A NORTH WALES father has slammed Apple iTunes for being forced to clear a £1,300-Apple iTunes bill after his seven-year-old son unknowingly racked up the amount in an hour on a free version of a mobile phone game. The man is now considering taking legal action over the matter.
Muhammad Mutaza, from Colwyn Bay, North Wales, was left shocked when he discovered that his son, Ashaz, has made a series of in-app purchases, amounting to £1,289.70, within an hour while playing a free version of the DreamWorks mythical monster game Dragons: Rise of Berk.
“I never thought it would be possible to spend that much money on a kids' game - the game is four plus,” Mail Online quoted the 41-year-old in a report on Tuesday (29). He added that his son was “pressured” into hitting purchase multiple times as he feared losing the game or his characters dying.
Explaining that his son might have remembered his iTunes password while looking over his shoulder, the father further said that his iTunes account is linked to an email that he doesn't check regularly and he only discovered the purchases after receiving 29 email receipts for transactions ranging from £1.99 to £99.99.
Since he does not allow the child to play any paid games, he did not see this coming when he saw his son playing the dragon game.
“It's not even limited to one click a day, you could click ''purchase'' 10,000 times and spend a million pounds on it in half-an-hour,” said the father-of-three who had to sell his Toyota Aygo car in order to cover the cost.
Claiming to be an Apple customer since 2005, Mutaza, who is a doctor, revealed that he had slammed Apple iTunes customer service man saying that he is not going to be “spending another penny" on them ever again and is now considering to take legal action over the matter.
After his complaint to Apple, he was reportedly refunded £207.
Meanwhile, Apple has refused to comment on the matter but has claimed that 'Ask to Buy' feature is on by default for children under the age of 13, which allows the family organiser to use their device to approve or decline a request if children want to buy or download a new item, apart from a number of such other features including Parental Controls, Apple ID per user and iCloud Family Sharing to prevent accidental purchases.
