Xbox live, child purchases; anyone successfully claimed money back?

spacey2012

Does it involve a licensing contract sale ?
If so a person infer 18 can not enter a contract.

wealdroam

spacey2012 wrote: »

If so a person infer 18 can not enter a contract.

Oh, I though anyone, even under 18s, could enter a contract.

It's just that the contract terms are unenforcible against a minor, so most other parties would avoid a contract with under 18s.

ChasingButterflies

DaveTheMus wrote: »

I'm not sure it would be in the xbox download history because the points are purchased from EA Sports(people who make Fifa).

He will have an EA account on the EA Sports website, it might be on that....


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HN2XZ3xAgLw

Here's a video showing how the points are purchased and that there is a price clearly marked beside it. Although it's an American video the interface is exactly the same, just replace $ with £.

Once the points are purchased they are used to buy packs of player cards.

Thank you for replying, there seems to be little information re the xbox download history other than you can't delete it. There are minecraft "things/purchases" there so I was holding out some hope that the fifa packs would be there too but they aren't. On the EA sports fifa 14 site I can log in but can't find any account section and there are no purchases in origin account. I guess I will need to wait very impatiently for someone at xbox to tell me the serial number of the xbox that downloaded the purchases that were debited to my card.

My son unlike the OP's has declared that he didn't buy anything so whatever the outcome the situation is a bit grim.

DaveTheMus

ChasingButterflies wrote: »

Thank you for replying, there seems to be little information re the xbox download history other than you can't delete it. There are minecraft "things/purchases" there so I was holding out some hope that the fifa packs would be there too but they aren't. On the EA sports fifa 14 site I can log in but can't find any account section and there are no purchases in origin account. I guess I will need to wait very impatiently for someone at xbox to tell me the serial number of the xbox that downloaded the purchases that were debited to my card.

My son unlike the OP's has declared that he didn't buy anything so whatever the outcome the situation is a bit grim.

I see, so your son is saying he hasn't purchased the FIFA points...you could email EA Sports and they could tell whether any points were purchased on your sons profile.

Edit.

Is it possible your son used his 'gamer profile' on a friends console? If he did then the friend would have been able to use it and everything associated with it until your son redownloaded it to his own machine?

I will say it's a bit of a coincidence that your card was used to purchase in game consumables on the very game your son was playing, but it wasn't him....

I'm not saying it's 100% your son! it probably is though.

I would check his internet browsing history, he might have googled something like:

"Are fifa ultimate team points traceable?"

Slowhand

ChasingButterflies wrote: »

Thank you for replying, there seems to be little information re the xbox download history other than you can't delete it. There are minecraft "things/purchases" there so I was holding out some hope that the fifa packs would be there too but they aren't. On the EA sports fifa 14 site I can log in but can't find any account section and there are no purchases in origin account. I guess I will need to wait very impatiently for someone at xbox to tell me the serial number of the xbox that downloaded the purchases that were debited to my card.

My son unlike the OP's has declared that he didn't buy anything so whatever the outcome the situation is a bit grim.

Children have been known to tell fibs/lie/con their gullible idiotic parents. My sister-in-law contacted me regarding a problem with her laptop keyboard. I thought it sounded like a liquid spillage and said so. Her 11 year old son apparently denied it outright to her. Guess who was not telling the truth...he only owned up because I managed to sort it!

ChasingButterflies

DaveTheMus wrote: »

I see, so your son is saying he hasn't purchased the FIFA points...you could email EA Sports and they could tell whether any points were purchased on your sons profile. Thanks will have a look and see if I can find a number to call in the morning.

Edit.

Is it possible your son used his 'gamer profile' on a friends console? That scenario is possible If he did then the friend would have been able to use it and everything associated with it until your son redownloaded it to his own machine? It is also possible that he has passed his details on to someone either on purpose or by accident, although he also claims not to have.

I will say it's a bit of a coincidence that your card was used to purchase in game consumables on the very game your son was playing, but it wasn't him.... Yes I agree

I'm not saying it's 100% your son! it probably is though. Yes it is a distinct possibility

I would check his internet browsing history, he might have googled something like:

"Are fifa ultimate team points traceable?"

Nothing about traceable has looked for info about how much you can sell players for... I'll be honest and say I haven't watched every youtube fifa video that he looked at

We have explained very explicitly that xbox can tell very easily if his machine downloaded them and that it would be much better to fess up now... *shrugs* This will be the longest 2/3days of my life so far I think.

Thanks again, part of the problem is that I am quite uneducated about these things and tend to think of these games as things you buy and play as opposed to what they actually are.

ChasingButterflies

Slowhand wrote: »

Children have been known to tell fibs/lie/con their gullible idiotic parents. My sister-in-law contacted me regarding a problem with her laptop keyboard. I thought it sounded like a liquid spillage and said so. Her 11 year old son apparently denied it outright to her. Guess who was not telling the truth...he only owned up because I managed to sort it!

I know where you are coming from. I can leave my kids alone for a moment and then have 4 differing versions of what happened Luckily my youngest is still young enough to tell it how it is and not get involved in sibiling politics - it is a shame she wasn't playing Fifa with her big brother...

frugal_mike

I would definitely advise removing all card details from xbox live. There isn't anything you can do on there that requires the card details, its only makes things slightly more convenient (and probably more profitable for Microsoft). And I say this as someone without any kids and I still don't want my card details on there.

For example, purchasing xbox live membership can be done externally to Microsoft, and for much less money than the £39.99 that Microsoft charge.

powerful_Rogue

I can only echo what the poster above has said.

My 12 year old has xbox live so he can play minecraft and various other games against school friends. You can purchase xbox live online for around £25. No need to have a card linked up to xbox live.

bluenoseam

It always makes me wonder if people wander around games shops with their eyes closed - they all have these little card things which essentially grant access to XBL & offer the account top ups. That essentially renders stuff like this impossible to happen given the total lack of requirement to store any payment details anywhere.

The second thing about this is having the notifications go to a different e-mail account, c'mon no offense intended here, but that's really pretty nonsensical now you're kicking off about things. That's the quickest & easiest way to know when money is being spent, that's not spam that's keeping an eye on things!

I'm sorry if I don't sound sympathetic, but the mistakes here are all yours for the reasons above or your Sons and now you want someone else to carry the can for it? You don't just "get" things like that, it requires several stages of a process, you "select" the product, you're asked if you're sure you want to pay for it (along with a price) & you then confirm the purchase. That's a fairly standard and unless there are mitigating circumstances which I'm unaware of, I'd expect a 12 year old to understand the fact that's the point you should be checking it's OK to go ahead.

But much like my previous attempt to help on a gaming subject, this will be seen as a "negative" post which is "nasty" because it shines the light on the safeguards put in by Microsoft & parents extreme ignorance of them. You can be assured it's actually no such thing & I'd implore you to speak to members of staff at your local games shops in order to make better, informed decisions in the future - believe it or not, they're usually there to help you & will do so gladly to avoid threads like this.