Itunes Horror

[northboveygirl]

My 10 year old daughter was bought an IPOD touch in Dec 2010. On Jan 15 2011 we had an appointment with the Genius Bar in Exeter who set up the account for ITUNES and who assured me money could not be spent without my permission. In November 2011, 8 itunes transactions appreared on my card which, when quizzing my dauaghter, seem to be for "berries" for a monster app. I was under the firm belief that she could not spend money on my account without my pin. In fact she has spent approx £500 (!!!!) in these 8 transactions. I am both shocked and worried as I cannot afford this sum, and I cannot believe that a minor can commit to this level of spend. Has anyone else had a similar experience, and what was the outcome?

You need to really think about your initial agreement and contract of sale.

it's called an in-app purchase. they can be doen without authorisation, depending on your settings.

I know this does not help you totally, but for future, you can turn off in-app purchases, and change the settings so that whenever a purchase is attempted it always asks for the account password.

Phone Apple and explain what has happened, they are generally brilliant about writing off stuff like this, and then make sure you turn off in app purchases as silverfrog suggests.

My DD did in-app purchases on my iPhone - £900 in about a 10 minute period! My legs turned to jelly when I found out.

I contacted Apple who, after about 2 weeks of emails going back and forth (the person I was dealing with was part-time in Arizona), refunded me in full.

The initial person I dealt with at Apple just said that all purchases were final. I asked for someone more senior, who sorted everything out.

One of the problems with the in-app purchase system is that your password stays live for something like 15 minutes, so even if you give permission for one purchase, it is easy to make many more in that time frame.

When I dealt with Apple, I did not mention my DD at all. I just told them I categorically did not make those purchases, and they did not pursue any alternative. I also in no uncertain terms gave my opinion about buying such dross at exhorbitant prices, when the majority of apps cost less that £1, and that the app in question was 'free', and that Apple should be ashamed of themselves.

Make sure you turn off in-app purchases - it is on the 'restrictions' menu.

Have a read of this thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1379188-what-can-I-do-DS-aged-5-has-downloaded-a-70-app,the op got her money refunded fron Apple.

Has anyone been on to say that children should only play with whittled down wooden clothes pegs yet?

I hope you get full refund OP, that is a terrifying amount to be able to spend without asking for a password. You have reminded me to double-check all of my settings so thanks and good luck.

I have a password on my itunes but it stays live even after the app has downloaded so a slip by DS could end up with something expensive being downloaded. Can anyone tell me how to get the password to show for everything?

Ring Apple, like I did , Above thread link. These in-app purchasing games are insidious. Apple were more than happy to refund, they know its naughty. I played the upset parent and said I'd been online and seen that there had been a big court case in the states regarding this matter and DS can't even read, how can a great company like Apple allow this its very wrong? nada nada....

Turn off the In App purchase in your general settings

Open your settings, click on General and then on Restrictions
Scroll down to the third box 'allowed content' and you can change the options eg enter password for everything, every time (so its not valid for 15mins)

Bloody hell, when is this going to stop. The problem is that for 10 people charged for this shit, 9 will complain and get a refund but 1 won't for various reasons and will pay, which will make this idiotic merry-go-round continue.

I do not own an iphone/ipad/touch etc for other reasons, but it boils my blood that people are essentially tricked into this. There is no moral justification for a business model that produces a product aimed at small children where they buy "lala berries" and pay not with "lala money", but with their parents' cash and shed loads of it. And all the talk about "setting etc" is rather hypocritical, because not everyone is a geek (in the nicest possible way) and parents should actively opt into the system, not opt out.

Very very scummy. If you ask me. And I love apple products and have loads of them, just not these.

oh ,I don't know, bemybebe.

I think if a parent is going to hand over a sophisticated piece of technology to a small child then that parent shoudl know how it works.

it isn't particularly geeky - easy to find under the settings icon.

and there are common sense rules too - I also ensure the wifi is switched off when handing over to either of my children. they are playing games, so do not ned a connection. that also solves the problem, as a connection cannot be made with the itunes store.

I don't think any parent should let their children play with somethig they essentially do not understand.

I had no clue about ipods at all - not how to work them, not how to get music onto them, and then (as the models got more sophisticated) not how to get films/programmes/podcasts.apps etc onto them.

but I had to learn. because there was no way I was going to let my children loose with something I did not know how to operate or control.

Thank you for the heads up on the password timeout on the in app purchases! I have my iPad locked down so the monsters don't get to load/delete apps and have the password on it but didn't notice the 15 minute window of opportunity!

i would wholeheartedly agree with you silver if it was not for the fact that these companies exist on the back of the product that has no other purpose than catching out parents who "do not understand". it is rather low.

there will always eb someone willing to take advantage of those who have not taken steps to understand, though.

I wouldn't give a young child a board game without explaining the rules, nor a craft kit.

and the same with technology, imo. I have always played and tested any apps I have downloaded for my dds (admittedly I have a reason to do so - a lot of the time I am downloading apps for my dd1, who has severe ASD, and so I need to assess suitability and playability etc) but I think I would have done so even without that cause.

if you hand over an ipod, which you do not know how to use, along with an app which you do not know how to play/what might be asked, then you are jsut asking for trouble, tbh.

hear, hear, I am not saying that is it not appropriate to give a piece of complex and dare I say expensive kit to a small child without appropriate supervision.
but my point was that it is scummy to build a business on the back of catching the parents out

"is it not appropriate" = is it appropriate.
obviously. sorry

oh sure, agree with it being scummy.

it is the 21st century equivalent of the book/wine/cd clubs that suck you in with promises of 'no further orders' only for you to find that actually means no further orders after the book of the month, the editor's choice, and any special editions they care to force on you (and cds, and wine, and so on).

the main difference being the 'small print' is quite hard to find - manuals don't exist, all online etc. but not that hard to work out - one settings tab, and tbh one of the first things I htought was 'hmm, how do I stop dd1 (inadvertently) spending a fortune on my itunes account' as she would just press any old button to get back to where she needed/wanted to be, without being able to read the disclaimer/warning/advice bar. but then I think that should be the default thought for anyone handing over something programmed with your account and credit card details to someone who does not understand and cannot be expected to behave responsibly, or indeed held accountable for their actions (whether due to disability or age)

Sometimes turning the wifi off stops the game working too. My 3 yr old loves a car racing game yet it doesn't work without a network connection anymore. Once he's done with that game, it's back to me for the wifi off before any other games are started. The app store is off too by default.

So can I just clarify that this can only happen if your credit card details are on your itunes account? My itunes account is set up without credit card details maybe that is the way to go if giving an ipod to a child?

If you don't store any credit or debit card info on iTunes then you will be okay.

Just wanted to say we are another family that had this issue. It was with a 'coin dozer' game. My son spent £50 on coins and the first we knew was when the invoice came through. iTunes refunded the full amount after we complained via email. Ds knows now to absolutely not click anything that comes up without showing us what it says first.

"So can I just clarify that this can only happen if your credit card details are on your itunes account? My itunes account is set up without credit card details maybe that is the way to go if giving an ipod to a child?"

Good point. I know my itunes account has my cc from 3 years ago, whch since expired. I wonder if they would be able to charge anything against it if I reported it missing/stolen

If the card has expired, the authentication on the algorithm created by the card number won't work therefore they can't charge it.

OMG another user has just gave me link to this thread - my 10 yr old dd has spent £300 on in-app purchases - what should I do ? how do I go about getting money refunded ?

Thanks for all inputs. Yes, do fel a tad irresponsible giving such kit to my DD, but we can't all start with 100% knowledege on technical capabilities. I didn't even dream this sort of thing could happen (yes I live in outer space). I truely belive its morrally wrong to set up what amounts to a scam.
However, lesson learned. Apple brillant and refunded in full, so Mazza, call tech support at Apple and get them to talk you through how to reach the right team by email. Send them the purchase refs (should be on the mail account used to register the service). I found the Apple site didn't have a clear customer service tab. Apple did advise, and I have turned off, the in-app purchase function.

It does make me angry that I/we have to learn the hard way. Why SHOULD we? Surely Apple could issue some guideance wih purchase on areas to consider blocking? As for the App seller.. how do we stop it?