Dad Blames Microsoft for Son's Xbox Live Spending Spree

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Treblaine

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Microsoft should still implement a pin-code system for purchases with email re-authorisation if you forget the pin code. Simple.
 

easternflame

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The kid knew that it was costing money, if he didn't someone inform the father that his son is retarded.
Also it's easy for the father to complain, but why did he not see it in the bill? This went on for more than six months. Also, if he would've payed any attention to the message when he first payed a fee, he would've noticed that it says your card details will be saved for future purchases.
Needless to say as well, if the kid was playing COD, the father wasn't paying much attention in the first place.
 

unoleian

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Worgen said:
Well, hes technically not wrong about blaming ms for this. They have made it very easy to buy things and as far as I know there is no way to take you'r credit card off an account unless your updating it to a new card. Hell, I've heard about them charging expired cards before. I think Jim Sterling had a rant about that.
Dash>Account Settings>Manage Payment>Remove Payment Option. 10 seconds through three menus, and it's gone.


How the f@#k could they charge an expired card? That's impossible.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
unoleian said:
Worgen said:
Well, hes technically not wrong about blaming ms for this. They have made it very easy to buy things and as far as I know there is no way to take you'r credit card off an account unless your updating it to a new card. Hell, I've heard about them charging expired cards before. I think Jim Sterling had a rant about that.
Dash>Account Settings>Manage Payment>Remove Payment Option. 10 seconds through three menus, and it's gone.


How the f@#k could they charge an expired card? That's impossible.
yeah yeah yeah, someone already said that, I guess they added the option since I stopped using my xbox, I'm like two big updates behind since I don't play it anymore.

Got me how they were charging expired cards but they were.
http://www.destructoid.com/hey-microsoft-no-means-no--215276.phtml
http://www.destructoid.com/beware-xbox-live-s-zombie-expired-credit-card-charges-213136.phtml
http://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-sued-over-xbox-live-subscription-renewals-208624.phtml
 

Darkmantle

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easternflame said:
The kid knew that it was costing money, if he didn't someone inform the father that his son is retarded.
Also it's easy for the father to complain, but why did he not see it in the bill? This went on for more than six months. Also, if he would've payed any attention to the message when he first payed a fee, he would've noticed that it says your card details will be saved for future purchases.
Needless to say as well, if the kid was playing COD, the father wasn't paying much attention in the first place.
I played Diablo, Warcraft and Doom from when a was 7 years old, I didn't turn out badly at all. It varies kid to kid, so that's not a legitimate test of parenting quality
 

easternflame

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Darkmantle said:
easternflame said:
The kid knew that it was costing money, if he didn't someone inform the father that his son is retarded.
Also it's easy for the father to complain, but why did he not see it in the bill? This went on for more than six months. Also, if he would've payed any attention to the message when he first payed a fee, he would've noticed that it says your card details will be saved for future purchases.
Needless to say as well, if the kid was playing COD, the father wasn't paying much attention in the first place.
I played Diablo, Warcraft and Doom from when a was 7 years old, I didn't turn out badly at all. It varies kid to kid, so that's not a legitimate test of parenting quality
Me too, halo 1 came out when I was 5. I'm not saying that the kid is a bad person. All I'm saying is, my mom taught me the right things when it came to xbox. She didn't turn on the parental controls because she trusted me. I guess I phrased it wrong. The bottom line is, it's the dad's fault.
 

bigfatcarp93

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It's clear to me that this kid shouldn't have been playing CoD, based on the fact that he's too fucking stupid to understand "This purchase will cost $19.99. Confirm?"

I mean, weather children should be precluded from M-Rated games completely is rather more dependant on the kid and the parent's understanding of the kid. I mean, my dad is an attentive parent who closely monitors my younger (13) brother's activities, but he allows CoD simply because he's familiar enough with the games, and with my brother, to know that it's not an issue. I mean, for his age, my brother's a smart, mature kid, and he knows how to segment reality from fiction. However, we would NEVER allow him to play CoD online. We know better than that.

Off on a tangent there, but my point is that this asshole, and yes I mean the father, is completely irresponsible. You need to monitor what your younger kids are doing in games, especially online. But no! Don't worry! If it doesn't go well, you can just blame the company that made the game/console! Why not! All they did is design and patent a piece of entertainment, then slap a huge, unmistakable letter on the front telling you age restrictions.

Those bastards.
 

Dfskelleton

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How do you not understand that you're spending rea-
AAAAUUUURGHH!!!
The worst part is that I feel like this has already happened multiple times.
Just...


I had almost temporarily forgotten how stupid some people can be. I guess I have to thank Mr. Ghera and his son for reminding me.
 

Darkmantle

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easternflame said:
Darkmantle said:
easternflame said:
The kid knew that it was costing money, if he didn't someone inform the father that his son is retarded.
Also it's easy for the father to complain, but why did he not see it in the bill? This went on for more than six months. Also, if he would've payed any attention to the message when he first payed a fee, he would've noticed that it says your card details will be saved for future purchases.
Needless to say as well, if the kid was playing COD, the father wasn't paying much attention in the first place.
I played Diablo, Warcraft and Doom from when a was 7 years old, I didn't turn out badly at all. It varies kid to kid, so that's not a legitimate test of parenting quality
Me too, halo 1 came out when I was 5. I'm not saying that the kid is a bad person. All I'm saying is, my mom taught me the right things when it came to xbox. She didn't turn on the parental controls because she trusted me. I guess I phrased it wrong. The bottom line is, it's the dad's fault.
Fair enough. What seems to matter most is parental involvement, the father should have been there to talk to his kid and check up on him when he was playing.

What bothers me I guess is that be obviously wasn't paying attention to his kid for 6 months.
 

easternflame

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Darkmantle said:
What bothers me I guess is that be obviously wasn't paying attention to his kid for 6 months.
Not only that, he wasn't paying attention to his bills for six months. That shows a total lack of responsability on his part. Which only goes further to sustain my point. The father was not a responsible man.
 

Trilliandi

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I hate to be the one that says it, but Microsoft really is to blame... really...

See, anyone keeping any tabs on the game industry knows by now only too well that... modern parets SUCK at parenting. They're either horribly irresponsible or just plain clueless, game ratings might as well be in mandarin for all they understand, and the telivision is the best babysitter they never had to hire or pay to watch their kids. Maybe Microsoft SHOULD know this a bit better than most, and maybe have a system in place for these kinds of people... y'know?

Then again you can't pin TOO much blame on Microsoft, I mean, there's only so much stupidity you can plan for, but there should still be SOME kind of backup for parents like this.
 

The_Blue_Rider

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TAdamson said:
I'm going to actually take the father's side here.

It's not unreasonable to expect a password lock on your credit card to be opt out rather than opt in.

All these childless teenagers and twenty something shouting "bad parenting" are just indulging in the reflexive usual squawking in defence of their hobby.

He's certainly guilty of carelessness but it's not like Microsoft can't just reset that account and offer at least a partial refund. That would be sensible customer service/PR on their part.
Im gonna agree with this guy here, a lot of adults really dont have much of an idea about gaming technology, and he probably assumed that the account wouldnt have permanent access to his credit card. That and he probably trusted his son anyway, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The kid probably knew about what he was doing but did it anyway (When you were 12 you did stupid things, everyone did), not really caring about the consequences.

Still it took the dude six months to realize this? I was under the assumptions that banks sent you messages about this kind of stuff once a month?
 

Laughing Man

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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.
Sorry and how exactly would this have solved anything? I have several online accounts with various etailers and they all have this screen that asks you to confirm purchases and they ALL save my password and deatils, all adding a screen like this would have done is given the kid an extra kid to confirm through. As stated by MS the system clearly states what the cost of the purchases is adding another screen is pointless the failure here starts and stops with the parent.

Here's how it goes

MS failure

1). Not adding an extra confirmation screen for the kid to skip through

The parents failure

1). Not setting up the kids XBox correctly, this stands in the same vain as parents who complain about internet porn, the systems are their to prevent the access if you can not be bothered learning to use them then the fault is yours and yours alone, ignorance is and never has been a valid excuse.

2). The kid clearly had no monitoring of his activity what so ever, 12 years old playing a game that is legally limited to sale of over 18s only.

3). The password was left active, I am certain the XBox has the ability to request password every time rather than just saving it and automatically logging in each time it is used.

4). The period of activity took place over several months so at no point did these transactions get noticed on the bill payers statement?

The level of failure is so epic that short of MS phoning him up and asking him to verbally confirm each purchase their is nothing that would have prevented this idiot and his idiot son from doing this.
 

setting_son

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Apr 14, 2009
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I remember when I was growing up, my parents used to make sure I didn't go spending their money or watching huge amounts of pornography or murdering animals. They did it by doing this thing, um, 'parenting'... I think it was called.

Does that not work anymore?
 

johnnyLupine

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I can't help but feel bad for the guy though, who here can honestly say that they always read the pages of information that these companies give you when you sign up with something or their terms of service has changed? His kid needs to take some blame here too, even if it was a genuine mistake and he wasnt just lying to his dad to get out of trouble he needs to be taught that he needs to be more careful.

This is coming from a person whose dad dishes out contempt for my hobbys as if it was the one think keeping him alive. Even I'm suprised about what I wrote.
 

IamLEAM1983

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teebeeohh said:
WHY THE FUCK is nobody bothered that the kid plays cod?
Because as much as we'd like to think that the new generation of parents is responsible, they often aren't. Don't forget, CoD is a game and to most non-gamers, that alone means any game at all is full of cutesy-poo safeness for the kids to enjoy.

Shit, we're in 2012 and I know a few people my age who still are unaware that the gaming scene has progressed far beyond stomping on Goombas. Suggesting that it's now commonplace to spend some time killing fantasy Arab terrorists gets them on their high horses about how the medium has devolved into something monstrous and how it's now a complete waste of time.

Not everyone is a gamer, and several parents aren't willing or interested enough to take the ten needed seconds to check the ESRB's label. If CoD is what the kid wants for his birthday or Christmas, what do you think the oblivious parent is going to purchase?
 

waj9876

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Hello people who believe Microsoft can do no wrong and default into "PARENTS TODAY SUCK! Kids today are too ignorant to know anything or manipulate their parents, it was different when I was a kid, so it's the parent's fault every time." thinking.

Everyone is at fault here. The idiot parent for not checking his bank account for six months. The little shit kid who manipulated his dad into believing he can do no wrong. And greedy Microsoft for setting it up to where idiot parents can be exploited.
 

soren7550

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Dec 18, 2008
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Didn't the Escapist report something like this a few months to a year ago? It was a mother though, and when the kid got caught, he allegedly started crying.

Anyway, like it's been said before, the father's an idiot for not noticing any of this over a six month period, and there's almost no way that at twelve, the kid has no concept of money. He had to know what he was doing.
 

SextusMaximus

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May 20, 2009
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Jiggy said:
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.
Shows EITHER amount of money (if buying a game) OR MS points. However, you have to buy MS points which clearly shows you have to spend money for them anyway.