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Greed clouds CPL online ticket purchases
Dear Editor,
The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) bandwagon has driven into town once again boasting glitz, glamour and fanfare. All roads it seems once again lead to Providence Stadium. However, apparently quite similar to the controversy which erupted almost exactly 3 years ago, where CPL’s refund policy was called into dire question, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2015/07/17/is-cpl-2015s-refund-policy-a-scam/, once again another ticketing storm is brewing.
CPL’s online ticketing is this year managed by a company called www.bookmyshow.com. So if one chooses to avoid the chaos down at CPL Head Office or at the Stadium, one can purchase one’s tickets online, saving CPL staff headaches of long lines, ensuing chaos and generally enhancing their efficiency. But, a huge catch! Unsuspecting online ticket buyers are led to believe that the prices for tickets actually range from US$15 to US$30 (GY$3,000 to GY$6,000) whether purchased online or at the venue ticket office, excluding credit card exchange rates and booking fee, since there are no adverts online mentioning a lower price at the actual ticketing office.
At the local ticketing office on Quamina Street, Amazon Warrior’s head office, ticket prices are boldly advertised as GY$2,000 to GY$5,000 (implicitly from US$10 to US$25). So ironically, while far more efficient to CPL and its ticketing company, you are paying US$5 or GYD$1,000 more to buy tickets online for any stand.
Now I did not entirely mind paying the rather steep ScotiaBank credit card exchange rate of $218.5 to US$1 and the booking fee of approximately US$1.40 per ticket, which would have taken the total up on the US$25 ticket to GY$5,770 equivalent. But, I got duped into this online scam and ended up paying $6,861 per ticket for the first game on 11 August 2018.
Had I purchased at the office or stadium, I would have saved $1,861 per ticket, and for the three I purchased, saved over GY$5,500. Further, when you go down to the ticket office to simply uplift the tickets paid for online, the price displayed on each ticket is GY$5,000. So I basically have 2 receipts with different prices. This is a blatant racket with false advertising, tantamount to fraud.
Did the government properly vet this event before committing its support and provided several lucrative tax concessions for this year’s events, which runs into millions of taxpayers’ dollars? Was the allowance of this alleged fraudulent dual ticket pricing one such incentive? Will the government through its investigative arm, SOCU examine this financial skullduggery?
How can such thievery be allowed at a government supported event? It is not too late for the government to withhold concessions granted to gain the playoff games for this scam to be fixed. But, I doubt they would do anything; they have become too desperate for the limelight to bother!
Are sponsors aware of how sullied their brands will become for associating with a product that tries to con people out of their hard earned currency. As the lead sponsor of the Amazon Warriors team this year Exxon Mobil is no stranger to such accusations, so I have little faith in them being even a fraction concerned about this issue.
You have to wonder now about the reputable CPL sponsors onboard such as REPSOL, Eldorado, Republic Bank, and KFC, whether they possess any courage to pull up the local office and the website company, and have them remedy this situation by ensuring credit card purchasers are refunded the price differential including the exchange rate differential or completely funding all online purchases.
If the CPL authorities fail to remedy this situation, like they belated did three years ago, it would only confirm they are a greedy band of crooks trying every loophole to fleece Caribbean citizens. This would be my last game, and I will certainly encourage many more will not attend future matches.
Yours respectfully,
R. Persaud
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