Son has racked up huge bill on Amazon purchasing in game transactions

babybumpni

HELP????
My dad rang me last night to say my son has managed to make in-game transactions on his Amazon Account (via his tablet) in excess of £600 since December.  Includes several £99.99 transactions for "Golden Gems vase" and several £37.86 purchases for Minecraft 50.  Amazon is a nightmare.  I've contacted them (via my dads account this afternoon) and have been referred to some team.  Is there any challenging this???  My son was clearly repeatedly clicking in game and my dad didn't realise....any advice genuinely appreciated even if can get some of this back.  Dad is 72 and in poor health (and isolated due to Covid 19) and this has stressed both him and me out...as if we didn't have enough to deal with...

kazwookie

Change the password for now, urgently.

babybumpni

HELP????
My dad rang me last night to say my son has managed to make in-game transactions on his Amazon Account (via his tablet) in excess of £600 since December.  Includes several £99.99 transactions for "Golden Gems vase" and several £37.86 purchases for Minecraft 50.  Amazon is a nightmare.  I've contacted them (via my dads account this afternoon) and have been referred to some team.  Is there any challenging this???  My son was clearly repeatedly clicking in game and my dad didn't realise....any advice genuinely appreciated even if can get some of this back.  Dad is 72 and in poor health (and isolated due to Covid 19) and this has stressed both him and me out...as if we didn't have enough to deal with...

babybumpni

kazwookie said:

Change the password for now, urgently. 

Done as soon as we realised...he cant access the device as we are isolating!  Do you have any experience of reclaiming through Amazon - any help gratefully received?

DoaM

Anything from Amazon will be goodwill ... perhaps you should repay your Dad, stop your son's allowance/pocket money and explain why?

Martin_the_Unjust

DoaM said:

Anything from Amazon will be goodwill ... perhaps you should repay your Dad, stop your son's allowance/pocket money and explain why?

...is the right answer.

Just out of curiosity, how old is your son?

The_Rainmaker

You pay your father back (at least a decent percentage) and and then extract some sort of penance from your son.

Just how you see this as an Amazon problem is beyond me.

TripleH

You can but ask. I wouldn't be optomistic though as Amazon may well come back with 'was your son not monitored' 'were there not safety measures in place to stop him' 'is this buyer's remorse so you are blaming your son to avoid your father's regret'
I'm not trying to be pessimistic but as this is not a new situation, companies will have their excuses all lined up. Personally it sickens me that games are setup to encourage in game purchases to enable playability, particularly those aimed at kids. A monthly subscription to childrens gaming sites makes more sense.

tehone

How old is your son?
It is possible to set up restrictions on a Kindle tablet (to help prevent future transactions).

I have found Amazon reasonable in the past so it depends I think, but the problem I see is the time lag between the transactions and the reporting of them - 3 months is quite a while, even in the current situation.

I think that even for in game transactions, Amazon email you (I can't easily test without making a transaction!), it certianly does for other digital purchases (actual games, videos etc)

powerful_Rogue

babybumpni said:

kazwookie said:

Change the password for now, urgently. 

Done as soon as we realised...he cant access the device as we are isolating!  Do you have any experience of reclaiming through Amazon - any help gratefully received?

It's not just changing the password, it's 'Parental Contols' you need to enable for the password to be required whenever an in-game purchase is made.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201357720

As already said, it would only be goodwill if Amazon gave any kind of refund as they are not at fault.

[Deleted User]

babybumpni said:  Do you have any experience of reclaiming through Amazon - any help gratefully received?

You are not "reclaiming" though, you are hoping for a goodwill gesture from Amazon. Any thought of a full refund is  futile and to even get a small partial refund will be a win for your Dad.  The rest will be down to you (or him) to pay. 

Ensure your Dad enables Parental Controls on his account, as well as protecting his password.