Kid Rings Up $1700 Xbox Live Bill, Mom Blames Microsoft

[Dfskelleton]

Stupif freaking Microsoft. How dare you not personally monitor my 11 year old son who is one of billions of Xbox 360 users! Why would you actually give us an online marketplace!? Why can't you see that my child shouldn't be my responsibility!?
/sarchasm
I do feel sorry for the mother, but I think Microsoft has the least to do with it. Have you seen the freaking parental controls!? There's like 5 options for each ability of the account! Still, when I was 11 I knew the general value of money. Heck, I didn't buy anything without saying "Hey mom, can I buy this?". I guess I can't expect her to pay far too much attention if she has to hold 2 jobs just to support the family. Technically, it's noone's fault. You can't really expect Microsoft to pay specific attention to 1 user who they know nothing about.
Hope they pull through though.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Ma'am, you let the console raise your child and this is what you get for it. You got nobody to blame but yourself.

 

[JochemDude]

It is easy to dodge your responsibilities, but you can't dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.

 

[Magic Cheese]

Fact: Kids do dumb shit sometimes. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the tyke, just means they need someone to check up on them. To be fair, the mother is a single parent and no doubt has enough on her plate that she can't monitor her brood 24-7. Nevertheless, she can't blame MS for something that could have been taken care of with a bit of research and the proper use of the built-in Xbox 360 parental controls.

 

[hawkeye52]

I know that this is a case of what could be seen as bad parenting but they should at least say do something along the lines of say have gold membership on automatic pay then every other thing on xbox live market have a system where you have to put card details in unless specified otherwise.

 

[Sejs Cube]

Clearly the kid racking up fees on her credit card is Microsoft's fault.

I mean shit, it's not like instilling her son with a sense of responsibility is her job or anything.



Lady, your kid fucked up. Kids fuck up, it's not unusual by any stretch. And yeah, this fuck up kinda hurt financially, which is a shame. But if you really think that your kid fucking up is the fault of the hosting company's automated sales service, then it becomes pretty clear that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

 

[hawkeye52]

I know that this is a case of what could be seen as bad parenting but they should at least say do something along the lines of say have gold membership on automatic pay then every other thing on xbox live market have a system where you have to put card details in unless specified otherwise.

 

[bak00777]

How didnt the mother notice over these 6months. Does she only check her banke statement every six months? Or did he very slowly rack up these $1700 charges?

 

[Timedraven 117]

Okay the kid spent 1700$ on xbox live what the hell did he buy? he must've got 5 year membership all the damn add ons and games and half the arcade and avatar stock

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Oh come on! This is even more ridiculous than the mother getting angry at Microsoft because they caught her son cheating. I see some very huge problems that Microsoft had nothing to do with:

1. The mother allowed her son easy access to her money. If the kid has as bad as a head for money as she claims, that was an action begging for trouble.
2. She never bothered to check if he was spending so much money. Seeing as the kid spent that much over six months, you'd think she'd have noticed at some point that her money was disappearing.
3. Either the kid really doesn't understand how much money that was (in which case shame on the mother for not teaching that to her 11 year old) or he's just lying to get away with that. And if it's the latter, either the mom doesn't understand (her problem) or she's covering for him like the last mother to take up arms against Microsoft because of the problems the got themselves into.

This whole situation screams: "Doesn't take responsibility for anything; neither the raising of their children or the consequences of their actions." Fail "mom", just fail.

 

[Natdaprat]

This is an obvious "PLEASE GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK!! Or you get bad press". Fortunately it shall fail and will hopefully make her discipline her boy.

 

[ultratog1028]

What I want to know is:

Why would you give your credit card info over the internet?

Why would you give it to Microsoft?

Why would you give a credit card to an 11 year old?

Why does he not have a child account?

Why is he 11 and not know how to handle money? (At 7 years old, I had to earn money to buy my first Gameboy Color! Teach your kids responsibility parents! And a bonus effect is, they tend to take better care of things they buy with thier own money. Instead of buying 4 DS systems, you make them earn money to buy ONE. Simple and money saving)

 

[senataur]

It's the kids fault. He knew he was buying things with his mothers money, he did it for a long time and racked up a huge bill.

Take the xbox off him. Get him a paper route or something and make him appreciate having to work for your money.

And Mum has learnt an important lesson too, be careful what you do with your credit card details.

 

[ultratog1028]

This is an obvious "PLEASE GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK!! Or you get bad press". Fortunately it shall fail and will hopefully make her discipline her boy.

Someone disciplining thier child in this day and age? Nonsense!

 

[bloodychimp]

If money is so tight, how the hell did she not notice almost $2000 go missing over 6 months.

In her defense though, it does suck that the Xbox won't let you delete your credit card information (at least it didn't used to, which is why I use prepaid cards).

 

[Natdaprat]

This is an obvious "PLEASE GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK!! Or you get bad press". Fortunately it shall fail and will hopefully make her discipline her boy.

Someone disciplining thier child in this day and age? Nonsense!

I know! Blasphemy! It might even - god forbid - make her son learn a lesson!

 

[chris89300]

Haha, good for her, +1 to the kid who dodged it nicely - if what the mother said about the kid is true.

Microsoft should sue her for wasting their time.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Like did you know the average woman spends $25,000 on shoes in theyer lifetime?
And an additional $6117 on handbags a year? ((from the money translation of £4000))

I dont want to be sexist, really D: And im sorry if its offencive to females.
But its what the numbers show. And im a man of science.

Errr, how does that have anything to do with how good or bad women are with money? The fact that a lot of women choose to spend a lot of money of shoes proves exactly nothing by itself, other than the fact that a lot of women like shoes.

I don't want to even begin to count up all the money I've spent feeding my gaming habit over the years, and I'm certain that I will spend at least $25,000 in my lifetime. Does that make me bad with money? You've got no way to tell, not from that data alone.

 

[Fusioncode9]

Wow moms like that piss me off, every time their children does something bad its everyone Else's fault. I had a sense of money when I was 11, that kid knew what he was doing, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. I would destroy the xbox and ground the kid for a year instead of feeling sorry for him because he just spent 1700$.

 

[chaos order]

when i first heard this story i didnt necessarily blamed the mother for this. I mean ya it wasnt the best decision to give an 11 year old your credit card, id assumed she thought that her kid wasnt a complete moron. BUT NOW!