On February 11th I wrote about my son's adventure with BMG Music Service. I took the time to visit their site, read their membership terms carefully and then send them a "Feedback" message explaining the situation regarding the "Urgent Messages" my son had been receiving. He is a minor and I requested, since their site does not disclose any mention of age restrictions or requirements for online purchases, to remove him from their system and waive any fees they had outstanding for him. I got a very nice email apology back from their customer service department, and they have granted my requests. For this mom, BMG Music Service has done the honorable thing in this situation. Thank you BMG Music.
As for my son, he has hopefully learned a lesson and early enough in life not to repeat that mistake. Now, if only I could get him to get a haircut ... LOL!
Showing posts with label protecting teens online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label protecting teens online. Show all posts
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Protecting Our Teens from Online Scams
My son (age 16) received a letter from BMG Music Services for a CD they had sent him in the mail earlier this school year. Apparently he had been online surfing the web while he was at a family members house. BMG's offer looks great and so he proceeded to choose a CD for them to send him. I am not sure if he fully read the About Membership section where it points out that you must choose 1 CD and pay for it before getting the remaining 11 FREE CD's. He is not employed and so I am not sure how he figured he was going to pay for it. We're going to have a chat about the issues he forgot to think through on this one. In the meantime these questions raced through my mind.
Did he read the offer on the front page? "12 CDs for the price 1 nothing more to buy ever!
Did he read the entire section in "About Membership" regarding the offer?
If he knew he would have to pay for this item, how did he think he was going to fund his purchase?
What can we do to protect our teens from companies like this one in the future?
While visiting the site to find a place to send a request for canceling his "account" and request they stop sending "Collection Notices" I read the "About Membership" section and I realized there were no requirements or restrictions for age limitations for memberships or purchases.
Hopefully after our discussion he'll think more carefully about this type of adventure. I think someone :::cough::: will be paying for this one with extra chores. I think talking to both my teens about the things to consider with online purchases would be a good idea. It's probably a good idea to cover mail order scams too :)
For an update on BMG Music's response click here. :)
Did he read the offer on the front page? "12 CDs for the price 1 nothing more to buy ever!
Did he read the entire section in "About Membership" regarding the offer?
If he knew he would have to pay for this item, how did he think he was going to fund his purchase?
What can we do to protect our teens from companies like this one in the future?
While visiting the site to find a place to send a request for canceling his "account" and request they stop sending "Collection Notices" I read the "About Membership" section and I realized there were no requirements or restrictions for age limitations for memberships or purchases.
Hopefully after our discussion he'll think more carefully about this type of adventure. I think someone :::cough::: will be paying for this one with extra chores. I think talking to both my teens about the things to consider with online purchases would be a good idea. It's probably a good idea to cover mail order scams too :)
For an update on BMG Music's response click here. :)
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