XBOX Microsoft Duty of Care - a new one

Swampy180

After 3 hours of telephone calls with my credit card provider and Microsoft it is clear that there is a huge problem with Microsoft's security systems.

Whilst my son is far from innocent in this, he is only 12 and everyone who has a son or daughter of similar age must be made aware of this.

We bought him an XBOX for his birthday in November last year and treated him to a 12 month Gold Live subscription, we did this by using the purchase option on the XBOX. Apparently buy doing this we "agreed" that this card could be retained for future purchases - news to us. He had his own debit card on account prior to that which he used for small purchases and this was overwritten buy ours.

Anyhow, this weekend some 2 months later we find out that over £700 in charges have been applied to our credit card with no chance of our reclaiming them after our "wonderful" son had been buying Xbox points each day and only stopped when the card was declined. Sometimes £42 per day!

We raised several questions with Xbox (after speaking with our son who is fully aware of the consequences of his actions) but it comes back to this:

How could this happen - he's only 12 and we only paid for 1 item?


Apparently when he first set his system and account up he did so as if he was an adult - as most kids do according to the Microsoft Xbox help line! - he lied about his age!

No check is made to verify that he was an adult. This meant that when we made the 1 and only purchase the Xbox retained our card details, security code was entered only once, and the card then remained available for him to use at a click of a button - totally without our knowledge or authorisation.

Each time a purchase was made an invoice was sent to his live.co.uk email address - again not known by us.

If however the account was set up as a child's then it would have required an adult to verify each purchase which is correct and proper, but interestingly this time they would have asked for full credit card details from the adult to check that they were an adult to avoid unauthorised/unsuitable purchases.

Microsoft have clearly missed a key loop hole in their security systems in that if a child lies about his age - so he can access Call of Duty or what ever their mates are doing - parents will be totally in the dark and their credit cards potentially emptied as no checks whatsoever are made to ensure each transaction is authorised.

Whilst our son does now know better, believe me, surely we are owed a better duty of care by Microsoft.

Discussions are ongoing with the credit card company and Microsoft via official complaints proceedures but would welcome any non-parenting advice!

miketaff1408

Do you not look at your credit card statements or check the account online? How did it take two months for you to notice?

Swampy180

miketaff1408 wrote: »

Do you not look at your credit card statements or check the account online? How did it take two months for you to notice?

Our fault yes - but Xmas head in the sand and now having been paid in Jan we were looking at clearing bills. Most purchases were in the last statement.

miketaff1408

I can understand your frustration, but I don't think you will probably get anywhere with your complaint. I'm sure Microsoft have buried in their T&C's somewhere that you agreed to leave the card details on file for future purchases, and you probably agreed to this when entering the card details with a tick in a 'tick here to agree to terms' box.

Perhaps as a gesture of goodwill you could ask Microsoft for some complimentary XBox Live points??

Johnmcl7

I wouldn't say it's a loophole as you've provided a credit card which he could only have if he was over 18 thus to Microsoft he's verified as an adult. Microsoft do provide a proper parent/child account system which when used correctly would avoid this problem.

I would strongly recommend against ever putting a credit card into a system like this as Microsoft are no different to other similar systems (Sony's SEN, Itunes, Google Play etc.) and instead stick with prepaid cards which you can buy off the shelf from most places that sell games. These are similar to payg mobiles and give you a code you redeem for points, money, subscriptions etc. which ensures your credit card is safe from ingame purchases, 'helpful' auto-renewals and fraudulent use. Even though no-one else uses my accounts so there's no risk of the cards being used that way, I never register my credit cards and just use the prepaid cards instead as that way I get exactly what I want and the companies can't take any more.

John

cockaleekee

Swampy180 wrote: »

Whilst our son does now know better, believe me, surely we are owed a better duty of care by Microsoft.

Why did he not know better before? Sorry but you need to stop blaming Microsoft for something that your child did wrong. A twelve year old has no excuse for doing this.

jonesMUFCforever

OP have you spoken to the bank about unauthorised transactions?
You might get nowhere but if you don't ask you don't get.

dalesrider

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

OP have you spoken to the bank about unauthorised transactions?
You might get nowhere but if you don't ask you don't get.

OP already said has done this.

Sadly as junior was involved bank cannot do anything.

As someone else pointed out. By putting a credit card details in they showed that they were over 18.

Sadly Junior should now be doing a lot of work at home to make up the cost.

I would start by removing the x-box and selling it to cover the losses. Clearly he knew exactly what he was doing.

dzug1

Swampy180 wrote: »

- as most kids do according to the Microsoft Xbox help line! - he lied about his age!

No check is made to verify that he was an adult.

What sort of check do you think they could have made?

Going4TheDream

Seems to be a very common problem, not only with x-box but playstation also.

Any parent buying their kids a console has to seriously consider a pre paid credit card when registering for anything on line?

At least then there is damage limitation

Tiddlywinks

He is 12 - he knew what he was doing... you need to blame him (and your lack of supervision) not Microsoft.

Take the xbox off of him and sell it to recoup some of the losses and let him see that dishonestly does not go unpunished.