We’ve heard stories about children inadvertently running up huge bills on their parent’s credit cards before, but it never gets less painful for those involved. One parent shared their story with The Guardian after their children spent £600 ($764) on online gaming platform Roblox. Apple apparently did eventually refund the money, spent via the children’s iPads, after being contacted by the newspaper.
My nine and eight-year-old kids spent £602 via my iTunes account buying merchandise from the online gaming platform Roblox. I hadn’t realised my bank card would be available to use on my children’s iPads. When I discovered the spending spree I contacted Apple for a goodwill refund. The answer was: “Sorry we can’t help you but do have a nice day.” I then explained my predicament to Roblox. Their response was to terminate my children’s accounts, without any warning on the grounds that they “take fraud very seriously”.
Check It Out: These Children Accidentally Racked up a £600 Bill on Their iPads
You really can’t blame Apple. What’s to prevent a nogoodnik from spending $500 on the site and then claiming that his kids did it and please give me a refund. It’s along the lines of “The dog ate my homework”.
Foolish in the extreme to place an iPad that was set up to order items at the App Store in the hands of a child.
Yet another case of a parent not taking responsibility for their ignorance of how things work. To deflect responsibility the parent blames Apple and the app developer. “I didn’t realize” is the typical copout. The parent just assumed Apple would know to block his child from making purchases with no action on the parent’s part.