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 Scam - sports and concert tickets at topticketshop.com
Posted Mon June 11, 2007 10:24 pm, by Dan S. written to topticketshop.com
Topticketshop.com is an internet site that looks legitimate...it's very professional-looking. There are lots of tickets on offer, they list a dozen or so cities in which they have 'offices' (e.g. London, Barcelona, Paris, New York, etc), as well as contact details, though I think they are based in Spain.
Wanting to go to the French Open (tennis), I visited their website, where they showed that they had seats available in the section I was looking for (very front section...best seats).
Using my credit card, I paid a lot of $$$ for these tickets. The company policy is to deliver the tickets to your local address (in our case, a hotel in Paris) within 3-10 business days before the event. The tickets arrived at my hotel the day before, but then I noticed that the seats were in the furthest section, not the closest section.
The price of these tickets should have been less than 50% of the price I paid for them. I tried to contact the company using one of the many phone numbers listed on their website, but no one was answering phones. I ended up going to the event and paying an additional 80 euros per ticket to a street scalper to trade my tickets for better seats.
Since then (11 days), I've tried several times to contact them by e-mail to ask for a refund, but my e-mails remain unanswered. Apparently, the phone numbers are there for show, because I've also tried to call about 50 times and only gotten through twice...same lady both times...must be a very small shop. She basically told me that their 'terms and conditions' allow them to downgrade the ticket if they are not available (despite the fact that when I first purchased them, they showed that they were available) and offer a refund for the price difference.
She said I needed to send them the information in an e-mail (again), despite the fact that they have all my order information on hand and know exactly what tickets they sent me. With a legitimate company, the refund would have been made automatically and immediately. When I explained that I had already sent several e-mails over the last week and gotten no reply, she said that she couldn't help me, there was no one else I could speak with, and then she hung up on me.
Given that I have yet to receive a written response and that the lady with whom I spoke appears to be the only person answering the phones (when she, in fact, does answer them), I'm not expecting any refund.
I wish there was some recourse for me. This was such a ripoff, and if nothing else, I want to spread the word to watch out for these scam artists.
First and foremost, topticketshop.com should immediately refund the difference between the price they charged me for the best seats (category 1, according to their website) and the price for the bad seats on the tickets they sent (category 2, according to their website). Not to send the refund is tantamount to fraud and counter to the "terms and conditions" on their own website.
Besides this, though, there are several problems with topticketshop.com that don't fit neatly in your category boxes:
1) False advertising, part I: When I purchased the tickets about 6 weeks in advance of the event, they showed the seating that I requested as being available. That's why I bought from them -- as opposed to another company -- in the first place.
2) False advertising, part II: The website lists about a dozen or so phone numbers around the world, apparently to their local offices. I imagine they are doing this to appear professional, because I phone each one of them a total of probably 50 or more times, and I only got through 2 times, both to the same woman. Offices in all those international cities? I don't think so...
3) Customer service: So far, not only have they not answered my e-mails requesting refund, but when I did reach the woman on one of my attempts, she was unhelpful and even beligerent.
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by esquared Posted Thu July 19, 2007 @ 8:32 AM
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Hi there,
Thanks for the information. This company is the worst thing in
internet sales. I am an owner of a Lifestyle company in Greece and we
purchased tickets worth 18.000euros from them. At the day of the
event a complete chaotic situation was created. They guys in this
company are crooks (really). They kept changing the pick up time and
place and we ended up with some tickets that weren't VIP, nor category
one. The seats weren't even together. We bought other tickets and we
could not find them ever since. We have to find a way to warn people.
I really don't know what to do. We found other people here in Athens
that have the same problem too and they haven't paid anything back to
anyone. We sent letters, mails, we tried to call, our lawyer
called-nothing. I have invoices and everything but we cannot get our
money back! I really don't know what to do anymore...
I can't believe so many people got scammed.
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by Lx Posted Thu June 14, 2007 @ 10:58 AM
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I have had a simular experience and I am praying for a refund! I
purchased tickets to see Real-madrid Mallorca this weekend, and
yesterday I was told that they were not available afterall, and I
would be refunded. I have booked plain tickets and hotel to Madrid to
take my boyfriend on a trip, but now the game is missing.
I called them several times before I received this email as there was
a mistake in the delivery address. There was one woman, the same
woman, who answered both times I got through, and she was very rude
and interrupted me several times! When I tried to call yesterday,
there was no reply on any of the country numbers.
The I got the email, and I sent a reply to complain about their poor
service. I received a reply for the first time to that email (I must
have sent them 5 emails before to which they have not replied), but
they only answered the last point in my email. So I asked again if
they had any comments to my complaints about their customer service (I
worked in customer service for many years, so I know what I should
expect!) I have still not had a reply, but I will keep emailing them
until they comment on my complaints!!!
I am extremely disappointed with this website, and will abvise all my
friends and aquaintances to refrain from using this site!
keep emailing them until they answer you directly! I will send them
one email a day until they reply properly!
LS
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