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Amazon refunds $70 million your kids accidentally spent in apps

froggyboy604

froggyboy604

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Last year, a federal judge ruled Amazon was on the hook for tens of millions of dollars worth of unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids in free-to-play apps. This week, the online retail giant officially started issuing over $70 million in refunds to eligible customers as part of its settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

According to the FTC's suit, kids were able to charge in-app purchases up to $99 without needing to enter a password, resulting in the millions of unwanted charges.

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It is concerning that people don't look over their payment settings for their Amazon tablets, and also use a credit card as payment for apps when people can get an Amazon Giftcard at a retail store like grocery store to use to pay for apps, and set their device to not pay for stuff automatically.
 
They must have had one hell of a lawyer to win this lawsuit against a company like Amazon.

I wonder if this will badly affect Amazon financially?
 
The problem is PARENTING. Where the f*ck are these kid's parents?? An 8 year old does NOT need a smartphone. And if so, monitor what they are doing with it. Geez...
 
zoldos said:
The problem is PARENTING. Where the f*ck are these kid's parents?? An 8 year old does NOT need a smartphone. And if so, monitor what they are doing with it. Geez...
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I think a large percentage of the accidental app purchases came from Amazon Kindle Fire tablets which has the Amazon App Store pre-installed on the tablet.

If you buy an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon.com, the tablet is set to use the Amazon account which you used to buy the tablet from Amazon.com unless you check a checkbox from the Amazon's checkout payment website before you pay which say the Amazon Kindle Fire will be a gift, and won't be used by you before buying it on Amazon.com, or use your Amazon.com dashboard to unregister the tablet from your Amazon.com account.

I agree 8 year olds don't need smartphones, and there are cell phones which are designed for kids to easily call their parents, or medical help in emergencies like they are injured.

Demon_Skeith said:
They must have had one hell of a lawyer to win this lawsuit against a company like Amazon.

I wonder if this will badly affect Amazon financially?
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The owner of Amazon is the second richest man in the world according to Jeff Bezos passes Warren Buffett to become the world's second richest person

I think Amazon make a lot of money selling Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon Prime, Web hosting, Twitch paid Membership, and selling stuff like apps, books, computers, games, food, Fidget Spinners, and other stuff.

Refunding $70 million dollars will probably not hurt Amazon much financially.
 
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froggyboy604 said:
The owner of Amazon is the second richest man in the world according to Jeff Bezos passes Warren Buffett to become the world's second richest person

I think Amazon make a lot of money selling Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon Prime, Web hosting, Twitch paid Membership, and selling stuff like apps, books, computers, games, food, Fidget Spinners, and other stuff.

Refunding $70 million dollars will probably not hurt Amazon much financially.
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Most likely not, but they won't be on top forever and then they will miss that 70 million. But then again it is a digital product so I doubt they lose anything giving the 70 million.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
Most likely not, but they won't be on top forever and then they will miss that 70 million. But then again it is a digital product so I doubt they lose anything giving the 70 million.
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Amazon will eventually be sold to a new owner or run by another person since everyone has to retire by choice or randomly when they become seriously injured, sick or dead, and can't work because of a medical condition, sickness, or accident. The new owner may not even remember, know, or care that $70 million was refunded because he did not own Amazon at the time. $70 million will also be worth less sort of like how you can't buy much with $1. But, in the past, you can buy a few slices of pizza for a dollar.

I agree, Apps are digital, so Amazon is not losing anything except for bandwidth, and electricity for transferring an app or file to a phone, tablet, or device. A lot of apps, and games also come with pre-installed DLC, and virtual money, and game items built-into the app, and to unlock them, you need to pay more money like $1, so if you already bought the game you already downloaded the DLC. Some server CPU resources, electricity, and bandwidth is needed for you to pay money to unlock the DLC, or virtual item.

A lot of people accidentally buying apps, and games may make some more expensive mobile games like the Grand Theft Auto series of mobile game sell better, and help Amazon earn more money if they reach higher to the top of the "Top Paid and mobile Games" section instead of cheaper $1 games where the maker of the app barely make enough money to pay the app maker.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
Most likely not, but they won't be on top forever and then they will miss that 70 million. But then again it is a digital product so I doubt they lose anything giving the 70 million.
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I hope they stick around. We use an Amazon Fire TV box for all our streaming! :grin:
 
zoldos said:
I hope they stick around. We use an Amazon Fire TV box for all our streaming! :grin:
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The Fire TV Operating System is based on Android, so if the Fire TV box becomes discontinued, you can maybe able to install Android TV on it to stream from Google Play Movies and YouTube which has a decent selection of movies and TV shows.
 
We can already stream Youtube, but I no longer use that site (personal reasons). What is Google Play Movies?
 
They would have put aside $70million for these refunds but most of it will never be paid out because people will actually have to claim these back. Most people would have forgotten about them. I find it stupid that they lost the case to be honest. Parents were to blame for this
 
Demon_Skeith said:
you should get the stick, crack it and get a bunch of media streaming services for free.
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Isn't that illegal? lol We used to have the stick, but our router is too slow so it was always bugging out. The box has more storage, a more powerful processor, and is plugged in via network cable so it's much faster. :)

froggyboy604 said:
Google Play Movies is a video player App for Google Android which let you rent and buy streaming movies and TV shows. You can download it at Google Play Movies & TV - Android Apps on Google Play

Google Play Movies uses YouTube Movies to rent movies, so you would be using YouTube, and can watch the movies on YouTube as well.
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That's cool but I don't use Youtube anymore. :|
 
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zoldos said:
Isn't that illegal? lol We used to have the stick, but our router is too slow so it was always bugging out. The box has more storage, a more powerful processor, and is plugged in via network cable so it's much faster. :)
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eh, what they don't know won't hurt them.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
did you use a VPN?
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I didn't. I just used like Chrome. I got a letter in the mail with my IP and the torrent/site I was on and they said that was my "only warning". LOL
 
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