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

davidmcn

I don't think the detail of the transactions makes a difference to our advice.

powerful_Rogue

babybumpni said:

born_again said:

steampowered said:

You could try contacting your credit card provider? After all these were unauthorised purchases.

There are parental settings you can turn on to restrict in-app purchases for future.

As someone who deals with this type of call, on a all to frequent basis.
As soon as the situation is explained. The only advice you will get is you have to resolve with Amazon.
In effect they are authorised as permission must have been given to access the account to make the original purchase. After that they will all be in app purchases and as stated, it is up to the account holder to make sure that parental controls are in place,.

A lot is going to depend on the age of the offender. 

He is 7.  We have all the appropriate parental blocks on our equipment but as my dad was looking after him after school for a couple of hours, this is when it happened.   How anyone can charge £99.99 for something virtual is beyond me... some of them were £1.99 transactions hit repeatedly from the looks of things...

This is what we found when we went back.  Dad didn't have a clue.  It was only when my sister went into his Amazon account to check a purchase for him she noticed...we contacted Amazon but their phone lines are down.  We spoke to a bot then customer assistant virtually and are waiting for a response...surely this would be classed/flagged  as unusual activity on an account of a 72 year old?  The most recent ones are the mopst concerning!

14/03/2020	golden gems vase	£    99.99
14/03/2020	bronze gems vase	£    19.99
14/03/2020	golden gems vase	£    99.99
14/03/2020	bronze gems vase	£    19.99
10/03/2020	minecraft 20	£    16.17
05/03/2020	minecraft 15	£    12.13
05/03/2020	minecraft 50	£    37.86
04/03/2020	minecraft 50	£    37.86
04/03/2020	minecraft 50	£    37.86
03/03/2020	minecraft 3	£       2.42
		march
28/02/2020	minecraft 6	£       6.99
26/02/2020	minecraft 3	£       2.42
25/02/2020	minecraft 50	£    37.86
22/02/2020	minecraft 5	£       4.04
22/02/2020	minecraft 10	£       9.99
22/02/2020	elite membership	£       7.20
21/02/2020	pile of runic	£       2.32
21/02/2020	mega offer - heart	£    22.88
21/02/2020	buckets of runic	£    14.89
21/02/2020	bag of runic	£       6.70
21/02/2020	special offer - heart	£       3.81
21/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
21/02/2020	minecraft 6	£       6.99
20/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
20/02/2020	hyper credit pack	£       3.85
19/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
19/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
19/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
19/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
19/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
18/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
18/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
18/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
18/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
18/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
18/02/2020	minecaft 10	£       9.99
13/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
13/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
10/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
10/02/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
09/02/2020	minecraft 5	£       4.04
07/02/2020	minecraft 5	£       4.04
07/02/2020	minecraft 5	£       4.04
05/02/2020	raft survival	£       2.29
03/02/2020	minecraft 5	£       4.04
03/02/2020	minecraft 5	£       4.04
		february
30/01/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
30/01/2020	minecraft 3	£       2.42
30/01/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
30/01/2020	minecraft 3	£       2.42
30/01/2020	minecraft 2	£       1.99
30/01/2020	minecraft 3	£       2.42
30/01/2020	minecraft 3	£       2.42
30/01/2020	minecraft 3	£       2.42
29/01/2020	minecraft 5	£       4.04
28/01/2020	mega craft	£       0.89
21/01/2020	desert special offer	£       3.94
13/01/2020	special offer	£       3.56
08/01/2020	goat simulator - goatZ	£       3.99
		january
		december
29/11/2019	minecraft 2	£       1.99
		november
23/09/2019	goat gone wild simulator 2	£       0.59
23/09/2019	goat commando simulator	£       0.59
23/09/2019	goat simulator MMO	£       3.99
20/09/2019	goat simulator payday	£       3.99

Why would it be flagged? 72 year olds play games and make purchases as well! Even the fact the purchases are over 5 months makes it looks even less suspicious.

KatrinaWaves

Your 7 year old should really be supervised better on his tablets if he is being left to do this every day for months on end it seems!

anyway, as said already its goodwill. A one off would certainly be looked at leniently, months of transactions shows a pattern of behaviour/lack of supervision. 

People pay far more than £100 for virtual things... 

Aylesbury_Duck

I'm afraid I agree with others.  That pattern shows a persistent and consistent problem rather than a one-off mistake.

Why weren't the September payments picked up by the account holder, given they were unexpected and unusual?  They let it go unchecked for six months!

giraffe69

"We have all the appropriate parental blocks on our equipment"
I don't think you do if someone using the laptop can charge such significant  amounts to a credit card. Whatever you are able to agree re any reduction in charge(and I agree with others it will be down to goodwill) you need to investigate how the charges came about. Is there a saved credit card? Is it linked to these games? Deleting the credit card may be cheaper if slightly more inconvenient! Spending a few minutes playing the game to see what the challenges are might be worthwhile. There are probably more draconian methods as well.

KatrinaWaves

giraffe69 said:

"We have all the appropriate parental blocks on our equipment"
I don't think you do if someone using the laptop can charge such significant  amounts to a credit card. Whatever you are able to agree re any reduction in charge(and I agree with others it will be down to goodwill) you need to investigate how the charges came about. Is there a saved credit card? Is it linked to these games? Deleting the credit card may be cheaper if slightly more inconvenient! Spending a few minutes playing the game to see what the challenges are might be worthwhile. There are probably more draconian methods as well.

It does state that their devices have parental blocks, but not the grandparent doing the caring (who I assume has his own device). Why they didnt get them set up knowing the child spends most of their time on Minecraft which has in app purchases, only they can answer.

DoaM

babybumpni said:
We have all the appropriate parental blocks on our equipment but as my dad was looking after him after school for a couple of hours, this is when it happened.

So whose equipment was he using? If it was your Dad's account that got charged then he must have been using your Dad's equipment not yours, so the status of your equipment is irrelevant.

steampowered

I think people are being a bit unfair to the Op here. The suggestion that the kids should be "better supervised" is a stupid comment. Do you really expect parents and grandparents to be watching their kids every second they are playing on a children's game? Move into the real world please.

These in-app purchases are targeted specifically at children. It would be the easiest thing in the world for Amazon to implement reasonable controls around that. It's not beyond Amazon's technical capability to stop 7 year old kids running up bills, sometimes of thousands of pounds, on children's apps.

They have taken a business decision not to have proper controls on in-app purchases to make it as easy as possible and thereby generate higher profits. They have to accept that sometimes there will be unauthorised purchases that have to be refunded. 

Furthermore, Amazon has been sued successfully multiple times over this. They've been fined and ordered to pay refunds for unauthorised app purchases multiple times.

Op, I would try contacting your credit card provider, this is an unauthorised purchase and lots of people have had success with this. You could also try the paper money services, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/mar/11/my-kids-spent-600-on-their-ipads-without-my-knowledge.

KatrinaWaves

steampowered said:

I think people are being a bit unfair to the Op here. The suggestion that the kids should be "better supervised" is a stupid comment. Do you really expect parents and grandparents to be watching their kids every second they are playing on a children's game? Move into the real world please.

I do live in the real world, where parental locks are easily installed (as OP knows, they managed on their own device) and that the internet has many things unsuitable for children on them, so yes, I do think they should be monitored whilst on internet connected devices. Are you saying the child deliberately waited until Grandad wasnt looking to buy the stuff, or was he just clicking whilst in general play not realising, meaning he was left to do as he pleased for 6 months...

photome

davidmcn said:

I don't think the detail of the transactions makes a difference to our advice.

possibly makes it worse as it should have been noticed sooner, not sure how you can argue about transactions going back months, if it was just in the last few weeks you would have a stronger hand

as for £100 on games, many people happily spend that amount and more to play their fav games