Capital FM SummerTime Ball - Fake Tickets

DailyClicker

Firstly, before anyone says that I shouldn't of brought the fake tickets, I fully agree and have learnt the hard way.

But basically I met up for someone 'selling' their Capital FM SummerTime Ball tickets, who was dressed in an estate agent suit with name badge. The tickets were of very high quality, and the ticketmaster confirmation email was very convinsing, but the Police couldn't tell they were fake at first, but Ticketmaster have confirmed they are.

Most people then, would put it down as a loss, even though it was £450 worth. But I did my research and found out that this guy had been doing this on a very large scale on Gumtree especially, using different names/numbers, but always in the same 'uniform'.

After two weeks of trying to get him to meet up with me (I used my other phones/changed names) he finally did. To cut a long story short, I caught him after a 20 min chase around Holborn.

I let Capital/Gumtree/Ticketmaster know the situation, and Ticketmaster were the most helpful, and are supporting the Police with their further investigations now that we know who the guy is.

I understand it's very unlikely I'll get my money back, and this guy has sold around £10,000 worth of fake Capital FM tickets, and had a lot more in his bag, the day we met. He's a graphics designer and works for a printing company which explained the quality of the name badge/tickets.

Ticketmaster have said they are looking into whether they'd be able to sort me out with a few tickets, as I have stopped this guy from selling fake tickets onto genuine fans.

But Capital have been very abrupt, and rude in this matter, and refuse to help, and make it seem like tough luck. I'd understand that if I hadn't gone out of my way, and spent 2 weeks, trying to find this guy and make sure he couldn't do it to anybody else, and now he can't

I'm interested to see what other people think, and whether I should complain to Capital about the way they have treated me/this case, in a 'we don't care' manner

Lokolo

I don't think it's really Capital's problem. The person could easily just do the same with every other big concert. I imagine when Reading comes around he would do exactly the same.

If you have proof, I am sure you might be able to take the bloke through small claims court and get your money back, speak to a lawyer/solicitor about it?

Crisp_£_note

I dont think Capitals attitude was very friendly or business like but on their defence I wouldnt expect them to help you either, if you had gone direct to them to get genuine tickets in the first place rather than trying to save a few quid or whyever else you went to this scammer then you wouldnt have been in this mess. Simple as that. Either way I am sorry you have had to learn the hard way but lessons learnt and all that. I would try the small claims court route as well. Best of luck. :beer:

DailyClicker

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

I dont think Capitals attitude was very friendly or business like but on their defence I wouldnt expect them to help you either, if you had gone direct to them to get genuine tickets in the first place rather than trying to save a few quid or whyever else you went to this scammer then you wouldnt have been in this mess. Simple as that. Either way I am sorry you have had to learn the hard way but lessons learnt and all that. I would try the small claims court route as well. Best of luck. :beer:

Thanks for your reply. I completely agree as well.

The tickets from genuine primary sources sold out within hours of going on release, so I missed out. Quite a lot of them ended up on eBay/Seatwave, and lots of listings on Gumtree.

I ended up paying more, so I didn't do it to save costs, I did it because of how the ticket market works in this country now, should have names allocated to tickets, to get rid of people selling tickets for 200% more than face value.

I'm gonna head down there today, and see if they are feeling kind, but I hold no hope.

DailyClicker

Lokolo wrote: »

I don't think it's really Capital's problem. The person could easily just do the same with every other big concert. I imagine when Reading comes around he would do exactly the same.

If you have proof, I am sure you might be able to take the bloke through small claims court and get your money back, speak to a lawyer/solicitor about it?

He has been, and that's the problem. Nobody takes this issue seriously, when I reported it, the Police weren't interested, neither were Capital.

He's been doing it for numerous large scale events, and the Police only take it seriously, once I put myself at risk and get him stopped to prevent him from doing this to others

Sandoval

You met up with a guy somewhere who was selling his tickets!

Surely you could see that wasn't on the level!

Now you're on about "putting yourself at risk" in order to stop him like you're some sort of martyr!?

Next time buy your tickets from the company instead of some crook selling them down a back alley and they'll probably be more helpful if things go wrong!

Freddie_Snowbits

Has he got any world cup ticket?

Sandoval

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

Has he got any world cup ticket?

I like it! :rotfl:

dacouch

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

Has he got any world cup ticket?

He is doing a special deal on Fifa World Cup 2013 tickets

marleyboy

I commend you for your detective work, do tell us more, I am keen to know what excuses he came up with to you after you caught him and did you manage to get your money back from him? (I would have loved to have seen his face). I am sorry to hear about the circumstances, but good work on capturing him if not to help save any other unfortunate victim doing business with him.

DailyClicker

marleyboy wrote: »

I commend you for your detective work, do tell us more, I am keen to know what excuses he came up with to you after you caught him and did you manage to get your money back from him? (I would have loved to have seen his face). I am sorry to hear about the circumstances, but good work on capturing him if not to help save any other unfortunate victim doing business with him.

Thank you for looking at it in this way, the same way as I saw things.

He did try and run away for quite a while, but after I caught him, he realised that he had been caught, didn't bother with any excuses, other than the usual, doing it because having a hard time financially.

He offered to pay a huge sum of money on the day to settle the case, but I was more interested in justice rather than making money, and helping anybody else who had been stung by him, because if they had reported the case, and sent in tickets for fingerprints, it would match together this case.