It's funny that a picture of Ricky from Trailer Park Boys was posted three posts before your response. "Chunk change" would be a great Rickyism.
It's chump change, btw.
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Xbox bill refunded after teen racks up $8K in charges
- Thread starter King_Richard
- Start date
It's funny that a picture of Ricky from Trailer Park Boys was posted three posts before your response. "Chunk change" would be a great Rickyism.
It's chump change, btw.
Well yeah, but this news item concerns fifa on xbox.
ugh_the_boot
Banned
Good for the dad but I think EA should be the one doing the refunding not Microsoft as EA and their microtransactions are the single worst thing to happen in gaming.....ever!
PrinnyBomb
Member
17 years old? This is the kind of stuff I lose faith in humanity over when 9 year olds do it
How is it possible for any 17 year old to even think of acting this way?
Not a fan of this "get out of jail free" card, although it was a smart idea to turn it into a publicity stunt
How is it possible for any 17 year old to even think of acting this way?
Not a fan of this "get out of jail free" card, although it was a smart idea to turn it into a publicity stunt
qa_engineer
Member
How do you spend 8k in FIFA? Also if that was my son you better believe I'm doing more than giving him a stern talking to.
Holy shit at all the enablist tools in this thread.
It doesnt matter that the kid was an asshole, and it doesnt matter that the dad didn't know the videogame system enough to know that he should have put parental restrictions on the machine, to prevent a game he already bought, paid for, and all intents and purposes 'owned' from charging him 8,000 bucks for nothing.
For 8,000 god damn dollars, you could buy every major console, and portable, in the past twenty years, and a list of some of the greatest games to ever release on them. Tell me, how, in the name of fuck can some iap bullshit have value that could remotely be considered comparable too, or greater than the past 20 years of the best things that ever happened to videogames?
It cant. Its disgusting exploitative anti consumer garbage, and the only thing more pathetic than this actually existing and bringing in revenue, is how effective the defense response has been cultivated into 'gamers'.
Its like fucking clock work, every, single, time.
I can hear the suits high fiving.
It doesnt matter that the kid was an asshole, and it doesnt matter that the dad didn't know the videogame system enough to know that he should have put parental restrictions on the machine, to prevent a game he already bought, paid for, and all intents and purposes 'owned' from charging him 8,000 bucks for nothing.
For 8,000 god damn dollars, you could buy every major console, and portable, in the past twenty years, and a list of some of the greatest games to ever release on them. Tell me, how, in the name of fuck can some iap bullshit have value that could remotely be considered comparable too, or greater than the past 20 years of the best things that ever happened to videogames?
It cant. Its disgusting exploitative anti consumer garbage, and the only thing more pathetic than this actually existing and bringing in revenue, is how effective the defense response has been cultivated into 'gamers'.
Its like fucking clock work, every, single, time.
I can hear the suits high fiving.
ArtHands
Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Some people do see $8000 value and is willing to spend that money for those stuffs.
Just like how some people is willing to pay thousand of dollars for a painting, or a stamp. Someone even paid over a million dollars for a photo of a potato recently.
Necromanti
Member
How many people do that with a sound state of mind rather than them trying to feed an addiction?
I feel like there should be some sort of age restriction for what is more or less just gambling along with a clear warning.
Wow this some serious mental gymnastics.
1. Those things are not designed to prey on people with addictive disorders.
2. Those things are bought conciously, by people who know exactly how much they are spending, and have the money to do it.
3. Both those paintings and that photo, can be resold, and even for a profit, as the value of art increases over time. They are investments, IAP's are not.
Right now, I could easily sell off a portion of my game collection for $10,000. Good luck getting $10,000 bucks out of selling off IAP's. Let alone the money originally wasted on them.
It cant even really be considered gambling, its not like you can win back all the money you blew and million on top of it.
Its just throwing money away, for useless tripe, that is priced in the hopes that people will make impulse purchases without considering the cumalative ramnifications.
It is one hell of a refund button, legend has it that it cost $100 million. That's how you profit, by refunding customers with a really expensive button.
It was also a joke
FootballFan
Member
Are there any active movements/campaigns fighting against these practices. It really feels like they do not belong in this medium.
Yes, very lucky man. MS did a very noble thing here, when they had every right to let them deal with the consequences.
I sincerely hope that the kid has some consequences to deal with. If I was that parent I would be furious. No more credit cards, and no more Xbox for a while, that'd be for damn sure.
He's 17, so soon he'll be leaving for university or getting a job or whatever, so he can pay for his own dumb IAPs.
Parents also need to be aware in these situations. You can't just give kids free reign and hope things turn out okay. You need to have some restrictions and some rules if they're going to turn out decent. Otherwise, you'll be faced with another massive bill somewhere down the line and maybe you won't get so lucky.
StrongBlackVine
Banned
No this gambling and any person under 18 that does this should be able to get a full refund. Regulate this shit.
As a 17 year old boy, I now know how to get the ultimate team for free. Thanks for the blueprint.
In all seriousness, I believe in notification over strong arm regulations or arbitrary caps. My understanding is that these microtransactions notify the user of the cost at time of purchase and via email. That's more than sufficient.
Yes, I hate setting people financially ruined. That doesn't change my opinion on personal responsibility and paying for services and products rendered. Hooray for compassionate companies like Microsoft.
In all seriousness, I believe in notification over strong arm regulations or arbitrary caps. My understanding is that these microtransactions notify the user of the cost at time of purchase and via email. That's more than sufficient.
Yes, I hate setting people financially ruined. That doesn't change my opinion on personal responsibility and paying for services and products rendered. Hooray for compassionate companies like Microsoft.
How the fuck can anyone say this is a bad outcome? It's insane. Unbelivable situations like this can happen to anyone, the dad does not deserve to get socked with an 8000 dollar bill just for trusting his son a little bit. The kid is obviously full of it but if you were in the dad's same situation I'm sure you'd be pretty upset to have people rallying against you getting your money back.
And as for "setting a precedent," how is THAT bad for anyone but the companies who market this crap to begin with?
Anyway, all's well that ends well, PR move or not doesn't really matter.
And as for "setting a precedent," how is THAT bad for anyone but the companies who market this crap to begin with?
Anyway, all's well that ends well, PR move or not doesn't really matter.
ArtHands
Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
That doesn't change the point that there will be people out there who is more than willing to throw down $8k for all of these stuffs.
There are already countless measures in place which the parent can use to prevent such incidents from happening, so the parents hardly have a case here. Any refund is really out of goodwill and pr move.
The son should be doing volunteer work on behalf of ms. He got off pretty well, Hopefully hes not laughing about this incident in 2 months time.
No, there aren't, there are people with disorders being exploited.
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Of course this is even likely, and I am all for a ban of such microtransactions, but even as a junkie, at 17 years of age you should be able to grasp that stealing your father's credit card and using it to gamble all day long (how long does it even take to spend so much money on that Fifa crap?) is (a) stealing and (b) using real life money. EA being a shit company and trying to get money for a fucking horrible gambling game is certainly shit, but the son, if not mentally handicapped, is a supreme liar who steals from his loved ones - big time.
TBiddy
Member
So tell us - what do you propose? A ban to all IAPs?
That would not bother me in the slightest.
joecanada
Member
Someone could say spending thousands on kickstarters or ships in games is for useless tripe too but if people are dumb with money they'll find a way to waste it basically. Or they do see the value. Either way You can't regulate everything and value is assigned differently for people. There should be warnings or gates to spend so much but he basically stole 8K from his dad's credit card, could have done it on eBay, Amazon, anywhere
Yup. Plus if you're after regulation, don't be at all surprised if government definition of "spending too much money on pointless digital items" doesn't quite jive with yours and it starts to impact on the things you think are worthwhile.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
Why?
CecilRousso
Member
It's great that this happened. Don't care at all if the 17 year old should have known better, or if the dad should have done this or that. That you're even able to spend that much money in a game is a vile practice, and these systems are designed to enable these mistakes and careless spending to happen.
It's so easy to just say "do better" to people to get in trouble, but it's minefield out there now, with so many different systems that want your creditcard, want the information saved, and want the process from impulse to actual purchase to be as negligable as possible.
Don't have the slightest bit of sympathy for Microsoft or EA. They need to be questioned on this, and all bad PR they get for things like this is a good thing for the consumer.
If a person who hasn't showed tendencies to spend that much before suddenly do, EA/Microsoft needs to act responsible and ask them "is this really correct?".
It's so easy to just say "do better" to people to get in trouble, but it's minefield out there now, with so many different systems that want your creditcard, want the information saved, and want the process from impulse to actual purchase to be as negligable as possible.
Don't have the slightest bit of sympathy for Microsoft or EA. They need to be questioned on this, and all bad PR they get for things like this is a good thing for the consumer.
If a person who hasn't showed tendencies to spend that much before suddenly do, EA/Microsoft needs to act responsible and ask them "is this really correct?".
Pathfinder
Member
Because it just goes to show if you make a big enough fuss in the media, you can be absolved of personal responsibility.
Common sense for a start.
The only question should be why they should refund, not why they shouldn't.
Wait, a teen> Not a child? Man, the dad is very lucky for getting the charges refunded. I could see them refunding him if like his 5 or 6 year old child just went hog wild on his game console and didn't know what they were doing at all, but a teenager? That teen most definitely knew what they were doing spending $7k+ on Ultimate Team packs. Definitely didn't think things through, but he totally knew what he was doing was wrong.
The top 0.15% of spenders make up for 50% of F2P revenue. Some people simply have more money than sense. Let them do it.
It's not gambling, and it shouldn't be classed as it.
'Cause banning the largest revenue income in the gaming industry is a good idea. I don't get why people can be angry about transactions what they don't have to perform. It creates better games for you, as a consumer.
Even if it had been a 5 or 6 year old kid they shouldn't have refunded. Would still be the dads fault for,
1) Not taking care of his credit card
2) Not taking advantage of the many options offered by the console to prevent unknown/accidental purchases.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
I am not a fan of credit card details stored, but Microsoft should 'not of refunded the amount, as the Dad actively gave the son the Credit Card to use in case of emergencies. F2P games and micro transactions are disgusting but they are extremely popular.
If the kid withdrawn money from the ATM, then spent it you would not get it back. Games companies are partly to blame, but in no different to Football Stickers, Baseball Cards, Pokeman or Magic. Parents and Schools need to educate kids in finance, it amazing how many people use payday loans, or buying stuff on credit (weekly payment). If you can't afford you don't buy it.
There should be a max limit on micro transactions, per day or week. But the games company's of people who spend major money of cosmetic items would not like it. The 17 should be held responsible as he was fully aware what he was doing no matter what he Dad says.
If the kid withdrawn money from the ATM, then spent it you would not get it back. Games companies are partly to blame, but in no different to Football Stickers, Baseball Cards, Pokeman or Magic. Parents and Schools need to educate kids in finance, it amazing how many people use payday loans, or buying stuff on credit (weekly payment). If you can't afford you don't buy it.
There should be a max limit on micro transactions, per day or week. But the games company's of people who spend major money of cosmetic items would not like it. The 17 should be held responsible as he was fully aware what he was doing no matter what he Dad says.
levyjl1988
Banned
I remember seeing something similar to this but with Sony. It was a total PR disaster as many redditors saw it.
After the Sony hacks I've always been less trustworthy with their security.
After the Sony hacks I've always been less trustworthy with their security.
I would say basically, yeah. These types of microtransactions are essentially gambling, and should be regulated as such.
Frankly, I think that it should be illegal to sell games that include these elements to minors. It's morally wrong to manipulate the gambling feedback reward system in minors. There's a reason we don't let 12 year olds play blackjack at the casino.
Matrix XII
Member
Better yet, take the credit card off the account completely.
LMFAO No, the hell it does not. I have seen Zero correlation over the past 30 years with some industry shit maximizing revenue and the quality of my games.
You seriously think these publishers are going to focus on wasting time and talent on cultivating and progressing design when they can rake in the cash with this monetized skinner box bullshit?
Konami was just the beginning.
RedRooster
Member
I wish I could be there laughing when this putz of a kid defaults on his first car loan or mortgage. Digital crap is one thing, but when the bank won't bail you out, he gonna be screwed. As long as daddy doesn't help him again.
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
These stories are always hard for me. On one hand, I'm a proponent for personal responsibility, but on the other the way some of these games are designed are downright predatory.
I remember when I was a kid and I'd want something online I'd asked my parents, they'd ask the price, if it was safe and everything, they'd give me their card and I'd go put in the info get it and give their card back to them. Was a responsible kid, never had a problem.
I understand peoples dissatisfaction with the refund, but you'd think a 17 year old young adult would be responsible with their parents money and wouldn't need any parental restrictions on their xbox account meant for a kid. Some do, I didn't, this one obviously did, but the dad probably thought his son was responsible enough to handle the emergency money. Obviously he wasn't, but I'm glad the dad got a refund.
The son? Man if it was me I would've got chased around the neighborhood with a belt or something.
I understand peoples dissatisfaction with the refund, but you'd think a 17 year old young adult would be responsible with their parents money and wouldn't need any parental restrictions on their xbox account meant for a kid. Some do, I didn't, this one obviously did, but the dad probably thought his son was responsible enough to handle the emergency money. Obviously he wasn't, but I'm glad the dad got a refund.
The son? Man if it was me I would've got chased around the neighborhood with a belt or something.
Give me a fucking break. If my son had bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff at Target without my knowledge on my CC, they would process a return without any hassle and no need for all this sanctimonious bullshit from people on the Internet. He doesn't get to keep this for free, why is MS processing a return somehow a sign of a terrible generation of kids? And since when is consumer rights equal to "whining"?
Not a totally fair comparison. When you get a refund you're returning something. Did they ban his account or take all the purchases away?
Hopefully the kid takes it as a positive life lesson.
When it's the biggest market, are you even surprised? Just because you don't like it, obviously there's a lot of people who do. I've bought packs for FUT many times before in the past. FUT is the best thing about Fifa IMO.
Not every publisher wants to spend 8 figure sums with a high risk of a high loss.
What exactly is he returning?
LOL
So are microtransactions. People can buy them consciously and knowing how much they are spending and have the money to do so. Do you think everyone ever that buys a microtransaction is mentally challenged or something? That's a very stupid point of view.
Uh, yes you can? There's plenty of people making profit of Fifa's microtransactions. You can go check right now how many people formed businesses out of selling the microtransactions. Good luck getting $10,000?. There are people making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars off it lol.
You need to go through several confirmations screens with the price very clearly stated AND you have to confirm the payment method. There was no mistakes, no minefield, careless spending. Just a stupid ass kid being a idiot knowing fully well what he was doing.