Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Apple I-Tunes Made $40+ off us this month

So what is the rage?  Technology is great ! We have Ipod shuffles, Ipod nanos, Ipod first gen, the newest latest greatest Ipod....

Flash back to last Thursday morning. About 7 AM.  The husband, a fresh cup of coffee in hand, sits at the computer to review the financial status of our family accounts.  He chokes on his coffee as he reads out loud, "Apple I-tunes, $29? Swipe fee $12.00 ?  Who, sputter, snort on coffee..." 

A round the 8 ft table the dwarfs that are present say, "We don't know anything about it, " with wide eyed innocence.  " I want all ipod delivered to this table now so that I can check histories and see who is downloading apps and music!!!" 

In a musical almost sing song voice Sleepy states , "it is not me, I don't have Internet "! Dopey pipes in with "my Ipod is linked to my personal bank account, so it is not me".  Doc insists that she did not purchase anything recently, and the Korean friend is excused because frankly she just looks confused by this situation. 

Dad says, where is Happy's Ipod?  Well Sleepy skips off to locate it, "happy" to be out of trouble on this one!  A full out search goes down in Sleepy's room, and no Ipod to be found. 

I think at this point it would be worth mentioning that there are never situations where a dwarf is allowed to take electronics to school, ipods, hand held video games etc... As Bashful sees the dwarfs tossing Sleepy's room, he pipes up with, "Hey I saw Sleepy slip his Ipod in his pants pocket this morning." 

Well Bashful does not have the reputation around here for honesty.  Often times he is caught jumping on the ban wagon of a sibling that he perceives is in trouble, happy to know that he is not, so we don't hold too much stock in what he says.

However on this day, because Dad is so mad about this charge on his account - he heads upstairs for a quick shower and change, and it may be worth mentioning at this point that is coffee is long forgotten, oh how adrenaline is a great substitute for caffeine, and heads off to the middle school that Happy attends.

Now I don't know about you, but seeing my six foot father, standing in my school office when I get called out of class, would put the fear of God in me.... but not so much for Happy.

When asked for the elusive Ipod, Happy says - "oh yea, it is home on my bed ."  Dad thanks him for his time, shoos him back to class and returns home to find the missing Ipod.  Dad and I spend about 10 minutes back in Happy's room. Yep, you guessed it...no IPod....

Now Dad is HOT, and I don't just mean his physical appearance.  I mean he is boiling mad about this missing piece of technology -and even though Sleepy has denied downloading anything other than the free app his sister hooked him up with, someone, in our home spend some serious money the day before on the Apple Itunes website!! 

I calm Dad down, sending him off to the office with the knowledge that he can investigate the charges on his account while at the office today and check with Sleepy when he gets off the bus about the Ipod. 

Fast forward to 3PM.  Happy gets off the bus and comes to say hello to his dad.  His father in his calm way says, "Hey Happy, your Ipod wasn't at home this morning when I went back to the house to look for it."  Oh Happy says, that is because it is stuck between the mattress and the frame, I hide it there so no one can take it."  "Oh but it is not" says Dad, "Mom and I removed your mattress, and all your blankets and pillows in an effort to find it.  Guess what? No Ipod. "   

"May I see your backpack?" Suddenly Happy says, "I am not feeling good, my stomach hurts."   And very well it should have since in the first pocket that Dad looks in viola .... IPOD!

As it turns out,  Happy did not know what he was doing when he opened his free app.  It seems that there were all kinds of options for him to download items that he needed to pay for, and since he tries to act like a normal functioning 13 year old, but is on a first grade reading level and understanding, he did not know that he was purchasing these items when he clicked yes ...nor did he know that his father keeps no additional monies in that account linked to the Apple Itunes account and that when he ordered these items there was an additional $12 fee because the account was overdrawn,  an honest mistake that could have been resolved if honesty had been his standard from the beginning. 

Happy has lost his Ipod for an undisclosed amount of time, has paid his father back, when he shows that he can be honest in his interactions with others, he can earn it back.  In the midst o f all this, we all learned that maybe Bashful really does pay more attention than we give him credit for! 

You really can't make this stuff up!

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