[August 08, 2008]

B.C. Olympic organizers say they won't be responsible for fraudulent tickets

(Canadian Press (delayed) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) VANCOUVER _ Organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have a buyer-beware message for people hoping to attend the Games: Buy from us, or you're out of luck.

Some would-be attendees to this summer's Olympics in Beijing have found the tickets they bought and paid for _ and which they were convinced came from reliable sources _ are useless. Legitimate tickets cost up to $800 each.

Jennifer Moran, a veterinary assistant in Agassiz, B.C., bought $1,400 worth of tickets to the equestrian events in Beijing for her boss, vet Roger Bate, who at 71 isn't familiar with online ticket purchases, she said. But months after the April purchase, she didn't hear a thing. Then on Monday she got an email with the subject line ``Olympic Tickets Update.''

The email said her tickets wouldn't be coming.

``Our suppliers have not been able to honour their commitments to us in supplying tickets for the Summer Olympics'' because the suppliers had gone bankrupt, the email read. ``We have to advise you to immediately get in touch with your credit card company and to apply for a full refund.''

The email also promised a follow-up phone call that never came.

``We can't get a hold of anybody,'' she said. ``I tried to reply to the email and it didn't work.''

Last month, the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee launched a lawsuit against U.S.-based websites hocking fraudulent tickets to the Beijing Games. The lawsuit alleges the illegal vendors made millions from their sales.

``The IOC can't stress enough the importance of purchasing tickets through official and authorized sources only. Sadly, there are some fraudulent dealers who are out to cheat fans, something we deplore,'' IOC spokesman Benjamin Seeley said in an email. He said each national committee is responsible for cracking down on miscreant vendors.

``In a case of fraudulent activity recently in the United States, the USOC supported by the IOC moved swiftly to shut down the sites,'' he said.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee has said it would launch a similar lawsuit if scam ticketing is a problem leading up to the 2010 Games. About a million tickets to the 2010 Olympics will go on sale this fall _ on Oct. 3 in Canada _ and VANOC is trying to ensure would-be Games-goers don't get taken for a ride.

``Any time you buy from someone that's not us . . . you're taking a risk that the tickets won't be valid,'' said Caley Denton, VANOC vice-president of ticketing and consumer marketing.

``There's websites out there that look official, they have official-sounding names, and you really struggle, potentially, if you didn't know what you're doing, to tell the difference.''

VANOC and Jet Set Sports are the only approved ticket vendors for the Games, Denton said, adding that there's nothing VANOC can do if people buy invalid tickets from unscrupulous sources.

``Where there's a lot of money at stake and, you know, there's a high demand for tickets, people look to take advantage of that,'' he said. ``Once this happens, either for a family or a business, there's really nothing we can do to help them. By that time, all our tickets are spoken for and we can't build extra seats to help these people, as much as we might like to. So somebody's experience of a lifetime becomes a disappointment of a lifetime.''

VANOC is setting up a secondary website where people who buy tickets in advance but find they can't use them will be able to resell them and recoup their costs legitimately, Denton said. (Globe and Mail)

Copyright ? 2008 The Canadian Press

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