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

bluenoseam

Pelatage wrote: »

Not sure you've getting the point. Obviously, with hindsight I would have looked. However, on Nintendo and iTunes, an email is sent to the person whose credit card is on the account. If you think it's reasonable to email the child (he's registered as 12, remember) rather then the owner of the credit card, then you have a different world view from me. By all means kick me for making an assumption but at least agree that the setup looks desiugned to keep the cardholder from knowing.

I'm not aware that I'm "kicking off". If I've come across as so, it's not intended. I'm annoyed that the setup is designed to allow kids to do this without letting the cardholder know.

It's not Microsoft's knowledge as to whom has access to any individual e-mail address, they send the e-mail out, that's all they're legally obliged to do so. It's not designed to keep the cardholder from knowing, if that were the case no e-mails would be sent at all! I'm not going to tell you how to do your job as a parent, but if it were my 12 year old I'd at a bare minimum be checking the e-mails received, granted not reading them as that would be a bit much, but scanning them.

I'm glad you found my later reply to be useful, that was a huge part of my life for many years & it's part of the way I did my job to ensure people knew what they were getting into. (It's made me equal parts popular & unpopular as little kiddies tended to hate me for informing adults just exactly what the game entails in graphic detail!)

I've been in a position where I've been on the receiving end of a rollicking for similar reasons, 10 years or so ago I had to deal with the irate parental unit following an auto-renewal of Xbox Live. So I'm not speaking from the position of sanctimonious git, but speaking from experience as well - just that in those days DLC wasn't as popular.

frugal_mike

One thing I would say about purchases on xbox live:

The confirmation box for purchases also pops up for free items (demos, free games etc). It seems to me like a subtle way of getting users to click confirm without thinking or reading the text. When I have no credit on my account its not a problem, but when I do I make sure to always double check that things are actually free to avoid spending money I don't intend to.

The user interface could easily have been designed to make it more difficult to purchase without thinking, but Microsoft don't want to persuade people not to buy.

Obviously I'm not suggesting that this is an excuse not to read the confirmation box properly...

DaveTheMus

Pelatage wrote: »

Every single time he spends money on either of them he comes to us with the cash, often before we know he's spent it. We're talking about a kid coming to me with 69p in his hand (never 70p and "keep the change", mind!).

Can I direct you to post 11.....I posted a link to a video on youtube were a guy shows you how to buy points on Fifa Ultimate Team.....The prices are very clearly set out.........If he has spent the £331 you say he has, he must have made over 10 seperate purchases...........to miss the price one or two times is, at a stretch, believable. To miss the price ten times?

Pelatage

DaveTheMus wrote: »

Can I direct you to post 11.....I posted a link to a video on youtube were a guy shows you how to buy points on Fifa Ultimate Team.....The prices are very clearly set out.........If he has spent the £331 you say he has, he must have made over 10 seperate purchases...........to miss the price one or two times is, at a stretch, believable. To miss the price ten times?

You've clearly made your mind up. Think what you like.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

steampowered wrote: »

This involves non-returnable electronic credit for a videogame, not a toy that can be returned to a shop. It would help if you actually read and understood the post before making an unjustified and judgmental comment.

The shortfall is made up by docking the pocket money

Pelatage wrote: »

As to the comments that were a little more negative (dock pocket money/Work off the debt) I'll give you a little pen-portrait of the kid in question, as you don't know him.

I have made the comment on three threads in recent days. Only once has there been a response about its accuracy. I trust the trinket is not on eBay, and the pocket money still been paid up front. As such, that is for he payer of the pocket money to decide.

As for a biography of your child, to be honest, I am not interested.

DaveTheMus

Pelatage wrote: »

You've clearly made your mind up. Think what you like.

pretty hard to miss, no?

zagfles

DaveTheMus wrote: »

pretty hard to miss, no?

After you click "buy now", what evidence is required that the user is the cardholder? CV2 number? Password? Does it even offer a confirmation of the CC to be charged?

If none of the above, the charge should be easy to dispute. A lot of retailers are happy to have an easy to buy mechanism which won't necessarily give them sufficient proof of cardholder authorisation if challenged, since making it easy to buy generates far more in sales than the losses when charges are reversed. Particularly for purchases with virtually zero marginal cost.

I'd be disputing this as an unauthorised transaction with the bank. Likely to get a fob off to start, but a letter threathening to go to the FOS could work.

ladymagpie

spacey2012 wrote: »

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

No, downloading a game is not a licensing contract.

It's downloading a game.

ladymagpie

This thread is yet another parent failing to make sure they understand the technology before giving their child unsupervised access to it.

If you don't spend the extra 2 minutes to password protect any attempt at purchases, then this should be a lesson learned.

I have an xbox and its very clear and very easy on how to password protect purchases. Also, you don't even need to store your card details on the xbox - you can just input them each time you make a purchase.

If you gave your child your card and pin and left them in a toy shop do you think the shop would refund you? I don't think you'll get your money back.

WTFH

zagfles wrote: »

After you click "buy now", what evidence is required that the user is the cardholder? CV2 number? Password? Does it even offer a confirmation of the CC to be charged?

If none of the above, the charge should be easy to dispute. A lot of retailers are happy to have an easy to buy mechanism which won't necessarily give them sufficient proof of cardholder authorisation if challenged, since making it easy to buy generates far more in sales than the losses when charges are reversed. Particularly for purchases with virtually zero marginal cost.

I'd be disputing this as an unauthorised transaction with the bank. Likely to get a fob off to start, but a letter threathening to go to the FOS could work.

Zag, my explanation to zaax in the other thread is the same as it is here...
The credit card is tied to the account. You enter the account password, not the credit card details. It works the same way PayPal and other online accounts work.
It's not an unauthorised transaction, you need to understand a little about how these accounts work before talking about disputes, chargebacks, etc.