Dad Blames Microsoft for Son's Xbox Live Spending Spree

[Doom972]

XBL shouldn't keep credit card details unless the customer wants it to. It doesn't matter if it's a child account or not. Also, "Microsoft Points" instead of actual prices are made to make the customer feel like he's not spending money. I can see how a child might get confused.

 

[Darkmantle]

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.

I agree, I just don't want people saying it's because his kid was playing CoD. There are far better reasons is all.

 

[NightHawk21]

WHY THE FUCK is nobody bothered that the kid plays cod?

Because we know it happens due to parents who are under the assumption that all games are appropriate for children, and that it's not their responsibility to make sure what their kid is playing actually is. Plus the stereotypical player of CoD, MWF, or Battlefield on the 360 is a 13 year old brat shouting obscenities and racial slurs over the microphone. Hell, just the other day I was talking with a guy while in line at Gamestop and he was telling me how he and his wife felt their 11 and 9 year old sons were old enough to be playing CoD. It took every ounce of restraint I had to not tell him otherwise. What's sad is that it's those kinds of parents who end up in situations like this and also blame games when their kid grows up to be a rampaging asshole.

maybe i am just stupid or retarded or really really naive but i just don't get how people can think a game where you shoot people in the head with more or less accurate depictions of modern weapons is something a child should play. i mean i get that as a parents you neither can nor want to control everything your child does but who in their right mind allows kids to do that?
my parents didn't allow me to watch violent movies when i was a kid, i still did it, especially when i was visiting friends but i still it helped me form a more differentiated opinion towards violence in media than FUCK YEAH BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOD(which is also an excellent game)

I think it really depends on the child. When I was growing up I was playing shooting video games since around 5 or so (whenever the hell Goldeneye came out). Mind you the majority of my childhood I spent with my cousins who each had a couple years on me. Combined that with just a general increased maturity and they had no problems with it. That being said there are some 20 year old people I know now who I still don't think are on the maturity level to play these games.

As for the OT, I think its completely the dads fault. There's no questions about it here. He didn't use the safegaurds that were already in place, didn't pay attention to his finances for half a year, didn't do a good job raising his kid, and mindlessly handed over his credit card. If I were Microsoft I would say sorry, you're shit out of luck and you aren't getting a refund because you bought and have been using the material for half a year.

 

[J Tyran]

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.

If the Father had set the Xbox up properly it would have locked purchases. There is little excuse for failing to set the Xbox up properly either. When you first turn the brand new console on it leads you step by step through all of that, it also happens to be in moronese so anyone can understand it.

The only reason for not having set up right is not being arsed and skipping it.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Man doesn't understand technology, gets burned as result, threatens to sue company that makes technology.

Really its partially his fault for not talking to his kid or checking his bank account. It's also partially the kid's fault as at 12 years old he can understand how money works and that he shouldn't be spending what he doesn't have.

 

[Dastardly]

The company failed to note that, as a 12-year-old, Nik shouldn't have been playing Call of Duty in the first place,

Says who? The rating is just there to provide parents information on what a game contains, and who the intended audience is in terms of age. Obviously, this guy is OK with his kid playing Call of Duty, making this particular point immaterial (He's not complaining about his child's behavior or exposure to violent media). Besides, it's possible that the family just has one profile, rather than one for each individual user.*

This guy isn't being unreasonable. He seems to have genuinely not known that it saved his credit card information. Microsoft needs to change the default options or provide more up-front warnings.

*Think about this, really. Old consoles? Push ON, put in game, PLAY. You didn't have to log into the device. That's how we've learned to engage video game consoles. In fact, a lot of parents might want their kids to play on an open profile -- it makes it easier for them to keep track of what and how long the kid is playing, for instance.

 

[zombiesinc]

Man, that would be too much like work though. Parents can't be taking all of that time out of their days to teach their children proper morals and how money works and stuff, jeez. Television should be good enough!

Of course not all parents are lazy and irresponsible but it's absolutely frustrating just how many actually think like this (well, minus the recognition of neglecting various parental responsibilities).

Off-topic and I promise not creepy at all: What's that shirt say in your profile pic? Because I feel like my immediate guess is just wrong, for some reason, but I would be excited if it weren't.

It says 'Haste The Day'. I don't listen to the band an absolute ton but loved the t-shirt and couldn't resist. ^^

 

[shrekfan246]

Man, that would be too much like work though. Parents can't be taking all of that time out of their days to teach their children proper morals and how money works and stuff, jeez. Television should be good enough!

Of course not all parents are lazy and irresponsible but it's absolutely frustrating just how many actually think like this (well, minus the recognition of neglecting various parental responsibilities).

Yeah, I agree with that. My parents took the time to make sure I was ready for everything I was exposed to, and they made damn sure that I knew I shouldn't be emulating any violence I saw in video games or movies.

It says 'Haste The Day'. I don't listen to the band an absolute ton but loved the t-shirt and couldn't resist. ^^

That's what I thought, and now I'm excited! >.> Don't even care if you're not their biggest fan, it's just awesome to see that there's more than one other person on this website aside from me who's heard of them in the first place.

 

[Sarsaparilla]

The company failed to note that, as a 12-year-old, Nik shouldn't have been playing Call of Duty in the first place,

Says who? The rating is just there to provide parents information on what a game contains, and who the intended audience is in terms of age. Obviously, this guy is OK with his kid playing Call of Duty, making this particular point immaterial (He's not complaining about his child's behavior or exposure to violent media). Besides, it's possible that the family just has one profile, rather than one for each individual user.*

This guy isn't being unreasonable. He seems to have genuinely not known that it saved his credit card information. Microsoft needs to change the default options or provide more up-front warnings.

*Think about this, really. Old consoles? Push ON, put in game, PLAY. You didn't have to log into the device. That's how we've learned to engage video game consoles. In fact, a lot of parents might want their kids to play on an open profile -- it makes it easier for them to keep track of what and how long the kid is playing, for instance.

You make some really great points and have helped me sympathize with a gentleman I didn't much side with beforehand. I agree that it was likely an honest misunderstanding on his part regarding how the toy he bought his child worked. The sticking point for me is that kid. While I'll grant that he likely didn't fully understand the implications of his actions I just can't believe he was completely oblivious to the fact he was spending real money. In the US at least buying points involves going to a screen that tells you they are coming at the exchange of real dollars. And how about all those school buddies of his who he played with? Did they never once complain of how cool it was it that he had ALL of the epic gear/teams/DLC while their parents refused to shell out for this stuff? The idea of this company refunding everything and/or changing their user interface because brats like this scam the system is a bit grating. But I guess that's the reality of life and business. You need to build things with the lowest common denominator in mind and so we all get to see such gems like cups that warn us coffee may be hot.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

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

Wait, are you actually blaming the twelve-year old child for being an idiot? Of COURSE he's an idiot, he's twelve. That's what parents are for.

 

[theultimateend]

well the dad either didn't know or care enough to set up the xbox properly so his son can use it without wasting money. WHY THE FUCK is nobody bothered that the kid plays cod?

Cause there is absolutely no harm in it?

I played every violent game under the sun as a child, it actually helped me vent my frustrations since I was pretty badly bullied in school.

Flip out and stab a kid because they won't leave you alone or play a game and relax. The latter option seemed much nicer.

Note I didn't "Just" play violent video games, I was pretty much a fan of everything as a kid. But I'll be darned if Goldeneye wasn't a proxy for releasing the angst that early bloomers gave me.

What's sad is that it's those kinds of parents who end up in situations like this and also blame games when their kid grows up to be a rampaging asshole.

My only worry there would be an erroneous connection between the video games and the kids.

 

[Dastardly]

The idea of this company refunding everything and/or changing their user interface because brats like this scam the system is a bit grating. But I guess that's the reality of life and business. You need to build things with the lowest common denominator in mind and so we all get to see such gems like cups that warn us coffee may be hot.

But why should it bother us if they refund it?

I think too many people are assuming a lot about this man's attitude and outlook. I'm sure he doesn't enjoy having to chase down a refund for this, and I'm sure he's angry and frustrated at all of the things he woulda-coulda-shoulda that might have prevented this. But he's not looking to gain anything by this.

He made a mistake, and it ought not to be a thousand-dollar mistake. I'm relatively certain he'll take steps toward making sure it doesn't happen again, and I'm sure the kid will bear his punishment for his part... but the father just doesn't see fit to release all those details to Microsoft or to the press.

All we're being told is that, among possibly many other things he's doing, he's asking Microsoft to refund money his son spent without right or permission. Is that so bad? If your kid stole money from your wallet and bought something crazy, wouldn't you want the company to refund your money in exchange for taking back what should never have been bought?

 

[Lt._nefarious]

Okay 70 questions:

1) How in the fuck do you spend that much on XBLA?! Seriously.

2) Did that 12y/o not realise he was spending that much money? And only on CoD and Fifa? How in the name of the lord, Jesus Rojas (the leader of my cult) does one manage that?

3) It's obivously the fault of the parent and child, it needs no debate really, so who's bright idea was it to make a big thing about it?

4) Seriously is there really no better news to report other than "parent gets fucked over for his/her stupidity or the stupidy of his/her son/daughter and blames software company"?

5-69) HOLY FUCK, REALLY?! GODDAMN SON!

70) How great would it be if there was an article like this only the father found out the son used his credit card to subscribe to, like, a porn site so they try and sue, I don't know, Alexis Texas for not personally informing him that his son was watching her prance around naked having rough sex with strange men. Christ that would be funny and I really wouldn't be all that surprised what with him dumb and naive some parents are when it comes to the internet...


Captcha: want more?
I'm sure people have had just about enough of my ramblings captcha...

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Ignorant parent, that's all. Learn about the technology you're using.

 

[zombiesinc]

Yeah, I agree with that. My parents took the time to make sure I was ready for everything I was exposed to, and they made damn sure that I knew I shouldn't be emulating any violence I saw in video games or movies.

It's never as simple as the person who is arguing for or against makes it out to be but these sort of things are such important and obvious ones to address and recognize when it comes to parenting that I really don't think it's even necessary to have kids yourself to be able to know their importance. This entire situation is stupid, regardless of who's really to blame. Hopefully someone, somewhere learned a lesson.

It says 'Haste The Day'. I don't listen to the band an absolute ton but loved the t-shirt and couldn't resist. ^^

That's what I thought, and now I'm excited! >.> Don't even care if you're not their biggest fan, it's just awesome to see that there's more than one other person on this website aside from me who's heard of them in the first place.

Although I haven't listened to them a lot, especially lately, I was obsessed with one of their songs. So, when I ended up seeing them open for another band, I was pretty stoked. Very cool that you even recognized the t-shirt!

 

[Signa]

I honestly can't blame the dad too much on this one, because I know some people just don't give a shit about games. He probably just set up the system so that his son could play it and be out of his hair. It's irresponsible, no doubt, but I see it as one of those things that you just might not have foreseen as a possibility. As gamers, it's easy to forget that fact because we are so immersed in these systems.

Now the kid on the other hand, is a bastard. There is no doubt in my mind that a 12 year old knows what he's doing with his dad's money. I bet he just wanted to do it while he could get away with it and overestimated his dad's vigilance of his bank account.

I also wouldn't mind pointing a little bit of blame at MS for making their system too easy to buy stuff on, and making child accounts useless. As I understand them, they are practically a Silver subscription with a fee. That doesn't mitigate what the kid did, but it would be nice if their systems were just a bit more consumer friendly. This kind of abuse is practically encouraged with the current system in place.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Yeah, the only person to blame here is the father. Getting in contact with Microsoft to complain isn't going to help him since it's his fault. Well, the kids fault to. At 12 years old he should know damn fine what he's doing with that money.

 

[veloper]

Almost as dumb as simply giving your kid your credit card.
You save that credit card number on your xbox, you keep it away from anyone.

 

[MasochisticAvenger]

I honestly can't blame the dad too much on this one, because I know some people just don't give a shit about games. He probably just set up the system so that his son could play it and be out of his hair. It's irresponsible, no doubt, but I see it as one of those things that you just might not have foreseen as a possibility. As gamers, it's easy to forget that fact because we are so immersed in these systems.

Now the kid on the other hand, is a bastard. There is no doubt in my mind that a 12 year old knows what he's doing with his dad's money. I bet he just wanted to do it while he could get away with it and overestimated his dad's vigilance of his bank account.

I also wouldn't mind pointing a little bit of blame at MS for making their system too easy to buy stuff on, and making child accounts useless. As I understand them, they are practically a Silver subscription with a fee. That doesn't mitigate what the kid did, but it would be nice if their systems were just a bit more consumer friendly. This kind of abuse is practically encouraged with the current system in place.

Sorry, but if you're not going to take the time to learn how something you're giving your kid works, you really have no one to blame but yourself when things start to go wrong. You can't really turn around and start blaming other people since you were unaware of what might happen. Being a gamer has nothing to do with it: you learn as much as you can about what you're using before you use it.

So it's Microsoft's fault because the system is too easy to use? Should online distributors start putting millions of passwords and biometrics just to stop the few idiots who do stuff like this? As I said in an earlier post, put as many safeguards as you like, people will still do stuff like this and ***** about how the system didn't ask if they were really really really really sure.

 

[Signa]

I honestly can't blame the dad too much on this one, because I know some people just don't give a shit about games. He probably just set up the system so that his son could play it and be out of his hair. It's irresponsible, no doubt, but I see it as one of those things that you just might not have foreseen as a possibility. As gamers, it's easy to forget that fact because we are so immersed in these systems.

Now the kid on the other hand, is a bastard. There is no doubt in my mind that a 12 year old knows what he's doing with his dad's money. I bet he just wanted to do it while he could get away with it and overestimated his dad's vigilance of his bank account.

I also wouldn't mind pointing a little bit of blame at MS for making their system too easy to buy stuff on, and making child accounts useless. As I understand them, they are practically a Silver subscription with a fee. That doesn't mitigate what the kid did, but it would be nice if their systems were just a bit more consumer friendly. This kind of abuse is practically encouraged with the current system in place.

Sorry, but if you're not going to take the time to learn how something you're giving your kid works, you really have no one to blame but yourself when things start to go wrong. You can't really turn around and start blaming other people since you were unaware of what might happen. Being a gamer has nothing to do with it: you learn as much as you can about what you're using before you use it.

So it's Microsoft's fault because the system is too easy to use? Should online distributors start putting millions of passwords and biometrics just to stop the few idiots who do stuff like this? As I said in an earlier post, put as many safeguards as you like, people will still do stuff like this and ***** about how the system didn't ask if they were really really really really sure.

Far easier said that done. Try juggling a career, parenting, and maintaining a household and then tell me how much time and energy you have left to figure out how your kids toys work. Once you know they aren't going to swallow them, there isn't much need to worry. The kid was 12 fucking years old. You can't tell me you know one single damn kid that doesn't know the meaning of money at that age. If he really didn't, then yes, the parents are more to blame than I'm suggesting. But I'm certain the kid was just being a dick.

And read my post again, I'm not saying MS and every company ever should fix their systems to prevent this. Strawman much?