A Word To The Wise

[beebee]

You think it can't happen to you, but it did to me and I want to forewarn others. I purchased all of my Olympic tickets but for one from CoSport and ended up ripped off. I wanted a Cat. A Men's Free Skate ticket and in CoSport's Phase 2, I did not find any category of Men's FS available. In May, took a leap of faith and found the TicketNetwork.com link on a Sports travel agent's website. Turns out TicketNetwork is an intermediary between buyers and ticket resellers and your reseller is opaque until after you purchase the ticket. Guess I was lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that going through this TicketNetwork, would ensure I was getting a reputable seller. My actual seller was ActionSeating.com.

Back in May, I called Action Seating and spoke to the owner who sounded totally on the up and up. I even got some emails from Action Seating regarding the opening of an office in Vancouver and the shipping of my ticket. As late as Jan. 13, received an email from Action Seating letting me know that they were mailing tickets out during the last week in Jan. and the first week in February.

Lo and behold, yesterday I received a call from a TicketNewtwork representative who advised me that I was not going to receive a ticket and to call my credit card company to request a refund (fat chance-they opened a dispute, but I paid my bill last June!) When I asked a few questions, the rep admitted to me that they were notified by Action Seating that Action Seating is out of business!

This is the first time I've ever been fleeced and I feel like a fool. The good news is that I was never 100% comfortable with the whole scalper business and last September, I saw Cat. C Men's FS tickets on CoSport and purchaed it as a "back-up."

I've learned my lesson and want to warn anyone who is still looking for tickets. Stick with the "official" scalpers at CoSport and on the VANOC fan-to-fan website.