Amazon Is Refunding Up To $70 Million In-App Purchases Made By Kids (cnn.com) 40
The Federal Trade Commission announced that refunds are now available for parents whose children made in-app purchases without their knowledge. Amazon dropped its appeal of last year's ruling by a federal judge who sided with the Federal Trade Commission in the agency's lawsuit again Amazon. According to a TechCrunch report, "the FTC's original complaint said that Amazon should be liable for millions of dollars it charged customers, because of the way its Appstore software was designed -- that is, it allowed kids to spend unlimited amounts of money in games and other apps without requiring parental consent." CNNMoney reports: According to the FTC, more than $70 million in charges may be eligible for refunds on in-app purchases made between November 2011 and May 2016. In 2014, Apple and Google refunded customers whose children made purchases in their mobile app stores, and the companies were forced to be more explicit about in-app purchases. Both firms no longer call apps "free" when they are free to download but have upgrades you can buy. Amazon sent eligible consumers an email to receive a refund. If you didn't get one and think you should be eligible, you can click here, or go to the Message Center to find out more information.
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No. Read the summary:
According to the FTC, more than $70 million in charges may be eligible for refunds on in-app purchases made between November 2011 and May 2016.
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No do you have to be a genius to turn on parental controls, and restrict all purchases on your Fire tablets to need a password the kids don't have.
Alternatively just don't link a credit card to the dam device. All four of my nephews and nieces have Fire tablets, the oldest two are on their second none of which have *EVER* had a credit card linked to them. All app/in-app purchases have been made via gift vouchers applied to their personal Amazon accounts. It's not rocket science folks.
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Corporations being held accountable because parents can't do their jobs and lock down their devices properly.
When I signed up for parenthood, nobody said anything about "locking down devices", so no, that is not "my job".
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over locked down where the free stuff password (Score:2)
over locked down where the free stuff password / pin is the same as the buy password.
I used to have this cable system where for the free VOD stuff you had to go though all of the buy screens that said cost $0.00 to view it. Better systems just show the free stuff and only do the buy screens for the PPV stuff.
IN APP PURCHASE - WORSE SCAM EVER (Score:1)
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Why do people continue to buy this apps ?? pay over and over for something you should pay only once?
Many "free" apps have limited functionality, so you can try them out and see if they fit your needs, and then do an in-app purchase to turn on the full features. It is a good deal because you don't need to waste money on something before you are sure it is what you want.
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It's kind of like selling a potato for $0.99 vs a bag with 10 potatoes for $4.99.
There are a lot of people that thinks the $0.99 potato is better. All because they are in a mix of ignorant, stupid and bad at foreseeing future cost. They also think that $0.99 is better than $1, even when it becomes $1 after sells tax rounding numbers.
So these free apps are just the result of those people earning them profits, including ignorant parents letting their kids buy in-apps items.
also some games have buy X with ingame gold (Score:2)
also some games had buy X with in game gold but the buy X with real cash screens look just about the same so that can confuse people. even more so kids who think they are just useing in game funds.
and buying stuff in games is not new old NES and before had that.
if an arcade worked like apple ios used to be they (Score:2)
if an arcade worked like apple ios used to be they be shutdown fast.
Like we have lot's of free to play games with your (entry pass just to keep in line with having to buy an ios device) but that pass is one off and is good for at least 2+ years.
But to play them you need to link your game card to you CC / bank account or you can jump thought a lot very poorly listed line of hoops to get an game card with out an payment system linked to it. (you can buy the same entry pass at other places for other stuff on t
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I worked in an Amazon warehouse. At least in the UK, absolutely everything is thoroughly and repeatedly scanned. Straight off the van to the receivers who scan the barcode to confirm the item is in the warehouse, which then goes on to the stowers who scan the barcode and the shelf to confirm that it's now on a shelf, then the pickers scan the barcode to confirm that it has been taken off the shelves, and that goes to the packers who scan it and put it into a box which goes onto a delivery van. All packages