Lee Neales is a Brit who works as an aerospace designer and last week had an unpleasant surprise to find out that his bank account was completely blocked, not allowing him to withdraw money. Investigating the problem, the man discovered that his 8-year-old daughter had managed to spend £4000, or about $6000, on in-app purchases over the course of a few days. The girl did not know that those in-app purchases really cost money and she bought various bonuses from 3 games of App Store, and the amount collected is enormous, the father not noticing the dozens of emails through which Apple congratulates him for the purchases made.
Lily is only eight and hasn't grasped the concept of money. She probably wouldn't know how much a bag of crisps costs. I was very surprised how dismissive Apple were. This was an eight-year-old girl. Basically iTunes have told me categorically that I won't be getting my money back. Now my dad is having to lend me money in the short term and I'm in the process of selling my car, my son's off-road motorbike and probably my bike too. I just think these in-app purchases are terrible and people need to be aware.
Initially discussing the problem with Apple, the company told him that it could not return the money for in-app purchases, and the man was about to sell his car and two motorcycles to pay the debt. Without much explanation, the company changed its decision returned the money in full to the man, a measure that had to be taken from the very beginning. The Brit claims that to make all these purchases his daughter used his password without him knowing, so everything was a complete surprise for him.
Apple called me to say they will be refunding the money I have lost and apologized for closing my case so early. It really has saved my bacon. Lily had used the password she'd seen me enter to download the games. She is only eight years old. Even when I sat her down and explained that what she was doing had cost dad money, I still don't think she really understood. These in-app purchases are terrible and people need to be aware.
If you're wondering which applications were at the root of the problem, well: Campus Life, My Horse, Hay Day and Smurfs' Village are to blame.
