http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/06/10008961-android-in-app-purchase-system-robs-usersFor those of you who purchase bonus features and subscriptions from within apps on Android, a vigilant software engineer has found a major problem: credit cards charged without consumers receiving the product in return.
Koushik Dutta, a self-employed software engineer who has developed a fine reputation and following for creating the ROM Manager app, posted on Google+ Thursday about this problem under this unambiguous headline: "Don't Use Android Market In App Billing. Seriously."
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Whether you are a consumer, or a developer, you do not want to purchase or use Android Market In App Billing. Why? Because there's a 3-4% reported failure rate.
The way in app billing works:
1) User makes a purchase.
2) Android Market purchase begins.
3) The purchase completes, and the user is returned to the application
4) The purchase is reported to the application.
Seems simple enough. The problem though is that step 4 never happens: the application never gets a report of the purchase succeeding. However, the credit card has been charged. Furthermore, you can't initiate another attempt to purchase, because the Android Market will prevent duplicate purchases. To add insult to injury, the consumer does not even have the usual luxury of a 15 minute refund window, because it is not possible to refund in app purchases.
