Monday, April 14, 2008
MLSE Scams Ticket Buyers, World Yawns
by Jes
The Toronto Maple Leafs organization just continues to be one of the very worst in all of professional sports. To the days of Harold Ballard to the constant inept too-many-cooks management to corrupt employees, the Maple Leafs are just one gigantic joke.
The latest blight to come from Hogtown is a delicious little ticket scam that a few employees develops to 'cash' in on some hockey-starved fans.
From the Toronto Star:
Now, this Tanguay guys doesn't seem like the dullest knife in the drawer, so he must have been some kind of desparate to have been scammed like this.
How could ANYONE actually think that you'd have to meet an employee at a TRUCK STOP, and not an official office, and exchange cold hard CASH, and not think something is fishy is beyond me. Yet, Tanguay went through with the exchange as he was so hell-bent on getting his tickets. Sheesh.
Yes, I realize that these are the actions of a select few employees, but the Maple Leafs certainly didn't do a good job in screening these employees and keeping tabs on them. It speaks to the ineptness of the Leafs organization that stuff like this occurs, and that it takes an outsider to ring the alarm bells.
As an aside, PERSONAL SEAT LICENSES have to be one of the best legal scams in years. It's bad enough that you get gouged for just buying a regular ticket, but now a team can charge an extra fee just for having the ability to renew your season tickets year after year. What happened to customer loyalty? What happened to asking the guy if he just wants to renew or not? Sad....
The Toronto Maple Leafs organization just continues to be one of the very worst in all of professional sports. To the days of Harold Ballard to the constant inept too-many-cooks management to corrupt employees, the Maple Leafs are just one gigantic joke.
The latest blight to come from Hogtown is a delicious little ticket scam that a few employees develops to 'cash' in on some hockey-starved fans.
From the Toronto Star:
Rob Tanguay thought it was odd when a Toronto Maple Leafs employee told him to bring an envelope stuffed with $5,000 in cash to a truck stop in Milton to help cover the cost of hockey tickets.
A vice-president with a St. Thomas-based transportation company, Tanguay was a typical Leafs fan who figured he might never get his own season seats at the Air Canada Centre. He'd been on a waiting list for season tickets for some 15 years when, out of the blue, he received a call from a Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment sales employee last spring.
"He told me someone wanted to give up their seats and he had tried to reach three other people on the wait list. I was Number 4 and he asked if I was still interested in tickets," Tanguay said.
The seller was looking to dump a pair of tickets in the red section and wanted to sell the personal-seat licences for $20,000 apiece, Tanguay said. There was one hitch: Tanguay said the MLSE employee wanted him to bring $5,000 in cash – at the seller's request – to cement the deal.
"After I bought the tickets, I looked up the seller's name on Canada411.com and contacted him, asking whether he'd received the cash," Tanguay said. "He hadn't. I knew right then I'd been scammed. I called (the MLSE employee) back and asked why he had wanted the $5,000 and he told me that the seller was lying and he had given him the cash. I didn't believe him but I didn't do anything about it at the time."
Reached at his home, the MLSE sales employee declined to comment. He is one of five employees in the MLSE ticketing department who were fired 10 days ago.
Now, this Tanguay guys doesn't seem like the dullest knife in the drawer, so he must have been some kind of desparate to have been scammed like this.
How could ANYONE actually think that you'd have to meet an employee at a TRUCK STOP, and not an official office, and exchange cold hard CASH, and not think something is fishy is beyond me. Yet, Tanguay went through with the exchange as he was so hell-bent on getting his tickets. Sheesh.
Yes, I realize that these are the actions of a select few employees, but the Maple Leafs certainly didn't do a good job in screening these employees and keeping tabs on them. It speaks to the ineptness of the Leafs organization that stuff like this occurs, and that it takes an outsider to ring the alarm bells.
As an aside, PERSONAL SEAT LICENSES have to be one of the best legal scams in years. It's bad enough that you get gouged for just buying a regular ticket, but now a team can charge an extra fee just for having the ability to renew your season tickets year after year. What happened to customer loyalty? What happened to asking the guy if he just wants to renew or not? Sad....
Labels: Maple Leafs, off-ice silliness, ticket scam
Comments:
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Nobody at MLSE puts a gun to anybody's head to buy tickets. So what is Tanguay whining about?
I admire the MLSE employee for exploiting the demand/supply imbalance and brokering a deal. Sounds like an entrepreneur.
I admire the MLSE employee for exploiting the demand/supply imbalance and brokering a deal. Sounds like an entrepreneur.
# posted by 
: 1:33 pm
: 1:33 pm
I'm gonna call this Tanguay guy about a dog I want to sell him. The dog, complete with AKC papers, is in Tanzania. Sometimes they get caught up in customs, but for $2000 cash, I can get him the dog.
What a loser.
What a loser.
1) We can't comment on any potential 'scams' by team employees, however we cannot rake the Leafs for charging what they can get for tickets
2) If there wasn't a demand the prices would fall. Its tough if your a middle class hockey fan in TO, but that's business.
3) If/when the NHL prices itself out of the range of the average fan and it hits their bottom line, then and only then will we see a shift
4) Our only issue is that Gary Bettman stated during his second lockout that one of the goals was 'to make the game more affordable to the average fan.' Gary missed the mark on that one, but the big market teams are doing just fine, thank you
2) If there wasn't a demand the prices would fall. Its tough if your a middle class hockey fan in TO, but that's business.
3) If/when the NHL prices itself out of the range of the average fan and it hits their bottom line, then and only then will we see a shift
4) Our only issue is that Gary Bettman stated during his second lockout that one of the goals was 'to make the game more affordable to the average fan.' Gary missed the mark on that one, but the big market teams are doing just fine, thank you
This is a case of a few unscrupulous employees scamming customers -- unfortunately, it happens all the time.
This is what happens in Toronto when the Leafs don't make the playoffs. Fans are so starved to read or watch anything Leaf-related, that the reporters start digging into crap like this.
Also, what kind of idiot is Tanguay? Not only does he fall for an obviously shady deal, he then allows the idiotic move to be publicized.
This is what happens in Toronto when the Leafs don't make the playoffs. Fans are so starved to read or watch anything Leaf-related, that the reporters start digging into crap like this.
Also, what kind of idiot is Tanguay? Not only does he fall for an obviously shady deal, he then allows the idiotic move to be publicized.
I find it amazing to read the responses to this story. You people are all clearly unethical prix. The poor guy gets fleeced for at least $5000 (if not the asking price of $20000) and you point the finger squarely at him instead of where it belongs; with MLSE's employees. Personally, I applaud Tanguay for being one of the few remaining people on this planet who are willing to trust other people. That's become a rarity in our world, and that's sad in and of itself.
Too bad you all find fault with the victim in this case, who at worst was a bit naive...
I hope you all get scammed some day, so you can see that it can happen to anybody, especially people with good intentions.
Too bad you all find fault with the victim in this case, who at worst was a bit naive...
I hope you all get scammed some day, so you can see that it can happen to anybody, especially people with good intentions.
# posted by : 12:25 pm
: 12:25 pm
Right on, czechmate!!!!
This Leafs employee wasnt just unscrupulous, but, this was an outright act of FRAUD, the man deserves to be in prison, never mind just fired! How anyone could condone what he did as "entrepreneurial" just goes to show how the morals of this country are being corrupted.
This Leafs employee wasnt just unscrupulous, but, this was an outright act of FRAUD, the man deserves to be in prison, never mind just fired! How anyone could condone what he did as "entrepreneurial" just goes to show how the morals of this country are being corrupted.
# posted by : 10:31 pm
: 10:31 pm
Rob is getting what he deserves. His wife and him and the rest of the rotten family run a trucking in southwestern Ontario and have a reputation of hiring people away from other companys and then firing them a year later to only do the same thing to the next honest trusting person.
It just proves that an idiot can run a company, I'm just surpries the dummy didn't pay more.
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It just proves that an idiot can run a company, I'm just surpries the dummy didn't pay more.
# posted by : 8:06 am
: 8:06 am << Home
