"My son racked up £1k bill on Xbox"
- Thread starter FamoFunk
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holy... really?!? hes not having a birthday party or graduation party or christmas presents for a loong time...
and i wouldnt rely on an 11 year old knowing that kind of stuff. this guy said that his daughter (about the same age) told him to 'just use his card' when he said he couldnt afford to buy her something.
and i wouldnt rely on an 11 year old knowing that kind of stuff. this guy said that his daughter (about the same age) told him to 'just use his card' when he said he couldnt afford to buy her something.
I admit that I've done this. But even with the exchange rate, that is a LOT. How is it even possible to spend that much?! How much disk space did he use? Did he buy every avatar item on the market? And most importantly, WAS IT FOR THE LULZ?
I blame both the fatty and the mother:
-Why the hell would you keep credit card information on an 11 year old's game console with no password?
-Why the hell would you let your fat son play xbox all day
-The dumb kid should realize that spending ~$5 a day can really rack up...
-Why the hell would you keep credit card information on an 11 year old's game console with no password?
-Why the hell would you let your fat son play xbox all day
-The dumb kid should realize that spending ~$5 a day can really rack up...
And this is what prepaid 30 day xbox live gold subscription cards are for.
I know parents aren't exactly up to snuff on recent technology, particularly in relation to video games and consumer electronics, but if you're signing up to a monthly pay plan you'd at least have the common sense to look up alternatives or actually read the damn terms and conditions.
I think this shows us that the older generation needs to be more tech savvy. There needs to be a way of educating the members of society who are not a part of Generation X so that they don't get blindsided by modern technology, like this woman.
On the flipside, i don't buy the whole "i couldn't check my finances because my laptop was on the fritz" lark. You can print mini-statements from an ATM and you can check your bank details on any working computer with an internet connection. If she is managing her finances that poorly, it's no wonder something like this happened.
No sympathy.
I know parents aren't exactly up to snuff on recent technology, particularly in relation to video games and consumer electronics, but if you're signing up to a monthly pay plan you'd at least have the common sense to look up alternatives or actually read the damn terms and conditions.
I think this shows us that the older generation needs to be more tech savvy. There needs to be a way of educating the members of society who are not a part of Generation X so that they don't get blindsided by modern technology, like this woman.
On the flipside, i don't buy the whole "i couldn't check my finances because my laptop was on the fritz" lark. You can print mini-statements from an ATM and you can check your bank details on any working computer with an internet connection. If she is managing her finances that poorly, it's no wonder something like this happened.
No sympathy.
haha wow, that's what you get for not paying attention to what you're children are doing online.
Seriously, what is it with these parents lately? "Oh, my kids fucked up, give me media attention!", it doesn't make the company look bad, it looks like you don't know how to be a adult.
Seriously, what is it with these parents lately? "Oh, my kids fucked up, give me media attention!", it doesn't make the company look bad, it looks like you don't know how to be a adult.
It is precisely beacuse of situations like this that I don't trust credit cards. While there are generally plenty of safeguards to prevent abuse, once they do get abused though...oh boy, the consenquences can be disastrous.
Anyway, while the boy is certainly to blame, I personally hold the mother responsible for this mess. You cannot rely on a 11-year old to be financially mature enough to handle a credit card. Heck, if I was a parent, I wouldn't entrust a credit card to my children even if they were in their late teens, let alone in their early ones.
I think a better way the mother could have handled this is if she got her son a debit card and then regularly gave him an allowance (but only that allowance, nothing more) that he could put on the bank account and use it to spend on various things on Xbox Live. Not only would this have averted a situation such as the one that occured here, it would have also helped her son learn financial responsibility. Afterall, with a debit card, you can't spend what you don't have, so her son would gradually start thinking about what is and isn't worth spending your money on.
Anyway, while the boy is certainly to blame, I personally hold the mother responsible for this mess. You cannot rely on a 11-year old to be financially mature enough to handle a credit card. Heck, if I was a parent, I wouldn't entrust a credit card to my children even if they were in their late teens, let alone in their early ones.
I think a better way the mother could have handled this is if she got her son a debit card and then regularly gave him an allowance (but only that allowance, nothing more) that he could put on the bank account and use it to spend on various things on Xbox Live. Not only would this have averted a situation such as the one that occured here, it would have also helped her son learn financial responsibility. Afterall, with a debit card, you can't spend what you don't have, so her son would gradually start thinking about what is and isn't worth spending your money on.
I can easily see how this happened.
Simple fact is that online purchases like these are really good at disassociating the cost from the purchase, especially when the costs are labelled up in points not real money (all three consoles actually use a points system, Sony's is just named after your local currency, you still buy points in set minimum quantities). You press A a couple times on the Xbox and you're £20 poorer, but you haven't entered any details into anything, and the screen that told you you'd be £20 poorer was probably buried three screens into the purchase process (underneath a locked filing cabinet in a disused toilet in the basement with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard).
Also, with the Games on Demand feature now on the Xbox it's really easy to find things to spend your money on without realising you're doing it.
Of course, it's still the mother's fault for not effectively monitoring what her son was doing with his Xbox, because at the end of the day it was her card details that were in the system.
Simple fact is that online purchases like these are really good at disassociating the cost from the purchase, especially when the costs are labelled up in points not real money (all three consoles actually use a points system, Sony's is just named after your local currency, you still buy points in set minimum quantities). You press A a couple times on the Xbox and you're £20 poorer, but you haven't entered any details into anything, and the screen that told you you'd be £20 poorer was probably buried three screens into the purchase process (underneath a locked filing cabinet in a disused toilet in the basement with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard).
Also, with the Games on Demand feature now on the Xbox it's really easy to find things to spend your money on without realising you're doing it.
Of course, it's still the mother's fault for not effectively monitoring what her son was doing with his Xbox, because at the end of the day it was her card details that were in the system.
Actually, anyone who read my previous post, disregard. I refuse to believe that in the obligatory user agreement Microsoft failed to mention that the credit card could be used for micro(soft)transactions. I mean, if they did, I think we owe a complaint to M$ more than anyone else, but if they didn't?
Who doesn't read all of the documentation before handing over their credit card? That's painfully reckless. Ok, yeah, maybe if you yourself are to be using the service, it's probably not so risky. But she did just throw her card at her son, maybe she should have made certain that the details couldn't be used for anything else? Age is no excuse for ignorance.
Once she knew that this could occur, a swift warning to her son would commence, and he would walk away, humbled, and overly cautious of the marketplace.
Who doesn't read all of the documentation before handing over their credit card? That's painfully reckless. Ok, yeah, maybe if you yourself are to be using the service, it's probably not so risky. But she did just throw her card at her son, maybe she should have made certain that the details couldn't be used for anything else? Age is no excuse for ignorance.
Once she knew that this could occur, a swift warning to her son would commence, and he would walk away, humbled, and overly cautious of the marketplace.
Xbox could have said something, the bank could have said something.
Neither did, they're in the wrong.
The mother didn't do anything wrong, because she didn't continuously give her child the details. They were saved to his live account and it's not unreasonable to think that she simply didn't know this would happen.
The kid can't be faulted because he lacks, quite normally, any sense of the 'bigger picture'.
Don't get me wrong, he needs to be punished - but by his mother. The bank and Microsoft are to blame for the bill.
Neither did, they're in the wrong.
The mother didn't do anything wrong, because she didn't continuously give her child the details. They were saved to his live account and it's not unreasonable to think that she simply didn't know this would happen.
The kid can't be faulted because he lacks, quite normally, any sense of the 'bigger picture'.
Don't get me wrong, he needs to be punished - but by his mother. The bank and Microsoft are to blame for the bill.
There should really be an "a" in the title there. I saw this thread and thought "Holy shit, how can you spend 1 trillion pounds on Xbox?!"