Payment methods on Managed Accounts

[enrique]

We use managed accounts (12345678901234567890@android-for-work.gserviceaccount.com) to provide access to the Managed Playstore, this accounts are assigned to the users or devices, I would like to disable the payment method options for these accounts.  

The users have no control over that account, most of the time they don't even know the name of the account. there is no password, no way to restore purchases made.

When the employee's account is terminated or the device replaced, it creates a problem for purchases made.

[Moombas]

Hi enrique,

we use such accounts as well, generated by the (main) managed playstore account but i can only see apps provided by our MDM and not any other app. So nothing able to be purchased there so i wonder how they get the possibility on your end to purchase apps using that account.

What kind of enrollment you use (BYOD, COPE, COBO)?

[enrique]

We use COBO, our users are not able to buy more apps. but they can make in app purchases. 

 They can add their personal credit or debit card, complete the transaction. 

This is problematic in several ways

If we as an organization buy premium features for some app and this is the only method it would be problematic to enter the payment method for each managed account. (fortunately this is not our case).

We as an organization loose control of the features offered in the app.

Complicates support for the app offered.

If the user leaves the organization, What happens to the content payed and associated with the managed account?

[Moombas]

Hmm, never tried that to be honest.

But as the payment is linked to the account used and this is a generic account, you will loose the payed (functions and apps) when doing a reinstallation or playstore reassignment as a new generic account is used then.

[Manuel]

hi @all,

we got a similar problem we would like to use this option on some phones by paying with the option provider invoice but it doesn't work on the people smartphones. Can somebody explain me how it work when want use an abo in an app?

BR

Manuel

[Moombas]

I think you may need to talk to the app provider to pay for the app in a different way and provide for example a license key or so via managed app config or so to the relevant devices.

That's the way we handled it yet with payed/licensed apps.

[Manuel]

Hi Moombas,

where can i find a documentation about this topic. Where can i find documents about how it should normal work?

When we try to add the payment method we got the error OR_CMH_07 and on the provider site everything is allowed. It mus be an issue on managed google playstore.

Best Regards

Manuel

[jasonbayton]

Please do not do this, reach out to the developer(s) of the app(s) you want to pay for to work out a licencing agreement. 

This shouldn't be supported and that it's been possible to add payment methods appears to be an oversight on Google's part.

@Lizzie fyi is the team aware of this?

[Manuel]

Hi Jason,

i'm sorry but i don't understand you. why should it not allowed to pay by provider invoice for application with an abo? 

I'm really confused ...

thanks in advantage

Manuel

[Moombas]

Because then (if a company SIM is used for example) employees could charge their company on their own... That shouldn't be possible or done.
As Jason already said, this should always go through licensing between the app provider and the company which wants to use the app.

[Lizzie]

Hello @enrique,

Thanks for your question here and welcome to the Customer Community.

I just wanted to come back on your question here, as I've been looking into this. You will be pleased to hear that the adding a payment method has already been disabled in Managed Google Play. One thing to mention though is that the option to add a payment still shows in the menu, but if a user tries to add one they will receive an error message. I acknowledge this is a little confusing, so just wanted to call it out.

This is expected behaviour, but if you are experiencing something different please would you mind sharing more details. 

I hope you find this helpful. We are also going to take a look at our Help Center guides to ensure this is showing this information, so thank you for raising this. 

Hope to speak with you soon.

Lizzie

(FYI, @jasonbayton, @Moombas, @Manuel)