Child racks up $1,700 bill on Xbox Live, Microsoft refuses to refund


That up there is British lady Dawn Matthews and her 11-year old son, the interestingly coiffured Brendan. Neither look that happy, and with good reason, because silly old Brendan just spent $1,700 on Xbox Live, using his mother’s credit card. Oops! And HA! According to the Daily Mail:

“Dawn Matthews entered her debit card details into the family Xbox to pay for Brendan’s subscription to his favourite game. However, Brendan repeatedly clicked on additions and extensions – racking up a £1082.52 debt to her account over six months.”

While Brendan pretends he didn’t know what he’s doing (even though he’s ELEVEN), his mom is, predictably, playing the blame game, claiming Microsoft are at fault. Somehow:

“But Dawn wants her experience to be a lesson to other parents and blames Microsoft for making it ‘too easy’ for her son to spend the money. She said: ‘Brendan is 11 and knows his times tables but it was only when I explained to him that he realised how much money he had spent. ‘When he is in gaming mode he can’t be thinking about the money. You can’t put all that responsibility on a young boy. It is impossible to monitor everything your children do. These companies should take some responsibility.’

Yeah, yeah, pull the other one, Dawn. Commendably, Microsoft has refused to back down, pointing out that a simple parental control could have prevented Brendan’s ‘unwitting’ spending spree.

[Daily Mail, via Geekologie]

een here proving they can’t even afford a trip to Supercuts, Dawn Matthews and 11-year old son Brendan are appealing to Microsoft to reverse some of the $1,700 in charges ol’ Mophead McSadface accumulated on XBox Live. Yeah! YEAH! Reverse some of mine too!

She entered her debit card details into the family Xbox to pay for Brendan’s subscription to his favourite game. However, Brendan repeatedly clicked on additions and extensions – racking up a £1082.52 debt to her account over six months. But Dawn wants her experience to be a lesson to other parents and blames Microsoft for making it ‘too easy’ for her son to spend the money. She said: ‘Brendan is 11 and knows his times tables but it was only when I explained to him that he realised how much money he had spent. ‘When he is in gaming mode he can’t be thinking about the money. You can’t put all that responsibility on a young boy. ‘It is impossible to monitor everything your children do. These companies should take some responsibility. They take advantage of vulnerable people.‘ A spokesman for Microsoft claimed that a parental control setting would have prevented Brendan from spending Dawn’s money. He said: ‘With over 30M Xbox LIVE members across the world customer complaints of this nature are extremely rare.

Hoho, burned by the Microsoft rep! Sorry lady, but I’m not buying it either. 1. He knew what he was doing, even if he didn’t realize JUST HOW MUCH monetary damage he was doing and 2. it’s YOUR responsibility to keep an eye on your rugrats’ activity anyway. Don’t hate just because your babysitter ended up being more than you expected! Boy, 11, racks up £1,000 bill on mother’s debit card playing XBox online [dailymail] via Mom asks Microsoft for forgiveness over son’s $1700 XBL shopping spree [gamesradar] Thanks to Stephen, who’s been working on a $50 Playstation Network card for over a year.

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