Stand and deliver

There’s been a long discussion going today on another site where I spend a lot of time, which was sparked off first thing by someone (J) posting about what a silly thing she’d done. She had arranged for her son and herself to go to London for a couple of nights, stay in a hotel, and go to the theatre. She had the theatre tickets, train tickets and the hotel reservations all safe, but when she was packing this morning before they caught the train she noticed that the theatre tickets were for last night’s performance. We’ve all done stuff like that (classic TOGgery, Scotty!) and sympathy and cheer was duly offered, with suggestions of cheap alternative entertainment in the Big Smoke.

All went well until another person (H) suggested trying to get a refund from Visa by concocting a story about how they weren’t able to make it there. Now, I know it’s not just me (because several people also queried why one would lie like that) but to me that seems like fraud. The tickets had been received, the performance had gone ahead - every aspect of the contract had been fulfilled, at least from the point of view of the theatre company and Visa. Yes, we all make mistakes, and it’s unfortunate, but surely it’s wrong to try to get someone else to (literally) pay for them? Apparently I and the others are suckers who deserve all the shit that life throws at us – ‘H’ thinks it’s better to duck and let some innocent person cop the lot instead of you, no matter that it’s your fault. But if Visa paid up, then they would claim on their insurance, and their Insurance company would raise their premiums. To everybody. Just as every shoplifted item results in retail prices rising to cover the losses. Every single spurious insurance claim results in innocent people paying the bill. And I don't like being robbed - it gets me very angry.

*Has a beer to simmer down*

PS. Hurrah for Autorecovery! The computer crashed when I was drafting the blog in Word, but it was still there after I restarted!