A parent has complained about Apple’s refusal to refund 23 successive in-app purchases made by his 10-year-old daughter.
Regularly, parents criticize Apple for allowing their children to make expensive purchases on their iPhones and iPads. And this without their knowledge and without their consent.
In the UK, the Telegraph received a story from a reader identifying himself as “AH”. He explains that he gave an iPhone to his 10-year-old autistic daughter for Christmas. And four days later, surprise. The girl had bought 2,012 pounds, or 2,350 euros, of TikTok coins from the application. At that time, she is persuaded to pay money to a TikTok developer, Ohidur247. This user had a verified status and had four million followers. Following an investigation, “Ohidur247” was found to have violated its fraud and scam standards. In exchange for these payments, he promised buyers the acquisition of new followers.
But the parents did not realize this immediately. It was only after receiving invoices from Apple that the relative that “AH” learned about these transactions. Faced with this rather large sum, he asked TikTok for refunds for the 23 transactions. The app’s legal department denied all of his claims. He had to make do with a document dealing with the company’s legal procedures. He then contacted Apple, which promised to reimburse the parent in full while reminding him of the existence of parental controls. Indeed, it is possible to restrict a child’s iPhone through parental controls, preventing purchases and limiting what they can do.
“I think Apple let me down by neglecting to prevent suspicious payments on my account. Their customer service, likewise, has been non-existent in my opinion”, says AH to the Telegraph. As a reminder, Apple has been the subject of criticism several times after children made transactions on the iPhone or iPad.
For its part, TikTok has still not reacted against Ohidur247, despite the investigation and the recovery of the sums. Even if the TikTok user is no longer able to live-stream, the account is still valid and confirmed.
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