Unauthorised apple purchase

dhow1809

My 5 year old son has an iPad, there is a password on there to prevent purchases. However, he has been able to make some in app purchases on some apps he likes using. He has spent £1110 in 3 weeks, as soon as I have noticed this, I’ve gone back in to security and ensured it is locked down. Now there is no password required I’ve stopped any in app purchases being allowed.
i have contacted apple as that is a legit reason to request a refund, they won’t help due to apps being third party owned or something? They told me my bank would help. They said they would, then said they couldn’t and I had to log it as fraud. Happy to do that as I didn’t authorise the payments. Now they say they won’t treat it as fraud and there’s nothing I can do.
is this really the case? I didn’t authorise the payments and I cannot survive being £1110 out of pocket! Any help greatly appreciated 

Penguin_

There might be a password but is there also touch id enabled for purchases?

dhow1809

No, Touch ID isn’t enabled for anything 

Undervalued

dhow1809 said:

My 5 year old son has an iPad, there is a password on there to prevent purchases. However, he has been able to make some in app purchases on some apps he likes using. He has spent £1110 in 3 weeks, as soon as I have noticed this, I’ve gone back in to security and ensured it is locked down. Now there is no password required I’ve stopped any in app purchases being allowed.
i have contacted apple as that is a legit reason to request a refund, they won’t help due to apps being third party owned or something? They told me my bank would help. They said they would, then said they couldn’t and I had to log it as fraud. Happy to do that as I didn’t authorise the payments. Now they say they won’t treat it as fraud and there’s nothing I can do.
is this really the case? I didn’t authorise the payments and I cannot survive being £1110 out of pocket! Any help greatly appreciated 

So are you saying it wasn't adequately locked down, when it could have been? Or, are you saying there was no way to lock an app so that an unauthorised user (a 5 year old in this case) couldn't make purchases?

If it is the former then sadly I fail to see how either Apple or the App producer is at fault.

If it is the latter then maybe it is arguable that there should have been on what (presumably) is an App that appeals to small children.

In a way the former scenario is like an unsupervised child damaging or destroying an expensive item. Very sad but ultimately the responsibility lies with the lack of supervision. 

I have read about similar situations where the company has given a full or partial refund as a gesture of goodwill but I doubt there is any legal obligation to do so.

Aylesbury_Duck

What apps has been using to be able to make that amount of in-app purchases?  I fear you may have authorised the app to take money when you downloaded and agreed to its terms of use, because I'm sure your son didn't.

Probably a call to one of the rags for a sad-face photo opportunity.  They sometimes yield a goodwill refund.

dhow1809

There are several purchases, lots are £99.99 for bundles of gold. As I said, there was a password on it, he doesn’t know the password. I don’t know how it allowed him to do it with a few taps, but he managed it. 

TadleyBaggie

Is it Fortnite by any chance? Epic Games slipped a version past Apple that bypassed the official Apple payment code, allowing direct purchasing.

dhow1809

It’s roblox and some zoo tap thing

Undervalued

dhow1809 said:

There are several purchases, lots are £99.99 for bundles of gold. As I said, there was a password on it, he doesn’t know the password. I don’t know how it allowed him to do it with a few taps, but he managed it. 

Well either there is a bug in the software that allows you to avoid the need for a password or the child has exceptional powers of memorising mum or dad's keystrokes!

Assuming it is the former then have you asked on any gaming forums if anybody else has had similar issues? Can the child not show you how they did it?

Without some evidence that it is possible I think you will struggle to get the App producers to admit the problem I'm afraid.

Obviously with the bank you can complain to the FOS, if you think they are wrong in not treating it as fraud, but again I am not sure they are at fault.

jonesMUFCforever

OP password or not - to make a purchase they have to be paid for? Who put their card details on this I-Pad?

Aylesbury_Duck

dhow1809 said:

It’s roblox and some zoo tap thing

"some zoo tap thing"?  Don't you know what you downloaded onto the ipad?

I think it's time to consider whether an ipad is a suitable toy for a 5 year old. There are sometimes good reasons why they can be extremely helpful to some children, but leaving your 5 year old son to play games unsupervised on an expensive piece of tech with internet access is just bad parenting.