Be safe about buying tickets from people

Robert Khoo

Please check out my edit to the first post of this thread:

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=111451

We've gotten a report from two buyers of the same seller that feel their transaction is... suspect. The seller's ID is letbulletsrain, so if you DID receive badges from this guy, please let me know. We're still looking into it, but people - please do not pay for these tickets unless you have received the physical badge. Have them to COD. Meet them at the show. Just be smart about it. Thanks!

mentok1982

Is there are reason why we are allowed to post in this thread?
Seems like it should be locked since this is an announcement of sorts.

SpYkMo

I was also included in this transcaction. He said he had 3 three day passes for sale so I emailed him. I sent him the money to the paypal account he requested. Then after a week of not hearing from him I emailed him, he said he didnt recieve the payment, then I forwarded him the paypal transaction # and he said it was under a different email that he didnt check often, but then confirmed he received the payment.
Then he said he was going to email the barcode, again another week went by and I didnt get any barcode or response, so I emailed him back. he then forwarded me a barcode. so about a week or so ago I asked him if he's received his badge and when he planned on mailing them out. Again no reply, Then this morning I receive an email from paypal saying he refunded my money.
Its really frustrating as i've spent almost a month going back and forth and now with less than a week to go I dont know if im going to be able to find a ticket to attend.

Robert Khoo

I'm glad he at least has refunded your money. We've been putting some pressure on the guy to figure out what is up.

lmschroeder

I as well purchased a 3 day badge from him. Although, no refund. He has not communicated for the past week. A little frustrating because PAX is nearby and I have no ticket.

d3c0y

How much did you guys offer to buy it for? He could be one of those people who offer to sell at a certain price, take your money, and then use some of that money to buy it off someone else for a cheaper price. He could be waiting till the last minute to refund your money... which is pretty d**k.

Can you also post the guys paypal account? He could be using multiple accounts on this forum.

dyaballikl

Robert Khoo wrote: »

We've been putting some pressure on the guy

Coming from an ordinary person, this wouldn't mean too much. Coming from Khoo, that sounds TERRIFYING. Srsly, how many times did you tell Endo to "hit him again?"

ZeroHourHero

Spoke to Spykmo hes been taken care of.... seems he got flooded with people offering passes to him... good to see we all look out for each other.

KratzALot

Very good to see Spykmo got one. I had a transaction with that guy also. Not a single word from him for a while now.

I'm glad I found someone else to get one from, in fact, i got the badge today

mspencer

Also, just in case someone tries to pull this scam on one of our attendees again: when you buy passes, be sure the passes are hard plastic cards, with plastic similar to a credit card. Cardboard passes are counterfeits.

ZeroHourHero

Its why, just to be safe on both ends, Im trying to do a cash transaction in person.

yanksrul5

SpYkMo wrote: »

I was also included in this transcaction. He said he had 3 three day passes for sale so I emailed him. I sent him the money to the paypal account he requested. Then after a week of not hearing from him I emailed him, he said he didnt recieve the payment, then I forwarded him the paypal transaction # and he said it was under a different email that he didnt check often, but then confirmed he received the payment.
Then he said he was going to email the barcode, again another week went by and I didnt get any barcode or response, so I emailed him back. he then forwarded me a barcode. so about a week or so ago I asked him if he's received his badge and when he planned on mailing them out. Again no reply, Then this morning I receive an email from paypal saying he refunded my money.
Its really frustrating as i've spent almost a month going back and forth and now with less than a week to go I dont know if im going to be able to find a ticket to attend.

hey, it sucks you wasted a month trying to get a badge. Did you end up getting a badge?

ZeroHourHero

yanksrul5 wrote: »

SpYkMo wrote: »

I was also included in this transcaction. He said he had 3 three day passes for sale so I emailed him. I sent him the money to the paypal account he requested. Then after a week of not hearing from him I emailed him, he said he didnt recieve the payment, then I forwarded him the paypal transaction # and he said it was under a different email that he didnt check often, but then confirmed he received the payment.
Then he said he was going to email the barcode, again another week went by and I didnt get any barcode or response, so I emailed him back. he then forwarded me a barcode. so about a week or so ago I asked him if he's received his badge and when he planned on mailing them out. Again no reply, Then this morning I receive an email from paypal saying he refunded my money.
Its really frustrating as i've spent almost a month going back and forth and now with less than a week to go I dont know if im going to be able to find a ticket to attend.

hey, it sucks you wasted a month trying to get a badge. Did you end up getting a badge?

Yes, as I said 4 posts ago, when I messaged him to take care of it the next day he was already deluged with offers.

ShadowWolf9

I'm a little late to the party, guys.

I also purchased a 3-day pass from him for $100 and haven't received an e-mail from him since the 12th. There is no sign of me getting my badge and I haven't even been refunded the money. He did send me the barcode, but no pass at all and due to zero communication I really don't think I'll be getting one.

This is just awful. I pulled so many strings and tried so hard to make it. Looks like I was scammed out of my $100 and I'm not even going to attend the show with a good friend of mine.

Is there any help that can be offered? Can I still get in with just the bar code?

Wormdundee

If the badge that you bought from him was originally bought after the shipping cut off, then that means that he doesn't actually have the badge. In that case you would be fine with just the barcode as you would use it to grab the actual badge at will call.

Now if he has the actual pass but sent you just the barcode then you may be boned.

Robert Khoo

Barcode alone doesn't do anything for you unless you have your photo ID, so unless you have the PHYSICAL BADGES, like i said above don't buy them.

Wormdundee

I am shamed

Robert Khoo

Don't be shamed! It's a common misconception!

FOUR DAYS.

Ekkosangen

Robert Khoo wrote: »

Barcode alone doesn't do anything for you unless you have your photo ID, so unless you have the PHYSICAL BADGES, like i said above don't buy them.

So we will for sure be needing photo ID alongside the confirmation printout at will-call? Whose photo ID, the person who bought the ticket or the person whose name is on the ticket? What if a ticket has two different names on it (say, Kevin over the barcode and Matthew by the event info)?

Only reason I ask is because a friend in BC bought us tickets, but found he was no longer able to go...

EDIT: The situation is rectified!

Moe Fwacky

I believe you need the ID of the person who bought the ticket, as that's who's information is in the computer.

Aynien

Hmm.. so on that note.. I just out about this awesome event today and I'd love to go. Is there any way we can purchase tickets from somebody? Even meeting up at the con? I'm happy to pay full price cash. How would this work? Can it?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you!

~Ayn


Edit: Dumb question, I apologize for misreading. I am on craigslist looking to buy badges via COD mail or ingame pickup. Thanks again for the info

Jangus.Kahn

Hi guys, I too purchased tickets from letbulletsrain. I bought two 3-Day passes from him and I'm not sure I'll be receiving them. I had a fine experience with purchasing the tickets from him, and he sent me the two bar codes as promised. He then told me he'd be in touch when he got the tickets to tell me he was sending them. On Monday I was starting to get nervous, so I emailed him. He responded saying that he bought the tickets in bulk for a large group (or to scam people?) and that he had only received one of the tickets he had ordered yet.

Is there any way I'll be able to get in? I have the two bar codes, can you guys not make an exception for people who bought from this guy?

By the way, what are the names on the bar codes you got? Maybe they're the same for all of us.
Mine were: J.P. Fortier and Nathan Sweezey.

Please guys can you help me out? I know this is last minute, but I had no idea this guy was going to be like this, he seemed quite professional when I first spoke with him.

EDIT: His paypal account is letbulletsrain@msn.com, just like his email address.

VisionOfClarity

Have you filed a paypal dispute? If not, start with that.

HyruleanTubist

So same story here. We got three 3-Day pass barcodes from him, and told us we would be able to pick our tickets up at will call. Jangus.Kahn, those are the same names on our barcodes. So we line up, there. What can we do about this? We are already going to email him and try to get our money back, but then we don't have tickets. Khoo, what can we do??

Robert Khoo

shoot me an email to rkhoo@penny-arcade.com

[H]olyGeekboy

Jangus.Kahn wrote: »

By the way, what are the names on the bar codes you got? Maybe they're the same for all of us.
Mine were: J.P. Fortier and Nathan Sweezey.

EDIT: His paypal account is letbulletsrain@msn.com, just like his email address.

Classic con, sell the same merch to a dozen people, collect all cash, be gone when time to deliver. The thing is, those two names are probably real people, people who probably know the seller.

He's effed.

Phantomjest

I also purchased 4 tickets from him. Nice to know that I'm screwed out of the con. I doubt I'll be able to get 4 3 day tickets. =( Still have not received a refund from him. I already disputed the charge with Paypal.

All Night Diner

Yeah I bought tickets from this guy too. Yay..

lol im bad

bought from the same dude also. we'll see what happens at will call but I'm not particularly hoping for the best.

man, kinda bummed I only caught this thread today...

edit: looks like I lucked out; the event coordinators had in fact been previously informed that the person named on my ticket would not be showing up to pax, so getting the pass proved pretty much hassle-free. I hope things work out for everyone else here, although having tickets with the same name might be an issue...

Lord Jezo

[H]olyGeekboy wrote: »

Jangus.Kahn wrote: »

By the way, what are the names on the bar codes you got? Maybe they're the same for all of us.
Mine were: J.P. Fortier and Nathan Sweezey.

EDIT: His paypal account is letbulletsrain@msn.com, just like his email address.

Classic con, sell the same merch to a dozen people, collect all cash, be gone when time to deliver. The thing is, those two names are probably real people, people who probably know the seller.

He's effed.

Searching Google for those two names I come up with this cached file:

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:vd5PUFHCkcIJ:www.facebook.com/people/Jp-Fortier/100000393254392+J.P.+Fortier+Nathan+Sweezey&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Both of them are Friends on Facebook. Coincidence?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jp-Fortier/100000393254392

http://www.facebook.com/people/Nathan-Sweezey/582770289

linkiswickeddank

I just found out/realized that the person I bought tickets from wasn't going to pull through.
I sent paypal back in Feb, and it was received, they sent me the receipt, with the promise that the badge would be on it's way when he received it.
My own came (this 2nd one is for my brother), and then the other one never did.
I finally checked paypal about an hour ago, and the money was refunded! I mean, that's great not to get ripped off, but now I need a ticket. I never got an email from him that the money was coming back or anything, just poof!

The ticket receipt he sent had the names:
JP Fortier
but the file, when opened on google apps lists the file on his computer with the names
Jason Wonsang and Lauren Levi

His gmail is:
pappie.adam@gmail.com

SN here is
Zackal

paypal address is:
ratmenslayer@aim.com

It sounds like the same guy (JP Fortier), and similar modus operandi I guess

I'm scouring for a pass on here, craigslist, and will try to find one at the convention center from someone selling if need be.
or my brother and i will just have to take turns in the awesome, while the other sits outside and mopes :-(
I really hope I can spend the weekend with my brother who flew up here from Baltimore for PAX!

trippocalypse

Just read this thread after getting back. Khoo's a radical badass -- and way to rock that Contra code for the Omeganaughts -- although I still think it should have been up to them to input it themselves or suffer.