iOS in-app purchase count miss match

Question

iTunes Connect DAILY reports for our app shows lets say 52 purchases a day... but according to our server logs, there was 55 purchases processed on the same day for which the items were delivered.

How is this possible?

Our server is keeping all the original purchase receipts (all 55 of them) and even now we can re-validate all of them with the apple servers successfully.

We are using "original_purchase_date_pst" in the receipt to identity the date of purchase which we believe what iTunes uses when downloading the DAILY report (We did tried matching with all other "purchase_date" fields in the receipt... but with no success)

The daily report shows NO REFUNDS...

We do have "transaction_id" for all 55 purchases, but there is no way to match them against the DAILY REPORT.

Please help,

UPDATE: Contacted Apple and got a template response (as expected)...

"Apple Sales and Trends reports are working as expected. We can’t account for any discrepancies between our reports and those of any outside reporting systems. Let us know if you have additional questions about this information. You can reach me Monday - Friday, from 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM (PST) at 1(877)-206-2092."

I had sent them the full details... but they will not even look at it!

UPDATE: Ok, considering if its a REFUND (or REVERSAL as @Ricky suggested), how do we check which transaction was refunded? we do have all the transaction_id but the Apple report does't show any.

Answer 1

If you confirmed that there is no Refund. How about a Reversal of an accidental purchase (eg: purchase 2 times)?

If you read Appendix L - Newsstand Report Field Definitions for

https://www.apple.com/itunesnews/docs/AppStoreReportingInstructions.pdf

There is a field Sales/Return:

Can be S or R. R is a refund and not a reversal.

It is reasonable to believe that Apple treats Refund and Reversal differently. I believe that when it is a refund, you will see a negative value under Units on your daily report, but for a reversal, the entire transaction might be cancelled out and not even appear on the report.

I am unable to confirm on that with 100% confidence, I guess you may drop an email to Apple Itunes Connect Support for more info on reading the Sales and Trends and daily report.

Added a Screen shot for Reversal (Apple does not mention Refund):-

So is the Report By Apple treat Refund and Reversal different? You have to ask Apple support.

Add extra screen shot:-