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Ben Woods
Europe EditorBen is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional online poker player. You can contact him via Twitter or on Google+.
Just before Christmas, Lance Perkins got a bit of a shock when a bill for nearly $8,000 landed on his doormat.
He quickly saw that the charges related to in-game Fifa purchases on the Xbox One of his 17-year-old son. Looking a little closer, he discovered earlier charges that he’d missed, taking the total to $8,206.43, according to CBC News.
While it’s by no means the first case of ‘bill shock’ due to in-app purchases by children, they do tend to be a little bit younger than the child in this case, and generally haven’t been given a credit card voluntarily by the parent.
Nonetheless, after appealing to Microsoft to review the purchases – and pointing out they’d been made by a minor – the company decided to refund the cash.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, Perkins has reportedly said that there won’t be any more gaming systems in the house – Xbox or otherwise.
After narrowly side-stepping an $8,000 bill, that’s sort of fair enough really.
➤ Xbox bill refunded after teen racked up $8K in charges to dad’s dismay [CBC News]