Kid Racks Up £1150 Xbox Live Bill, Father Blames MSFT

[allawash]

Exactly why I didn't want my card on the xbox live account. I purchased the game card and put in the code. If I didn't want xbox live anymore, I didn't want to go through the hours long process of figuring out how to cancel it. Plus there is a tendency to forget to cancel a monthly or yearly subscription, which is why companies love this model so much.

 

[f-14]

this is the future get used to it.
this is the cloud and how the cloud works, just like handing your daughter your credit card to go to the mall and expecting her to be responsible with it or giving your kid an emergency/gas card for when they go off to college.

can't fix stupid

 

[zak_mckraken]

At some point, someone had to enter credit card informations in the account, be it the son or the father, so don't tell me neither one knew "it was costing real money". I'd also like to know what age the son is. He may not know the Microsoft Points he was using costed money at first, but he certainly saw it when he ran out of points and had to buy more. It's pretty obvious to me that he tried to spoil himself the more he could before someone realised what he was doing.

I'm not sure if you can disable the "one click purchase" option, but it's certainly the parents responsability to secure their credit cards by not saving it in their kids account.

 

[dta 4 ever]

The story comes from the Daily Mail which contains more information that don't up. The kid claims he spent "£100 in a single day on weapons and extra features after playing Call of Duty with his online friends." WHAT! The kid is 12 and he been caught by his father so he playing the idiot to get out of it. As for the father he is paying monthly for Xbox Live which is the most expensive way to pay and did not set up his kids account as a kids account which would had prevented this.

Read more: http/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2171930/X-Box-Live-Boy-playing-Call-Duty-Fifa-ran-1-150-bill.html#ixzz20ta5Opp3
"Every time you buy points on live it tells up what it cost and

 

[scannall]

Hmm, $1790 in US currency for 6 months. Almost $300 a month. And here I thought my MMO subscriptions were expensive.

 

[captaincharisma]

sure it is microsoft's fault and not that this guy is a loser father

 

[RADIO_ACTIVE]

lol I blame MS for not checking my account activity, what a dumbass...

 

[upgrade_1977]

I'm sure this is very common. They should have an option in the settings to use a password for purchases. Microsoft is a huge company, I think they can afford a refund. If it's a huge deal just get a PS3 as they don't charge to go online, so you don't have to link it to a credit card. problem solved.

 

[spookyman]

I would make the child pack up the 360 and drag the kid to a Goodwill and give the system away.

Then as soon as we got home. I would break out the razor strap and give the kid a beating he deserves.

 

[Zingam_Duo]

Shut up and pay, bitch!

 

[kittle]

The dad didnt Pay attention -- now he gets to PAY UP

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]spookyman[/nom]I would make the child pack up the 360 and drag the kid to a Goodwill and give the system away.Then as soon as we got home. I would break out the razor strap and give the kid a beating he deserves.[/citation]

Yeah, cause beating a Kid is so good parenting!

A good Parent will NEVER have to raise a hand in harm to a child....

 

[beoza]

Some of you seem to be confused about this part "According to Ghera, Microsoft makes it too easy for his son to make purchases: "He didn't realise it was costing real money."" Mr. Ghera is referring to his son not knowing it was costing real money. He may be asking for a refund but it also states he just wants an apology and a fix to the system so its easier to stop online purchases by kids, like some of you have mentioned with Steam. I have a PS3 my uncle has a Xbox, neither of us use CC info on our consoles, it's much easier to just go to say Walmart, Target, Toys R Us (insert your favorite/local retailer/e-tailer here), buy a card with points and use that.

Some of you blame the father for not checking his balance on his CC but the truth is most people dont even look at their bills they just pay the balance. Many companies have been found to add charges and the person just looks at their balance and pays. Sure it's the father's responsibility to check his balance and finances monthly, but he's just doing what a lot of people do. Atleast he's not suing MS.

He could have taken the time to explain to his son about money when he bought the account, explained that points cost money. Excellent chance for parenting skill boost there. Or he could have bought a card from a local retailer for the Xbox live membership and then used Xbox Live point cards as a reward/incentive for doing things such as chores or getting good grades. He should have also been paying more attention to what his son was playing. In my youth (late 70's to mid 80's) I got an allowance from my dad for doing chores, and getting good grades, wasn't much but was nice to get. Nothing was ever handed to me if I wanted something, then I had to work for it.

I don't know how easy it is to make purchases with CC info on a console, but if it's as easy as pushing a button then it need to be changed to something a lil more secure, or at least put in a popup that gives a brief explanation and options for the CC info then takes you to the parental controls when the "next" button is pressed.

I'm not saying that the father is right here, he did screw up by not checking his finances like he should have, he also missed a chance to hone his parenting skills. MS is also not at fault, but they could (with my limited understanding of their parental controls/CC options) make it a lil clearer for less tech savvy people. But then again many people don't even read the TOS/EULA or any other documentation.

This reminds me of the article about the kid who bought a military jet fighter online a while back.

 

[fb39ca4]

[citation][nom]john_4[/nom]The father must be a liberal. Always someone else's fault is their policy and also sue, sue sue happy they are.[/citation]
I thought that was a conservative position?

 

[g-unit1111]

£1156 at current rate of exchange = $1,808.92

This is why I don't like subscription based games.

 

[xdrsx]

I have been a gold member for a long time. MS makes it easy to enter your CC details and gleefully retains them ongoing but if any of you have tried removing your details either through your live account online or through your xbox, good luck. Unlike every other company in the world removing your CC details is a freakin mission.

 

[everygamer]

I have a great idea, buy xbox live gamer cards and don't put a credit card in. Then the kid can't spend more than the points added by the cards.

Also, there are systems in place to control what minors do when using an XBOX, the parent didn't do his homework.

Again, another parent blaming someone else for not being involved with their kids and not knowing whats going on. It's always someone else's fault. Gives the rest of us parents a bad name.

 

[gti88]

He should have used virtual card.

 

[gti88]

He can now save the sum of money spent by refusing to feed his son for a year.

 

[chewy1963]

[citation][nom]Kami3k[/nom]Why am I'm not the surprised the dumbest comments I've read so far today are from the same person.There's your steam comment, and now this. I look forward to how stupid you can get.[/citation]

Ya john_4 is almost as stupid as you are. Posting political crap on a hardware tech site.