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Ms Mak and friends decided to have some fun at the Halloween Bash at Ocean Park. But when buying the tickets, they found the park's arrangement was tricky for those with ticket discounts won on scratch cards.

'I went to the Halloween Bash with my friends on Saturday, October 13, and brought my winning prize of 10 per cent off the ticket price that I got from a Fairwood restaurant. It was a scratch card and I got the 4th prize - 10 per cent off the ticket price.

'When I got to the ticket booth at Admiralty, staff said only regular-priced tickets were sold there and the scratch-card discount could only be redeemed at the park's ticket office, but at the same time she said all tickets at the door were sold out. I ended up paying for regular tickets.

'I called the customer service hotline and was told all tickets for October 13 were sold out. I asked whether there was a limit on discounted tickets on each day. She said there were only regular tickets and privileged tickets, which could have the discount applied to them.

'She told me that I could pre-order the tickets online, however my winning scratch card said the discount could only be taken at door. It seems quite tricky that I can only get my discount at the door, but it is not guaranteed tickets will be available.

'My concern is, the scratch card didn't say that there would be a limit on discounted tickets sold per day. I understand the coupon said only up to two tickets could receive a discount per scratch card, but I certainly had no idea I had to go to the park to get the discounted tickets at the door?

'I think it would make more sense if some tickets were reserved for people who hold the winning scratch cards because it's a prize they won, not a discount coupon from a supermarket purchase.'

A spokeswoman for Ocean Park said that on Halloween event nights, the park's capacity was adjusted to about half the authorised number.

'On October 13, all tickets had been actually sold out a few days earlier and we had scheduled radio broadcasts beginning that morning to alert those who had not bought tickets for the night to make plans for another time,' she said. 'We also notified our ticketing partner at Admiralty, Citybus, of the situation so they could alert guests who turned up at Admiralty as well.'

Nonetheless, she added, there were always a handful of guests who missed the sold-out alerts and turned up at the gates. 'As such, we hold back a few tickets for these rare instances, so we can make sure no one needs to walk away disappointed for as long as these tickets are available.'

The spokeswoman said it had not been possible to identify the staff member Ms Mak talked to without specific information. But the park had already reminded guest relations agents of the terms and conditions relating to the discount ticket selling.

Pang Chi-ming terminated his i-Cable Broadband service in January. Eight months later, he found he still owed the company more than HK$3,000.

'I-Cable Broadband is cheaper, which led me to sign up for its services from April 26, 2006, for 15 months. On September 24 last year, I called the i-Cable hotline to terminate the service. An operator surnamed Leung said if I could provide a legal document to prove I was unable to pay the outstanding, then there would be a credit note issued to me in which all debts would be cleared.

'Another operator also told me the same thing when I called the company the second time one month later.

'So I mailed the legal document by registered post and receipt was acknowledged by i-Cable Communications Ltd on January 30. I also returned the modem in March, as per i-Cable's instruction. However, the credit note had not come after six months passed.

'I had to call its hotline again to raise my complaint. Later, I received a voice message from a Miss Lai confirming they had received my legal document and had waived all debts. I was a bit relieved and kept waiting for the credit note.

'But on September 6, when I called the hotline to ask for the credit note, I was told the computer system showed I owed the company HK$3,644. I was shocked. They never cancelled my debt from their computer system. Please help me to find out what is wrong with this i-Cable Broadband.'

An i-Cable spokeswoman apologised for the inconvenience to Mr Pang, and said i-Cable had cleared his debt and there was no outstanding balance.