Oops!

[pixie373]

My niece has run up a bill of £183.45 playing a dragon game on my sister's phone. Password was only put in on the first £2.99 my sister authorised, the rest just went through.

Unhappy sister!

[jno]

could the niece be put to work up the chimneys to help pay off the bill?

[Peter Pedant]

and your niece is 67 1/2 and wont marry ?

[grasscarp]

I let my grandson (4) play with my ipod. Next thing he had bought some wine glasses in America I was watching on ebay which came to about the same amount. I contacted seller and ebayer and it was cancelled thank goodness. These things happen unfortunately.

[pixie373]

Lol. I know. It's not the first time a child has done this and won't be the last, I'm sure. She is 7. I did suggest sending her out to work and my niece's response was "the dragon was hungry!" So that's fine then.

[FredPuli43]

Peter, you'll have to explain that one. We do try to keep up :)

Not sure how these companies hope to get away with claiming the money. Assuming the niece is under 18, the company cannot claim anything from her or her parents unless what she has ordered is a "necessity", such as food for her survival. Can't see that dragon games fall into that category. And they are on very sticky ground if they claim that she was an agent for her parent or that the parent undertook to indemnify them or that they are liable for things that they did not know of or that , in permitting her to use a password, they are liable for all she does.

[tamborine]

Ebay customer cancelled purchase as his 11y kid bid. I could spit coz I still gotta pay charges. Keep young kids OFF retail sites

[Peter Pedant]

Freddie - good post !
I thought about someone too young to contract and passed on....
is it a go-er ?

The 67 y o comment was pre-emptive to the obvious post of
... and she is seven, lithpth and has lost her front teef

and secondly wont marry - for the dowry of course ! - sleepless night huh ?


brought on I regret by the Angela Beadnell look-a-like in one of Dicken's novels. You recollect that Estelle (Break their hearts! Break them!) or Angela Beadnell is reportrayed as Miss Flyte ( old fat, garrulous and girlie in a superannuated fashion) in Little Dorrit. Dicken met her again forty years later and found the love of his life had turned into something else. [I used to work with one - uncannily accurate...]

[tamborine]

Fred try pulling that with phone account when theyve cut line, apply APRs & send bailiffs with huge collection fees.

PAY & SHUT UP. Get your kid a doll

[SlackAlice]

One of the reasons if you share your pc/tablet/phone you shouldn't save passwords.

[pixie373]

I understood you Peter! Thanks, Fred. That is interesting. She has e-mailed the company paid, but is not too optimistic. Her settings say that a password has to be entered every time a purchase was made. She entered it once and went to work. My niece doesn't know the password, but still managed to make 17 plus purchases within an hour.

[grasscarp]

and my ebay app on my ipod doesnt require a password ever, and if I buy something it takes the money also without password which is odd.

[pixie373]

It does seem odd, grasscarp. It's like putting your PIN in, in a cashpoint, taking your money out and then the next six customers just being able to help themselves after. Not good security.

[pixie373]

Result!

Apple have e-mailed her back saying they will refund all the purchases.
Thanks all x

[FredPuli43]

Tambo, we're not talking about a phone line, for which different considerations apply, but purchases which are governed by common law principles. A phone service is a rental agreement entered into by an adult who, expressly or impliedly, agrees that they will pay for the service whoever uses it.