Claiming back cost of in-app purchases

[antspants]

After a number of calls and a visit by my wife to the bank today following a call from them querying a large number of iTunes purchases, our initial assumptions of fraudulent use have now been replaced by the knowledge that my 8 year old son has inadvertently spent over £3,200 in 2 months on in-app purchases on the ipad

Completely our fault for not switching it off and restricting what he could do, before anybody thinks I'm suggesting otherwise or trying to place blame elsewhere.

However, I've been on the phone to Apple Support this evening and they are putting in a claim for a refund on my behalf - partial, full or nothing - the guy I spoke to couldn't give any indication either way.

I've kind of written it off in my own head, as I don't see why they should refund it, I just wondered if anybody had heard of similar claims being entered and the likelihood of success.

Thanks.

[antspants]

Thanks for the feedback, yes it's a huge amount. We initially thought it was about £1,600-2k when speaking to the bank, but there are still payments coming through for the last few days. I sat and added up 12 pages of transactions tonight and felt sicker and sicker as the total went up!

It isn't just one app unfortunately there's 3 or 4 that he's done it on. The worst by far though is Clash of Clans which has an option to spend £69.99 on gems. He spent over £200 yesterday!

My annoyance at Apple is the default setting that means if I go ahead and authorise a purchase for him, he could then spend the next 15 minutes purchasing without needing to enter that password again. I didn't know that until tonight.

However that's a minor irritation compared to how pissed off at myself I am for letting him have my password and making the mistake of thinking that an 8 year old knows what every tap on a screen means.

I've also realised tonight that all emails from Apple for purchases go to an email address I never bloody check, which now has 156 unread emails in it all from Apple - idiot!

[antspants]

Regiment said:

They have repeatedly. They've implemented changes to completely lock down their devices and still people don't listen and remain blissfully ignorant and keep handing these devices they have no knowledge to a small child with zero idea of money.

Apple need to make a stand and say "no more", this is nothing but ignorant parents letting their children loose. People like the op are also the same reason the ISPs were forced to lock down the internet with filters turned on by default "I refuse to understand technology so big faceless companies should be forced to protect my children". Op, use this as a life lesson that you're not ready to give devices you don't understand to small children. Sit down with your child, tell him the truth about exactly what happened, tell him about money and tell him about the bad things that he can find on such devices. Learn the devices together and stop being ignorant about technology.

Quite happy to agree with this reasoned opinion, not sure how some made the jump from iPad to matches and angle grinders, so I will ignore for the most part.

I stated in my OP that I accepted responsibility. I didn't ring Apple to ask for my money back, I rang because I thought my card had been used fraudulently for iTunes purchases and this was the instruction given by my bank. When they turned out to be valid on my iTunes account Apple offered to put the claim in for me with no guarantees of success.

I don't expect it to be successful but thought I'd post on here to see if others had heard of similar instances.

Appreciate the other sensible replies and will let you all know what happens.

For what it's worth, I don't claim to be the perfect parent others would appear to be, however I do know my son is a very well rounded, normal, sport loving, football mad kid, who also enjoys computer games. Much like every other 8 year old boy he knows. No psychopathic tendencies exhibited so far, but there's still time so I better hide that angle grinder

[antspants]

Zato said:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2140066/how-to-get...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25748292


http://www.macrumors.com/2014/03/24/itunes-refund-...

Hope these help.

Thanks they are useful.

[antspants]

Double post

[antspants]

strudel said:

Part of the problem is Apple assumes everyone has their own device. Take an iDevice setup for an adult who understands the risks and so never bother changes the default settings; their device and quite happy. They hand it to a child, purchase a 50p app to keep them quiet whilst they wait at the doctors or wherever, and unknowingly (because they might never make short term repeat purchases) the child can keep buying stuff for 15 minutes. How hard would it be to implement a question box that asks if they'd like to continue shopping after purchase - a simple answer of "done" would make the device child friendly again. If I unlock the car and get something out, I get to lock the car afterwards to secure it. I don't have to wait 15 minutes for the car to detect no doors have been open and it to lock itself automatically.

Maybe parents should set up their device to reflect the fact kids could get access, but I don't think Apple provide the tools to secure the device properly. It's all very well blaming the kids, but who here has a padlock on the biscuit tin?

I now know that you can change the default 15 minutes setting to immediately ie. every purchase has to be authorised. In my case this amounts to locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Having discussed this with a few of my colleagues, once the sympathetic bunch had all stopped laughing, not one was aware that after you've authorised a purchase your child can continue happily buying with no password prompts for the next 15 mins.

The most amusing part of the story, is the next morning after explaining to my son what had occurred and explaining how I've locked the ipad down, he was playing Clash of Clans again. In a slightly sarcastic voice I asked him how he was getting on, the answer..."Brilliant, I've got loads of coins!" "I KNOW!!!!"

Edited by antspants on Saturday 26th July 11:46

[antspants]

Just had a call from Apple to confirm we will be refunded the entire amount - £3,253!

Obviously I'm very pleased, and I have a mightily relieved little boy

I cannot praise Apple highly enough for their support and speed of response, and am frankly amazed that they've agreed to do this.

Whatever anybody's opinions are as to the way that in-app purchase are made available, and the default settings of their devices, it's my responsibility to ensure the device (and my bank account) are used correctly. They didn't have to offer to put the claim in let alone refund any of it, so I'm very impressed to say the least.