National Lottery Online

born_again

Gorgie_G said:

I was very surprised to see the amount of negative 'it's your fault' responses to the way the lottery has changed how you choose the days of play. 

It caught me out yesterday. For all the clever people who wouldn't let this catch them out, I hope it booking does.

While it has changed from before (new owner) people really should be checking. It even tells you before submitting how much you are spending.
Is it common that when people purchase items, that they never check the amount they are paying???

sheramber

I had no problem noticing the change of format and working out how to pay for  the option I wanted.  .

Of course that  requires  taking time to  check what you are doing not just doing what you have done before automatically. 

gazdagreat

Just noticed the same thing on the mobile app (android) when buying tickets for this week's draws. For both the Thunderball and Lotto it selected all the draws for the week by default. Luckily spotted it before buying the tickets but if this is deliberate then it's very sneaky. 

Rizzo99

I've raised a complaint to the National Lottery as I think this two day default setting is going to catch out many people and is just a cynical way for Allwyn to sell more tickets. I also think this contravenes online retail regulations, where if I sign in to buy a ticket, the default position should not be that I'm buying two tickets. I also want to raise this with the Gambling Commission as I'm sure they will not look to favourably at this change. They require me to first go through Allwyn's complaints process and I'm currently waiting on their management team response. The initial response I had was their data indicated a majority of users buying tickets for across multiple draws, which I personally find hard to believe, and that doesn't get away from the fact this needs to be a conscious decision on the part of the user. Can you think of any other online retail site that automatically assumes you are going to buy 2 of something? I would encourage others to also raise this as a complaint with Allwyn and the Gambling Commission.

eskbanker

Rizzo99 said:

I also think this contravenes online retail regulations, where if I sign in to buy a ticket, the default position should not be that I'm buying two tickets.

Specifically which 'online retail regulations' are you alleging them to be contravening?

There are the generic Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 where it may be possible to construct something?

timjim

It shows the total price on the select the numbers screen and again before you click Buy. If people don't read what is on the screen they should not be using the internet to buy anything 

Alderbank

Rizzo99 said:

 Can you think of any other online retail site that automatically assumes you are going to buy 2 of something? 

Amazon? That's quite a well-known online retailer.

I remember about a year ago there was a spate of complaints about merchants on Amazon who were offering single small items at silly prices with free postage, which shot them to the top of Amazon's rating for that product.
Those merchants had exploited the software to assume you were going to buy two units plus an additional delivery charge of about £20.

That was widely regarded as scam and I think Amazon responded to remove the loophole (and those merchants as well, probably).

LizB62

Gorgie_G said:

I was very surprised to see the amount of negative 'it's your fault' responses to the way the lottery has changed how you choose the days of play. 

It caught me out yesterday. For all the clever people who wouldn't let this catch them out, I hope it booking does.

Agreed - I run a couple of lottery syndicates so buy lots of tickets regularly and I didn't notice it straight away.
I buy via the website using Chrome and, while it's automatically selecting both draw dates if I go in to a blank purchase screen to pick my numbers, it isn't automatically selecting both if choose the "Play These Numbers Again" option on a past ticket.
The inconsistency between the two screens is definitely going to cause customer confusion....

t3rm3y

Rizzo99 said:

The initial response I had was their data indicated a majority of users buying tickets for across multiple draws, which I personally find hard to believe.

I agree, why would people buy across multiple weeks? The hope and idea is that you win big , you wouldn't expect or need to win again if you are successful.
I'm used to signing in, buy a ticket for the day. (I.e. signed in today, went to buy for tonight and it goes to take double the money tonpaly on Wednesday as well).
I get the app developers need to justify their jobs, so constant changes to apps are a "requirement" but why make it backwards. If I want to play across 2 weeks I should be able tos elect that, not if I don't want to play across 2 days I select it.
And if there arguement is that people play across multiple draws, how long until they set the default to be both days, 4 weeks, and even add euro millions. Might as well.

born_again

To be fair, I play across multiple draws, but have it set up as a DD (great for CASS). But would imagine many will not do DD, so will just select for the max weeks they can.