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Apple Offers Refund After British Boy Spends $2500 on In-App Purchases in 15 Minutes
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Which, if true - could also be indicative that this is a person who isn't so well versed or technically minded as to just know there are parental controls and/or how to access them easily.
Rubbish. There are many other perfectly legitimate uses of in-app purchases. This article is an issue of ignorant parenting and an unwillingness for certain individuals to take responsibility for mistakes they make. Absolutely absurd for Apple to be compensating over this- these "burnt" individuals should have taken it up with the developers.
But the point here is, if you're letting your child onto an Internet enabled device, you should at least have the presence of mind to find out if there are parental controls and how to find/enable them.....
Well, how about this response: The instance of a parent giving the password to a 5-year-old is an example of stupidity (the exercise of which was recently reaffirmed to be a right of Americans).
No. This article only points out the flaw in the purchasing process.
But do tell me where you see that the parents were unwilling to take responsibility for the mistake. Did the article state that they demanded Apple reimburse them? Or did they call Apple and discuss the matter and Apple gave them a refund without prejudice?
It's absurd for Apple to refund money for this? No - it's called good customer relations.
If you want to put the onus on the developers - you're still leaving out the fact that developers have ZERO control over how IAP and purchasing works. That's Apple's ball of wax.
Bank accounts with debit/credit bankcards probably have this, defaulting to $2-3000/day. Credit cards probably don't, though.
Yeah, but they NEED to be if they are a parent these days, and buy such things. Just like kids were still able to die from ingesting poison before someone came up with Mr. Yuk stickers. (and after)
This thread is bizarre. So many people with a one-sided opinion. Most ignoring the facts of this case, too. For instance, both dad and Apple took responsibility in this case. Dad's was late, and not the best. Apple's is about all it could really offer. But so many posts ignore these facts so they can rant. Yawn.
Mine sure as hell aren't. My 11yo daughter is the most savvy and spent quite a bit of time a few years back trying to learn our passwords to various things. She had some success. Little minx! My computer now has a 16 character pw.
In 2013, book=tablet. It's not that bad in most houses, you know. Ex: We now have an electronics-free day every week. No tablets, TV, computers, etc....the entire day. Plus other restrictions other days. Possibly there would be exceptions for schoolwork, but not usually an issue.
Did you read the BBC article? The password was given to download a free App. But that's besides the point because the issue isn't buying apps. It's that parental controls aren't defaulted to prohibit purchases for IAP.
Remove the kid out of the equation (as I've been saying over and over) and you still have an issue of an option which is set up to be a problem vs preventing one.
are you seriously suggesting that if a parent lets their kid use their iPhone (and for real.. open your eyes.. a parent driving down the road & hands their child in the back their phone so they can play piggy's hair salon - is NOT bad parenting).. anyway, they arrive at the grocery store or whatever and next thing you know, $2500 has been taken out of their bank account -- from apple..
are you suggesting "yes, everything is a-ok and of course this ignorant ***** owes the money"?
or- if it's not a-ok.. are you somehow suggesting that apple, the company that has the money in question, is somehow not the responsible party for returning the funds?
The parents are certainly not victims. That's a big laugh. Might as well call them plain stupid because they are if they are truly "victims". Especially since this issue deals with the iPad I'll give you some food for thought. These people bought an iPad, they have internet access, therefore if they have thousands of free resources of information from on the web. MR being one of them. YouTube being another. There are too many ways of retrieving information on the web before a customer buys anything. Back in the day we didn't have a fraction of such available information to help protect ourselves. We had to rely on the news on TV,
, the newspaper, and consumer reports which we had to buy, . I don't know how old you are but in the united states you're a legal adult by age 18 and by age 25 you're no longer given a pass for stupidity. You have to own up to it, period. For all anyone knows here, those parents probably knew exactly what they were doing, played dumb to get the money back. I'm saying this because Apple doesn't have a way to remove the app from your iOS device or Mac or even stop the operation of it, so basically you get an expensive app for free after they give you a refund.
So if you took your child into a store, let's say an electronics store, and you let him run free, and break $2500 worth of merchandise. Would you blame the store for carrying such expensive items as well?
I don't disagree. However - calling parents lazy, stupid, etc for not having done such research is wrong. There are better words to describe them. And also to not criticize their parenting. This isn't a PARENTING issue. It's an ignorance (and I say that as the word is defined - not to mean stupid) issue.
You know - when you select to tether on the iPhone - it brings up a warning box to tell you that you might incur charges and/or it directs you to the carrier to activate the feature. I think we all know why. Because if it wasn't set up that way - people would be playing with their devices - toggle it on and go to town. Then (could) be surprised with a bill from ATT.
Now sure - you can argue "but they should know they don't have a tethering plan." Yes. But at the same time - the device shouldn't let you do something without making sure you know the consequence if it involves billing.
I've said it numerous times here. I'm tired of typing this. It's not a parenting issue. This is about Apple's IAP process and how the default is set up.
Hmm. Well, it was a mistake by a parent. Your comment suggests a huge problem at their house. And while one mistake can be drastically bad, it still is not more than a single datum of the overall parenting.
And refunds come through Apple, as the retailer. That is also standard. Cleaning up messes like this are what Apple has agreed to do for their devs. Part of why they charge a percentage. The devs don't have your credit card info.
It is a mistake like all parents make at some time. That doesn't make then a bad parent.
Of course it's Apple's fault here. It's part of their business model.
Apple sells apps that are specifically targetted at children (i.e. TeddyBear Maker, age 4+) and these apps allow the child to purchase in-app goods (clothes etc.) for real money. There are no default (opt-out) security mechanisms here besides a pop-up asking you if you want to purchase this item. Obviously a 4 year old child can't read that and will click it away. He/she doesn't even know that that's something to ask mom/dad about as there are many other popups during the game.
I guess most people that argue about 'bad parenting' have no kids themselves. Of course you can't observe your child 24x7 and yes, there are times when you just give them your iPad because there's just no way of entertaining them in that situation. For example when we drive to their grandparents (2 hours) they watch video and play with the iPad. It's not possible to sit next to them and watch every click that they make. Man, our car is no prison.
My daughter bought about 40 dollars of in-app purchases. I didn't even know that that's possible with that game and I wasn't aware that there's some setting to turn it off (and I'm an IT professional). Where is the point that I have to provide a password for installing a free app while at the same time there's no password for purchasing teddy bear clothes for 15 dollars ?
Everything where real money is involved must be opt-out by default. That's common sense in the industry. Apple is perfectly aware of this and just tries to rip off additional money. They further know that they can be sued with ease for that. I guess that's the only reason why they have such generous return policy on in-app purchases.
Apple sells apps that are specifically targetted at children (i.e. TeddyBear Maker, age 4+) and these apps allow the child to purchase in-app goods (clothes etc.) for real money. There are no default (opt-out) security mechanisms here besides a pop-up asking you if you want to purchase this item. Obviously a 4 year old child can't read that and will click it away. He/she doesn't even know that that's something to ask mom/dad about as there are many other popups during the game.
I guess most people that argue about 'bad parenting' have no kids themselves. Of course you can't observe your child 24x7 and yes, there are times when you just give them your iPad because there's just no way of entertaining them in that situation. For example when we drive to their grandparents (2 hours) they watch video and play with the iPad. It's not possible to sit next to them and watch every click that they make. Man, our car is no prison.
My daughter bought about 40 dollars of in-app purchases. I didn't even know that that's possible with that game and I wasn't aware that there's some setting to turn it off (and I'm an IT professional). Where is the point that I have to provide a password for installing a free app while at the same time there's no password for purchasing teddy bear clothes for 15 dollars ?
Everything where real money is involved must be opt-out by default. That's common sense in the industry. Apple is perfectly aware of this and just tries to rip off additional money. They further know that they can be sued with ease for that. I guess that's the only reason why they have such generous return policy on in-app purchases.
true.. but we they refund to "mistaken" purchases such as this, how many more people will be n on the same deal...
"no problem,,, just tell Apple this , and they'll refund your money" type.
Its probably a mix affair... No control, but Apple bending over backwards for their customers even though their App store says otherwise.
I like a company thats honest, don't you
If this word gets out, and it will do.... Apple got loose money, since we can all phone up, and say "we didn't know what we were doing".....
There are such things as rules in a terms of service,, maybe Apple should re-think again....
The parents, and kids may be out of pocket, but if they made the purchase, its their fault. No other company but Apple refunds money, and to me, hats kind of what they should be doing as a business model.
They will look at your purchasing history also. You probably couldn't get away with that too many times.
Totally agree. Without IAPs, developers would not see any reason to continue adding value to apps. But parents these days just see the iPad as a way to shut up their kid. A five year-old be building and imagining, not staring at a screen playing gambling games.
However, I do think Apple needs to ban the purchase of fake in-app currencies that these types of games make their money on. Actually, they should probably just ban all perishable items in games. But no, Apple makes too much money off of this stuff.
Regardless of how many times you state your opinion, it will probably not change those of others. I didn't realize you were one of the Apple-must-save-us-from-ourselves crowd.
This is about many things, not just one. To me, the 2 most important are:
1) Preventable mistake by a parent. Whether he was tired that minute or ignorant overall, whatever. Hopefully he learned something beyond just "watch purchases more closely". At my house, the kids devices are always set to Immediately Require Password, on both Apple and Android devices.
2) Freemium games are a ripoff. I could see a change to setting some limits on IAP amounts, these $99.99 in-game purchases are ridiculous. I would like to see freemiums banned, but I don't see how it's possible. Personally, I generally don't allow these games at my house. It's very difficult to determine which are bad and which just have some IAP options, you basically have to play the game quite a bit to decide. Had to disappoint my kids just a week ago over some IAP requests. It was only $2, but I saw it as a slippery slope I'm not prepared to jump down.
It's not 'bad parenting' when you download an app aimed at 4-5 year olds (spelling, coloring, puzzles) and the developer places giant interrupter ads with frogs, fairy dust and fireworks on Buy Now buttons (while making Continue or Close buttons hidden).
I know that every time I download a new app for my kid, I put the iPad to sleep before handing it off as it will always prompt a password if he 'accidentally' chooses to download an IAP.
I know that every time I download a new app for my kid, I put the iPad to sleep before handing it off as it will always prompt a password if he 'accidentally' chooses to download an IAP.