ASN spent £200 on game refusing to refund

[MissesG]

I am teaching my sixteen year old daughter with ASN about money. She is cognitively underdeveloped and behaves as someone much younger. first she started with smaller amounts of money and less that she had to buy with now she has got her own debit card and we built up to bigger amounts which she was handling mostly well.

But one night she got carried away impulsively bought something expensive on moviestarplanet over all she spent in the region of £200 on the online game in the space of 2 months with the debit card and used up the virtual assets she got with it. I only found out when she didnt have the money to use on what it was intended for! I was expecting this sort of thing might happen, but know most places protect people against this sort of thing and thought shed have the money back soon. I checked and sure enough according to their terms, they dont accept purchases made by under 18s without parental permission, nor do they accept cards used by under 18s.

First I got her to contact the business and be honest that she had done it without my permission and used her under 18s card, with receipts of every transaction. The response she got was that all sales are final and that they will not be refunding! I sent my own email explaining to confirm, and they told me the same thing and that all sales are final and that the case is closed!

She really needs that £200. I am really disgusted and angry and have now told them she has ASN and warned them that I will be opening up a dispute with the bank. Im not sure if ive got a leg to stand on or what that entails or if moviestarplanet can still refuse to refund.

What does ASN mean, please?

Why on Earth did you allow this to happen? I have no clue AT ALL why people always think they're deserving of a refund in these situations.

Why would you be covered? Why is the bank responsible for repaying you for what your daughter does?

I couldn't control the bank account as shes 16. Its with an actual bank

If she’s cognitively unable to understand money and the concept of spending it, why do you allow her to have uncontrolled access to money that is needed for other things.

This is entirely down to you and you won’t be entitled to any money back.

Op in your view of she'd spent £200 on sweets and eaten them, you would expect a refund as sweets are bad for her?

So you can't have access to the bank officially but you can keep her card for safe keeping so she has to run any purchases past you. That's how you teach her, not by letting her fuck up and then moaning at the bank...

I thought someone might say something like this. She couldnt eat £200 worth of sweets 😂 Thats not really comparable. Its a game. The items are virtual. they havent lost physical goods.

She really needs that £200.

Then perhaps you should have ensured she couldn't spend it?

Yanbvu why do you think she should just have it all for free? Ridiculous

But she has used/experienced what she's paid for! She's had the benefit of what she's purchased. They can't take it back from her, so they can't offer a refund.

OP just accept that you fucked up and move on.

Agreed. If she’s ‘cognitively underdeveloped‘ as you say, then you need more parental supervision of her bank activity.

It doesn’t mean you can give her free rein then say ‘but ASN’ and demand a refund.

It not being a tangible good doesn’t mean it’s not worth anything. The fact that your daughter spent £200 on it shows that it is in fact worth something - it’s something that people will pay real cold hard cash for.

You don’t think she should have, fine. But that’s on you. Not on the bank and not on the games company. It’s not on a games company to lose money because you’ve decided what your child bought should’ve been free.

God, the entitlement. .

She couldnt eat £200 worth of sweets 😂 Thats not really comparable. Its a game. The items are virtual. they havent lost physical goods.

Who couldn't eat £200 of sweets in two months?

We all know the items are virtual. It's you who doesn't seem to have a grasp on the situation.

Was the lesson you were trying to teach her about money that you can,spend money online on virtual items and it doesn't count?

Why on earth did she have unlimited access to a bank card?!

I thought shed do something like this but thought id be covered

Unbelievable. If you thought she'd do something like this you should have taken steps to ensure she didn't

To the person who asked what ASN means, it stands for Additional Support Needs and more commonly used in Scotland than the term SEN.

I have no idea what ASN is (is it a typo?) but using it as an excuse just takes the piss out of others with this condition. How can they ever expect to be taken seriously when people like you use it as some sort of get out clause?

Thank you for the explanation Oops

@Redglitter I actually can’t get over the thought process of “oh she’ll probably spend money on this at some point but it’s fine, someone else will lose money paying me back for what she does, it’s not like any of it is real anyway”. Just mind boggling.

I think unfortunately you won't be able to get the money back - it's likely your daughter has accepted some T&Cs or selected a box saying she's over 18 / has permission of an adult to purchase (often buried in part of the checkout process in fine print!) which means the game owners have done their bit.

It's a crap lesson, but perhaps you a bit naively thought you'd be covered for any eventuality when in fact you needed to be a bit more on top of her activities online, closer supervision is definitely needed in this situation.

This can't be serious...🤔

You’re teaching your daughter about money? Dear Lord.

Companies like Apple sometimes refund digital purchases but it's not a guarantee, a one time deal and often a partial refund.

You were very unreasonable to give her the power to spend £200 and think that MSP should take the hit when she spent the money. People would be using that scam to get hold of rare digital items if all they had to say was that an under 18 made the purchases.

Your dd is one of many kids who have made this mistake with their own or their parents money. It sounds like you need a new strategy like asking her to show you her online banking app or having the receipts for purchases sent to your email
address.