Forum Discussion

nullptr2this's avatar
nullptr2this
Honored Guest
20 days ago

Why allow sending credits to child accounts?

This platform being without a doubt the single worst user experience of any gaming system I have ever used aside, can you at least not get the simple things correct?

If my under 13 child's account is not allowed to use credits to buy anything, why in the world does the Meta Horizon app present an option for me to send them credits?

Am I missing something here?  Sent $20 worth of credits to my son and there is no option that we can find anywhere for him to use these credits to do anything.  Any game or in app purchases he tries to access always sends me a request to hit my credit card or purchase quest cash or whatever you call it.

What is the point of all of this?  Having dumped $20 into credits on his account that he can't seem to use, and the 2 gorilla tag shiny rocks gift cards we bought at Target that seem to be completely irredeemable from either his account or in my account to then gift to him I've now dumped $60 into this black hole of a platform and there is no phone number or any kind of legitimate non-AI support to be found.

Anyone know of any avenues to get your money back from this non-sense?

2 Replies

  • steve_40's avatar
    steve_40
    Visionary
    19 days ago

    My 12 yo daughter has never tried to purchase any games through her profile, so I don't know what the restrictions are, but when I buy games from my account there is an option to choose or add a payment type and clicking it also reveals a checkbox to use any existing store credits (I think the option only appears if store credits are available). Maybe your child overlooked the setting?

    Anyway, you can contact official Meta Quest customer support (live chat, email, WhatsApp). I recommend "chat with customer support", they seem to respond immediately and last time I contacted them they even gave me $10 store credits for free.

    Edit: I asked AI and it gave me the following answers:

    • No Direct Wallet Access: Preteens cannot manage a wallet or directly use Quest Cash to buy games.
    • Parental Approval Needed: When a child (10–12) attempts to buy an item, it sends a request to the parent to authorize the purchase.
    • Gift Cards/Credits: If a child receives a gift card, it must typically be redeemed through the parent's account to buy the app as a gift for the child's account.
    • Age Restriction: You must be at least 13 years old to manage your own Meta account and Wallet.

     

    If that's the case, then, yeah, it makes no sense to be able to gift store credits to a child as they would have to wait until they turn 13 to spend them. So definitely raise that issue with customer support if it is the case.

    • nullptr2this's avatar
      nullptr2this
      Honored Guest
      19 days ago

      Thanks for the info Steve.  I contacted them but to no avail.  They told me that despite the fact that their instructions from the gift cards told me to redeem the gift card in my own account and that I would be able to gift the balance to my son's account that it doesn't work that way for in app purchase gift cards and that despite no documentation that effect I was supposed to have known that and that there is no way to undo the fact that they were added to my account and not my son's.

      And then, despite the fact that they surfaced an option to buy them and send them to my son from within my son's account page in the family center that credits can't be used by under 13 child accounts that there was nothing they could do.

      So they took $60 through miscommunication and shady sales tactics and told me it was my fault depsite their lack of documentation and the bug in the Android app surfacing credit purchases for my child's account.

      Absolutely shameless.

      Appreciate the link.  Thanks for your help.