X Box rip off

[anncrighton]

I have just discovered that my 13 year old has spent over £200 on Xbox buying Fifa points. He has been in floods of tears - they were usually amounts like £7.99 - he did not realise it amounted to such an amount. I had absolutely no idea he was spending money like this on X Box - X Box apparently had his debit card details. Usually he buys Xbox games with Amazon using my credit card and with my permission. I think it is appalling that Xbox can let a 13 year old spend over £200 without a parents knowledge - this is something that should be made unlawful. Other parents please be warned !!!

[SouthWestmom]

Kirkenes I agree and if every other parent did the same my son would not play 18s.
What I want is for him to be able to play online, not buy anything, not use Skype, not watch 18 films, play this one game and then the rest are things like minecraft and fifa etc. However it's very blanket.

[iminshock]

FIFA is particularly seductive to kids. I bloody detest it.

[iminshock]

Completely agree. My 13 yo son did similar.
It's a fucking evil addictive poison and I wish I'd never let him get one. You have my complete sympathy.

[OneMagnumisneverenough]

my son age 8 at the time ran up a £25 bill on my CC buying stuff on an ipod game after he had asked permission and been told "No". I took the money from his Christmas money. He is 14 now and can be trusted. OP I'm very surprised that if you've had the money refunded at all and incredulous that it has all happened within a few hours on a Sunday night.....

[Kirkenes]

I'm glad it worked out. Im pretty sure Microsoft can spare the money . Good luck setting up the parental controls. I found the most useful was the time restrictions as it automatically limited their play to what I thought was reasonable. Otherwise some kids will play on for hours and hours a day. You have the upper hand at the moment so I think it would be good to set up everything how you want it now. If you tried doing it when he was 15/16 it might cause huge teen tantrums.



Neorf I know the parental controls aren't perfect but I think the general idea is that a teen isn't allowed an 18 game. - although I've not used parental controls for a while as my DC are all over 18

[anncrighton]

Yes - he says it will take a couple of days to show in the account but I'm now wondering if it is my son's Xbox a/c or his Bank a/c but my son says he can transfer it. If not, he gets £10 pw pocket money so he can do without pocket money for 18 weeks and spend it. The man I spoke with (well it was on a chat line - didn't actually speak with him) was probably in USA or somewhere else in the world. Anyway, he was helpful and so was the advice from Supercee 7. So .... my first chat on Musmnet was worth it :-)

[foragogo]

I hope you have now removed the card details from the account and put a password on purchases and set it so that it requests a pw before purchases?

My 11y old regularly buys FIFA points but it is my debit card details which are stored and he knows to come and ask me first, even when spending his own (birthday) iTunes vouchers etc. All accounts are also set to demand a password before making any payment which only I know. I also get an email to confirm every purchase so would know if somebody got round the password (I worry about friends although I trust that he will always ask - a friend of mines kid had a friend sleepover that spent £800!)

Parents have to take responsibility for putting proper controls in place when they give young children these incredibly powerful machines, not just leave them to it. How do you know he's not downloading 18 games?

[SouthWestmom]

The account types are a bit frustrating, even if you try to customise them. If I set adult, as ds has an 18 game it seems to then not let me disallow other things like purchasing etc. Or if I want to let him talk to his friends online, I can't stop other things. I don't think the Xbox parental controls are as good as they should be. I'd prefer a list of things to say yes or no to like on a tablet.

[ProfGrammaticus]

So have you now educated yourself and your son about adult, child and teen accounts, OP?

[Hotpatootietimewarp]

Yep I wouldn't have had the nerve to phone and ask for a refund after my 13 year old had spent money he knew he was spending! It would have served as a hard lesson learned unfortunately and I don't care if that makes me hard faced, how will he ever learn other wise? All he has learned from this is that mum will sort all his problems out regardless of what they are

[littledrummergirl]

Live chat is fab. We had a problem years ago and they ended up closing an account that had gone wrong and transferring a year's Xbox live onto the new account which they set up. That was a Sunday afternoon as well I think.

[gamerchick]

Yes been there and done that kirk the help team are pretty awesome apart from permabans where they direct you to the forum to ask your question many a disgruntled parent has posted on there.

I'm am pretty gobsmacked they refunded immediately without quibble on a sundry night and a PP is right in asking how that was done for future issues that crop up on here.. It'll be a big help.

[Kirkenes]

Gamer I think you can get help via live chat with Microsoft at most times of the day and night . I was just surprised that the OP managed to get the money refunded (presumably on her DSs card?) this way.

[Kirkenes]

As far as. I can see NO ONE called you a crap mum. posters were just saying its your responsibility to monitor your DC. I think that's fair.

Please do as I and other posters suggested and make sure your sone has a teen account and not an adult account. This is YOUR responsibility. Otherwise he can access content with adult content. He's shown himself to be a bit impulsive.
If it's too complicated then get someone to help you. It's actually quite easy to do and there are loads of guides.

I'm really surprised that the money was refunded. Did Microsoft give you any advice on ensuring it didn't happen again?

I'm curious how you contacted Microsoft and which department you spoke to. This type of situation comes up fairly regularly on Mumsnet and it would be useful to know where to advise people to go for help.

[gamerchick]

Microsoft refunded you, this time of night on a Sunday?

[foxy6]

don't think of yourself as a crap mum. aside from my then 4 yr old buying mortal kombat, of which he became obsessed with even though i wouldn't let him play and we had to make a scorpion costume. i also have older boys one who spent 200 on mobile phones and another who most recently spent £40 on Facebook games, all small amounts and he didn't realize how much it added up too. it happens. xxx don't beat yourself up about it and hope he has learned mine did xxx

[anncrighton]

Dear Supercee7 - thank you so much for your helpful advice. I contacted Microsoft & explained that my 13 year old son made unauthorized purchases & gave them details and eventually they refunded the entire lot to me (as a one off). A little bit of good karma for you I hope. A valuable lesson has been learnt by my son & his Xbox is confiscated until the Easter holidays. He did know he was spending money but got carried away & didn't realise how much it would add up to. It is very unlike him - he is generally a good boy & I am lucky because he is loving and kind too. I accept the consensus that I could be regarded as a crap mum - other than writing e-mails, a lot of technology is beyond me and so is supervising my son on his computer all the time he is on it. I think this is the 1st time I have written on Mumsnet & I am surprised by how critical some other mothers are. Strangely, I was in the Bank asking for a statement (so I could see exactly what happened on my son's account and explaining why) when a man tapped me on the shoulder to say his 6 year old son had run up an unauthorized £600 bill doing the same thing & then he advised me to go on Mumsnet to seek advice about what could be done. Anyway, thanks to Supercee7 it worked :-)

[gamerchick]

It's just an example of how strict Microsoft are. You can have a load of games and saves, a healthy points balance and have just forked out for 12 month of live. But if you turn your avatar a colour outside of what they give you they suspend you until 9999 and you lose the lot.

I spent a fortune on points once and one of the big codes was scratched off too hard so we couldn't read it. I rang them and they told me to email a picture to see if they could figure it out... They couldn't and it was tough shit.

[Peevedquitter]

Gamer what's the blue avatar thing? Thanks

[HoneyDragon]

I don't mind so much for Steam as Ds checks everything with me on it, as the very new games aren't always rated. And some of the ones that are age rated I don't want him buying anyway

[littledrummergirl]

You can buy gift cards for steam as well, so no need to input card details.

You can remove the card details easily from Xbox by logging into the Microsoft account via a pc.

If your Ds2 used his own card/money then I would consider it a lesson learnt, remove the card details and advise him not to add them in future.

[HoneyDragon]

Ds is twelve. He has his own debit card, he knows not to hook it to the Xbox. If he wants anything he buys Xbox live gift cards. This is because too many people can access a games console.

He also knows not to buy anything online with checking with an adult first that it's a secure site.

The only site his card is logged with is Steam, as he's too young for a PP account and it still expects the security code and password for a new purchase.

I'm afraid like the others I'm very surprised you think you son did this by accident.

[MajesticSeaFlapFlap]

I have 13 year old boy. He's more than old enough to understand how money works.

He can spend his money how he wishes but he has to delete his card after every purchase

[Kirkenes]

Oops I said in my earlier post that you CAN accidentally spend money on an Xbox when I meant to say you CANT accidentally spend money. It's not like how iPad used to be set up.