Zechs Merquise Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 This article made me smile soooo much, but not as much as his stupid face in the publicity shot! As if he didn't understand what he was doing, the kid is 11 years old, not five! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354490/Boy-11-racks-1-000-mothers-debit-card-playing-XBox-online.html?ito=feeds-newsxml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightwolf Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I can understand where she is coming from, she mentions: The bank and Microsoft are blaming each other and no one is helping me. It has taken me ages to permanently get rid of my card details from the website. Frankly, this is true, it does take a long time to get any card details off your xbox or online, I still have my details on there even though I've tried it a couple of times, which is ridiculous. When he is in gaming mode he can't be thinking about the money. You can't put all that responsibility on a young boy.] This one somewhat annoys me, given he's 11, but it's somewhat true, the payments are made in xbox points, not real money, so a 11 year old boy may not realise 10 000 points may equal a bit of money, it's just numbers. The whole thing annoys me, partially because of the woman not checking, partially because microsoft make it so easy and yet so difficult to get rid of payments and charge under the nose for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heroicjanitor Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) How can this be Microsoft's fault? She shouldn't have left her credit card with her greedy son. The publicity shot annoys me since they have the whole "we're trying our best to bravely fight this injustice" image going on. If they can get away with blaming Microsoft they may as well go for it though. When he is in gaming mode he can't be thinking about the money. You can't put all that responsibility on a young boy. It's her son, she put the responsibility on him. As far as I'm aware there are parental control settings on the 360. Edited February 8, 2011 by heroicjanitor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zechs Merquise Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 How much does an average XBOX Live Arcade title cost? £10-£15? The greedy little git must have a right stash of games on his hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbob Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 No, i'm sorry love. Microsoft provide parental controls, so you the PARENT can control what your SON can get upto on the console. You just forgot to read the instructions, because you were too busy standing on the street corners around 9pm-2am. Honest, this has got to be the most stupid thing i've read. If she read the instructions provided, they mention parental controls and she could have controlled what her son got upto online and if he made any purchases or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Peeps Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 It is ridiculously difficult to get card details off xbox live. I have an expired debit card still on there. But for this kid to have spent over £1000 is ridiculous. He must've bought hundreds of games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paj! Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iun Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 She's got great big honking norks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 If the mum wasn't clever enough to put parental restrictions on then it is either a) her fault for being careless with her card details or b) Microsofts' for not making parental controls clear and easy to use. "It is ridiculous to allow someone of his age to make payments without any checks being done. When I put my card details in 18 months ago I thought it was just for his membership to play online with his friends." I think her statements make it clear that she took no time to research anything before inserting her card details. Considering you have to manually buy Microsoft Points (no more than 4200 at a time) she should have spotted the deductions on her credit card bill at under £100. Yeah, the mum is a dummy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Odwin Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Are we sure that he definitely spent a grand on Microsoft points and not ... pies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 This one somewhat annoys me, given he's 11, but it's somewhat true, the payments are made in xbox points, not real money, so a 11 year old boy may not realise 10 000 points may equal a bit of money, it's just numbers. The whole thing annoys me, partially because of the woman not checking, partially because microsoft make it so easy and yet so difficult to get rid of payments and charge under the nose for them. Yeah but when you buy points, it tells you the cost in real money in the first place. He knew precisely what he was doing and he's made his mom look like a right mug. I've just tried buying something now and it says that I need to buy points so I pressed A and there's a price list of the points so it's not like he didn't know it costs money. The mother should have had a parental lock on it so the person she should mostly blame is herself, not Microsoft. The look on his face is hilarious because he looks so hard-done-by with him knowingly spending his mom's money and then getting caught out. It's obvious he'd blame Microsoft because his mother doesn't know anything about gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegoMan1031 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Yeah it's true it is hard to get card details off microsofts website, but she is the parent and thus should be responsable! Learn to use parental controls! When i was 11 i knew the value of money and what not. Being 11 is the first year of high school (or close enough) so yeah he knew what he was doing! Also the picture made me lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cube Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 If the mum wasn't clever enough to put parental restrictions on. They're on by default if the account is for someone under 18. She must have put a fake date of birth when signing up. Probably because "his favourite game" that she signed him up for is almost certainly Call of Duty or Halo. Also: buying Microsoft points on the console is a right pain in the arse. It also specifically tells you how much you are spending when you buy the points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) They're on by default if the account is for someone under 18. She must have put a fake date of birth when signing up. What the hell is she complaining about then?! 18 months Xbox Live Gold = ~£60 119500 Microsoft Points = £1023.72 =£1083.72 (close enough) EDIT You can now buy MP in 6000 chunks. So he bought points no less than 19 times, presumably many more but in smaller amounts and over a peroid of time. Edited February 8, 2011 by Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowV7 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Ahahaha. I laughed at that publicity shot, that kid looks so odd. I'll blame both here. Did the son do this over the space of a month so the mother didn't see all the payments in her bank statement? That and she could've easily put on parental controls. And the son must have known what he was doing, I just find ti so hard to believe he spent that much points without a thought. Though MS online system is a pain in the ass with debit cards. I've never paid via card since I tried to end my subscription/take off card details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayseven Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Chuck hit it on the head for me, as others did as well; when buying points it tells you the amount. The kid thought he was being sneaky and got caught out. He's not a complete moron. I can understand an older generation not 'getting' what a console does but there's little else MS can do to inform a parent about the parental controls. It's not their job to update an entire generation's ability to use modern technology. While I feel for her, it's a sucky situation but it's just money. Get over it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 The only thing that isn't a total complete and utter joke about this, is that MS really are fucking greedy when it comes to making it difficult to remove your subscription/card details. The rest of the story is just laughable. From the kid's haircut to the fact that she didn't even notice it happening til he'd spent £1000. Console-based parental controls are not the issue here, real life parental control is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramar Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Is he a cabbage patch kid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murr Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I envisioned that this would look a lot better, I don't have Photoshop on my work desktop. Just paint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 How can this ever be Microsoft's fault? They have already implemented parental controls. What more does she want - baby bottles included? Come on, where ever did words like "personal responsibility" and "sensible parenting" suddenly go? I'm so sick and tired of parents not taking their time to make their kids responsible individuals and just letting them do whatever they please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aimless Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) They're on by default if the account is for someone under 18. She must have put a fake date of birth when signing up. Probably because "his favourite game" that she signed him up for is almost certainly Call of Duty or Halo. Luckily the Daily Mail have conveniently provided his gamertag in that photo, confirming that he does indeed play the usual suspects. It also shows he hasn't done a good job of unplugging the Xbox seeing as he was on it mere hours ago playing FIFA. Anyway, ultimately a lack of parental oversight is the issue here. Not that I want to be too harsh on the mum as the majority of parents don't seem to be as knowledgeable about technology as they really need to be, and I can understand why that's the case even if I don't like it. Hopefully this will be something of an expensive learning experience and she'll learn to take a real interest in future. Also, I agree with nightwolf about Microsoft's customer support being a complete pain, even if that's only tangentially related to this story. It's especially annoying that you can no longer cancel Live subscriptions via the website; they've clearly removed the option purely to try and net a bit more cash due to the inconvenience. Edited February 8, 2011 by Aimless Typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Peeps Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 How can this ever be Microsoft's fault? They have already implemented parental controls. What more does she want - baby bottles included? Come on, where ever did words like "personal responsibility" and "sensible parenting" suddenly go? I'm so sick and tired of parents not taking their time to make their kids responsible individuals and just letting them do whatever they please. Exactly. Parent's must know there's an online shop on xbox live unless they actually have 0 computer/games knowledge whatsoever. Microsoft has parental controls for exactly this situation and it's the mother's fault for not using them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 That family is fat and stupid. They deserve it. Microsoft should double the charge as punishment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cube Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Luckily the Daily Mail have conveniently provided his gamertag in that photo, confirming that he does indeed play the usual suspects. He's bought 7 arcade games...if he's been buying Games on Demand then half of her argument is gone as the main way of paying is straight off the card - the price is given in real money (you can buy by points, but that method is hidden). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EEVILMURRAY Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 How often does someone get a credit card statement? Because if this was drawn out over a long period surely alarm bells must've been ringing if she got a statement halfway through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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