Spending money on Habbo

eranou

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

However, if it is theft, then Habbo can have no legal title to the money and must hand it back.

But would the OP not need to press charges against her daughter before they would have to hand it back?

mrcow

Woodwork, I'm glad you're at least writing to them.

I really can't see how they failed to see what was going on on her Habbo account. Whether she used 4 different mobiles or 50, it still all went onto her one Habbo account, yes? You'd think their account monitoring would have picked it up immediately. Especially considering that this certainly isn't an isolated case. I'd probably be inclined to write more than one letter (what have you to lose apart from a few minutes of your time and the price of a stamp?).

Wordwork

If I unwittingly bought stolen goods, I think I'd be expected to hand the items back even if the police hadn't prosecuted the thief, wouldn't I?

Wordwork

Hopefully I also crashed their website - I sent loads of emails to Habbo over the weekend, and today the UK site has been down for maintenance ... I like to think it was me that caused it anyway!

mrcow

Wordwork wrote: »

Hopefully I also crashed their website - I sent loads of emails to Habbo over the weekend, and today the UK site has been down for maintenance ... I like to think it was me that caused it anyway!

You never know......

sporedude

vyle wrote: »

I guess the pool isn't closed any more then

The raids still happen on a yearly bases =P

Welshwoofs

Wordwork wrote: »

Well I contacted Trading Standards and they say that any refund would almost certainly be just a goodwill gesture. However, they told me to write to Habbo via recorded delivery, explaining the situation and pointing out that my daughter is too young to "have the capacity to contract" and that buying Habbo credits would not be classed as a "necessary contract", which might encourage them to cough up some of the money. If not, they basically said forget it. So I've done that and we will see what results, if anything.

I can guarantee you won't get anywhere by trying the tactic above...take my word for it. Trading Standards know what they're doing is totally lawful...and Habbo know it too so you're not likely to get too far if you try and strong-arm them. You would probably get a partial refund as a goodwill gesture if you just plead your case rather than trying to suggest what they're doing isn't lawful. The people there are human.... they can understand a Mother whose child has been deceitful, but if you try the 'bolshy legalise' position the shutters will come down.

Interestingly, to find a UK mailing address I had to go onto the US site, and on that site it clearly states that you are only allowed 7 SMS a week to buy credits and gives a daily spending limit - both of which my daughter has managed to exceed. On occasion she has sent 10 texts a DAY from a single phone! I couldn't find anything similar stating specific spending levels on the UK site.

The mailing address is at sulake.com which is the corporate website and that is linked from the footer of habbo.co.uk. The spending information on the dot com site is for the US market not the UK. As I said before, there is a £30 spending limit on SMS per week on the UK site.

Her maximum spend on any one phone (mine incidentally) was £29, over the course of less than half an hour (the texts seem to come in at pretty much the same time in bunches of 4 or 6) which personally I think is a bit high not to have triggered an alarm. It would be interesting to know what Habbo UK's limits actually are - although not for any practical reason as I have also requested that my daugher be banned forever from all Habbo sites worldwide... and given them my IP address so she can't just start up a new account.

As I've said the spending limit on SMS is £30 a week. Giving your IP address to block is no use whatsoever you're one of the very few residential broadband customers who have a static IP address. Habbo can block home phone numbers from spending and they can block email addresses from signing up. If you've complained about your daughter they will permanently ban her account which ensures she loses her network of friends and her virtual assets....which will probably result in her losing interest anyway.

However, she has obviously has been getting up in the middle of the night when I'm asleep to buy these credits.

Then she knew exactly what she was doing. She knew it wasn't right (especially as all the literature says to ask the bill payer), but she did it anyway. Unfortunately you'll have to deal her a harsh lesson because if it's not Habbo, you can bet your !!!! it'll be another game...like Farmville, Eve Online, Stardolls etc etc etc etc etc.

Welshwoofs

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

However, if it is theft, then Habbo can have no legal title to the money and must hand it back.

It's not theft unless someone reports it to the police as theft.

Welshwoofs

mrcow wrote: »

I really can't see how they failed to see what was going on on her Habbo account. Whether she used 4 different mobiles or 50, it still all went onto her one Habbo account, yes? You'd think their account monitoring would have picked it up immediately. Especially considering that this certainly isn't an isolated case. I'd probably be inclined to write more than one letter (what have you to lose apart from a few minutes of your time and the price of a stamp?).

No offence, but you don't understand the game dynamic.

Teens buy a virtual currency with cash - they can then use that virtual currency to buy virtual objects (as you do in Second Life). Some of those objects are redeemable back into virtual currency so you can trade them with other players. In addition, teens who aren't allowed to buy currency often trade valuable virtual items for SMS credit codes which other people have bought. In other words, it's quite normal to see an account have cash from multiple sources coming in and changing into virtual currency. That is why they monitor the total from any single source (i.e. home phone or mobile number) over the period of one week.

Welshwoofs

Wordwork wrote: »

Hopefully I also crashed their website - I sent loads of emails to Habbo over the weekend, and today the UK site has been down for maintenance ... I like to think it was me that caused it anyway!

Nope, it wasn't you

[and from a technical standpoint...where you're sending the emails is completely isolated in terms of platforms and servers from the game]

...now you'd wonder why I know all this wouldn't you!