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[Chillz0r]

Yeah, im not sure i buy the "credits were not displaying so i tried to purchase 39 times in 2 days" story, because that seems like what a kid would make up. But if its indeed like that then i dont see why google would refuse a refund.
I have a feeling he simply thought his mum wouldnt check and that he could get away with it.

But this is a lesson for her and all other people with growing up kids, dont give them unlimited access to your bank account? They are... kids? They are not responsible or mature? Get sms notifications of all your credit card transactions and never save payment info on your phone

 

[Impeccable]

Those evil and nefarious ill-design mobile disasters conning children since the dawn of mobile gaming leaving tatters and ruins across the globe. To my knowledge there have been at least sixteen million people left homeless due to this dark scam.


But seriously, people need to learn to parent. Sad for everyone involved.

 

[mangochutney]

It's pretty bloody apparent here that there was some kind of technical error here which mistakenly caused the customer to enter into additional transactions in the belief their initial transaction had not gone through and that Google is at fault.

I highly doubt there was a 'technical error', rather the kid knew what the hell they were doing and when rumbled by his mum tried to come up with some lame excuse as to why he spent all of his gems upgrading his defences.

Come on, let's face it we'd all do the same if we knew we'd been caught doing something bad at that age.

 

[Palette Swap]

Guilty until proven innocent.

Yeah, it's such a shitty state of mind.
It's entirely possible the kid is lying but his version doesn't sound exactly far fetched either.

 

[LilJoka]

Why would you let your child spend money in F2P games at all? The parent actually agreed for the child to purchase in app purchases (of limited quantity).

I remember as a kid buying yu gi oh cards, and I always hated asking my parents to buy them but I would ask maybe once or twice a year to buy a deck of £7 because I was so ashamed of spending their hard earned money. I didn't get an allowance or pocket money.

 

[IvanJ]

They should refund the kid. These kind of computer errors happen often. Like that time last year when I went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes with my church group, and my wife found out that my credit card was erroneusly charged with some bogus receipts from Amsterdam.

 

[Crzy1]

Poor decision on the mother's part to give her son access to her debit card. Doubt the game wasn't giving out credits or they'd have noticed a problem and then offered a refund.

 

[Radec]

Could use that 11k for proper parenting seminars. Hell I'll even gave her a free advice of not letting his son use her debit card.

 

[KnockOneOff]

why didn't she put a password on every Google Play purchase

Man the adverage user doesn't even know things like this are possible and kids get smart and remember passwords

The key thing here is the parent should have been shown a 3DS or vita and said problem with free to play? Look no further

 

[Deleted member 20920]

They should refund the kid. These kind of computer errors happen often. Like that time last year when I went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes with my church group, and my wife found out that my credit card was erroneusly charged with some bogus receipts from Amsterdam.

3K pounds worth of failed transactions sound pretty unlikely. I can understand if a few transactions didn't go through but this is a lot of "failed transactions".

 

[CaviarMeths]

Guilty until proven innocent.

Not quite how it works in this case. The purchases being legitimate is the default scenario. The money was exchanged for goods/services rendered, that's business as usual. Burden of proof is on the parents to demonstrate that it wasn't usual, that the kid spent all of that money unknowingly. They can do this by looking at transaction history. Did the kid actually spend 3k worth of credits on in game items? If so, yes, he damn well knew what he was doing, or at least knew what was happening and chose not to tell his parents.

 

[Shiggy]

Although I'm pretty sure that once you give away your credit card information knowingly you don't have the same right.

Let's take cash as an example. An 11-year-old can buy something for let's say 10€, that purchase contract can hardly be contested. But if he goes into a store and buys something for 1000€, it's a different thing. In the latter case, the parents' approval is necessary. it doesn't matter if the parents actually handed him 1000€; the contract is not effective unless approval for the purchase is given.

There's no difference between cash and credit cards.

Spoiler

German law

 

[thenexus6]

This is why these exist

 

[?oe?oe]

It's the mobile game strategy.

 

[John Caboose]

i don't know EU law, but i would suspect you can't contractually waive your consumer rights

From how Swedish law works (part of EU) you can put it in the contract but that just means those parts of the contract are automatically invalid. For example you cant waive your rights to sue or bring charges in exchange for doing that in arbitration "courts", something that is currently hugely plagueing the US.

 

[QaaQer]

Although I'm pretty sure that once you give away your credit card information knowingly you don't have the same right.

that was a debit card. Credit card companies will allow charge backs for unauthorized purchase or items not received.

 

[SliceSabre]

It is the woman's fault for giving her card to her child.

I don't blame Google at all for not giving her a refund.

 

[Handy Fake]

Indeed, if that is the case then Google needs to refund them and fine the game company. But having worked with payment systems you cant not know your purchasing something, lawfully you have to provide transaction details at the point of sale. I have a hard time believing 3k worth of transaction in a game didnt include notices to the registered user. Google are responsible for providing this, so even if the game didnt update, they'd be receiving emails shortly after the purchase. Sounds fishy.

Aye, maybe. You would think that there'd be a purchase confirmation. But maybe he got one and the balance didn't update in the game. Not enough information really, but like I say nobody would hit the buy button 19 times on the bounce unless there was something wrong.

Mind, don't get me started on fucking microtransactions in general.

 

[mangochutney]

3K pounds worth of failed transactions sound pretty unlikely. I can understand if a few transactions didn't go through but this is a lot of "failed transactions".

Exactly, £3k over a TWO month period.

Yeah the odd one can go awry perhaps every now and then, and you'd then contact Supercell and they'd look in their logs check it all out and give you your gems, but not every single transaction over two months.

The kid is trying to cover his tracks, without question. I'd do the same, don't blame him.

Aye, maybe. You would think that there'd be a purchase confirmation. But maybe he got one and the balance didn't update in the game. Not enough information really, but like I say nobody would hit the buy button 19 times on the bounce unless there was something wrong.

Mind, don't get me started on fucking microtransactions in general.

They would if they're 11 years old and want to get a super bad-ass village that's better than all of their friends and don't have a full grasp on the value of money, and you don't really at that age. You'd have some concept, but not the gravity of huge sums.

Honestly I blame a lot of YouTubers for this kind of thing, you only have to look at a lot of popular YouTubers for this game to see how often they gem upgrades like it costs nothing, a kid watching that will begin to think it is a normal thing to do rather than waiting for it to complete naturally.

 

[Nemmy]

I love how everyone in this thread just knows that the kid is lying. Yeah, sure, no refund necessary, it's definitely the little shit's fault. /s

If they never actually got the credits then they should get a refund right?

And yeah, don't give your kids access to your credit card information.

God, this.
I don't know IF the kid's telling the truth but if he is, then sure as hell they should be refunded and the douchebag who told them to "think happy thoughts" should be... relocated to a position where they're not interacting with customers.

And the mother should definitely keep the kid away from the money the next time. As she should have been doing from the start.

 

[QaaQer]

It is the woman's fault for giving her card to her child.

I don't blame Google at all for not giving her a refund.

I blame google for having Valve levels of customer service and not giving two fucks about customer satisfaction. Horrible company to do business with, just horrible.

 

[KojiKnight]

Aye, maybe. You would think that there'd be a purchase confirmation. But maybe he got one and the balance didn't update in the game. Not enough information really, but like I say nobody would hit the buy button 19 times on the bounce unless there was something wrong.

Mind, don't get me started on fucking microtransactions in general.

A lot of these microtransactions are the kind with instantaneous results and the game then prompts for another go.

For example: Final Fantasy Record Keeper (which I play and actually enjoy) will give you the option to immediately roll again after a purchase if your gachapon didn't net you what you wanted.

 

[LoveCake]

It's pretty bloody apparent here that there was some kind of technical error here which mistakenly caused the customer to enter into additional transactions in the belief their initial transaction had not gone through and that Google is at fault.



i don't know EU law, but i would suspect you can't contractually waive your consumer rights

It has nothing to do with consumer rights, as a cardholder you are solely responsible for the transactions unless a fraud has been committed, it is like leaving your car keys in the ignition & leaving your car somewhere & walking away, the insurance company will not pay out in instances like this, as you have facilitated the theft.

(You have to be 18 in the UK to have a credit card), if you give your credit or debit cards details to somebody else & they use the cards then you as the card holder are liable for all transactions, as the card holder willingly gave the card details & did not ensure that the measures that are in place on devices to stop the running up of huge bills, then the cardholder is completely liable to pay the costs.

This went on for two months, doesn't she check her bills & statements?
I have zero sympathy.

 

[Handy Fake]

Exactly, £3k over a TWO month period.

Yeah the odd one can go awry perhaps every now and then, and you'd then contact Supercell and they'd look in their logs check it all out and give you your gems, but not every single transaction over two months.

The kid is trying to cover his tracks, without question. I'd do the same, don't blame him.

They would if they're 11 years old and want to get a super bad-ass village that's better than all of their friends and don't have a full grasp on the value of money, and you don't really at that age. You'd have some concept, but not the gravity of huge sums.

Honestly I blame a lot of YouTubers for this kind of thing, you only have to look at a lot of popular YouTubers for this game to see how often they gem upgrades like it costs nothing, a kid watching that will begin to think it is a normal thing to do rather than waiting for it to complete naturally.

A lot of these microtransactions are the kind with instantaneous results and the game then prompts for another go.

For example: Final Fantasy Record Keeper (which I play and actually enjoy) will give you the option to immediately roll again after a purchase if your gachapon didn't net you what you wanted.

Probably a good chance you're right, the pair of you.
I'm going to save my chagrin for microtransactions in this case.

 

[mangochutney]

Like many others, I have taken advantage of sales from other regions for various services. Doing this a few months back, I made a purchase from Xbox LIVE with my US profile. Moments after, I received a phone call from my card provider asking whether or not I am purchasing items from Microsoft.

While blaming Google, how about asking why the CC provider didn't contact the owner of the card?

Agree here, if indeed the child really did do 'buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy' in quick succession it is something I would have expected my bank to prevent after a few transactions.

 

[Crzy1]

I blame google for having Valve levels of customer service and not giving two fucks about customer satisfaction. Horrible company to do business with, just horrible.

I've had nothing but good service from Google and Valve, they're actually a couple of companies that do care about customer satisfaction. That being said, seeking refunds that go against the EULA are not something that I've ever dealt with in regards to either company.

 

[Sendou]

that was a debit card. Credit card companies will allow charge backs for unauthorized purchase or items not received.

That's not the law. Even then I seriously doubt I could get a charge back from my credit card company for a situation like this. If you give a kid your information then that's your own fault. It would be different if your kid accessed that information without your knowledge for example.

 

[Hex]

I love how everyone in this thread just knows that the kid is lying. Yeah, sure, no refund necessary, it's definitely the little shit's fault. /s



God, this.
I don't know IF the kid's telling the truth but if he is, then sure as hell they should be refunded and the douchebag who told them to "think happy thoughts" should be... relocated to a position where they're not interacting with customers.

And the mother should definitely keep the kid away from the money the next time. As she should have been doing from the start.

If this was a bunch of credits in one day? I could bite on it.
But over a period of time? No.
And again these transactions were not all at once these came in over time, over multiple statements.
People love to dive in and be all in for the perceived underdog victim against the big corporate monster but take the kid out of this equation and put it where it belongs, on the parent.

 

[delaneya]

I would not give my 11 yr old son free rein to buy anything on the PlayStation Nintendo or the Nexus tablet I hope this parent has learnt a valuable but very expensive lesson. you would not give your son your credit or debit card with your pin number and ask them to go down to the atm and draw out out money for you or when there neeed a few bob Or two.

 

[Servbot24]

So many people in this thread didn't read the article.

 

[Dennis]

Assuming that Play Store would realise the error and rectify it, Nick’s grandfather Tom contacted Google, only to be told the payments were correct and nothing could be done. Instead of the refund he says he was simply “invited to think happy thoughts”.

If I were Tom I would have blown the fuck up. Gackdamn.

 

[Kule]

This happened to my sister when she bought her son minecraft and then didn't realise she had to remove her card details. Her son then spent around £250 on various in app purchases. When she realised what happened she contacted Google and they refunded her without any issues, her account had been automatically flagged and suspended before she even contacted them.

That makes this story kind of fishy.

 

[N30RYU]

I can't but laugh...

Give someone you credit card info... and surely they will add huge amounts of money to your account...

Can someone give me their credit card info? I'll just buy a 1$ game...

 

[solokazama]

Then charge your son account with Google prepaids (for example 10 euro) instead of giving him full access to CC "here u have and leave me alone kid".

 

[A Link to the Past]

There are a lot of people in here who seem to have not actually read the OP.

 

[Marvel]

Could have been so avoidable...

 

[Ikuu]

So many people in this thread didn't read the article.

Nothing new there.

 

[N30RYU]

"Free to Unpay" kid's only...

 

[Jackpot]

Perhaps she should try parenting.

Perhaps you should try reading:

In fact Nick had simply been trying – and seemingly failing – to buy credits to play football management game Top Eleven 2015 and strategy game Clash of Clans among others. Rather than the expected small number of payments of between £1.49 and £7.99 going out of Penny’s account, it would appear that after making a purchase the credits never reached Nick, causing him to click and click in vain to make them appear.

The payments were all agreed between the mother and son. A technical error made it seem like they weren't going through.

 

[funkypie]

mobile game isn't garbage, see how much fun you can have.

High stake games that could be fun, but you can potentially lose thousands of pounds. High adrenaline action that keeps you on the edge of your seat and overdraft.

 

[lacinius]

It is something to be wary of when purchasing online. My own experience with the Playstation store was I wanted to purchase a game on my PS4, and went through all the steps to purchase the game including putting in a password because I have all transactions password protected. However, after clicking ok the Playstation story errored out and gave me an error message onscreen... which to my thinking was that the transaction did not complete.

After waiting a couple of hours to try again, as I thought there was an issue or maintenance going on with the store, I tried again and did all the same steps and this time I got the transaction complete message, and was then taken to the page to download the game.

But... later that month on my monthly CC statement, you guessed it... I saw on the statement two charges for the same game, so despite the initial error message, that transaction did in fact go through and I did purchase the game twice! (I know it was the same game as that was the only PSN purchase I made that month)

Thankfully it was a cheap game during a sale, but lesson learned for me... if I see an error message again when making a transaction, I'll wait for my monthly statement to see if it got processed anyway.

Bringing this full circle back to this discussion and the kid... I suspect if I had kept hammering away at the purchase button while it was erroring out, I dare say all those transactions would have gone through, and I would not have known until after the fact.

 

[Deleted member 20920]

Perhaps you should try reading:



The payments were all agreed between the mother and son. A technical error made it seem like they weren't going through.

The details don't match up.

But at some point hundreds of payments left her account over a period of just a few days. Fearing that hackers had got access to her bank account, Penny even cancelled her cards.

So she says it's a few hundred over a few days and she cancelled her card.

But this was what happened, over what sounds like 2 weeks.

On 2 March alone, 21 payments of £3.99 and a further nine of £1.49 disappeared from Penny’s account. The next day Nick tried again to buy the credits and the same thing happened – with 18 payments being made to Google. A week later 27 payments of between £2.99 and £6.99 were all debited.

In total, Penny says £3,000 was paid to Google Play over a two-month period, causing her huge financial difficulties.

And how did this few hundred end up being the eventual 3000? Were these errors happening over a few days, 2 weeks or over 2 months?

Is it even possible to get so many failed transactions so many times over two months, two weeks or two days?

 

[Beefy]

So many people in this thread didn't read the article.

I was about to say the same.

 

[Nokterian]

loooooool

That slayed me..well mom now you learned the hard way.

Instead of the refund he says he was simply “invited to think happy thoughts”.

 

[The Boat]

You know what's blowing my mind? That there are people here saying it's not the mother's fault.

 

[Nightbird]

Perhaps you should try reading:



The payments were all agreed between the mother and son. A technical error made it seem like they weren't going through.

So 3k Bucks disappeared into nothing, and Google is like "k, just have some happy thoughts"?

Wow. I'm happy that i rarely buy stuff on the Playstore then.

 

[bodyboarder]

A minimum of 750 attempts of purchase (£3.99 at the highest rate) and they all didn't work. Surely the kid must have figured out something was wrong.

Also don't give a kid a credit card, not exactly rocket science.

 

[lifeexpectancy]

Who doesn't check their account over 2 months?

This should have been the first post. I check mine weekly, and even then I feel like I'm stretching it.

 

[SMOK3Y]

Who doesn't check their account over 2 months?

Who gives their kid access to their accounts?

 

[Palette Swap]

You know what's blowing my mind? That there are people here saying it's not the mother's fault.

If his version is true, it's definitely not the mother's fault.
I don't know what world you guys live in where eleven year olds you can trust to be reasonable simply can't exist.