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

[FoolKiller]

I can see where she is coming from. I'm not saying it's their fault, but they are complicit in it. Personally, I think this is what Microsoft hopes for when you sign up for Live. And I believe it for the following reasons:

1. Anyone under 18 won't have a credit card. This means the simplest way is to use a credit card to purchase a Live membership. But to do so, the console keeps the information on it. There is no reason for it.

2. You have to call Microsoft to cancel Live. It automatically renews if you don't.

3. They are aware that the accounts of children belong to children, while the credit card information registered to that Live account does not. I do not believe that it is reasonable to expect parents to watch their children play video games at all times. In this way, the kid has unauthorized use of the credit card.

I am not saying its Microsoft's fault, I'm just saying that if they actually didn't like capitalizing on these sorts of things, they could (and should) fix these ridiculous flaws.

P.S.

They have even gone so far as to force me to call them and hold for a long time to cancel Live. I used to be able to do it from the dashboard of the console. What gives?

 

[Ima842]

I think the kid had all the responsability, he's 11 he can think and he couldn't not know that he was spending money (i dont have an xbox but even Itunes asks if i'm sure about the purchase)
Also some responsability goes to the mother, I believe that she could at least check her credit card once in a while.
http://www.deviantart.com/download/139348099/Epic_Facepalm_by_RJTH.jpg

why do they always blame the game company other than them selves. You can't say that you haven't been checking your debit for over 6 months and, not to notice the odd changes to it.

Also this

 

[Bomberman4000]

What the fuck is there for an 11 year old kid to buy on the marketplace? Unless he bought EVERY song on Rock Band and Guitar Hero I don't know what he could've spent all that money on.

It's all been said, stupid parents who get home and let the electronic babysitter take over so they don't have to do anything. If the woman has to work 2 jobs just to keep her family going, then WHY is she allowing her son to have a subscription to an online gaming service and even give the little guy a chance to spend all that money?

If I don't have a lot of money, and I know I don't have a lot of money to spare, the LAST thing I'd want my kids getting into is video games. I know first hand just how expensive that hobby can be, and I don't even get all the shitty movie games that kids get. Those things add up quickly.

 

[AMMO Kid]

My Opinion? No under 15s on Xbox Live

 

[Rancid0ffspring]

SNIP

Did you check the terms of service.....?

Nope... I fell victim to that ages ago. Who reads them after all.... we should!

 

[Easton Dark]

I'm wondering what he could possibly spend 1700 dollars on.

Probably many of the fashionable clothes available for his avatar to wear.

 

[charlest92]

Well lady if your plan is to fail you might as well fail hard.

 

[ServebotFrank]

How incompetent is this mother? "I'm going to blame Microsoft for not stopping my child from putting me debt so I am now suing Microsoft for $3483498393943843493493849." How does that work?

 

[kouriichi]

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.

No, see, what it is would be the content of the purchases.
One of the statistics shows that on average, women own 17 handbags at one time, and up to 19 pair of shoes. One for each outfit.
But then 30% of all clothing and shoes purchased by women ((on average)) is only wore once.

See, you can spend 25k and not be a bad spender. Chances are, 80% of what you bought brought you weeks or month of enjoyment. While many purchases by women ((on average)) are eather not worn, over priced, or unneeded.

Such as with the handbags. An average of 17 per female? That means there are women with more then that! And most handbags purchased ((on average)) are $42 or more.

While someone like me or you has probably spent 15-20k of gaming in our life time, our purchases tend to last longer, be used more ((when was the last time you bought a game and DIDNT play it more then once?)) and many of our gaming purchases can be traded in for half theyer value. If a gamer were to purchase 10 games, brand new for $60 a peice, and trade them in for $30-$40 a peice ((due to deals of special trade ins)) he can effectively cut his cost of gaming from $600 down to $200-$300.
Money better spent if you ask me xD

 

[teutonicman]

At first I felt bad for the woman. It's and unfortunate event that could happen to anyone. However as soon as I read "These companies should take some responsibility." That empathy was quickly drained. This woman put her credit card on xbox for her son to use and she is responsible for it. If you want control then you can go the the bloody store and buy the MS points and live cards like other people.

P.S. OH! I bet that kid's Avatar was PIMPIN

 

[Nemu]

The internet claims another poor, lost soul!

Seriously, lady, read the fine print...

 

[bam13302]

question, does xbl ask for the cvv2 code (the 3 digit code on the back of cards) every time you make any purchase (like every other online purchase does), if it doesnt, it ****ing should and yea, microsoft screwed up, if it does ask and she gave the code to her kid, then it is her own dam fault

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Yes, let's blame Microsoft, because you couldn't pay attention to what your kid was doing, nor explained to him the effects of using a debit card and how it worked before even setting this all up.

When you hand a kid a gun and he shoots someone, you don't blame the kid. He didn't know, he's at the learning stage... the concepts of death and how a gun works are out of his grasp.

You don't blame the guy who invented the guy, he assumed that you'd have a brain not to give it to a kid.

You blame the idiot who handed him a gun, left him unsupervised and never explained how it worked and the dangers of using it.

 

[Neferius]

"I haven't punished him because he feels bad enough and I know he won't do it again," --EXCELLENT parenting skills there Madam

 

[Death on Trapezoids]

Really? You're really going to try to pawn this off?

If you give it your credit/debit/whathaveyou, then you damn well look into what exactly it takes to actually charge it. As mentioned in the article, the Xbox does have checks designed specifically to avoid this kind of thing. In fact, they're not that hard to find!

Actually, all this could have been avoided if she, heaven forbid, did some actual parenting. Look into what exactly this thing plans to do with the debit card you just gave it, then sit down for ten seconds and explain to your precious snowflake that he needs to ask you before hitting the "buy" command.

 

[Gothproxy]

Yup and herein comes to play the "Parents need to take more responsibility for what their children are doing". Since they certainly can't be bothered to do such a tremendous thing, it falls to institutions and the government to step in and help them. Of course, this causes said parents to balk, saying "Stay out of our business. We can handle raising our kids without your so-called 'help'." Well, apparently not.

Though I will say, it's nice to see that parents across the pond are just as lousy and ready to point blame at anyone BUT themselves as their counterparts here in the U.S.; where finger pointing is getting up there with Baseball as a national pass-time.

 

[Siberian Relic]

Good ole american moms, passing the responsibility on to the corporations.

Reread the article. The mother and son are from the UK.

good catch, yeah, i guess i usually just expect this kinda nonsense from us americans haha

Can't really blame you for the assumption, to be honest.

 

[BlackWidower]

Here's a better idea: DON'T GIVE YOUR KID YOUR CREDIT CARD!!!

Okay, it was a debit card, and she probably needed to, to get the kid the Xbox membership, but since it was a debit card, perhaps it would have been a better idea to have the kid use his own debit card. Radical idea, I know.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

Soooo...you let your 11-year old kid loose on Xbox LIVE with a debit card, and not once did you check your spending records or pay attention to what he was doing. Then when something bad inevitably happened, you blamed it on the company that your kid bought stuff from.

I'm sure there's more going on here then meets the eye, but...yeah.

 

[Firia]

Oh good, I heard this story yesterday and I was waiting for it to be Microsoft's fault.

I shall blame the mother for not noticing or checking at any point.

I'm not saying your wrong, but I will say that she is a single mother working two jobs. I don't feel like we're getting the whole story on how she handles parenting, but I think she has a point. Her payment information was saved into XBL, and that allowed her child- unsupervised for even a minute, to make a purchase. Since she works two jobs, that child probably goes unsupervised quite often. Working class women like this often can't afford sitters.