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Baseball's postseason scam

Posted at 9:14 AM on October 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Sports

If you've ever ordered Major League Baseball tickets online, perhaps you've encountered the nickel-and-diming of the baseball fan. You can print your tickets on your computer, using your ink and your paper and pay the team -- the Twins, for example -- an extra fee for the privilege of doing so.

Want the real ticket? There's a scam for that, too.

The Twins and Major League Baseball, a lot of revenue in the early rounds goes to the league) made out like bandits -- because they were -- in confiscating money from fans for a postseason game that never was played.

Here's the details from my colleague, Linda Fantin.

The night the Twins beat the Tigers to advance in the playoffs, we went online and bought 4 tickets to Games 3 and 4 at $30 each. The Twins also charged us $6 a ticket in "handling" fees and $4 in "shipping" fees, even though we picked the tickets up at will call. But when the Twins failed to advance, the team only refunded the $120 for the tickets but kept the handling and shipping fees. When I called to complain, the Twins ticket office clerk defended the policy and declined to refund the fees.

Here's the rub: To get tickets to Game 3 you HAD to buy tickets to Game 4. Well, the Twins drew more than 54,000 to Game 3, so that means they scammed at least $324,000 from fans, not including the bogus shipping charges. For that kind of money, you'd think we could get a decent middle reliever.

Unfortunately, $324,000 will only buy you the kind of middle reliever the Twins already have.

Perhaps if the Twins called these charges the "upgrade from Nick Punto" tax, fans would be a little less upset.

Comments (5)

I was surprised to receive a refund check in the mail from the Twins for the "2nd game". So, I did get $40 back.

Posted by jenel | October 17, 2009 10:06 AM

welcome back, bob!

Posted by kates | October 18, 2009 2:49 PM

It is printed policy, stated on the "I agree to buy this ticket" form, that you should recieve a refund for the 4th game. Mine was credited back to my credit card.

Posted by Jim | October 21, 2009 9:02 AM

You get a refund for the ticket. You don't get a refund for the fees.

Posted by Bob Collins | October 21, 2009 9:35 AM

A friend of mine who works for the Twins forwarded me this:

"The refund process for the un-played ALDS post-season game – Home Game #2 is still in progress. With the refunding process for the price of your purchased tickets having been completed, we have now begun the process of refunding the $4 per ticket service fee which you were charged when you placed your post-season ticket order with us. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks to receive the per ticket refund for the un-played game."

Posted by Drew Geraets | October 26, 2009 9:09 PM