Dad Blames Microsoft for Son's Xbox Live Spending Spree

[antipunt]

Microsoft responded to the report, pointing out that the price of downloadable content is clearly stated during the purchasing process. The company failed to note that, as a 12-year-old, Nik shouldn't have been playing Call of Duty in the first place

*srnk*

BUSTEDDDDD

(pretty much what I was thinking)

>_>

 

[-Dragmire-]

Dad Blames Microsoft for Son's Xbox Live Spending Spree




Sam Ghera has sent a complaint to Microsoft after discovering his 12-year-old son, Nik, had been spending up to £100 a day on "Fifa and Call of Duty," racking up a total bill of £1,150 over six months. Ghera only found out about the numerous charges to his credit card when he went to an ATM, only to be told he had insufficient funds to make a withdrawal.

6 months... he didn't check his credit card bill in 6 months? It's kinda his fault it got so high then regardless of MS's transaction practices.

 

[esperandote]

Either the son is an idiot or the father is an idiot.

Why can't it be both?

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Why aren't IQ tests mandatory for parents yet?

 

[Leftnt Sharpe]

Let's see... letting the kid on XBL on an unrestricted account, letting the kid play a mature game, not realizing your credentials are stored, and not explaining beforehand to the kid about online transactions. That's a rather impressive streak of failures, on issues that everyone should address with their kids when booting up the console for the first time.

snip

You forgot the part where he didn't look at his bank statement once over a 6 month period.

You're right, I saw it, but the amount of time that represents didn't register; I interpreted as a span closer to 6 weeks.

Christ, that's just asking for trouble, even if you're not paranoid about unauthorized transactions.

OK, I have about as much fiscal responsibility as, well, a 12 year old. Yet somehow I manage to read my fucking bank statements correctly. This man is clearly a moron, the son however is pretty smart.

 

[GAunderrated]

Funny how parents are so quickly to blame the companies for their lack of judgement. I'm glad the father decided to openly humiliate himself with his own ignorance. I really hope microsoft doesn't give him a dime

 

[Headsprouter]

As usual, completely the parents fault.

Also the kid is retarded for thinking it didn't actually cost money despite the system telling him it did. I know I was fairly dumb at 12, but certainly not to that extent.

I think he knew. I think he was just irresponsible.

 

[Bvenged]

Parents fault. End of story. If he was concerned enough about his child he would have studied the parental controls in the Parental Control" page of the Xbox, where options to block purchases can be conducted. Also if he gave enough shits he would have noticed, by email, every single purchase made.

We all make mistakes, and this is just a parenting one; lets home Microsoft offer at least a partial refund and the parent learns from his mistakes. Even though the kid is 12, he sounds like a dumb-ass - but if your kid's liable to do things like that, then restrict their access to prevent damage from being done. Common sense.

Sounds to me like this kid was playing on an adult account for all of this to go under the nose of the parent. There are automatic restrictions on the child accounts and if the kids wasn't using one then the parent is fully to blame.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Technically they are correct. As a parent he should have given his kid a kids account, and the kid shouldn't have been playing Call of Duty in the first place.

Don't even bother taking it to court mate, it's just not worth it.

 

[Daemascus]

Is anyone else bothered by the amount of money the kid somehow spent? Unless he was just going down the game lists and buying everything there was, I don't see how he could spend that much. Blaming CoD and Fifa alone makes even less sense to me.

 

[zombiesinc]

Seriously?

Be a parent. I'm really sick of listening to so many parents' excuses these days. They throw their kid(s) in front of a TV, tell them to entertain themselves but the moment anything goes wrong or in a direction they don't like, rather than take responsibility for their laziness they blame anyone and everyone else. Sick, just sick.

LRN 2 PARENT

 

[Pandabearparade]

Just give him back the money. Clearly he hadn't authorized the purchases.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

The kid clearly knew what was up and the father is just an idiot. I mean, he's letting his child play Call of Duty, doesn't give a shit that the kid clearly plays the games all day and only takes notice when his bank account comes up short. Class-fucking-act parenting, right there.

Microsoft has a system for this and parents never use it. It's their own damn fault if they give their child their credit card and don't teach them about fiscal responsibility. When you make a purchase, the amount it costs is clearly stated, because otherwise they'd be fighting this battle a whole bunch.

Normally, I enjoy seeing huge publishers getting taken down a peg, but I hope Microsoft doesn't give this guy a dime. Or a euro. Whatever. Ignorance should not be refunded. Bad parenting even less so.

 

[Bigeyez]

While this is most certainly the fathers fault on many, many, MANY different levels Microsoft could very easily avoid these types of things by adding an extra confirmation screen before you spend any cash on anything. Something that pops up when you hit purchase that says "are you sure you want to charge the credit card of Jon Doe 46374719xxx9x9x8 visa $15?". Set that as a default system and then make it something you can opt-out of in the settings so most people can turn it off and not get annoyed by it.

Bam thats it. No one can say a message like that doesn't confirm that they are spending real money.

 

[FoolKiller]

Microsoft does need to add an option to make it so you need verification for purchase <.< Almost got hoodwinked by Apple in the same way. Those in-app purchases are just as insidious.

Agreed. And I hate that they are also allowed in game in the same way. If I play Need for Speed and don't have the in-game money to buy the car and you auto click through the menu (because they put it in as the default click A option) you very quickly end up at the purchase page. I know that it is a verification process, but its shoved in there in a sneaky way.

No way am I saying that the father isn't to blame, but there is some amount of blame to place on EA in this situation because they set it up so that if you aren't really careful you can accidentally spend money. It's basically a minefield.

I hate the fact that I as an adult don't have a way to ask for a password on my own account when I'm logged in to play games. Just because I am logged in doesn't mean I want to be able to access my money from it. Its like being logged into my bank account on my laptop just because I am on the internet. It's absolute shit.

 

[Pyrian]

I remember being 12 and my parents not being into gaming. Let me tell you all a few details of what that meant.

It meant that the kid set up the Xbox. Daddy bought him a toy and let him play with it. Did the kid put parental controls on himself? Of course he didn't. The kid said, "Hey Dad can I have a few bucks to play on-line?" "Sure, why not..." And nothing in the system let the father know that he wasn't just signing up for the on-line account, he was also linking his financial information for the Xbox to use on an ad-hoc basis. 'Cause, y'know, they want to make it easy for you to give them money...

 

[Screamarie]

Wait wait wait. Does it show how much the points to get something will cost or does it show how many points something will cost? That would make a pretty big difference in believing the Fathers story.

It'll show you how many points it cost, BUT unless you already have the right amount of points on your account, before you can complete the transaction you have to "add points" and there it will show you the point packages you can purchase and how much each package costs.

There may be other ways to do it, I suppose that could have confused the kid, but I really do think either the kid or dad is lying.

 

[MagmaMan]

The father is definitely the one to blame here, but the son is also a dumbass. Was he really thick enough to believe that he could get all that stuff free?

 

[likalaruku]

Looks like someone already spent his wad for Christmas & birthday.

As for the child settings, well...If you want to open a childproof bottle, give it to a child.

 

[silent-treatment]

Umm, I don't own an xbox, and I don't play FIFA or CoD so I am ignorant to the way these things work, but how the hell does one pay £100 on these games once, let alone every day for 6 months? Seriously is there that many content packets or was the kid going elsewhere to spend his Dad's money?

OT: So yeah the kid knew what he was doing unless his parents really never taught him how monetized services work. I seriously doubt there isn't a section on the purchase screen that states an amount of money due. The kid probably got away with it once, and decided to push the envelope and it got out of control, you know like kids tend to do.