I sold tickets for the Pearl City Junior Volleyball Club fund-raiser for $6 a piece. I didn't realize until I went to pick up the chicken that you only got half a chicken! The customers I sold it to are all complaining. About the same time, another group was selling a whole two-pound chicken for $7! I complained to the people at the fund-raiser -- I am not connected with the group, I was just helping a friend sell tickets -- and got nowhere. Don't they have to say on the ticket what you are getting for the money? Fund-raising tickets
don’t have to be specificNo, they don't, according to Jo Ann Uchida, executive director of the state Office of Consumer Protection.
Most groups will, just as a "prudent business practice," she said.
But in part, this comes under the heading of "buyer beware." You should know what you're getting for your money, unless you're just interested in making a donation.
If people bought the tickets without asking what they were getting, they really can't complain, Uchida said. However, if you or others were led to believe that you were getting a certain product and you got something else, "THAT we would look at," Uchida said. "But it would have to be based on some written or oral representation that the seller made."
Jerry Shimabukuro, owner of Koala Moa, which provided the chickens for both fund-raisers you cited, said, "I tried to explain to them (volleyball club representatives) that that was not right," when he heard about the pricing the day before the sale. Normally, a half chicken sells for $3.75-$4, he said.
He said all other groups he's dealt with have stated on their tickets what was being sold. The volleyball fund-raiser ticket simply says "Koala Moa chicken."
Helen Demeter, a coach and co-chair of the fund-raiser, said players were told when the tickets were handed out that they were good for half a chicken each. She said no one else has complained.
In retrospect, however, "I would do a little more research first," she said. "This was our first time around. We were just trying to help the kids."
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