Our app has an in-app purchase to upgrade to our "Pro" product, in Google-speak this is a one-time non-consumable product. We have launched this product and are actually generating revenue...so aside from our own testing we know that across the globe users are successfully seeing on our in-app sales page 1) the price of the product, and 2) an enabled "buy now" button (please note these two items both are derived from this BillingManager query:
launch {
val sku = billingManager.querySKU(BillingManager.SKUProPack1)
if (sku != null) {
iapPriceText.text = getString(R.string.settings_pro_upgrade_price, sku.price)
skuDetails = sku
upgradeButton.isEnabled = true
} else {
iapPriceText.text = ""
upgradeButton.isEnabled = false
}
}
I'll point out here: skuDetails collected in the query above is also the source of data needed in the actual Play Store purchase flow...so merely enabling the button would only delay the disappointment. The first indication a user sees that there is a problem is on the sales page: no price and a greyed-out button that is disabled.
We have three confirmed cases where the user has contacted us saying "I'd like to buy but the buy-it button doesn't do anything". We have found an ugly-ish workaround which is to have the user clear the cache of their Google Play Services app (and then reset the device). After they do that, they can get back to the sales page and all is well: the price is displayed and the button is enabled.
I'm thinking the step of clearing the cache is a clue to perhaps something that could/should be done within our app to better serve the customer (and, of course, we hope generates more revenue). It's early days for us in this Pro version but the three confirmed cases would be about 2% of the amount who have gotten through the purchase process...which doesn't sound like a lot, but who knows how many have fruitlessly pounded on the buy-it button and then just walked away.
On this, I'm going to file a ticket with Google and will keep all posted here if that yields anything. AND HERE IT IS:
As promised, here is Google's non-response. The link they provided was nice but it did not include the troubleshooting step that we found that works for us (clearing the Play Services cache). Here is Google's response: Hi,
Thanks for your patience.
I'm sorry to hear that some of your users are having a issue making a purchase within your app. Please note after looking into your issue, it looks like the issue is being caused by user end issues. As not all of your users are having the same issue, it would not be a issue within the coding. We are aware that cache and connectivity can cause issues within apps; and we have made a user help article to help guide users on how to fix these issues: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1050566?hl=en If you begin seeing more users with this issue, you can use log reporting to help determine the issue, you can use the Android logging system which provides a mechanism for collecting and viewing system debug output.
To extract the logs you will need to use "logcat" command as an adb command or directly in a shell prompt of your emulator or connected device:
adb logcat -v time > applog.txt
If you have any other questions about the Play Console, please let me know and I will be happy to assist you further.
Have a great day.
Regards, Sabrina. Google Play Developer Support.