Introduction to Getting a Refund at iTunes

When you buy a physical item—a book, a dress, a DVD—that you don’t want, you can return it and get your money back (assuming you haven’t unwrapped it, have the receipt, etc). When your purchase is digital, like a song, movie, or app purchased from the iTunes or App Store, how you get a refund is less clear. It may not seem possible, but you can get a refund from the iTunes or App Store.

Or, at least, you can request one. Refunds aren’t guaranteed from Apple. After all, unlike with physical goods, if you download a song from iTunes and then request a refund, you could end up with your money back and the song. Because of this, Apple doesn’t issue refunds to every single person who wants one—and doesn’t make the process for requesting one obvious.

If you’ve bought something you already own, that doesn’t work, or that you didn’t mean to purchase, you’ve got a good case for getting a refund. In that situation, follow these steps to ask Apple for your money back:

1. Go to the iTunes Store via the iTunes program on your computer
2. In the top left corner, there’s a button with your Apple ID on it. Click that button and then click Account from the drop down.
3. Sign in to your Apple ID.

Find the iTunes Purchase to Refund

Once you’ve logged in to your iTunes account, you’ll be taken to an overview screen with various types of information about your account. Towards the bottom of the screen, there’s a section called Purchase History.

In that section, click the See All link.

Clicking that link takes you to a screen that displays your most recent purchase in detail at the top along with nine additional recent purchases below (shown in the screenshot above). Each of these listings may contain more than one item, as they’re grouped by the order numbers Apple assigns to purchases, not individual items.

Find the order that contains the item that you want to request a refund on. When you’ve got it, click the arrow icon at the left of the date.

Report a Problem Purchase

By clicking the arrow icon in the last step, you’ve loaded a detailed list of all the items purchased in that order. That could be individual songs, whole albums, apps, ebooks, movies, or any other kind of content available at iTunes. To the right of each item, you’ll see a Report a Problem link.

Find the link for the item you want to request a refund on and click it.

Describe Problem and Request iTunes Refund

Your default web browser now opens and loads the Report a Problem page on Apple’s website. You’ll see the item you’re requesting a refund on near the top of the page and the Choose Problem drop-down menu beneath it. In that drop-down menu, you can select from a number of types of problems you could have with an iTunes purchase.

A number of these choices could be good reasons for a refund, including:

• I didn’t authorize this purchase
• Didn’t mean to purchase this item
• Meant to purchase a different item
• Item plays but looks or sounds bad
• …

Select the option best describes why you want the refund. In the box below that, describe the situation and what’s leading to your refund request. When you’ve finished that, click the Submit button. Apple will receive your request and, in a few days, inform you of the decision.

Keep in mind, though, that the more you request refunds the less likely you are to keep getting them. Everyone makes the occasional incorrect purchase, but if you regularly buy things from iTunes and then ask for your money back, Apple will notice a pattern and, probably, begin to deny your refund requests. So, only request a refund from iTunes when the case is legitimate.