Kid Rings Up $1700 Xbox Live Bill, Mom Blames Microsoft

[Danpascooch]

"When he is in gaming mode he can't be thinking about the money."

Holy fucking fuck I think she's serious.

God I wish I could use that excuse:
"I'm in gaming mode I can't think about class"
"I'm in gaming mode I can't think about going to the bathroom, I just relieve myself right here"
"I'm in gaming mode, I can't be thinking about the things I'm "doing""

For fucks sake, the fault is both hers and her kid's

The kid is obviously more intelligent than the average squirrel so he knew what he was doing, and the mom should have realized when she entered her credit card that she should look into whether it's saved and can be accessed

Mom: "Enter my credit card? No problem honey, I'm just going to type it right here and never look at my statements or what I'm typing this into"

months later

Mom: "FUCKING MICROSOFT!"

EDIT: It is just sad that I knew with 100% certainty that she would blame Microsoft for this, people like this are so predictable.

 

[runedeadthA]

*sigh*Call me a cynical bastard but Kid's are pretty damn selfish, I'm fairly certain he knew EXACTLY what he was doing, and ignored potential consequences, of course, the moment he finds out "Oh crap I could get in some major sh*t for this"....Waaaaaaahhhh! Muuummmmmyyy!!!!

How the HELL do you blow through over $1500 on Xbox anyway? This isn't ebay where you can go try buy a helicopter, He certainly didn't buy something in a single unexpectedly big sale. He must have bought quite alot. Not to mention it says at the beginning "18 months ago" $1500 is bad, but over 18 months well that's a little less than $100 a month...

Questions:
- How did the kid think he could get away with stealing money from his mom for months?

- How did the mom not realize earlier that the kid was spending so much. If money is as tight as she says, it would be common sense to check your credit card statements...

- What might he of spent that money ON? (Either over the months or a large purchase at once)

- Is inputting credit card details actually a one time thing on Live? Or do you have to do it each time or Tick a box saying "Use these details each time without checking".

 

[dakorok]

My god, I guess parents these days will blame anything but themselves for their failures in parenting.

 

[The Random One]

Meh, I do blame Microsoft. The easy payment system is Live is too easy. Yeah, there are checks, but not every parent knows them, and they take advantadge of children and people who can't resist temptation. I'd prefer if there was a tighter check in there. (No, I haven't succumbed to temptation and blown all my money on GoD, even because I have the tiny HD. But sometimes, it's hard. It's hard and nobody understands.)

I do like how they continue to equate Microsoft with Bill Gates even when he's left the company for humanitarian work on Africa years ago.

 

[Aeshi]

As bewildering as MS Points can be she probably should've paid a little more attention.

 

[Aiden_the-Joker1]

"I haven't punished him because he feels bad enough and I know he won't do it again," she added. "It is ridiculous to allow someone of his age to make payments without any checks being done." If you give your child £50 to buy something at £6 and they spend it all you cannot blame the store that sold them it. You gave the child the money, it is your problem if they spend it. Like you said he does not understand money so do not give him you credit card details. Even if you did not know that he could buy things so easily without your credit card again well then maybe you should have checked your bill.

 

[Danpascooch]

They don't take advantage of vulnerable people, just stupid people. As well they should. Good ole american moms, passing the responsibility on to the corporations. I wouldn't even go so far as to blame the 11 year old kid, although he had to have known wtf he was doing to rack up 1600 DOLLARS worth of crap. Blame the mom for being ignorant enough to leave this stuff in his control. If you put yer CC on anything, do yer damn research, and know just what the liabilities are.

edit: oops, guess they aren't american. just acting like it (yes i'm american, i just know our kind all too well)

Congratulations, you get +10 irrational bigotry points for making a sweeping generalization about a nationality of people while at the same time being wrong on every level possible!

 

[Dastardly]

snip

Please note: I HATE (to the very bottom of the shriveled sac that holds my bitter, dusty soul) the handing off of blame, especially when it's done by parents. Tha said, in this case, and only in this one case, I'm inclined to partially agree that Microsoft's handling of credit card information is unintelligent, when it comes to XBox Live.

Enter it once, and then you can just charge it whenever you want... yeah, it's convenient, but I think M$ is also banking on the fact that things like this will happen (but go unnoticed). It also makes the service even more dangerous if someone were to somehow get hold of your account name and password.

At the very least, Microsoft should have a PIN feature attached to the card, and when you try to make a purchase on that saved card, you also have to enter that PIN as a digital signature. This way, things like this can't just "happen," but you still have the convenience. And you just choose the PIN yourself when you first enter the card for use.

While I'm usually a fan of "string the kid up and beat 'im," it's likely this kid didn't quite realize just how much he was spending. After all, isn't that the whole reason they call these things "points" instead of dollars? Like arcade tokens and credits, it's so you don't sense the actual exchange rate and you're more likely to spend more. So, yeah, the kid was dumb to do that... but not unreasonably dumb. Just normal dumb. And I'm willing to believe it wasn't malicious, either--kids suck at conceptualizing money.

(NOTE: The mom is still uninformed and ignorant, but that doesn't mean she isn't accidentally making a point. Just sayin'.)

 

[lee1287]

Six months? Doesnt she get a statement every month? Because surely if she was tight for cash she'd be watching her spending. Weird.

 

[Cousin_IT]

Kid Rings Up $1600 Xbox Live Bill, Mom Blames Microsoft

11-year-old Brendan Jordan knows his times tables but he's still apparently a bit iffy on the concept of money. Let loose on Xbox Live, the youngster went on a spending spree that ultimately landed a bill of £1082 ($1739) on his mother's debit card.

Spot the irony.

 

[Adrius]

She blames Microsoft? For what? They didnt rack up a £1000 bill and stuck her with it...how people like her become parents is beyond me blaming others for their short comings.She didnt even punish the kid either...typical idiot. Both the mom and the kid are to blame. The mother, even more so. Moral SPEND TIME WITH YOUR CHILDREN. you may just teach them something.

 

[Lord Honk]

If you leave your kid alone with your wallet in a candy store, this happens. Well, if you can't be asked to check your bank account more than twice every year, then I guess everything went right here.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

The words "Daily Mail" are in here...

It does make me wonder how Microsoft allow anyone to go into a gambling casino where they pay with real money...

Unless, of course, they don't, and mum just let him have some.

Given the recent autistic kid, it'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

 

[Therumancer]

Well,I have mixed opinions on this subject. On one hand Microsoft has no idea of whether a kid is playing a system or the card owner (game consoles are not just for kids), on the other hand I've been thinking about this and while I've spent quite a bit on XBL over a long period of time, I'm not entirely sure what you could do to run up a bill like that so quickly. I mean what did he wind up buying?

I'll also say that I think the credit card company bears some responsibility. I say this because credit cards advertise security protections, and I've gotten several calls using my card legitimatly to make purchuses, especially in the past when I ran up a lot of my personal debt (while working, I didn't plan to become disabled)) and spent a lot of money at one time. Truthfully if she wasn't purchusing XBL stuff except for that six month period, I think that by rights the card company should have at least made a couple of calls to ask about these charges. Heck, I got a call for when DCUO verified my card by putting a $1.00 charge through to test it.

You could say that this is a responsibility dodge, but let's be honest, these cards promise customer protection, by their own standards they should have verified this change in purchusing trends at some point. One of the reasons why this exists is in case of someone like a kid using your card without your knowlege, like if your 40 years old and your teenage daughter "borrows" it to make a purchuse at Hot Topic.

Otherwise, it is pretty much her fault for not paying attention. What's more one of the big reasons why they have pre-paid cards for things like points and gold memberships is specifically so parents don't have to put their credit card information into a kid's console. This isn't even an obscure piece of information, and while entering the credit card info she should have noticed the bit about pre-paid cards (to enter the code) if nothing else. Of course it's possible that "mom" is rather dumb herself, or is running a scam. I mean one of the reasons why companies like Microsoft don't give refunds in cases like this is because of people doing things like running up huge bills, and then claiming "my kids did it" and effectively getting all that stuff for free if they provide the refund. Sure, people suffer in legitimate circumstances, but that's the problem, you can never tell in cases like this. I mean a crook in cases like this is always going to insist that they are a victim, and her going to the press (which is why we hear about this) to put pressure on Microsoft seems a little 'iffy' to me.

 

[spartan773]

wow that must've been a lot of add-ons.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

An 11 year old should understand how a fucking card works. That and that she then failed to notice or take any responsibility suggests that she has the parenting skills of a mouldy piece of bread.

Microsoft won't take advantage of vunerable people. Microsoft will take advantage of stupid people.

 

[Danpascooch]

Meh, I do blame Microsoft. The easy payment system is Live is too easy. Yeah, there are checks, but not every parent knows them, and they take advantadge of children and people who can't resist temptation. I'd prefer if there was a tighter check in there. (No, I haven't succumbed to temptation and blown all my money on GoD, even because I have the tiny HD. But sometimes, it's hard. It's hard and nobody understands.)

I do like how they continue to equate Microsoft with Bill Gates even when he's left the company for humanitarian work on Africa years ago.

She lost all credibility when she stated her card was put in 18 months ago.

Seriously, if you don't check your credit card statements for 18 months, not only do you lose all credibility, you should be cleansed with fire.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Well, at least the kid gets what he did wrong. She should still have to pay though. Business is business.

 

[Danpascooch]

SNIP

The article says the bill was over $1700, but the headline says $1600.

CONFUSION ENSUES!

 

[Rednog]

While most of the blame lies on the mom, Microsoft really has to stop with the bs that is their handling of credit cards, you should be able to remove it after use and not have to call them up and spend 30-60 mins removing it. Having the option to remove it easily through the 360 or on the PC should be an option; but I guess people forgetting their subscription is on auto renewal is an easy way for MS to siphon people's money...