Re: Grand Final Tickets: Dos and don'ts
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 6:54 pmOnSong wrote:*Not sure if there's another threat this fits in
So after the Crows' win in the qualifying final, I went hunting for grand final tickets.
I figured if they don't win the prelim, I could sell them, but the chance of going to watch my side play in a GF for the first time in 19 years meant I was keen to secure a spot early.
Missus put an ad on Gumtree looking for available tickets.
A bloke texted her claiming to be a Melbourne supporter who had bought finals series tickets, entitling them to tickets for all four rounds of finals, including two to the Grand Final.
I spoke to the guy, who claimed to be from Melbourne and working at a NAB.
We had a good, friendly convo and agreed I would pay for one ticket ($400), he would post the tickets that arvo with and send the tracking number.
On arrival of the tickets, I would pay the remaining $400.
I had been advised by the wife to use PayPal but he sort of nonchalantly talked around that and I foolishly bought into the whole thing.
I paid the $400 via bank transfer, sent a screenshot, and he responded saying he had sent the tickets at 3.18pm on Friday arvo.
He did not provide a tracking number at the time.
Monday, Tuesday passed, I check the post Wednesday, still nothing.
I texted him, no response, I called, the phone wouldn't ring, straight to generic messagebank. Tried with work phone, same thing.
We were a bit suss so bit of a background searching and found his facebook profile (not under his real name provided with banking details).
The missus contacted his former place of work (not NAB, he's a landscaper), the HR department said they had his number on file and it was different to the one he was using.
They contacted him letting him know we were trying to get in contact with him.
In the meantime, missus had lodged a police report.
He called the missus on Friday morning very apologetic, claiming his phone had broken not long after sending the tickets, he'd made an error and the tickets had been sent back.
Only issue is we'd contacted others on Gumtree with similar ads to the one we placed advising them of our situation and he'd been in contact with another 'customer' days after claiming his phone had broken, with the same phone number, this time looking for $1000 a ticket.
She informed him we'd lodged a police report, which we would drop, on receipt of a refund, and I'd be calling him to sort it out.
I called him, which he returned and was clearly very nervous on the phone.
He explained it did look suss but it was a genuine misunderstanding and he'd never been in any trouble before other than a speeding fine.
I just said it was not an issue and was happy to just get a refund and we'd leave it there. We'd find other means for tickets.
He's supposed to be sending a refund this arvo. We'll see. Otherwise we'll pursue further.
I have his full name and the phone numbers he used. If anyone needs them, PM me.
Soooooo, what's some of the other stories out there? Anyone else been ripped off before? Any ideas on best ways to get tickets for non members etc?
As soon as you deal with someone who doesn't want to use PayPal consider it dodgy. With paypal you can lodge complaints of items not rocking up and win all the time where as bank transfer you have less of a chance as it's harder to prove
