The ticket-grabbing software platform reminds you that you can't be sure to get a train ticket without buying a gift package, but the 12306 website can buy tickets directly
Why buy a platform VIP when you can buy a ticket at the original price?
News from this newspaper (Reporter Liu Xiaoyan) "Why do I have to temporarily charge when the ticket is confirmed?" Ms. Zhang, who works in Hangzhou, is usually busy with her work. This year, she chose to use a ticket-snatching software to buy tickets during the Spring Festival, but was induced to buy VIP by the platform.
On January 7, Ms. Zhang booked 3 high-speed rail tickets from Hangzhou East to Jingzhou on January 29 on a ticket grabbing software platform.
According to the introduction on the platform page, consumers can choose to buy more or less stops when placing an order, and then get on the bus to make up the ticket or get off in advance.
Ms. Zhang, who was worried about not being able to grab a ticket, checked "cross-station ticket grabbing". When she prepaid the ticket, she actually paid 3 tickets from Hangzhou East to Yichang East (via Jingzhou) with a unit price of 403 yuan.
On January 17, the ticket-snatching software platform sent a text message to Ms. Zhang, reminding her that she could experience the VIP gift package rights for a ticket-snatching session, and the ticket would be issued immediately within 5 minutes, and said that the software should be opened within 30 minutes for confirmation, and the timeout was regarded as abandonment.
Ms. Zhang happily thought that the platform helped her grab the ticket, but when she opened the software to confirm, she found that the option of "confirm ticket issuance" prompted an additional 40 yuan to be paid.
According to the screenshot provided by Ms. Zhang, the payment of 40 yuan is a VIP gift package, including "tickets are expected to be issued within 5 minutes" and "80 yuan full platform coupons".
At the same time, not buying gift packages means that "the successful time of this ticket grab is unknown, and there are no preferential benefits".
Some angry Ms. Zhang opened the 12306 website and wanted to check the remaining votes.
Unexpectedly, the website page showed that the 3 tickets she reserved were pending payment.
So, she bought a ticket at the original price on the 12306 website.
Obviously you can buy it at the original price, why does the ticket-snatching software platform have to buy VIP?
The customer service of the ticket-snatching software said that because "you purchased a 'cross-station ticket grab', if you give up the rights package, the software will cancel these tickets and continue to grab the tickets from Hangzhou East to Jingzhou." The customer service also admitted that, "We do have unreasonable places in the product page settings, which will be improved in the future."
In this regard, Ms. Zhang said that after the platform locks the ticket, if you give up the purchase of VIP, the ticket will be cancelled.
"I feel like this is taking advantage of consumers' fear of missing tickets and taking the opportunity to bundle consumption."
Wang Weikun, a lawyer from Beijing Dongwei Law Firm, believes that Ms. Zhang formed a contractual relationship with the software platform.
She checked the function of "cross-station ticket grabbing" and paid the corresponding cross-station ticket fee.
According to the contract, the ticket-snatching software should purchase the corresponding ticket for her including from Hangzhou East to Yichang East, and should not charge additional fees in other names.
If there is an additional fee for using the "cross-site ticket grabbing" feature, the ticket grabbing software platform should ask her in a clear and conspicuous way before she chooses the feature.
"The behavior of the ticket-grabbing software platform violates the principle of good faith."
Ms. Zhang's experience is not an exception.
The reporter investigated and learned that on some consumer complaint platforms, many consumers said they fell into the "VIP trap" of the ticket-snatching software - "If the ticket purchase is unsuccessful, the VIP money will not be refunded" "The software has set a 'trial VIP' 'Option, directly deduct the fee when you enter and even there is no option to confirm the deduction" "The ticket grab page does not have any instructions to cancel the trial VIP to deduct the fee".