Spending money on Habbo

Wordwork

Welshwoofs wrote: »

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!

It's pretty obvious you probably work for Habbo, if not directly then with them in some way.

Anyway, I won't be letting this rest. I can't afford to lose this sort of money - and I tried pleading my case to Habbo initially and they didn't even bother to reply to my email. I don't like being ignored so this is the start of a one-(very determined)-woman campaign...

pulliptears

Wordwork wrote: »

It's pretty obvious you probably work for Habbo, if not directly then with them in some way.

Anyway, I won't be letting this rest. I can't afford to lose this sort of money - and I tried pleading my case to Habbo initially and they didn't even bother to reply to my email. I don't like being ignored so this is the start of a one-(very determined)-woman campaign...

I think Welsh is right TBH, your daughter went to some lengths to deceive you over this which really isn't Habbo's fault. I can understand you are angry and frustrated but I do believe a well penned letter, sent recorded may get you somewhere whereas threats of legal action probably wont.

shellsuit

If my daughter had done this, I'd blame her, not Habbo.

My daughter used to use Habbo and she only gained credits by using her own phone when she had credit, or if she'd been good/did some jobs, then me or OH would get her credits on our phones.

Wordwork

I appreciate my daughter has been deceitful, and she has been punished for it. Unfortunately I am also being punished, but then perhaps some of you would say I deserved it for not keeping a closer check on bills. Maybe you are right, and in the past it never would have got this far but when you are dealing with the death of a partner, moving homes and countries, paying off massive debts that you have been landed with out of the blue (not my daughter's - her spending habits came from her Dad, not from me) and are working all hours God sends and looking after two teenagers, unfortunately something often slips. And in this case it was checking the phone bills every month, so I've now got an extra £650 to find.

I'm not trying to put the blame for this debt fully on Habbo but this is apparently not an isolated case so it is obviously far too easy for a determined child to bypass the existing checks in place. As someone has already pointed out, 12-year-olds can be very deceitful and I don't think the warnings or so-called limits on their website are sufficient to deal with this. And despite what Welshpool says, it isn't that easy to find hard information on the Habbo website - he/she obviously knows their way around it well but to the uninitiated like me it is not readily apparent.

When I first contacted Habbo they did offer to block the mobile phones but said they could not block a landline and that I would have to do that through my provider. Since then they have not responded to any of my emails, which began polite but which have admittedly become increasingly angry in tone as I have been ignored. As I mentioned before, I do not react well to being ignored...

jack_aubrey

Bl@@dy ell not you again!!!

shellsuit

Wordwork wrote: »

I appreciate my daughter has been deceitful, and she has been punished for it. Unfortunately I am also being punished, but then perhaps some of you would say I deserved it for not keeping a closer check on bills. Maybe you are right, and in the past it never would have got this far but when you are dealing with the death of a partner, moving homes and countries, paying off massive debts that you have been landed with out of the blue (not my daughter's - her spending habits came from her Dad, not from me) and are working all hours God sends and looking after two teenagers, unfortunately something often slips. And in this case it was checking the phone bills every month, so I've now got an extra £650 to find. Sorry to hear about your problems, but surely you haven't got to find the £650 in one go as this has gone on for a few months, so the past few months bills would have been paid wouldn't they?

I'm not trying to put the blame for this debt fully on Habbo but this is apparently not an isolated case so it is obviously far too easy for a determined child to bypass the existing checks in place. As someone has already pointed out, 12-year-olds can be very deceitful and I don't think the warnings or so-called limits on their website are sufficient to deal with this. And despite what Welshpool says, it isn't that easy to find hard information on the Habbo website - he/she obviously knows their way around it well but to the uninitiated like me it is not readily apparent.

When I first contacted Habbo they did offer to block the mobile phones but said they could not block a landline and that I would have to do that through my provider. Since then they have not responded to any of my emails, which began polite but which have admittedly become increasingly angry in tone as I have been ignored. As I mentioned before, I do not react well to being ignored...

They've done all they can do then ~ I don't see what else you can expect them to do?

mrcow

Welshwoofs wrote: »

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

No offence - but if they have an account which is held by a 12 year old child and they are unable (or unwilling it would seem) to take some responsibility for the monitoring of money that is being spent on it and put a halt on it when it's pretty obvious that something isn't right, then they really shouldn't be in business.

Wordwork

pulliptears wrote: »

I can understand you are angry and frustrated but I do believe a well penned letter, sent recorded may get you somewhere whereas threats of legal action probably wont.

I haven't threatened them with legal action. I just pointed out that my daughter was under the age of legal consent, and requested that they close her account and refund the money. I think my letter was polite.

Wordwork

shellsuit wrote: »

They've done all they can do then ~ I don't see what else you can expect them to do?

Well since it seems that they are not going to refund the money, it would be nice if they actually confirmed to me that they have closed her account so she can't spend any more. And if there is any way that she could open another account without me knowing - I can't think of one, but I'm obviously not fully on board with the dynamics of all this - it would be nice to know that too, so I can take steps to stop it. But that is probably expecting too much.

Welshwoofs

Wordwork wrote: »

It's pretty obvious you probably work for Habbo, if not directly then with them in some way.

Anyway, I won't be letting this rest. I can't afford to lose this sort of money - and I tried pleading my case to Habbo initially and they didn't even bother to reply to my email. I don't like being ignored so this is the start of a one-(very determined)-woman campaign...

I used to, yes, so I'm trying to let you know what works and what doesn't. What doesn't work is getting aggressive with them when it is, in fact, your daughter's fault and not theirs. If you used the right contact channel (Contact Us link at bottom of page and select 'I'm a parent' option) you will get a response. Generally the first response is an auto-mail with answers to common questions and you may find that if you use junk mail filters or a free email service such as Hotmail/Gmail etc that the autoresponse gets routed straight to your junk mail folder. Their customer services work office hours and normally take 48hrs to reply. The first response will naturally be to tell you of all the checks and information which is there to tell your daughter (and you) about credit purchase and, as I've said, if you plead your case in a polite way after that you may get a partial goodwill refund. I can guarantee however that if you become angry and abusive with them over something which is not their fault, they're not going to be inclined to show goodwill.