Father blames Microsoft as son spends £1150 on Xbox Live

Father Sam Ghera complained to Microsoft after his 12-year-old son Nik spent £1150 on Microsoft Points over a six month period.

Ghera's son claimed he didn't know the Microsoft Points were being charged to his father's credit card, despite having spent £100 in a single day on games such as FIFA and Call of Duty.

"He didn't realise it was costing real money," Ghera, from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, told the Daily Mail. "With sites like eBay and iTunes it always asks you for a password before you make a purchase, but with Xbox Live you just press a button and then your money's gone.

Sam Ghera and 12-year-old Nik.

"I contacted Microsoft but, six months down the line, they're still saying they're looking into it. I'm waiting for them to get back to me.

"An apology would be nice but I'm more interested in having this problem stopped so that we as parents can stop our kids from making payments on our cards."

Microsoft has responded to the report, noting that the price of downloadable content is stated throughout the purchasing process.

"There are multiple opportunities where consumers are asked to confirm their purchases. The price is clearly displayed on the screen," a spokesperson said.

"It should also be noted that Xbox Live accounts registered for children's use have online activity automatically defaulted to off, and these can be enabled, should the parents wish, in the family settings section.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-13-father-blames-microsoft-as-son-spends-1150-on-xbox-live

Do you think MS is to blame for this?

When will the FIFA madness stop?

MS can be blamed for a lot of things but the price and confirmation of purchase is very, very, very clear and you get asked two or three times if you're certain. No, there's no way in hell this is their fault. The kid knew exactly what he was doing and the father is proudly wearing a great big chump hat right now. Gee, he sounds like such a fucking tool.

@believer258 said:

MS can be blamed for a lot of things but the price and confirmation of purchase is very, very, very clear and you get asked two or three times if you're certain. No, there's no way in hell this is their fault. The kid knew exactly what he was doing and the father is proudly wearing a great big dunce hat right now.

thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

Yes, teach your child to spend your money without any concept and then blame corporations for taking your money. God.

Title should be "Man is clueless, needs swaddling".

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGH! Daily Mail!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGH! FIFA!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGH! People not knowing what Xbox LIVE is!

Today's headline "Idiots blame others for problems".

While it never asks for your password again after you've entered it once I think the XBL store is pretty straight forward with stuff costing money and being non-refundable.

I think MS has a problem in that the parents will input their credit card to pay for Xbox Live, and then not realize that their kids are free to use it to pay for other things on the console. It's not like the PS3 where you don't need a credit card until you buy something.

Why is the son dressed like he's ready to go to work at a fucking bank?

IT'S A PHOTO SHOOT FOR THE DAILY MAIL.

That has to be the stupidest 12 year old ever. He's far too old to make that kind of mistake.

I say, both the parent and child is guilty.

The kid should've knew it was real money and Microsoft should need a password dot make purchases. Easy as that. Also that kid must be rolling with dlc!

Why is the kid holding a controller for the picture? If I was the father I wouldn't let him play videogames until... oh the father is not blaming his own stupid son, right.

@BabyChooChoo said:

@believer258 said:

MS can be blamed for a lot of things but the price and confirmation of purchase is very, very, very clear and you get asked two or three times if you're certain. No, there's no way in hell this is their fault. The kid knew exactly what he was doing and the father is proudly wearing a great big dunce hat right now.

thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

This

Oh god, this again for the nth time.

No, of course MS isn't to blame for stupid parents.

Sam, 48, had allowed Nik register his credit card details to cover the £5.99 monthly subscription fee so he could play X-Box Live with classmates online.

whoooooops.jpg

Oh man, I live near these people! Haha.

There is no way that kid didn't know he was buying things and using real money! Did he think he was super special and the points were just being given to him for free when he hit accept/confirm, whatever it is?! Maybe he didn't realise how much what he was purchasing was adding up to, but to say he didn't realise he was being charged at all? Oh c'mon!

If only there was some way the father could have seen a periodic record of the charges on his credit card... a statement of some kind, if you will... perhaps monthly...

The father is an idiot - how can you not notice large quantities of money going out of your bank account for 6 months? Despite the warnings and shit on Xbox Live, I can believe that a non-tech savvy parent might accidentally leave their child with access to their credit card info. But when money goes walkabout from your account, you'd notice. Any responsible adult would notice missing money within days. Or at least within a month when your bank statement comes through the post. He's gone 6 months without noticing these transactions, I don't know how that is possible.

It should probably default to requiring card details or at least a password for each transaction (unless it does already?). Of course, there's little incentive for Microsoft to avoid this sort of thing happening, so they'll make it as easy as possible. They even obfuscate it with the 'Microsoft Points' bullshit to make it seem less like real money you're spending.

The kid almost certainly knew what he was doing, but kids make dumb decisions all the time. Should the kid have even been able to do this so easily? Probably not.

@HoboZero said:

If only there was some way the father could have seen a periodic record of the charges on his credit card... a statement of some kind, if you will... perhaps monthly...

Imagine a world where you can open a web browser and look at everything you've bought on your credit card...

The kid is either dumb or lying - that said. MS has seemingly done out of its way to confuse MS gamer score and MS points. I know a lot of casual friends who always assumed you bought costumes, DLC characters, avatar items, etc with Gamer Score points.

I hope that children's services are called in and the kid is sent to foster care cause his father is obviously a complete idiot and should not be in charge of having a child.

@MattyFTM said:

The father is an idiot - how can you not notice large quantities of money going out of your bank account for 6 months? Despite the warnings and shit on Xbox Live, I can believe that a non-tech savvy parent might accidentally leave their child with access to their credit card info. But when money goes walkabout from your account, you'd notice. Any responsible adult would notice missing money within days. Or at least within a month when your bank statement comes through the post. He's gone 6 months without noticing these transactions, I don't know how that is possible.

That he's already a grand overdrawn makes the lack of vigilance even more amusing.

@BabyChooChoo said:

@believer258 said:

MS can be blamed for a lot of things but the price and confirmation of purchase is very, very, very clear and you get asked two or three times if you're certain. No, there's no way in hell this is their fault. The kid knew exactly what he was doing and the father is proudly wearing a great big dunce hat right now.

thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

Agree!

I was going to try and defend the poor man buuuuuuuuuuuuuut i'll just laugh at him.

My company gets tons of calls and emails daily from parents who say their kids didn't know they were spending real money on our micro-transactions. Its an unfortunate side of doing business and it is one of the biggest issues with digital distribution of products. On one hand, you have the convenience of products being transferred directly to your home. On the other hand, you have kids who have their parent's money and not their own and spend and spend. Either they don't understand, or more likely they don't care.

I mean, there can be solutions... A credit card is the most common way to make a digital transaction, but most kids shouldn't have one. But I think more kids should have some kind of general pre paid card that they can use for these kids of things (you know, a credit card without the credit part). Regardless, this problem hopefully will solve itself as digital distribution and online stores become older and more common place and everyone knows about them.

@BlackLagoon said:

I think MS has a problem in that the parents will input their credit card to pay for Xbox Live, and then not realize that their kids are free to use it to pay for other things on the console. It's not like the PS3 where you don't need a credit card until you buy something.

Then the parents should get them a 12 month gold card from HMV or somewhere similar. Microsoft is not to blame in the slightest, its little fucking lying kids that make out that they thought they were earning the points from gaming. This kid is so full of shit.

@alternate said:

The kid is either dumb or lying - that said. MS has seemingly done out of its way to confuse MS gamer score and MS points. I know a lot of casual friends who always assumed you bought costumes, DLC characters, avatar items, etc with Gamer Score points.

All your casual friends are morons then.

I love the Daily Mail.

So... over the course of 6 months...

I mean, does he check his card/bank statements? Because I feel like any responsible adult does that kind of thing, especially in this era of ridiculously ramapant and apparently easy identity theft.

@Bocam said:

I love the Daily Mail.

It's daily!

No. The kid is just trying to get out of trouble and the father is just trying to get money back for valid purchases. 
Should've done more research and turned parental controls on.

I'm sure the dad realises that his son tried to fool him, he only needs to look at the way you buy points to realise it's obvious, but he's trying to make this a story so that microsoft let them have their money back.

That parent is a god damn moron not checking his credit card statement each month as it clearly shows up on it, his son did know what he was doing, all he is trying to do is blame microsoft for his stupidity. "oh daddy the nasty man at Microsoft made me spend your money on games I wanted which you wouldn't buy me,it's their fault not me."

Did the father not read his credit card statement. It should be easy to catch unusual charges

Um this is clearly a kid who got caught, and is trying to get out of trouble by pleading ignorance.

at least this is one less 12 year old playing cod online

Seriously. This is just a case of kid spending money he knew his dad wouldn't catch. The real issue here is that the dad is gullible enough to believe him when he says "Uh, what money?"

I'm 12 and what is this?

sigh

The father is clearly a complete clusterfuck. He probably couldn't see past his double chin whilst shovelling another pie into his mouth to take any notice of his bank account.

It does say the kid had downloaded COD. The kid doesn't look old enough for COD. This man has no idea about parenting.

I hate MS and this isn't there fault at all, you should've known your card was getting charged that much for 6 MONTHS!!! It wasn't all in a month so it was surprising but it was over a period of time where you could've seen his stupid kid making these stupid purchases, its his fault, not MS.

ms point system stinks i'll give them that,

but the buying of the points is lists actual money. been a long time since ive bought anything off live so if they automated the buying in some way i can see it causing confusion.

Each transaction to add points should require at least verification of the card's security code.

It should also be possible to delete and decouple all credit card information from an account even if it's the auto-rebill payment method for xbxoxlive. Can't do this without calling msoft which is bullshit.

The kid knew exactly what he was doing.

How did this happen over a period of months? Wouldn't he notice the charges and then put a stop to it? This story doesn't add up. Also the kid is a fucking liar if he's trying to say he didn't know those purchases cost real money.

@Kaiserreich said:

How did this happen over a period of months? Wouldn't he notice the charges and then put a stop to it? This story doesn't add up. Also the kid is a fucking liar if he's trying to say he didn't know those purchases cost real money.

Yeah, I agree. I don't expect 12 year old kids to be anywhere near brilliant, but you'd have to be really, really stupid to not notice all the warnings and confirmations necessary to buy and spend MS points. This is the kid's fault for lying and the father's fault for not checking his credit card bills.

Hard to say, but sounds like this is another father who's never around when his kid plays games. If he had sat through the confirmation process even once, it seems hard to believe this would happen. Maybe the kid didn't know... but who set the account up anyway?

I love Daily Mail photos.

The people always look like they want to scream, "Can you see how this evil corporation screwed us over? Feel sorry for us!" But I don't, because you're idiots.

That kid is a genius.

Wow the coorporate apologists in this topic. Disgusting.