"My son racked up £1k bill on Xbox"

[e2density]

M-m-m-monsterrrr Bill Bill Bill Bill Bill...

Hey, someone had to say it.

 

[DarkRyter]

A thousand pounds? What is that? Like 10 dollars?

My understanding of conversion rates is dreadfully little.

 

[Jodah]

And why did the mother take 6 months to notice?
Does she not have any control over her credit cards and/or bank statements?

Thats what I was thinking...six months? I would have noticed it in one month tops...

 

[King Toasty]

I dun did a lol.
But no, this story is one that's repeated EVERYWHERE. It gets funnier every time.

 

[Odbarc]

Simple punishment: Remove access to the Xbox 360 until he pays off the bill himself with whatever hard-earning money he came muster up.

 

[strangemoose]

im 16 but my parents have a credit card attached to my live account but i give them the money up front and they watch me buy and download what i wanted as long as its cash up front to them

 

[FoolKiller]

Dear god... That mom sucks as a parent. Hopefully the kid got his xbox taken away... Not just as punishment, but because I despise the people on XBL who either scream "HACKER!!!" in their high-pitched voice, or are just too stupid to think of the end result of using a credit card on their xbox. I just drive up to Wal-Mart and get the cards with the scratch off stuff on the back...
I love the scratching off part...

No more scratchy for me... it's all just peel away

As for the kid, I would sell his 360 and all his shit to pay for the bill. That should teach him about the economy.

 

[RaffB]

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.

Nice Hitchhikers quote hidden within that . +10 Internets

 

[Optimystic]

The bank is the real idiot here. They should know their customers.

My bank would go nuts if they noticed someone racking up $100s at, say, skydiving, or hockey games, or a women's boutique, because those don't fit with my purchasing habits. A huge shift like that is a GIANT red flag. I doubt this woman has ever bought many things on XBLA.

They could have given this lady a call at 500 pounds or so and saved everyone a lot of trouble. Do they not have fraud detection in the UK??

 

[Dags90]

Be kinder on the mom. Most peoples are unused to how credit cards work with today's online purchase and might have not noticed that her card info been saved into the machine. The only thing that is bothering me is that the mom didn't notice her bill was way up the first month. If it works the same way as here, we get the bill every month.

I wouldn't have expected a console to have saved credit card details myself. But yeah, don't see how you don't notice for six months. But I mean, we live in a world with shows like "I didn't know I was pregnant".

 

[squid5580]

Am i a bad person for laughing at the mother?

No mocking one's stupidity is not a bad thing. If you are smart enough to have a credit card you should be smart enough to know how to use it properly.

 

[kypsilon]

I never had the "holy shit I spent a grand on xbox" moment, but I did blow away my budget for the month once because of a few impulse purchases. Really, Xbox isn't bad, it's all the avatar stuff Playstation Home has that will bankrupt your ass PDQ.

My roommate is almost always broke. T.T

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

What a little brat.

 

[willsham45]

That is bad on a number of levels, I don't have an xbox so I don't know how it works but still.
The mother should have been more careful, making sure her card could not be used anymore...does xbox live have a forget card details button or something.
The kid should have asked and should not have just taken it for granted.
Microsoft should have not made it so easy and or put warnings on.

 

[Worcester Sauce]

anyone else feel its kinda messed up she just lets her 11 y/o do watever he like on his Xbox? WTH is he even doing with an xbox, i was 14 before i got my nintendo 64 and that was after months of begging and saving up pocket money. And even than wasn't allowed "violent" games, sure i had Goldeneye and Smash Bros but that's about it.

Any other like-minded 20-ish year olds?

 

[stabnex]

LOL!! OH PRICELESS!

OT: This is what happens when you let children play with Call of Duty and credit card numbers!

The more you know!

PS: Captcha was hadvat Key

So that's fun.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

THAT'S MY NAME!

OT: Haha, poor mom.

 

[hooksashands]

Dumb kid should have learned how to pirate stuff by that age. What a loser.