Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Internet Purchase Phobia

Now that our trip to London/Paris is less than two months away, I'm starting to search for hotels and transport to and fro London/Paris. I understand THE way to travel is via EuroStar but the pricing has fluctuated over the last couple of weeks with huge price difference. Right now there's an offer at 59 pounds each for a return compared to over 100 pounds a couple of weeks ago.

However, as my mouse pauses over the button to confirm my bookings, I'm wrought with the fact that my internet purchases recently has left me uncertain. Late last year, I purchased the shark hand puppet via amazon.com. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be what I had imagined plus there was a slight tear.

Then recently, I purchased the U2 tickets (before I knew I had won) via ebay. Trying to sell them off hasn't been easy as we haven't been able to find anouther Malaysian couple crazy enough to want to fly all the way to London for U2.

I ended up asking the seller to sell it off for me. He replied, "I'll see what I can do". That was about two weeks ago. Last Saturday, I wrote to him and got an instant emailed reply which said his PayPal account had been frozen therefore he considers all purchases null and void since he can't get the money out.

Immediately, I called PayPal yesterday and filed for a refund. Was told that I had just managed to meet the 45 days insured period and that if I had not received my ticket as promised (the seller said he would only send the tickets 6-8 weeks before the concert - July 09), I would not have been able to file a dispute.

I'm still a bit stunned that:
If I had not won the AirAsia contest:
1. I would have lost my money if I had waited for the tickets in July or hadn't been in contact with him.
2. By now, I would have purchased my air tickets, accommodation etc all for U2 but then in the end, not go for the concert.

If I had managed to sell off my tickets to someone else:
1. That would have created a larger mess for the parties involved, third party seller, buyer who might have bought tickets to London too by now...

So at the moment, I'm a bit wary of purchasing anything on the internet. At least, I'm now hoping I'll get my refund. The other option is that the seller would send me the tickets once the PayPal investigation goes underway, which I'm hoping he won't.

1 comment:

Grace said...

I thought his ad was very fishy because nowhere did he mention that you had to wait 6 to 8 weeks. I think Paypal froze his account because he might have pulled a fast one on some other people.

If he tries to contact you, still say no to other offers and demand for a refund. If you want me to phrase the email for you, I can help.