Apple’s App Refund Policy: No

Say you’re intrigued by one of the new GPS apps now available for the iPhone. But before you drop $70 to $100 for one, you want to know what your options are in case you don’t like it. So here’s Apple’s App Store refund policy:

There are no refunds. Period.

More accurately, you can get a refund only under one circumstance, and it has nothing to do with whether you like the app or not. According to paragraph 12B of Apple’s App Store Terms and Conditions, you’re entitled to your money back when, “On occasion, technical problems may delay or prevent delivery of your Product.” Other than that, you’re out of luck.

None of this may matter if the most expensive app you’ve downloaded is a 99-cent virtual beer glass. Once the novelty wears off, most people can live with the financial loss. But asking people to spend $100 on an app that they haven’t had the opportunity to try out and can’t return may limit the popularity of the app.

Even if you don’t return a piece of consumer hardware you purchased, you can always try to sell it to someone else. But an unwanted app remains yours forever.

Apple says that prospective buyers are given extensive information about apps that can substantially help in the buying decision, including “Customer Ratings and Reviews, App Store Essentials, Staff Favorites, New & Noteworthy section, Top 100 Free Charts, Top 100 Paid Charts, and Top 100 Grossing Charts,” according to Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman.

As helpful as customer reviews can be, they’re often evenly divided between those who love and those hate an app–sometimes for the same reason. Similar buying aids are available on Web sites from Amazon to Walmart, and those outlets allow you to return products that you don’t want.

Companies do have the ability to offer “lite” versions of their apps for free or a reduced price, but if you’re contemplating buying an app because it’s feature-rich, that approach just defeats the purpose.

Some developers offer limited-use apps on the BlackBerry and Palm stores; download an app and you can use it for free for a certain number of days, and then it stops working. But Apple doesn’t allow that option on its own store.