Microsoft refunds dad over $8,000 for 17-year-old son’s Xbox spending frenzy
We’ve all heard the horror stories where parents are charged ridiculous sums of money because their young child has been lured into buying an in-game purchase, but it’s rare we hear of this mistake being made by a 17-year-old. The spree cost his dad over $8,000 after in-game purchases had been made on the Xbox.
Lance Perkins, father of the son who made the purchases, was billed just two days before Christmas, with a total of $7,625.88 being spent on in-game purchases for FIFA’s football (soccer) games. Later, Perkins noticed more Xbox charges, bringing the total amount spent to $8,206.43. Thankfully for him, Microsoft decided to refund him the charges this week.
Initially, Microsoft had no intentions of paying the bill, but after Lance Perkins got in touch via e-mail, and explained that his 17-year-old son was still a minor, Microsoft decided to look into the situation further.
Perkins explained to CBC who initially reported on the news that there “will never be another Xbox system – or any gaming system – in my home.” He later got back in touch with the news outlet to say that he thanks Microsoft for deciding to refund the bill.
This incident once again highlights that companies are not doing enough to protect consumers. As it stands with most services – not just in-game purchases – all that is needed to make purchases is a persons card number and security number (on the back of the card), which offers almost no protection as these details can be copied down for later use.
