Excessive Dragonvale charges

The fact is that apple did not place the controls to turn off the in-app purchases until after the threat of class action.

It is simply a muse to protect against further lawsuits. To make it "off" by default would mean less profits.

Simply greed. As for the person who plans to switch over to Android, I'm afraid the same smurberry poachers play over there as well. For the developers who make the purchase buttons look like part of the game so that kids click, how can you justify $99.99 for a non tangible worthless virtual item.

Hi,

Could someone please help me!! I have been hit with a bill for nearly £350 from the Dragonvale game. My son spent this is one evening and had no idea!! Is it possible to get a refund? Money is really tight at the moment and this has wiped out my bank account. I am really panicking!! Help please!!

Hi,

Could you please advise me on how to get a refund as my 10 year old son has done the same! Just can't believe it!

many thanks

VICI,

As suggested earlier in this thread to Angie and Josh, pls initiate a request toiTunes Customer Service, explaining the extenuating circumstances and requesting a refund.

Thank you. I have contacted them and they have agreed to make a refund, thank goodness! I will be doing everything in my power to ensure this doesnt happen again!

VICIW80 wrote:

Thank you. I have contacted them and they have agreed to make a refund, thank goodness!

Good news! Glad to hear it. No more Dragonvale in your household!

"As a parent, you can't always just blame other people/companies for what your children do."

Baloney! Here's why Apple gets lots of the blame:

1) They share in the profits of this scam, 30%

2) They have the ability to put in spending limits, like $10 per day, or such, but don't.

3) They send receipts about 8 hours after the charge. So if your kids mess up, you can't react fast.

4) They censor all kinds of apps for two boobs, or because it competes with their own apps, but they can't stop this egregious scam? My kids can handle breasts, but not $100 dragon food.

5) They allow purchases to occur without the password, so long as the password was recently entered. My kids don't know the password, but they were able to rack up expenses in DragonVale.

6) This game makes transactions differently than others, kids that know not to buy apps get tricked into it in this game. Apple demands a consistent UI from all App developers, but not here, where users' money is concerned?

Good for them if they refund portions of this ripoff, but bad on them for allowing and participating in it.

I'm can only assume moonrise4works for the company that built Dragonvale which is an app that is designed to remove money from your bank account, deviously, via your unsuspecting children. It is a vile creation and should have been removed from sale buy Apple months ago. My opinion of Apple has been tarnished forever.

@moonrise4

"Most in-app purchases are very clear that you are purchasing something, so it's not something that just happens "on accident." Also note that it is possible to disable in-app purchases (through Settings>General>Restrictions) so you can prevent children from spending excessive amounts of money."

Further arguments against you:

"Most in-app purchases are very clear that you are purchasing something"

Most, perhaps, but not in Dragonvale. That's kinda everyone's point.

"note that it is possible to disable in-app purchases (through Settings>General>Restrictions"

It's possible, but it's not the default. The default options are just wrong.

And it was added in later versions of iOS. So those of us here since the beginning don't necessarily know it.

And the default is: the password only needs to be entered once for 15 minutes of buying. Why?

And if you set "immediate" to password cache expiry, and "NO" to in-app purchases and turn off App Install and leave it like that for a few weeks, but then disable Restrictions because you want to install an app...then when you re-enable Restrictions, iOS "forgets" all your settings, and moves them back to defaults.

It seems like a recipe ripe for abuse. A mistake, or deliberate? I really don't know. But it ain't right.

Oh please, this game is a scam, designed to lure kids in and then get them to unsuspectingly spend money. The people who run it are straight up criminals and this needs to be shut down.