Why won’t Apple refund my wife?

My wife is an artist and signed up for a one week trial of Smartist, an app that displays your artwork in one of its virtual rooms. On the App Store the pricing was confusing, (£89.99 for a year, or £35 [ish] for —a year!(?)

She then contacted the company and they explained that the confusing pricing was something to do with Apple’s online uploading of details. The company also kindly offered my wife the annual subscription for the lower price. Unfortunately this conversation took a few days and the week’s trial had elapsed by a few hours by the time we got to the bottom of the pricing query.

My wife was horrified to then see that £89.99 had been taken from her account.

We contacted Smartist and they informed us that we had to take this up with Apple. I did so, explaining the chain of events and I enclosed the email from Smartist with the offer of the cheaper annual fee.

Apple replied saying that no refund was possible and that was the end of the matter. Thanks a lot Apple! A curt reply with no possibility of a discussion. Is this really the end of it? My wife doesn’t have money to throw away and the mistake, although hers, surely is mitigated by the pricing confusion?