iTunes App Store Customer Comments Often Useful: Why I Passed on Buying a Receipt Scanning App

I often note an iPhone app’s average use rating when discussing an app here. I do this because I use these averages to help me decide whether or not to buy an app or even try a free one. The other thing I often mention here is what people are writing in the customer review comments section. These comments often point out especially good things about an app as well as potential issues. Here’s a good recent example where the comments helped me decide to not buy an app.

A public relations type emailed me a press release the other day for…

Mobile Receipt for iPhone

I receive a lot of press releases. But, I only have the time to follow-up on a few. The ones that receive a follow-up from me usually interest me personally (in fact, let’s say “always interests me personally”). Having spent many years trying different methods to collect expense information of taxes and expense reports, this $4.99 iPhone app looked reasonably priced (compared, for example, to a mobile scanner) and could perform a useful function. However, I learned from customer review comments that the app produces a single PDF file for all receipts for a particular date. That is somewhat useful but not exactly what I want. It also appears to be crash-prone if the customer comments are to be believed.

My inclination at the moment is to save my $4.99 and pass on this app with a 2.5 star average customer rating.

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