Wednesday, August 19, 2009

It pays to check part 2

My eldest daughter bought camping tickets for the V Festival which is scheduled for this weekend; hers was the winning bid in an eBay auction. Having paid by Paypal, Jemma waited for the tickets to arrive.

Concerned that she hadn’t received them, Jemma phoned the lady who was selling the tickets only to find that she hadn’t actually got the tickets at he time she sold them. The lady Jemma was buying from had bought them herself on eBay from a third party and not received them before putting them up for auction.

The story goes that the first person in the chain had put the tickets up for auction only to find the winning bidder refusing to pay up. She then put them back on eBay where they were bought by the lady Jemma was dealing with. Unfortunately, it seems the first lady had sent the tickets to the wrong person; she’d sent them to the one who had refused to pay in her first auction by mistake.

As it happens, the lady had posted them with a certificate of posting and so was able to track their whereabouts. Upon investigation she found that the tickets were sitting in the Post Office sorting office in Leeds because they were undeliverable. In time they would have been returned to sender – too late for the concert!

The upshot is that the tickets are now apparently on their way to the lady who Jemma was dealing with who has promised to bring them direct to Jemma as soon as she receives them – the two only live twenty miles apart.

Clearly the lady who sold them to Jemma was in the wrong. She was selling something that she physically didn’t have - Jemma was not to know that. The lady who failed to pay was in the wrong because the deal is if you win – you pay. Bidding and buying on eBay is not a game even though some do treat it as such.

I sincerely hope that everyone now lives up to their promises and that Jemma gets to enjoy her concert. I don’t know what the weather forecast is – I hope it doesn’t rain.

The whole experience has put Jemma off buying on eBay and the lady who was selling from dealing with concert tickets again.

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