Festival Ticket Scam

eira

Daughter's credit card was HSBC. On the Southall Travel front she also paid for these tickets with HSBC card. (She did listen to mother on some points). Southall Travel have returned some of her money-but she's still out by their 'booking cancellation fee 'of £260. On a solicitor' s advice we hung on to the cheque pending the return of the rest of the money. However we have now referred them to ABTA who also can't get any sense out of them.

She could take them to court on the grounds of unfair contractual terms but these are a very ,very dodgy company. When I mentioned ABTA the woman's response was 'Try it and see where it gets you'.
Should we now just cash the cheque -it has a month to run before it becomes invalid-or hang out for the rest of the money. I have a horrible feeling that even if she wins in court she will never see the other money again.

E bay scamster is supposed to be ringing back.

Altarf

steviebabes wrote: »

Why should ebay have to bail people out all the time? The seller broke the rules and the buyer fell for it. As has been said before ebay is a venue, if you were sold a duff item at a car boot would you complain to the organiser?

Ebay have a clear policy that items cannot be sold unless you can deliver them within 30 days of the end of the listing - http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/pre-sale.html

If Ebay were at all interested in buyer's safety it would be trivially easy for them to set up a search to identify such breaches. They could easily identify any tickets for a major festival or event that are being offered for sale on their website, more than 30 days before the due date of despatch from the promoters.

Why don't they do it. Because it would hurt the bottom line. Buyers don't pay Ebay fees, sellers do - even when they are crooks.

So would I blame the organiser? Yes if they knew that their were crooks operating on their site, but had chosen not to look for them as it would lose them money.

eira

Thanks for above-have just e-mailed Royal Mail re compensation but, quite rightly, they want details of where an item was posted and when etc. Seller has refused to furnish any of this-and this leads me to the conclusion that it must be the responsibility of the person who posted the item. It also indicates that the ticket was never sent.Who'd send a £200 ticket without coughing up £1.30 for Special Delivery ?
Ever notice that there are a dozen books on babies and toddlers but very very few on teenagers and young adults. I work with this age group and since having kids of that age I've realised that they are incredibly vulnerable and really need parenting.

steviebabes

Altarf wrote: »

Ebay have a clear policy that items cannot be sold unless you can deliver them within 30 days of the end of the listing - http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/pre-sale.html

If Ebay were at all interested in buyer's safety it would be trivially easy for them to set up a search to identify such breaches. They could easily identify any tickets for a major festival or event that are being offered for sale on their website, more than 30 days before the due date of despatch from the promoters.

Why don't they do it. Because it would hurt the bottom line. Buyers don't pay Ebay fees, sellers do - even when they are crooks.

So would I blame the organiser? Yes if they knew that their were crooks operating on their site, but had chosen not to look for them as it would lose them money.

I doubt if the sellers say anything on the listing about delivery time but I agree ebay should have someone in the know about when event tickets are released. I think there has been some tightening up on ticket sales since OP bought theirs.

soolin

steviebabes wrote: »

I doubt if the sellers say anything on the listing about delivery time but I agree ebay should have someone in the know about when event tickets are released. I think there has been some tightening up on ticket sales since OP bought theirs.

I agree that ebay could do more, but then we all moan about fees and I'm sure if they took on several hundred staff to monitor categories we would moan about paying more fees. We are not talking just a few items here we are talking thousands..watch the ticket listings when they open,huge amounts are pulled before they close so you don't get a real idea of the numbers involved.

I understand that there will always be an argument that people need to be protected from themselves, and perhaps vulnerable people like young adults do. However I am uncomfortable with a nanny state where we are so over protected that we can fall for the first scam that comes along. I tend to think that we need to educate people to understand risks. If there are tutorials about being safe, then do them. if there are instructions manuals or helpful tips then read them. We cannot possibly protect everyone from themselves. Maybe I have too much faith in people, but the assumption that we are all too dim to recognise a scam and must be protected worries me.

Dave_Brooker

soolin wrote: »

I agree that ebay could do more, but then we all moan about fees and I'm sure if they took on several hundred staff to monitor categories we would moan about paying more fees.

Given the billions of $$$s ebay turns over, would a few hundred customer service staff and a UK call centre really dent their profits?

Altarf

soolin wrote: »

I agree that ebay could do more, but then we all moan about fees and I'm sure if they took on several hundred staff to monitor categories we would moan about paying more fees. We are not talking just a few items here we are talking thousands..

Why do they need several hundred people? It would not be rocket science for Ebay to run a daily search on "V Festival" (plus a few other key words) until 30 days before the ticket release date, and it would be trivial for one or two Ebay staff to check and remove the rule breaking listings.

Perhaps it is the thousands of listing and selling fees that they are more worried about losing.

steviebabes

Just to get back to the OP I noticed that event tickets are now banned.