Thursday, February 11, 2016

Has Your Kid Ever Spent $100 In The Apple App Store?

I was checking my e-mail and came across one from Apple. It was a receipt from the app store. I was baffled because I hadn't bought anything from there in a while. I opened it and...





....nearly fell over from shock.

"Our credit card has been STOLEN!" I shrieked to Tom. He flinched at the high-pitched tone of my voice. "Stolen, I say...wait. Doesn't Natalie play that game?"

Tom blinked at me. It's not that he doesn't know about the children's activities--it's simply that I know more, because I'm home.

I jumped up and opened the front door. "Natalie!" I bellowed. "NATALIE!"

I imagine half the neighborhood was like, "What the living hell is going on?"

Natalie was outside with her friends and she came over and was like, "Yes?" like she hadn't just spent $100 on gems for a fictional game.

I showed her the receipt on my phone. "What's this?"

"A phone."

I don't think she was being snarky. Then again, she's nearly 9, so she probably was.

"No. You see? This receipt? You spent $100 on a game. About dragons."

Natalie peered at the screen. Recognition filtered down her face. "Oh. That."

Her friends were staring.

"Let's go inside," I suggested.

"But I'm about to--" she began, but then she saw my expression and swallowed it down.

We went inside and Tom asked her what she was thinking. Natalie hates disappointing her Daddy, so tears immediately prickled her eyes.

"I didn't know," she sniffled. "Something popped up and I said yes and...and..."

"You put in the password," I finished. She figured out the password last month. I should have changed it.

Natalie wiped her eyes. "Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't understand."

"Yes, you did," Tom boomed. "You saw that it cost money and you said yes and willingly put in the password. I'm very disappointed in you."

Natalie's face crumpled. "I'm sorry."

"You better hope we can get a refund. Otherwise no allowance until you pay it off," I said.

"Okay," Natalie answered in a quiet voice.

I started a chat with Apple. I was impressed on how quickly the chat began. The lady was very understanding--this happens a lot with children, apparently. I was given a refund. I was finished with the chat in ten minutes.

"Good news," I said to Natalie. "We're getting a refund. But. You will never get another thing without our permission. I'm changing the password."

"I'm sorry," Natalie repeated.

"Don't ever do it again," Tom warned.

"I won't," Natalie replied solemnly.

The moral of this story is to never let your kids know the password. Always have your settings as high as they can go so they aren't able to get a thing on the iPad.

Has something like this ever happened to you?

29 comments:

  1. Omg.
    I need to come steal you lady! Margaritas and Mexican food...you deserve a break!
    PS loved her excuse...I didn't understand! This is plausible, you know, she is a blonde. We have those moments. Lol :)

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  2. Oh boy! I've had a few friends have this happen lol.

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  3. Not..yet!
    I'm just glad you got that refund. I imagine it happens all the time and it's nice that they were cool about it.
    Scarlet would totally do this.

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  4. I've seen this horror story often enough, that our devices are already on high security. Heck, my husband doesn't even know my passwords!! LOL

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  5. It happened with Amazon. It wasn't my daughter's fault; I had disabled one click ordering but my Kindle overrode it and allowed her to click purchase on something that was free to watch with Prime. Amazon gave me a super quick response and refund luckily.

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  6. My daughter bought something on the Kindle and they lectured me about parental controls :/

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  7. I have it set up so the kids have to ask to get anything. It sends a notification to my iPad and the MacBook.

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  8. I have it set up so the kids have to ask to get anything. It sends a notification to my iPad and the MacBook.

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  9. My daughter does not have my password for this exact reason. And should she figure it out, I will change it. I also changed the setting on her iPad where she cannot do in-app purchases.

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  10. YIKES!!
    The kids do not know our Apple passwords, and I hope to keep it that way.
    I'm glad Apple refunded you.
    XOXO

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  11. No, but I'm always nervous that it will. My son is always asking us for money to buy games online.

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  12. My two year old made a $25 donation to St. Jude's from the electric menu at Chili's...thank goodness it went to a good cause. Then, two days later she bought a pay per view fight on Dish that was around $70 dollars. I asked my husband to call Dish & see if they would refund us, but he decided to watch the fight. I'm not totally sure he didn't convince her to make that purchase! ;)

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  13. Oh man! Glad to hear apple was cool about it. I decided to set each of my kids up with their own apple id, each with their own credit card attached to it. My problem was, with three kids that have a stupid amount of devices, I was getting bills from all sorts of app purchases (most of them I ok'd), but I had no idea who bought what (including things I bought) and if I ok'd the purchases because I have mom-brain and I can't remember anything. Now I know exactly who purchased what - the kids know they aren't allowed to buy anything without permission and they're good about asking.

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  14. Oh man! Glad to hear apple was cool about it. I decided to set each of my kids up with their own apple id, each with their own credit card attached to it. My problem was, with three kids that have a stupid amount of devices, I was getting bills from all sorts of app purchases (most of them I ok'd), but I had no idea who bought what (including things I bought) and if I ok'd the purchases because I have mom-brain and I can't remember anything. Now I know exactly who purchased what - the kids know they aren't allowed to buy anything without permission and they're good about asking.

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  15. I can't believe that she spent $100 on a game! I have been known to spend some money on games too, but that's crazy! I'm glad that you were able to get your money back, but this has me freaked out about having kids! They're going to be so much tech savvy than me!

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  16. UGH!!! I was always worried my stepdaughter would do that when she was young and borrowed my phone. Have you thought about getting her her own iPod Touch? Then she could play her games and have no payment method attached...maybe? I'm sure there has to be a way! Yeah, you can change your password but then you have to enter it every single time she wants to play on your tablet.

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  17. Oh wow, I'm impressed that you were able to get a refund! Maybe I should try that! HA But it's way too easy to just click "yes" and carry on playing... I've definitely had to take a look at my "gaming" habits!

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  18. Oh yes....for us it was music that my son kept downloading. We changed our password and even now they don't know what it is.

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  19. Abbey did that. Those in app purchases will get ya. Mine was like 50 though. I called Apple and they were awesome and gave me a refund.

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  20. I can so imagine Zachary doing that. I think there's a way to turn off in app purchases! But maybe it's just that it requires a password.

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  21. OMG I would have had a heart attack!!!! I'm so glad Apple gave you a refund!

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  22. My daughter did this with AMAZON. On my kindle. Angry bird plugins or something. It was around £35, I got my refund though and changed the password. Never again!!

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  23. OH. MAHN. That is my biggest fear. Kids and technology...you know, I know how to parent, and I know about technology, but because I didn't have this crap growing up, I don't really know how to parent technology. Case in point, my 10 year old jut got a referral because she used her school-based Google account to write a story called "The History of Butts," complete with a photo of a Greek statue's rear end with the caption "Undoubtedly the oldest butt in the world."

    I told the teacher I was sorry, I jut assumed because it was for school that it would have some sort of kid-proof firewall or something that wouldn't allow her to upload pictures. Guess I need to monitor her...??

    Sounds like you and Tom have it figured out just fine though. So glad you got that refund!!

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  24. Oh my goodness!! I'm so glad Apple refunded the money so quickly - THAT is great customer service! I will remember to put a tough password on our devices (and change them up!) when our little one is older and can use them.

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  25. Whew...that hasn't happened here, but honestly, I'm surprised. So glad you were able to get a refund quickly and easily!!

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  26. Thankfully this has never happened! Good to know that they were very understanding with getting your money back though!

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  27. I'm glad you got a refund!

    I had to change our password recently. Only my oldest knew it, but while he didn't use it to buy anything, he did use it to add apps that I did not approve.

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  28. You're way nicer than I am! I would have purposely NOT gotten a refund and made my daughter start scrubbing toilets right that minute to start working off that $100!

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  29. Cripes blimey!

    the only time I spent more than that was with my itunes cards I bought for xmas. Glad I don't have kids but if I did, they wouldn't be anywhere near things that can get them on the internet or into an online store.

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