Earlier (in this post) I reported that the reporting feature of the App Hub was telling me that on Feb 2, 2011, two of my apps, Fraction Calculator and Decimal2Fraction Converter, had minus 2 downloads. How does one have negative downloads, I wondered? I put in a problem report to Microsoft, since there was no explanation for it anywhere I could find in the documentation. A couple of days ago I finally got the word on what this all meant.
So it wasn’t a bug, it was a feature. I guess you could say it was an “undocumented” feature. But it means that I had a “chargeback” on the two apps. Here’s the report:
Hello Mike,
Thank you once again for your patience. I have confirmed that the negative downloads are due to application chargebacks, which occur when a customer contacts their mobile operator to refund the purchase. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best Regards,
Ben
The Windows Phone Marketplace Support Team
So, a customer who bought the apps decided that he or she didn’t like them or want them, and decided to get a refund. That’s fine! I surmise that both chargebacks were from the same customer, since it occurred on the same day for related products. But no matter.
One part of me is a little surprised that someone would request a refund for an item that only cost 99 cents (I wouldn’t have, for example), but the other part is glad to hear that someone was vehement enough to want a refund for such a small amount! I only wish I could have gotten some feedback on why, so that I could make relevant improvements. So far, my customers have only given one of my apps a rating in the Marketplace, and that rating was on Fraction Calculator: four out of five stars. And no written commentary. I’ll take 4/5.
It’s all good.