Managed items: IN_APP_NOTIFY not being received / duplicate orders

[GoogleCodeExporter]

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
1. Setup In-app billing in your application and administer Managed products in 
it.
2. Click on Purchase and see the purchase dialog show up.
3. Click buy on the confirmation screen showing your CC.

EXPECTED OUTPUT:

IAB should send IN_APP_NOTIFY to the application.

ACTUAL OUTPUT:
IAB directly sends com.android.vending.billing.RESPONSE_CODE with 
06-RequestPurchase: RESULT_OK

OUTPUT FROM ADB BUGREPORT ATTACHED:

NOTES:
It works like a charm with the standard android.test.purchased product id. The 
above bug also means that it allows us to buy the same Managed item over and 
over again with transaction going through.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by CloudGan...@gmail.com on 18 Jun 2011 at 6:52

Attachments:

• iab_bug.txt

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A subset of our users are also experiencing this issue (after a successful 
transaction, no response from IAB--no pending, no success, so users can and do 
purchase repeatedly). We're not able to replicate it ourselves and haven't been 
able to isolate what these users have in common. What we know so far:

1. Started happening on or around 6/15 (after maintenance)?

2. Users being charged as many as 15 times (they like to push buttons...) and 
client never receives status

3. Forcing a response never succeeds (we have a command to do this, it works a 
charm when users encounter issue 14 
https://code.google.com/p/marketbilling/issues/detail?id=14 -- but is 
ineffectual for users in this state) 

Currently trying to determine if there's any commonality between the affected 
users but don't have that data yet. Will update if I can find a common thread. 

I think the priority should be higher on figuring out this one, too - customer 
service time spent dealing with duplicated orders, angry customers, and the 
tap-tap-tap of canceling orders is outstripping daily revenue. 

I also believe that this may not be an issue with the API at all but with the 
server components or something in-between, as we never encountered this issue 
before this week and nothing has changed on our end.

Original comment by jenhar...@gmail.com on 18 Jun 2011 at 8:25

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I do believe they are working on some issues related to this.  I was ready to 
release my app on Friday but in-app-billing stopped working and started 
experiencing this strange behavior.  I'm holding off until Monday to see if 
this is resolved and if not, I'll have to evaluate using an alternative.  It 
scares me to think that in-app billing could break for days on end with no 
official communication from Google.  If my app was on the market when this 
happened it would be a support nightmare.

Original comment by st...@dogsbyte.net on 18 Jun 2011 at 10:57

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've been seeing this issue all week, I would estimate the first occurrence 
around June12-13. Same scenario as Comment1, App has been available with same 
in-app billing code for over a month, no errors (not even Issue#14). Last 
weekend, a page full of failed transaction, angry comments on double-billed 
"managed" items. Since then, at least 10% of orders failing on the same stuck 
Market screen. Eventually the market activity goes away and returns 
RequestPurchase: RESULT_OK but no purchaseStateChange broadcast to app, yet 
customer is billed.

restoreTransactions() doesn't fix it for me either.

Agreed this should be TOP priority.

Original comment by rejeanpo...@gmail.com on 19 Jun 2011 at 10:30

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I've been going through refunding everyone I can find, which is a very arduous 
and time-consuming process in the Merchant center. I'm sure I'm missing people 
and we'll hear about it when they get their bills. This is a customer service 
nightmare. Have sent multiple messages to Merchant Support and am encouraging 
affected users to do the same to help run this up the pole: 
http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/request.py 

Isn't anyone at Google noticing the sudden jump in in-app revenue and wondering 
what's up?

Original comment by jenhar...@gmail.com on 19 Jun 2011 at 11:07

[GoogleCodeExporter]

We also began experiencing this issue after "maintenance on June 15th". Current 
statistics: out of 100 managed purchase requests there is only 1 completed with 
IN_APP_NOTIFY. I'm scared.

Original comment by thy.ri...@gmail.com on 20 Jun 2011 at 2:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Just a heads up to others experiencing this.  Apparently they've only received 
1 ticket on this issue. Make sure you report it so it can get fixed!

http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/developer/bin/request.py?&contact_ty
pe=publishing

Original comment by st...@dogsbyte.net on 21 Jun 2011 at 11:08

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This is disappointing, it should be high priority defect to be looked at but 
there does not seem to be single response.

Anyways, here is some more observation. I created a new product id for my 
application and published it. Then I tried out purchasing this product Id and 
surprisingly it went through perfectly. However later after I cancelled this 
transaction everything was back to normal. Even the restore transaction returns 
null and the error persists.

Original comment by CloudGan...@gmail.com on 21 Jun 2011 at 1:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'm observing that the item is purchased but not added to the orders. I get a 
purchase confirmation with an empty orders array. Restoring purchases returns a 
response without any orders. The card is charged in checkout and if I cancel 
the order after the card is charged I get a notification on the phone.

Original comment by botte...@gmail.com on 21 Jun 2011 at 1:17

[GoogleCodeExporter]

In all my testing, the orders do indeed get charged through checkout.  The 
problem is that the app will never receive notification that the purchase went 
through.  Even if you wait 12 hours and attempt to restore transactions, the 
market will still return an empty order list.

Original comment by st...@dogsbyte.net on 21 Jun 2011 at 1:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I just tested again, and now I'm not getting any response after the 
"authorizing purchase" screen disappears, just like described here. This has 
been going on for at least a week now. I've also filled in the feedback form, 
hope that helps.

Original comment by botte...@gmail.com on 21 Jun 2011 at 1:29

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've got two tickets in since last week (all I get is the "we've forwarded this 
to a specialist" response sent in the middle of the night) and having my users 
report it, too. Just filled out the form above, too. Tempted to just keep 
cutting and pasting to get some attention, but I bet their bots would catch it.

There has *got* to be a better way to run critical issues up the pole at 
Google, this is a pretty embarrassing non-reaction to a critical issue 
affecting customers' pocketbooks and developers' time & reputation.

Original comment by jenhar...@gmail.com on 21 Jun 2011 at 5:20

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Come on Google, it has been one and a half week, still no word or fix?

Original comment by botte...@gmail.com on 23 Jun 2011 at 7:54

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi everyone, I wanted to give a quick update on this:

Even though I didn't get a chance to update this issue tracker (my apologies 
for that), we've been aware of this issue since shortly after it first arose 
and have been working on it.

This only affects managed items. The problem is that once a managed item get's 
placed in the "cancelled" state, it's not possible for the item to leave that 
state -- even if a successful purchase later occurs. This is preventing 
notifications from arriving, and is causing the duplicate purchase error 
reported in issue 33.

We identified the cause and have a fix checked in. We're working on getting 
this out to production, which is scheduled scheduled for either today or 
tomorrow, assuming there's no issues with the build. (Given the time right now, 
it's more likely that it will go out tomorrow.)

Once the underlying issue is corrected, we'll go through and clean up the 
invalid purchases in our database to get things back to normal.

In the meantime, I also recommend sending a message to the Android Market 
support team letting them know you're experiencing this:

    http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/developer/bin/request.py?&contact_type=publishing

This issue tracker is primarily for the sample code that goes with in-app 
billing. While I do monitor things here and will copy service-related bugs into 
our internal issue tracker, it's not the "official" support channel for 
service-related problems. Sending an email using the form above makes sure that 
your issue gets counted (used to determine when a "known issues" post needs to 
be made) and makes sure that you get personal attention.

Original comment by trevorjohns@google.com on 24 Jun 2011 at 2:31

• Changed title: Managed items: IN_APP_NOTIFY not being received / duplicate orders
• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Google-4598153

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Issue 33 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by trevorjohns@google.com on 24 Jun 2011 at 2:32

[GoogleCodeExporter]

[deleted comment]

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks Trevor for the update!

I wasn't really aware that this tracker was only for the sample code (although 
it says so on the project page). Maybe changing the project name to 
marketbilling-example or something like that would have made that more clear.

Original comment by botte...@gmail.com on 24 Jun 2011 at 6:37

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Trevor,

Thank you for great news.

Please consider pushing repeat "purchase completed" notifications for the 
orders that got stuck while this bug was happening.

As for your recomendation to use the Market request link - please consider 
using this tracker for production.

An extra channel for developers to report and track production issues, 
especially those affecting customers, is very valuable, don't see why you 
wouldn't want to have that.

Original comment by kmans...@gmail.com on 24 Jun 2011 at 11:44

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If anyone notices that this gets resolved, please update this ticket.  I've 
been trying purchases today but they haven't gone through so I can only assume 
the build hasn't gone live yet.

Original comment by st...@dogsbyte.net on 24 Jun 2011 at 10:59

[GoogleCodeExporter]

If I publish my application and just don't cancel any orders everything should 
work fine correct?

Original comment by st...@dogsbyte.net on 25 Jun 2011 at 4:00

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I am still having this problem - I assume the fix still hasn't been rolled out 
yet?

Original comment by spwebga...@gmail.com on 26 Jun 2011 at 9:55

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I couldn't wait any longer so I published my app hoping to not have any 
cancellations.  Sadly an order was declined today and cancelled.  Hopefully 
Google fixes this bug tomorrow.

Original comment by st...@dogsbyte.net on 26 Jun 2011 at 11:31

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Quoting June 23 comment:
>>
We're working on getting this out to production, which is scheduled scheduled 
for either today or tomorrow
<<

The issue still continues to happen as of now, June 27.

When is this fix now scheduled to go live?

Original comment by kmans...@gmail.com on 27 Jun 2011 at 9:52

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi everyone: I've been told that the new server version did not go out on 
Friday as had originally been projected. However, it should go out any day now, 
and I will update this ticket as soon as I have more news to report.

To answer some of the other comments raised:

Comment 16: That's a good point. Unfortunately, it's not easy to rename a 
project here. I might put a warning in the "report an issue" form.

Comment 17: I'll bring this suggestion up with the support team, but ultimately 
it's their call. Extra channels to report issues are good, but they need to be 
properly monitored, and each additional channel to monitor requires extra 
resources. On top of that, service issues are more likely to require immediate 
(and sometimes account-specific) action, which our ticket system is better 
suited for.

Comment 19: To my knowledge, that's correct.

Original comment by trevorjohns@google.com on 27 Jun 2011 at 9:59

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks so much for the update, Trevor! 

One note about reporting to the proper channels - totally understood, but I 
know a bunch of us have reported this using the Google-provided & approved 
forms - I've got tickets open with both Google Checkout and via Google Checkout 
(Publisher), open since the 16th, with the last response from them on the 24th. 
The stock response I get when I ask for an update is: 

"Thanks for your message, which we've forwarded to our specialists for a 
resolution. We'll respond with additional information as soon as possible.

In the meantime, feel free to contact us again if you have additional 
questions. We appreciate your patience."

If I ask for an update, after a day and a half or so, I'll get this exact 
message again. So I've stopped asking. :) 

I know this is not likely your purview, but you guys might understand why folks 
come over here to raise the flag, as it's not totally clear that anything is 
really being done based on the responses we receive from Google Checkout 
support (I ran into a similar problem a few months back - the Merchant Site has 
a bug where emails to customers who report a problem to you always bounce. 
Google Checkout Support just said there was no timeline for fixing it, sorry. 
Luckily, some other user on the forums posted a workaround--if your company 
name has a non-alphanumeric character, the reply-tos always bounce...)

Original comment by jenhar...@gmail.com on 27 Jun 2011 at 10:21

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2 weeks and still no resolution and still no "official" acknowledgement that 
this bug exists on the Market Issues page.

https://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=known_issu
es.cs

I'm glad Google hasn't gotten into the banking industry if this is how they 
treat a money sensitive problem.

Original comment by st...@dogsbyte.net on 29 Jun 2011 at 1:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Re comment 25: This was acknowledged. You're looking on the wrong Known Issues 
page. That's the one for end-users. It is listed on the developers Known Issues 
page:

http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/developer/bin/static.py?page=known_i
ssues.cs

"28 June 2011: In-app purchase errors for managed items
We're receiving reports that some buyers of managed in-app items are unable to 
receive purchased items after an initial order is cancelled, even when placing 
new orders. The Android Market team is working on a fix. In the meantime, if 
you're a developer with an affected user, we recommend refunding these orders 
via http://checkout.google.com. Please note that these buyers will be unable to 
re-purchase the specific managed item until we have released a fix. We 
apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience."

(Users do not know if they're buying a managed item or not, which I believe is 
the rationale for not posting this to the end-users Known Issues page.)

Original comment by trevor.j...@gmail.com on 29 Jun 2011 at 5:34

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Any news on this? I've been having this problem for like 20 days because I'm 
giving the last touches to my app and I'm constantly buying and cancelling my 
own orders to try if it works.

Original comment by ilnu...@gmail.com on 30 Jun 2011 at 7:15

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This issue is now fixed.

Our team is continuing to investigate the individual orders that were affected 
by this issue. If you, as a developer, are contacted by a user who did not 
receive an in-app purchase, you may refund the order via 
http://checkout.google.com.

If your users have any questions, you may also refer them to the Android Market 
support team here:

http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/request.py?contact_type=contact_
policy&policy=apps

Thank you for your patience during this matter, and I apologize for the 
inconvenience.

Original comment by trevorjohns@google.com on 2 Jul 2011 at 12:56

• Changed state: Fixed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi

one of the my applications on Android Market, started having same behavior from 
AUG 05, 2011 onward. 

I was wandering if this issue resurfaced once again.

Original comment by moazzam....@gmail.com on 27 Aug 2011 at 9:07

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Still having this problem. Any news about this?

Original comment by schnitze...@gmail.com on 30 Jan 2012 at 9:37

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have the same problem with an app on the store, the user account that I was 
using was initially in the test user list, but then I took it out yesterday and 
purchased the (MANAGED)product in the evening. 

Today I uninstalled the app and installed it again, Restore didn't work, so I 
purchased the product again, now my purchase history shows that the product has 
been purchased multiple times. The purchase box should have shown that the 
product has been purchased like it usually does, but it didn't. Also it wasn't 
a test purchase because the test purchase statement was not there on the 
purchase box.

Does it have to do with the account being on the test user list and the test 
purchase was done using that account and its not 14 days since the test 
purchase was done???

Any explanation on this behavior will be appreciated.

Original comment by hshrivas...@gmail.com on 5 Mar 2014 at 3:17

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have the same problem with in app purchase items.I am able to purchased the 
managed item using both test user and normal user. and item also consumed 
successfully. But when listing my owned items it returning size 0.
Any help please...

Thanks in advance...

Original comment by sufalamt...@gmail.com on 29 Apr 2014 at 10:00

Attachments:

• restore_transactions.txt