Amid the controversy, 26 of the 27 who made the purchases dropped their bids over the next three weeks after losing faith in the sale process and wary of potential legal disputes that could follow. However, one of the customers persisted, and was able to claim the long-awaited prize. (image: Jaguar)
SEOUL Aug. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – The first of 20 limited online sales of a Jaguar vehicle became official on August 30 when a customer signed a final purchase contract on Tuesday afternoon, ending three weeks of doubts and uncertainty.
Ticket Monster (T-Mon), Korea’s leading social commerce platform, posted 20 Jaguar XE Portfolio and R-Sport models for sale on its website on August 8, marking the first time that a Korean e-commerce site sold vehicles online. But with consumers flocking to the T-Mon site to snap up one of the vehicles, which came with a hefty 7-million-won ($6,310) discount, 27 transactions mistakenly went through.
To make matters worse, Jaguar Land Rover Korea issued an official statement the following day claiming that it and its nine official dealerships in Korea had never agreed to supply the 20 vehicles sold by the social commerce site.
And with SK Encar, a used car seller that signed a contract with T-Mon to supply the cars from one of the official dealers (Aju Networks), further denying knowledge of the online sale, the 20 cars became what was referred to as ‘Ghost Jaguars’, with people willing to buy but no one to sell.
Amid the controversy, 26 of the 27 who made the purchases dropped their bids over the next three weeks after losing faith in the sale process and wary of potential legal disputes that could follow. However, one of the customers persisted, and was able to claim the long-awaited prize.
According to T-Mon, the company kept its promise and offered the purchaser a 7-million-won discount and 1 million won in T-Mon credits. This finalization of the purchase contract also marked the first time that a brand new vehicle was successfully sold online, said the company. The car, however, was neither supplied by SK Encar or Aju Networks, and was acquired by T-Mon from a separate account.
“We did our best to keep the promise we made to the customer who waited and believed in us,” said Song Cheol-wook, communications director at T-Mon. “We’ll continue to discuss with various carmakers to pursue our goal of convenient and price-competitive online car sales.”
By Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
