In May last year, Chelsea played their second European cup final in the space of 12 months. Whilst the majority of fans were looking forward to an away day in Amsterdam and the chance to celebrate another trophy, an ever growing number revelled in an opportunity to make a bit of money out of fans that weren’t able to get tickets through the normal means. These ‘fans’ used Viagogo.
Tickets were listed for as much as £600 with the club unable to do anything about it. It’s exactly these reasons why last January cfctickets.com was formed. A number of users tried listing tickets on CFCTickets for the final, for anywhere from £20-£150 over face value, all of which were removed with the users being suspended from using the site.
Just over one year on since launch, cfctickets.com now (at the time of writing) has over 3,000 members has helped facilitate the sale of over 1,400 tickets and we want to thank everyone that has made it a success over the last 12 months. No money has been spent on advertising and no money has been made from the site. Simple word of mouth and the increasingly impressive power of Twitter have led to a growing base of fans turning to the site to sell spare tickets and many of our overseas fans now relying on it to get to games without being ripped off.
It hasn’t been a completely smooth ride though and the site hasn’t been without its flaws. Over the last few months of 2013 we began receiving a number of complaints that other members had been taking money of fans and then going missing. No tickets received. Money gone. Every time a user was reported of this, they were removed and suspended from the site, with their details provided to the affected fans.
Subsequently the likes of PayPal, the police and the relevant banks were able to help them retrieve their money. As this became a concern we began collecting information of all the people that were running these scams and whilst they were under numerous names and e-mail addresses, one thing became a common thread – they had the same bank details. What seemed like 10s of people ripping off true fans actually turned out to just be two people. As such we have now introduced a fraud check list on the site.
Before purchasing any tickets via bank transfer of PayPal we recommend all fans use this tool to check names, e-mail address and bank details to ensure the seller has never been caught fraudulently selling tickets before. Since the tool was introduced, many fans have caught these same people trying to scam them and low and behold, they seem to have disappeared. Our assumption: they were scousers.
The site is still very much in its infancy but we’re doing everything we can to make sure it stays a safe and reliable place for true fans to buy and sell tickets, and we have a few tips to make sure you can get the most out of the site:
1) When possible, always try and meet the seller in person.
2) Always use the fraud check list before purchasing to make sure their details haven’t been caught before.
3) If this isn’t possible, try and use PayPal. If worst comes to worst and you are scammed, PayPal can quickly ensure you get your money back (you can check their PayPal e-mail address on the fraud check list)
4) If you have any concerns, check with us and we can look into the member’s previous site history
5) Ask for a picture of the ticket with either the sellers username or todays date written next to it (if not already listed)
In an ideal world this site would be run by the club and these sorts of issues would no longer be a problem. Whilst that isn’t the case though we want to ask all fans to keep spreading the good word about the site and helping it grow to become something that we can all be proud of. The site wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t for the help of everyone who follows us on twitter and who recommends us to their friends and we’re truly grateful for it.
All we ask for is that you continue to do so, and if you see us at a game you buy us a pint (MHL, Gate 15, row P). If you have any recommendations on how we can improve the site or any feedback on your experience using it, we’re always pleased to hear. Feel free to email us at [email protected].
George Gray
