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

babybumpni

steampowered said:

Do you know what, I came on here for help and so far you are the first one not to be judgemental. Thank you for that. I was in tears til I read your response  I AM NOT and irresponsible parent who lets their child stare at screens for hours and I WAS NOT aware he was playing games on grandads tablets til this issue arose. I work full time and monitor my childs screen time closely but this situation caught us fully off guard...thank you for not being nasty or judgemental like some of the other responses and of course I will make sure my dad gets the money back in one way or another... thank you. 

couriervanman

OP.......Do the decent thing pay your father back the money then its up to you how you want it repaid from your 7 yr old,if it was my son his pocket money would be cut or halved 

babybumpni

KatrinaWaves said:

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...

You are clearly a nasty keyboard warrior.  Im not even going to respond.  Check your conscience...

KatrinaWaves

babybumpni said:

KatrinaWaves said:

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...

You are clearly a nasty keyboard warrior.  Im not even going to respond.  Check your conscience...

Check your child.

Pollycat

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.

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.

Have you read the link you posted?

Apple claimed that you had previously made a claim for unauthorised spending by a minor – an allegation you deny – but it offered to refund the money as a goodwill gesture after I got in touch.

The key is "goodwill gesture".

Any money the OP gets back will be a goodwill gesture.

All she can do is appeal to their 'good nature'.

'Challenging' them is unlikely to work.

TBH, it sounds like even the Guardian journalist struggled to get the money refunded.

Do you have any links to show Amazon has been sued successfully - within the UK - multiple times? And ordered to pay refunds for unauthorised app purchases multiple times?

That would be helpful to the OP in her future dealings with Amazon.

powerful_Rogue

babybumpni said:

steampowered said:

Do you know what, I came on here for help and so far you are the first one not to be judgemental. Thank you for that. I was in tears til I read your response  I AM NOT and irresponsible parent who lets their child stare at screens for hours and I WAS NOT aware he was playing games on grandads tablets til this issue arose. I work full time and monitor my childs screen time closely but this situation caught us fully off guard...thank you for not being nasty or judgemental like some of the other responses and of course I will make sure my dad gets the money back in one way or another... thank you. 

No-one has been nasty, it just seems you don't like the advice that has been given, except for the one reply that puts you in the right.

You have been advised that Amazon are not in the wrong here. They have parental controls on their devices (as you are aware) to stop children making these kinds of purchases and seeing material online that is not appropiate for their age.

You will be relying on the goodwill of Amazon, nothing more, nothing less.

steampowered

KatrinaWaves said:

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...

Is it really that difficult to believe that grandparents might not have put a particular lock on? Or that the grandparents might not have fully appreciated that a young child playing an age appropriate video-game was running up bills of hundreds of pounds by clicking buttons?

Heaven forbid that you would ever leave your children playing a game for a few minutes without sitting next to them. 

powerful_Rogue

The son is 7. OP has posted more in her duplicate thread here > https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6125208/son-has-racked-up-huge-bill-on-amazon-purchasing-in-game-transactions/p1

powerful_Rogue

steampowered said:

KatrinaWaves said:

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...

Is it really that difficult to believe that grandparents might not have put a particular lock on? Or that the grandparents might not have fully appreciated that a young child playing an age appropriate video-game was running up bills of hundreds of pounds by clicking buttons?

Heaven forbid that you would ever leave your children playing a game for a few minutes without sitting next to them. 

So why is that the fault of Amazon and not the fault of the child/grandparent and/or parents?

steampowered

Pollycat said:.

I gave you an example of someone in the UK getting a refund in almost identical circumstances literally less than a month ago. What more evidence can you possibly want?

I'm sure you are perfectly capable of using google to find countless examples of people getting refunds out of Apple, Amazon and the like for unauthorised purchases by children.

Some people get refunds via the legal route; some through their credit card companies;  some through action taken by regulators; some through action taken by journalists.

I don't guarantee any particular route will be successful but they are definitely worth exploring. Not just dismissing out of hand with some ridiculous judgmental comment, as many others seem to be doing. 

I couldn't disagree more that a refund is nothing more than a "goodwill gesture".  It gets dressed up as a "goodwill gesture" to avoid further scrutiny. Theoretically, if the Op did want to take this to court (I am not suggesting they do but they could) here are several lines of attack that could be taken:
- Contracts with minors are not legally binding unless they are for "essentials". That has been a settled principle of English contract law for hundreds of years. 
- The purchase by the child was unauthorised as he/she wasn't authorised to use the credit card.
- There are numerous possible breaches of Schedule 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which would render holding people to contracts of this size through an app unenforceable. 
- Amazon are negligent in not having proper systems in place to stop children from racking up huge unauthorised bills. That is exactly the basis of the fine Amazon was given and refunds they were ordered to make in the US. The law of most US states on negligence is almost identical to English law on negligence.