sayani

Yeah. It happened to me. Was charged $100 instead of $1 authorization charge. It was pretty confusing reciving those text message from the bank. I was totally annoyed with Apple !

July 23 2008 at 2:48 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Freddie

Add Singapore to the list. Added another 30 days.

July 22 2008 at 10:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

henrrik

Sweden was affected too according to Macworld. Apple pre-authorized 1.163 SEK.

July 22 2008 at 4:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

FSFunky

Add the Netherlands to list, I also currently have 108 days left on my trial account.

July 22 2008 at 3:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Yep, i got 108days left, og my trial... bot apple have still blocked 192 US $ on my bank acount... and all apple says is.. "we know, we know, we working on it.. " and now i have been there since 10 july.. nice job apple...

btw. it's Denmark

July 22 2008 at 2:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tim

Never mind the free trials, what about us loyal dotMac users, there since day one, and I for one have not had any notification about my promised free extra month. In fact Apple just took another years subscription 2 days ago, just as my MobileMeMail literally just disappeared leaving me with a complete blank page and my account has been offline ever since.

July 22 2008 at 2:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply