To think this isn't (completely) my fault

[Dooboo]

Mobile bill is normally about £20. Just realised last 2 bills and the forthcoming bill are almost £200 each.
The reason is that the 7 year old child has been buying stuff on game apps without realising. I do believe her when she says she didn't know. I am dealing with that.

Now obviously that is my issue, not anyone elses apart from the following:

1. A recent OS update on my phone changed my settings so that my Wi-Fi would constantly turn on. I didn't realise this. So although I would make sure my Wi-Fi and data was off, it was turning itself back on. When I realised, it took me over half an hour to eventually find the setting the disable that so it was well hidden.
2. My phone provider never flagged up any unusual activity. To go from never buying apps to spending £150+ a month on Google play surely would have triggered something on my phone providers system?

So I'm putting in complaints to my phone company, Google play/app developers and Samsung. Not expecting much back but AIBU in thinking that my phone provider in particular should have flagged this?

I am adding additional passwords etc now.

Call, explain and hope for the best!

I do sympathise and also think it’s a bit odd that this wasn’t flagged by the bank.

Oh memories - I dealt with this for 10+ years (at phone company).

They will say you are responsible for your account/bill and henceforth why you need to be 18+ To have a contract - obvious stuff but still.

BUT if you call and talk to them (nicely) they may be willing to do something for you, not guaranteed but can try - any agent worth their weight would also be looking at how good a customer you are (how long you've been a customer, bills paid on time etc). Also being out of or close to end of contract should help massively as you'd be a loss risk if not locked in.

yes, we got a refund from the Apple Store in similar circumstances, they were very good about it, it was entirely our fault, had forgotten to switch controls back on after a purchase, but they were very understanding, our DC thought what he was getting In App was for free, and after looking at the game, it was a little ambiguous actually

How would your phone provider know if you were buying in Google Store or in an app?

They do

Nope, no emails or any sort of notification with the purchases.

Why did it take me two and a half months to notice? The bill situation is a bit convoluted and I'd rather not go into it tbh.

I do believe DD when she says she didn't know but I will be ensuring she has consequences of this just in case and to make sure she isn't tempted to repeat it.

She doesn't know how to turn my Wi-Fi on. She always has to ask me.

The OS system updates CAN mess about with lots of settings including security/pay ones. I had some issue when they uploaded Samsung Pay. I can't remember what now but it messed up something and it was lucky I noticed.

Jeez £60 On some "jewels" in a game.

Obviously this isn’t their fault, but I get what you mean about them not spotting it and checking. I guess you’re imagining they should have a similar set up to banks, where they sometimes call you if there’s been unusual activity on your account.

Regardless of whether phone company knew my bill was so large because of app purchases (they do - they told me that was the issue when I phoned to query), any sort of unusual activity should have flagged something?

I've been paying about £20 a month with them for a most 4 years. To suddenly jump to £200 should have been noticed?

Well I've emailed and called people so fingers crossed.

A very expensive lesson learned I'm afraid!

Not your phone service provider or Google Plays fault here.

To suddenly jump to £200 should have been noticed?

I agree but think it should have been noticed the first time bill increased to £200.

If you are not monitoring the phones use and noticing such a high bill, why do think think a company should spot it and let you know?

You can turn automatic system updates off and manually update operating system when you have the time to go through and make sure setting are off, that AppStore passwords are Samsung pay or Apple Pay etc can't be used without you knowing.

One of the first thing dd was learnt was when any kind of pop up shows she's to get an adult, that if that white pop up box has £ or numbers that's it can mean real money will be used and she wasn't ever left alone. By 7 she knew what the payment confirmation screen was and to press the x. She's had supervised access to various screens from a toddler though.

If it's the operating system updating the phone then would that even be the carriers fault? As in Android updates are available regardless if network provider so they may say it's your responsibility to check settings after updates esp as you've said you had issues before.

Saying that, I hope you get your money back and I'd supervise her online access until you are confident she knows what the playstore payment pop up is.