My son has spent £700 on Xbox Sale!

gusman2x

cruxiform said:

I feel your pain Ross, my lad did me for £300 on Fifa 17 last year. This year he's earning money by doing chores for me which he can then spend on his own  FIFA points.  

What's wrong with kids these days? Who wants to spend money on "virtual players" on Fifa. When I was a youth it was bikes, guitars, cigarettes, hash, and booze. In reverse order. I really despair for the youth of today.

Teetonetal

In app purchase really ought to bring with it an over 18 sales condition for the game. A £700 bill on igc is ridiculous. Shouldn't be possible.

guitargeek62

Teetonetal said:

In app purchase really ought to bring with it an over 18 sales condition for the game. A £700 bill on igc is ridiculous. Shouldn't be possible.

They do; the kid’s either nabbed the credit card off dad and made the purchase that way, or dad didn’t know the card details could be saved on the account and not required for each purchase. I don’t have an XBox so can’t say how their store is setup, but that’s how the PS4 & Switch shops work, iOS app store too.

Bod

Teetonetal said:

In app purchase really ought to bring with it an over 18 sales condition for the game. A £700 bill on igc is ridiculous. Shouldn't be possible.

I agree.  There can't be many people that would actually spend that amount of money in-game so there should be a cap.  It's a blatant cash grab from EA, which is pretty standard of them IMO.

My Xbox is setup with me as the main user and my kids have child accounts linked to mine, so everything has to be approved by me.  The permissions are fairly granular, but they can become a pain in the arse with some games throwing errors, so I've had to relax them a bit.  It's all a bit confusing really so I'm not entirely confident that it's foolproof.

stickyfiddle

Bod said:

Teetonetal said:

In app purchase really ought to bring with it an over 18 sales condition for the game. A £700 bill on igc is ridiculous. Shouldn't be possible.

I agree.  There can't be many people that would actually spend that amount of money in-game so there should be a cap.  It's a blatant cash grab from EA, which is pretty standard of them IMO.

My Xbox is setup with me as the main user and my kids have child accounts linked to mine, so everything has to be approved by me.  The permissions are fairly granular, but they can become a pain in the arse with some games throwing errors, so I've had to relax them a bit.  It's all a bit confusing really so I'm not entirely confident that it's foolproof.

There are people who have paid tens of thousands of dollars on in-game/app purchases for a single game. It's a major revenue stream for the industry. Just google "Loot boxes" for the latest scheme to part stupid people from their cash.

EricTheWeary

handsomerik said:

If it was purchased on a credit card wouldn't you have extra protection against this sort of thing?

But you haven't been subject to credit card fraud, you've just made a poor choice of purchase as far as the card company are concerned. 
I don't know where distance selling regulations fit into this, can you not return your virtual footballers? 

SecretMachine

It's pretty amazing how little protection there is with respect to computer games in general. Ever tried to refund a PC game? Absolute nightmare for the most part. I can't imagine trying to get a refund on virtual FIFA players. Good luck, hope you get some of the cash back. 

beed84

Jesus christ. I didn't even know this sort of stuff existed. Honestly, this is another example of how the world has gone utterly mad.  Hope you get it sorted soon fella.

Legionreturns

This is SOP for EA. They release half a game at full price and then make you buy downloadable content to get the rest. If you buy only the standard game and it's online / player v player you're at a massive disadvantage but bombarded with opportunities to pay to get ahead. It's a despicable practice and a very good way of relieving fools of their (or someone else's) money. 

spark240

It happens a lot...my nephew racked up a mobile phone bill just with App add ons cause his mom got him a phone in her name and stored the card details ..weve all seen that tick box " remember me" !. 

Is it the kids fault?...Im not sure, ...did he understand the implications, or was he just doing what all his mates do.

Still @rossyamaha ...you got the cash from that Marshall eh ;-)     

Ro_S

gusman2x said:

What's wrong with kids these days? Who wants to spend money on "virtual players" on Fifa. When I was a youth it was bikes, guitars, cigarettes, hash, and booze. In reverse order. I really despair for the youth of today.

Subbuteo

JerkMoans

Ro_S said:

Subbuteo

Crappest game in the history of bobbins. Flicking wobbly stupid players to ping a ropey little ball about... I’d blotted it from my memory for 35 years till I read your post

aord43

spark240 said:

It happens a lot...my nephew racked up a mobile phone bill just with App add ons cause his mom got him a phone in her name and stored the card details ..weve all seen that tick box " remember me" !. 

Is it the kids fault?...Im not sure, ...did he understand the implications, or was he just doing what all his mates do.

Still @rossyamaha ...you got the cash from that Marshall eh ;-)     

Never say yes to any site that offers to remember your credit card.  Apart from this kind of thing, accidental spending etc, you are relying on their security.  Sites that think they were secure have had files of customer credit card details stolen, it's not worth the risk just to avoid typing in the long number.  

Legionreturns

You don't even have to type them now, you can just hold it in front of your phone camera each time

Gadget

Despite their bad press, I've always found Microsoft very good to deal with if you talk to them, so I would really try to escalate it as far and politely as you can. Good luck

danishbacon

Stressing hardship that this charge will cause, politely, could also assist in the escalation process.

darthed1981

Just so we are clear.. as I know how I'd feel if one of my kids did this to me...

1.  Child slavery is a thing.
2. There is money to be had.
3.  None of us will say A WORD to the authorities.

Just saying...

Funkfingers

The lad will soon learn about the value of money if you set the bugger to work. 

http://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/60ed8686-ac8b-4ec1-ad81-9c3b07608c1a

BRISTOL86

JerkMoans said:

Ro_S said:

Subbuteo

Crappest game in the history of bobbins. Flicking wobbly stupid players to ping a ropey little ball about... I’d blotted it from my memory for 35 years till I read your post

There needs to be a Nonsense button for posts like this!! Subbuteo is and shall always be the game of champions!

Ro_S

JerkMoans said:

Ro_S said:

Subbuteo

Crappest game in the history of bobbins. Flicking wobbly stupid players to ping a ropey little ball about... I’d blotted it from my memory for 35 years till I read your post

@BRISTOL86 (above) is bang on.   Subbuteo is best game ever.    I played at Wembley once.     Don't go negative about Subbuteo just cos you have spastic fingers.