PITFALLS OF BUYING ONLINE

The pitfalls of Buying Online

We are living in a consumer orientated society and as such, E-commerce has given us a completely different spin to the word buying, that spin is On-line buying. Virtually everyone buys goods of every kind on a daily basis and most of these items or commodities can be quite expensive.  However most daily purchases and even Black Friday purchases can often be acquired at a much lower cost than normal, from most online auction sites. If you are willing to search and compare prices and prepared to wait for your goods to arrive, then On-line auctions are especially geared towards you. However and very unfortunately, this doesn't always happen, especially when importing product from abroad.  

On-line purchases can be made all day, every day, 365 and On-line auctions are great fun, but bidding recklessly can cost you dearly. I am a regular bargain hunter on several On-line auctions sites like eBay, eBid,   Hippobay,  Webstore, Gumtree, RunwaySale, Bidding For Good, Bonanza, Listia, CoPart, Autorola, Google Play Store, DealDash, MadBid, iCollector, AuctionZip, The SaleRoom, QuiBids, Take-a-lot, MadBid, ePier, iOffer, Pickles Auctions, WeBidz, SalvageSale, Bidorbuy, AuctionMaxx, Invaluable, OLX, Amazon, MFC-Auctions, AliExpress, Wish, Loot, Bangood, eCrator, uBid, Craigslist and so many others. I literary buy goods in excess of tens of thousands of rands most  months.

Having said that, online auctions and On-line vendors can be equated to mushrooms because they are popping up all over. But then again, like mushrooms they disappear just as quickly. Not a day goes by that I don't receive spam from one or the other auction site, enticing me to start bidding for goods for as little as $1. But I have learnt to resist the urge because I've experienced that so many items purchased On-line, never arrive. When I raise a query with the platform concerned afterwards, it's often outside of the refund period, which means I loose my money. Loosing money really isn't fun. The sad thing is, many platforms do not allow you to contact the sellers directly, so there is absolutely no way of getting a replacement item or a refund after their no refund period.

In 2013 I bought a Transatlantic Cruise voucher on ebay On-line for a exorbitant amount of money but it wasn't sufficient to pay for a boat trip in its entirety, so I had to bid on additional vouchers. Each voucher was quite pricey and on average redeemable for  3000 cruiser-miles, but I managed to secure  several. The collective value of the vouchers I needed was 1,300 000 miles, enough credits for a Deluxe Balcony Ocean View cabin on the RCCL Adventure for 17-days, cruising from Barcelona, Spain to Miami, Florida. The ticket was valid for three years. By the end of the first year I had managed to book our aeroplane tickets and hotel accommodation abroad. I then placed a booking with the cruise company and received confirmation, also informing me that a second confirmation will be sent a month prior to departure. 

Unfortunately before this materialized, the cruise liner agency —CruiserMiles— self liquidated. As a result my wife and I couldn't go on this much anticipated cruise any longer.  It was fully paid for, but we had no recourse to a refund. As you can imagine we were furious. Apparently New Scotland Yard took on 142 cases from other defrauded ticket holders and the cruise company owner is currently under investigation. The scam artist Mr Lester of Cruiser Direct UK is still roaming around free as a bird and there are angry people who lost money all over the world because of his dishonesty. So,  a  word of advice, "look before you leap", because it's very difficult to reverse a mouse click, if not impossible. 

Always keep a track on what you bought and when, make certain to contact the On-line auction house the very day after your item is supposed to arrive, to inform them the item hasn't arrived. Also ensure that the seller sends you a tracking number so that you can track-your-parcel. The old adage "it got lost in the post" is more relevant now than ever before. And to add insult to injury, when the item arrives a SARS clearing fee needs to be paid. And when the wrong item was sent you cannot get your SARS clearing fee back. Besides when the seller does eventually send the correct replacement item, it is subject o SARS clearing as well. In such cases, the additional cost incurred is normally more than the saving you made for buying on line and some times this cost you exceeds the value of the item you bought. This is where you need to remember the old adage —Caveat emptor (in Latin)— "Let the buyer beware"