6 ms·

Ask HN: Son spent £2,500 on FIFA 14 last month

9 points by sjcsjc 12y ago

A friend of ours has just discovered that her 12 year old son used her debit card details to run up a bill of around £2,500 over the last month. It appears that this type of thing is not entirely unusual [0] [1]. It seems that this is a complicated legal situation, but from a PR and customer relations perspective I wonder if the companies involved refund this kind of expenditure in order to avoid bad publicity. Does anyone know if EA Sports, Microsoft or Playstation ever issue refunds in these circumstances. Thanks in advance to anyone who responds. [0] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-blasts-ea-sports-after-3185676 [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3pG9xRMkVTgKn0jT19KNKdV/huge-fifa14-bills

1123581321 12y ago
Yes, they will refund it in cases like this.
Someone1234 12y ago
Several thoughts on this topic: - Cards (debit, credit, etc) are inherently insecure. When all the information you need to make a purchase is stamped right on it and or completely public (e.g. address). - "Verified by Visa" and "Mastercard securecode" help a little but they're badly done, poorly supported, and are trivial to bypass (they also rarely work on mobile devices). - This is largely a parental issue. You aren't bringing up a "good kid" if they either A) don't understand the value of a pound, or B) do but don't care. - Parents often blame the companies for "allowing" this to occur after the parents themselves knowingly added their card onto a system their kid has unlimited spending potential on (e.g. app stores, other digital goods, even Amazon). - I think it would be a nice gesture for EA to refund SOME of the money but, frankly, the parents deserve to take some level of hit on this one. - Most banks suck at informing their customers about unusual activity, like 2500 pounds on digital goods over a short period(!).
saluki 12y ago
I expect they will refund . . . or you can do a charge back by contacting your credit card company and explaining you didn't authorize the charges . . . in the future they should think about using a pre-paid card for in game/app store purchases . . . and explain to their son the value of money . . . maybe relate what he spent to the mortgage or family's monthly income.
justintbassett 12y ago
If they were on Xbox, Microsoft is the first contact for this. I was able to get a refund pretty easily after my little cousin bought a bunch of stuff on my account. In the future, I'd recommend a pre-paid card, like others have mentioned. It will teach him how quickly 25 pounds can disappear even when it's only a few quid here and there.

9 points by sjcsjc 12y ago

1123581321 12y ago

Yes, they will refund it in cases like this.

Someone1234 12y ago

Several thoughts on this topic: - Cards (debit, credit, etc) are inherently insecure. When all the information you need to make a purchase is stamped right on it and or completely public (e.g. address). - "Verified by Visa" and "Mastercard securecode" help a little but they're badly done, poorly supported, and are trivial to bypass (they also rarely work on mobile devices). - This is largely a parental issue. You aren't bringing up a "good kid" if they either A) don't understand the value of a pound, or B) do but don't care. - Parents often blame the companies for "allowing" this to occur after the parents themselves knowingly added their card onto a system their kid has unlimited spending potential on (e.g. app stores, other digital goods, even Amazon). - I think it would be a nice gesture for EA to refund SOME of the money but, frankly, the parents deserve to take some level of hit on this one. - Most banks suck at informing their customers about unusual activity, like 2500 pounds on digital goods over a short period(!).

saluki 12y ago

I expect they will refund . . . or you can do a charge back by contacting your credit card company and explaining you didn't authorize the charges . . . in the future they should think about using a pre-paid card for in game/app store purchases . . . and explain to their son the value of money . . . maybe relate what he spent to the mortgage or family's monthly income.

justintbassett 12y ago

If they were on Xbox, Microsoft is the first contact for this. I was able to get a refund pretty easily after my little cousin bought a bunch of stuff on my account. In the future, I'd recommend a pre-paid card, like others have mentioned. It will teach him how quickly 25 pounds can disappear even when it's only a few quid here and there.