Little girl buys big online
This case could either be seen as cute or maddening.
Pipi Quinlan, New Zealand's youngest big-time online consumer.
(Credit: Rodney Times)Sarah Quinlan, a New Zealand mom, went to take nap after having made some online bids on toys. When she came back, her 3-year-old had taken over the computer and bought a much more serious toy: a real earth mover for a cool 20,000 New Zealand dollars (about $12,300).
According to Rodney Times, Pipi Quinlan was happily clicking away on the keyboard while her parent was asleep and ended up being the winner of a Kobelco digger, a gigantic earth-moving vehicle.
Sarah had the shock of her life when she found out via e-mail which auction her account had won. She immediately called popular New Zealand auction site TradeMe, and the seller, to explain what happened. She added that her little girl was kind of a girly girl and not generally into earth movers.
TradeMe reimbursed the seller for the successful auction, and the product was relisted.
I'm pretty impressed that TradeMe resolved this matter so quickly. If it were eBay, you'd have to wait up to two weeks to get your fees back.
Lesson learned. However, don't leave your computer without locking it or at least logging off the Web site you were using.
Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong. 
LOL!
I think the parents should have been forced to come up with the money, it's called being responsible for your own actions. You left the kid with the ability to do this, you should have to pay! Coddling these retarded "I don't want to be the bad guy!" parents is what's wrong with the world today.
God, people are so conclusion-jumpy!
Or are you unable to click on a link???
We have Mothers, we have Mums, but 'Moms' only exist in North America.
I just knew the stork stories were true... I knew it...
They'd probably refund her the money but insist on the 7% (or whatever) fee. Then there'd be a long drawn-out battle, involving lawyers and credit card companies and such, until eventually the family gives up and pays some kind of BS "Bidding Mistake Fee".
Then, the mom would "punish" the toddler by logging the entire event's details about how the toddler cost mom hundreds of dollars in the middle of a global recession. 12 years later, the toddler (now an angsty, depressed, anti-Web-Auction 15-year old), tired of carrying this burden on her mind, would be found one day in her bedroom, having hung herself from the neck until she died.
The moral of the story is: eBay and PayPal are EVIL.
@macksumum
yeah every average family needs an earthmover. Right!
Nice pic that of the girl with her toy..really had a laugh and glad to hear that all ended well!
You think the woman should pay 12300 dollars because her child was messing around on the computer?
That's just what's wrong with the way people think today.
1) She had to get from toys to earth movers (this requires TYPING)
2) She had to click on the auction
3) She had to click the purchase button
4) If it was an auction she had to bid a high enough amount and confirm
Sounds like mommy did it on accident and didnt want anyone knowing.
We are at our best, in terms of learning capacity, when we are kids!
I have never seen the site, but if you can do it by clicking, it is very probable this is how it happened.
The other day, my neighbor's 2-year old changed the keymap of his Linux and after that, the thing always restarted with a Norwegian keyboard or something. Was a pain to change back. We still don't know how he did it.
- by GlennAllen May 24, 2009 3:06 PM PDT
- In a small picture, a big tractor still looks like a Tonka Toy. (Hmmm, are we sure that earthmover was listed in the correct category? :D)
- Like this Reply to this comment
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