Child Spends $4.5K in Microtransactions, Parent Wants to Sue Microsoft

I think the parents should loss this case. If I made a account for my little ***. I make a child account. And password protect my account from them buying some crap my account.

 

I actually got quite a kick out of this and have no sympathy for the parent. Wanting to sue MS after he obviously logged in, provided his credit card and agreed to all the terms of service. I am sorry, but if you leave your card on file and have no safeguards
for it with easy access from you kid as he dumps in transaction after transaction that is bad parenting.

Teach your kid about money (irony as he is an employee at World Bank) and to be responsible, while also being responsible for himself.

Class action suit? give me a break. Maybe I am also a bit jaded and bitter as I get on in age but I am so tired of hearing about these stories with threat of lawsuit looming overhead.

gm

 

I'm totally taking the father's side in this. I agree with this statement:

"How many users legitimately spend thousands of dollars on in-app purchases and just how much usage would it actually take for you to flag this as unusual behavior and require confirmation that the purchase is legitimate?"

If the parent wants to be reimbursed, he should be. The credit card was used in an unauthorized way by someone other than the cardholder. Despite what you all think of him, he has every legal right to get a refund.

 

Maybe if he caught it in the first billing cycle...

Anyway this is what will happen if he does a charge back or tries to sue...Microsoft will ban his son's account for fraud/marketplace theft; I'd put money on it! Lol.

Peace, J.R.

 

"How many users legitimately spend thousands of dollars on in-app purchases and just how much usage would it actually take for you to flag this as unusual behavior and require confirmation that the purchase is legitimate?"
- Irrelevant as far as MS is concerned. Seriously, they've provided plenty of ways to make sure this does not happen. If someone is stupid enough to either not bother with looking into it, or they don't want bothered to take the time to make sure the account
is set up and monitored properly, it's their fault. Full. Stop.

If the parent wants to be reimbursed, he should be. The
credit card was used in an unauthorized way by someone other than the cardholder. Despite what you all think of him, he has every legal right to get a refund. - Then perhaps he should
put on his bankers thinking cap and go to the credit card company for the refund... hmm? My wife received a courtesy call from our cc company at Christmas, just to make sure the recent multiple purchases for several hundred $ were legitimate. They explained
that they provide this service any time there is higher than usual activity on the card.

Some people may spend this much on DLC for all we know. The cc issuer would have a better idea of what would be considered unusual activity on someone's account anyway... that's
part of the service for any cc agency that's worth bothering with. This guy either wants his '15 minutes' or he is too irresponsible to be either a banker or a parent.

He even admits he should have done a better job. It's the same as saying "I didn't do my job as a parent properly... but I still want MS to do part of it for me." Way to take responsibility
there, dad...

 

has the father stated:

"With horror I started scrolling through pages of charges — $109, $109, $109 — sometimes two a day. More than $4,500 of charges for virtual FIFA players going back
several months."

several months, if you spend $109 everyday, for 42 days (that's 6 weeks), you get just over 4.5k, but the father didn't say a month and a half, he said several months, that could easily not raise any flags if the charges are only showing up a few times a
week.

IF he went to court and IF the judge were suffering from some sort of temporary insanity or brain trauma and awarded him a refund or whatever, then that'll just open the door for everyone to go and charge up their credit
cards and sue saying someone else did it, and in the end gamers will end up having some new stupid, convoluted policies forced upon them just so MS can cover their butts.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

 

things like this always make me rage at the parents, my sons 5&6 have their own xbox, if they want something like PvZ coins, or MC skin packs, i jump online buy some xbox store gift cards things and add it to their account, i generally buy them about £10
worth of credit a month, how they use it is up to them, their gold is also via pre payment...

I have my own 360 and xb1 which is in the living room, they also have free rein of these, it has been drilled into them since day one they are not allowed to buy things on there (my bank card is linked) and bar a very small couple of "accidental buys" they
have been fine, now if my young children understand this, one of which who has brain damage! then im sorry every kid can, its the parents fault threw and threw, watch your child if they cannot be trusted/remove card details from the system.

I also get an instant email every time something is brought, that should of alerted the parents.

Sorry rant, like i said it just makes me rage, you can also turn off ingame and xbox store purchases and it requires a pin to turn on...

 

Bizarro I get what you are saying but it was not a unauthorized user using the card. The parent put the card on the account, so that there was the authorization. You agree to those terms when you add a CC to a site.

Do I think there should have been a red flag raised sooner? Hell yes. Not by Microsoft but by the company that owns the card. Either way it still falls on the parent, it's not like the card was stolen. If I had a CC listed for facebook games and I lost
my phone and whoever finds it starts using it to buy stuff it's not facebooks fault for not stopping it. It's my fault for not taking the appropriate actions.

That's a big part of the problem in today's world, it's easier to blame someone else for a mistake. File a law suite and dont take responsibility for yourself.

 

Well said, InkedAngel! Sorry to hear about your son having brain damage. God bless, him.

There's no legitimate grounds for a lawsuit here.

 

This is dumb.. I have three kids all with their own accounts and they simply DONT have a CC attached to their accounts. EASY!

If they want something, we simply order a PRE-PAID card and add that to the account. They then can buy what they want knowing they have X amount of money. Not only does this help me in that they cant use a CC, but they learn how to budget as well.

 

Isnt this story ancient? It seems to me I remember it popping up a few years ago?

 

Even if it's ancient I think it's pretty funny. It sucks that it had to be that much money, but lol.