Apple takes on overcharges for Lion installs

Apple on Saturday began reversing some of the excess charges it accidentally applied to some Lion buyers. Both John Christman, the highlight example who was charged $3,878 more than the single copy he intended to download, as well as others, have said Apple would have the money back in their accounts within three to five days. Christman explained to MacRumors that Apple had revealed little while the refund request was ongoing but, when it got proof, refunded both the actual payments as well as the Paypal fees levied on top.

The early errors may be signs of teething problems for Apple. While the Mac App Store has been running since the start of the year, It wasn't until the release of Lion this month that the company saw a major stress test. Lion's nature as a multi-gigabyte OS, along with the million-plus downloads during just the first day, will have put added strain on the company's system.

Microsoft has already had direct-download copies of Windows 7 and hasn't had such errors. However, its deliberate de-emphasis and the much lower resulting traffic have prevented it from encountering the same loads as Apple. Lion is currently only available through a download and can even recover a system over the Internet if the current OS install is corrupted.

By Electronista Staff