statementEvery month after the monthly statements have been sent out, a number of people write in pointing out errors in their statements, usually blaming the administrator and demanding that the errors be corrected immediately!

Buyers: What you can do to get account errors fixed

If you spot an error in your monthly or online statement, don’t immediately contact the administrator and demand that it be corrected. The administrator did not make the error and cannot determine if the error is genuine or not.

Your first step is to contact the seller, who is the person who made the error. To find the seller’s contact details or directly email them, click on their name in the erroneous item in your online statement of account. That will bring up their account profile from where you can send a message.

There is a window period of 45 days in which to do this, after which the record cannot be deleted or amended. In that case you would need to contact the administrator. You will need to convince the administrator that there is a genuine error or that you did not buy anything from the seller who entered the allegedly incorrect transaction. The administrator does not want to get into a dispute about whether something was bought or not.

If you have email you should receive an email every time your account is debited. It is at this point that you should take action to get an erroneous debit reversed or corrected. The contact details of the seller are given in the email so contact the seller immediately to have it sorted out.

If you get no response from the seller you could enter a counter-trade. If you have been erroneously debited T100, for example, then enter a ‘sale’ against the seller for T100. This will credit your account and debit their’s, taking you back to the status quo ante. The problem with this, of course, is that you get levied twice.

Sellers: How to alter/delete transactions

If a buyer contacts you about an erroneous transaction that you entered, it is easy to alter or delete it.

Go to your statement of account (My Record > My Statement), which lists your transactions. The default display period is the past month, so if the transaction in question does not appear in your statement, then select a longer display period.

If the item is not older than 45 days, then click on the Description of the transaction. That will bring up the Edit/Delete Transaction form where you can either edit the transaction or delete it.

If you are editing the transaction, you can edit the Amount and Description fields. When done, click the [Update] button and you will see the amended transaction in your statement.

To delete a transaction simply click the [Delete] button, confirm the delete and it is gone!

When you amend or delete a transaction, the buyer will be informed by email.