We received an email from The Lott on June. 12 suggesting that the ticket we had purchased had not gone through. I expect that many who received a similar email may, in order to not miss out, would go through the process of purchasing a a new ticket. I our case we had already received an earlier email confirming the purchase and the cost of the ticket had been deducted from our bank account.
Is this a scam or is The Lott engaged in unethical behaviour to increase their revenue?
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Iāve encountered similar when purchasing things online from a couple of different stores. Both times it appeared to be due to me leaving items in the basket for an extended period, and going to the checkout some hours later.
There may well be a āstill thinking about itā timer where the message is sent after a certain time with items in the basket, but not yet paid for, even if you do eventually complete the purchase.
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In our case when a ticket is selected it is payed for immediately. We also received confirmation of payment within seconds of the transaction taking place. We suspect that this is The Lott attempting to have us and potentially others who may have received a similar email purchase an additional ticket.
I dissent. I patronise a number of irritating web sites for a particular product set that routinely send nag-ware messages if I leave products in their carts, sometimes purchased at the time or sometimes not at the time or at all. It can be triggered by opening a new window on some browsers, or using a second instance of a browser, or using two different browsers in what one, as a user, thinks is the same session.
Why? Sloppy programming that also errs on the side of getting a sale, not always on the side of accurately tracking the customer visit. One is so poorly implemented that I have to disable malwarebytes for the site to check out; if I forget and disable it on the payment page it reloads the payment page - and the web site thinks I left items in their cart, not purchased them as I had.
Irritating or amateurish implementations are not always sinister.
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Dissent as much as you like. In our case the ticket was purchased through the app. There was no switching of browsers. The purchase was strait forward. There was no hesitation in paying. We are not convinced that there was no unethical intent. We contacted The Lottās customer support but have not received a response. Until such time as a viable reason is provided we will think the worse.
Thanks for the clarification re you were using their app. Even apps have bugs. Not defending them in any way. Unfortunately many ecommerce sites have customer āserviceā that is unequipped or lacks delegation to deal with what could be anything from a real technical problem to bad company policies. Sometimes they donāt know an answer and have to handball the issue around their company, not saying they are doing that, and sometimes they in the broadest sense get to a āhey what? (something they donāt know or understand how to deal with)ā, so it goes into a black hole..
Whatever we think here will not affect how the Lott operates. While your concern is not a breach of Australian Consumer Law the Letter of Complaint framework might get the answer you seek (search the ACCC, Choice, and Community for advice on the how to), and if you do not get the explanation you seek in response, a next port of call would be Fair Trading/ACCC, but you would have to show/claim what laws you believe they were breaking.
We would appreciate knowing whatever you learn about the issue.
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