Dad Blames Microsoft for Son's Xbox Live Spending Spree

[masticina]

Just give him back the money. Clearly he hadn't authorized the purchases.

THAT is questionable

By Proxy [him not setting up a Kid account] he might have.

The Xbox 360 allows to set up kid accounts that also means they cannot buy stuff in the shop. So Microsoft already offers the methods needed.

Him not setting them and allowing the kid to use an Grown Up account.. well.. would point to being HIS fault.

I am sure that in the TOS stands enough warning about these things. And that legally all is night and tight set up so Microsoft doesn't has to pay. The only way to overrule that would be if a Local State law would find such parts of the contracts as unenforceable.

So the question is, is there any local state law that allows this parent to undo the purchases done by the child. In most states there should.. BUT what are the exceptions to this law..and that is where in court things can go wrong.

In the end.. his chances in court are kinda slim. It depends on just how many rights he could give away by signing the TOS.

I know that in europe you cannot sign over your soul for instance. You can sign a TOS that says you sold your soul but.. they can't.. there are limits to what can be done in contracts.

And there are those cases where a Non Compete part of a Contract is voided by the court because.. if you are learning to do a job then you expect a job in that. A Non Compete contract hence can be voided.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Somehow, I doubt there's 1k worth of CoD and Fifa DLC.

And yes, it truly does state in plain text precisely how much money each bundle of points is worth when you buy them and if it's Games On Demand then it's an outright cash value. The kid has zero excuse here, since you need to buy the points which have a blatantly obvious cash value right next to them when you purchase them you'd have to be a total idiot to make that mistake.

So here we are! Nice going, you pair of massive twats. Seriously, you never thought to check your bank statement over a six month period to possibly see that money's been coming out courtesy of Xbox Live and you could've nipped this in the bud while the loss was a few quid rather than a thousand sodding dollars?

I honestly hope Microsoft doesn't give them a cent back, that is some true retardation going on from both parties. Even when I was twelve I wasn't this fucking dense.

 

[TAdamson]

I'm going to actually take the father's side here.

It's not unreasonable to expect a password lock on your credit card to be opt out rather than opt in.

All these childless teenagers and twenty something shouting "bad parenting" are just indulging in the reflexive usual squawking in defence of their hobby.

He's certainly guilty of carelessness but it's not like Microsoft can't just reset that account and offer at least a partial refund. That would be sensible customer service/PR on their part.

If the Father had set the Xbox up properly it would have locked purchases. There is little excuse for failing to set the Xbox up properly either. When you first turn the brand new console on it leads you step by step through all of that, it also happens to be in moronese so anyone can understand it.

The only reason for not having set up right is not being arsed and skipping it.

I'm not saying that he's not an idiot. I'm saying it's not unreasonable for you to expect that your gaming device not keep your credit card open for spending over the device.

 

[I.Muir]

How do you spend that much money on a cod game? I just don't get it but yeah online spending can be like opening a floodgate.

Anyho the kids father is a fool

 

[Drejer43]

I think this is a case where both sides are equally idiotic

 

[aba1]

I really hate that they do this as well they stole 60 dollars from me with that crap. That has more to do with them automatically charging me for things without my consent however.

 

[Charli]

You gave your 12 year old kid your credit card.

Discussion. Fucking. OVER.

 

[karcentric]

As usual, completely the parents fault.

Also the kid is retarded for thinking it didn't actually cost money despite the system telling him it did. I know I was fairly dumb at 12, but certainly not to that extent.

Agreed, I'd never let my credit card out of my wallet, but since I know what I'm like with buying things I don't have one.

 

[MarsProbe]

I seem to recall having a similar post like this a while back, detailing some parents gripe about how their kid was able to spend money on XBL, where the source was also either the Daily Mail or some other emergency toilet paper substitute.

Also, it says the fathers credit card was being used, expect that when he went to withdraw money from his ATM he had insufficient funds. Well, in that case, he must have either just paid his credit card bill or the card was actually the one linked to his bank account. So the question is, did he not check his bank account regularly or notice all the e-mail notifications he was getting from Microsoft about MS Point purchases?

 

[Tomster595]

If there was no warning or checkbox letting him know that the credit card info would be stored for future use he might have some legal footing. Usually with websites or Steam when you put in a credit card it asks you if you want it to save your info. If it didn't ask, maybe he has a case.

 

[EHKOS]

This happened before. Like twice. The guy prolly just wanted free shit, and then was going to blame his kid.

 

[PinkiePyro]

Parenting Fail!

this guy defenitly needs parenting lessons who doesn't monitor what their kids play

when I was young and started gaming my mom flat out told me no realistic guns or blood (and later no humans killing other humans but zombies were ok) till I was 16
you can bet she would not of let him play any CoD

 

[HavoK 09]

Besides the fact that its the parents fault for leaving their credit card information arround and leaving a kid play games that are not recomended for his age or without supervision of what he is doing...

... it had to be a 12 year old xbox player, stereotypes ftw

 

[gunny1993]

lol ...... how the hell do you spend 100£ a day anyway ...... there isn't that much shit on xbox live

 

[Nathan Josephs]

i think this is a case of stupid child with stupid parents.

 

[kiwi_poo]

but he didn't release that the service automatically retains your credit card details for later purchases.

That really should say "but he didn't realize..."

OT: You can't blame the kid because 12 year olds don't understand this sort of thing, I think. Can't blame the dad because he probably had no clue what he was doing and wasn't informed this would happen. So I guess Microsoft is to blame, if you can blame people for assuming others are more intelligent than they actually are. Then again, the XBL community doesn't seem to be the most intelligent, especially those with mics.

So... Microsoft was to blame then.

 

[MammothBlade]

Hahaha, seriously? It took him that long to figure out his wallet was bleeding money?

Also his son is retarded if he didn't realise he was using his father's real money not just magical XBOX live points.

 

[Rastien]

Hold the phone! a parent looking to blame someone/something else for his shitlings behaviour other than himself! well fuck about this must be a... Oh wait no loads of people do this just add it to the long list of some parents blaming everyone else but themselves, because it certainly has nothing to do with them.