Sometimes users end up being double charged from subscribing through in-app plans and your Uscreen storefront. That often happens when users forget they already have a subscription.

Marketplaces like Apple App Store and Google Play Store do not send billing information to us. Instead, our apps send this information (roughly) every month. When a subscriber has not logged into the app through which they purchased access for several weeks (in the case of Apple or Android-based subscriptions), we may not receive the payment confirmation from the renewal, and access is revoked until they sign in to the mobile app again.

The subscriber may then proceed to purchase subscription access through your site. However, if they still have a current subscription through an in-app purchase, they simply need to restore their purchase to regain access instead of purchasing a new one.

If a user reaches out to you worried about this double charge, please follow the steps outlined below to resolve the situation.

We recommend canceling a subscription through the app when there's a double charge. Since in-app purchases have to be canceled through the app, your customer can opt to cancel it in-app and continue to be billed through your site. Doing so will make it easier for you to manage the subscription.

To compensate for the double charge, you can "credit" the user. To credit them, change their next invoice date to be further in the future to make up for any double charge.

For example, if your user paid for a monthly subscription through the app and the web, after canceling the in-app subscription, simply change the next billing period to two months from the date they purchased it instead of next month.

Kindly remind your customer to only pay via the web moving forward. If they wish to subscribe via in-app, please let them know to first cancel the web subscription and then purchase it through the app.

If the user would prefer to keep the in-app subscription, then you can cancel the web subscription after checking if you have the in-app invoice for the subscription. All in-app purchases must come from Apple Payments, Google Play, Amazon, etc., not Stripe or Paypal. That's how you can recognize which one was in-app and which one was through the web.

Then, ask the client to restore their in-app purchase. This should restore their access to the subscription if they have a valid subscription with the app provider.

Unfortunately, this route means that the user will not have a "credit" as in-app payments are not controlled by Uscreen but by the app payment processor.

To help with the double charge, you can refund the user if the purchase was made before 30 days, or you can offer them a subscription period.

Kindly remind your customer to not subscribe to a subscription via the web moving forward unless they have already canceled their in-app purchase to avoid double charges in the future.