CSI: MTGOL (Part 2 of 2)

Last time I wrote about a customer who purchased four (4) copies of a single card but never received them.  I asked how I knew that this was a legitimate request and how could a trade occur on MTGO and cards not be transferred.

In this case, I made an instinctual decision to refund the purchase price.  I later conclusively proved that my instincts were correct.  How?  By looking at the collection count before and after the trade.  I had five (5) copies of this particular card after the trade.  I only keep eight (8) copies of this card on that bot.  If the trade occurred, I would have had to have nine (9) cards; something which would not occur under normal circumstances.  (No special transfers, inventory or collection transfers.)

Another method of verification is the total number of cards in the collection.  It should have decreased by three (3).  (Four cards taken plus one ticket added.) 

Since a ticket was exchanged, I also have that piece of information.  I never received the ticket from the transaction, therefore, I knew that this was a phantom trade.

So this begs the question: how does this happen in the first place?

There is a bug in MTGO which trades occur but do not happen.  Fortunately, it is not a frequent occurrence,  In the years that I have been botting with Library, I have only heard a handful of complaints from customers stating this.

So what is the bottom line?  Botting is safe but be aware that these things do occur and you can use such customer complaints to provide excellent customer service.