Ticket forward market company FirstDIBZ will pay hundreds of aggrieved customers reparations that will reach a combined total in the millions of dollars, in an effort to help assuage the customers who fell victim to a recent “DIBZ” Super Bowl selling scam.
Company CEO Rick Harmon told TicketNews Thursday that the final figure for the reparations will reach “seven figures,” but was quick to add that an exact tally is not yet known, nor is the final number of customers who were victims of the scam. FirstDIBZ is still investigating the fraud, and Harmon said the initial estimate that at least 250 people were victims has grown significantly.
“If you look back at the over 400 forward markets we’ve previously conducted, the number of fraud cases have been miniscule,” Harmon said. “But, I believe that in some cases the current economy is contributing to driving people to behave in ways that are untoward.”
Under terms of the reparations (which can be read by CLICKING HERE; click on the image itself to enlarge it), FirstDIBZ will refund “all costs associated with the fraudulent uDIBZ activities,” which are averaging about $129 each per customer. In addition, the company will also pay customers $250 for each fraudulent uDIBZ contract for the two remaining Super Bowl teams, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, which could add up to several hundred dollars depending on how many failed contracts a customer has. As of today, January 22, a vast majority of customers had accepted the terms, said FirstDIBZ Chief Marketing Officer Tim Browne.
Exactly how the fraud happened is still being fully determined, but the company said that a couple of weeks ago rogue sellers, using multiple fake accounts, began selling cheap uDIBZ contracts for Super Bowl tickets for some of the final eight NFL playoff teams, but the sellers did not have actual Super Bowl tickets to back up the sales.
The company has temporarily shut down its uDIBZ selling feature until the middle of February, Harmon said, to allow for more safeguards to be implemented. Harmon said an outside committee of advisors, including members of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, ticket brokers and lawyers, is being formed to help make improvements to the site so that this type of situation never occurs again.
“Has this changed the company for the better? Absolutely,” Harmon said, adding that 99 percent of its customers use the company’s system legally and honestly. Over its eight years, FirstDIBZ has invested nearly $50 million in creating the platform, establishing proof of concept and protecting its intellectual property, he said, and after the company concludes its internal and external investigations it will turn over all information to law enforcement to conduct criminal inquiries. Arrests could be made in connection with the fraud within the next several weeks, and Harmon also said the company will pursue civil action against the alleged perpetrators.
In an email the company began sending out Tuesday night to hundreds of customers, FirstDIBZ vowed to rectify the situation. In the correspondence was a link to the reparations agreement document, described above, that customers had to accept in order to receive their payments:
Dear (customer’s name),
As we all know, last week you and FirstDIBZ fell victim to individuals who perpetuated a ticket selling scam in our uDIBZ marketplace. They violated the FirstDIBZ Seller Agreement by placing tickets for sale in our uDIBZ Super Bowl XLIII market that they did not possess. In doing so, they caused significant harm to you and to us.
FirstDIBZ did not cause these fraudulent acts. Under the terms of our User Agreement and Seller Agreement, we are not responsible for them, though we too have suffered them deeply. Since the moment we discovered the fraud, we have been wholly focused on determining what we can do legally and financially to help build back the trust that has been jeopardized by these deceptive acts. Why? Simply put, there is nothing more important to our success.
Based on the large number of calls and correspondence we have had with many of you, we know the majority of you understand what has transpired and are willing to work with us to help build back the trust. We are 100% committed to doing so with all the resources we have at our disposal. Today we see these efforts in two significant areas: Systemic Protections and Customer Satisfaction.
The Systemic Protections are the steps our technology team has taken in our overall uDIBZ market operations and processes to better protect you. These include but are not limited to:
1. FirstDIBZ has temporarily taken offline the uDIBZ Seller’s Tool in order to conduct a full and comprehensive security review, the results of which will be integrated into its next version.
2. FirstDIBZ has formed an internal uDIBZ Selection Committee to review the initiation of all proposed uDIBZ markets and to monitor each market’s activities.
3. FirstDIBZ has formed an external group of advisors, which has helped through the last week, and which has agreed to help us in the future.
Providing Customer Satisfaction in times like this represents a more challenging task. We have tried to make our Customer Satisfaction plan clear and direct. We are simply making available to everyone who was victimized by this fraud what we consider to be the best possible, and most equitable offering under these difficult circumstances.
The Customer Satisfaction Agreement can be viewed online by using your FirstDIBZ login and password on our Customer Service webpage at www.firstdibz.com/account/agreement. To expedite the entire process our online form will allow you to review and accept the terms by inputting your name and selecting the acceptance box. Please be certain to read our Customer Satisfaction Agreement carefully, as it contains all relevant information.
We hope that between these two sets of actions (Systemic Protections and Customer Satisfaction), we have demonstrated the extraordinary value we place on our relationship with you. We believe this Customer Satisfaction plan far exceeds what many other companies would do.
Finally, the FirstDIBZ mission has not changed. We know you understand and appreciate its value. Making it work better for you is the singular calling of our company. We will remain vigilant in its protection.
The FirstDIBZ Team
In the past couple of weeks, FirstDIBZ has become a lightning rod for criticism over the fraud incident, as disgruntled customers came to grips with the matter and realized they would not be receiving Super Bowl tickets due to the scam. In TicketNews’s three-year history, no other series of stories has generated the amount of reader comments that these stories have.
“I would say to our thousands of loyal and honest customers that if you believe FirstDIBZ, after eight years and how we’ve gone about confronting this situation, deserves to continue to be a thriving company, then continue to use our system,” an emotional Harmon said. “If you don’t, then don’t use our platform. But, the strength for us is that when you look at all the ticketing options in the marketplace, there’s a drive to make it better. And, we know that we make it better.”
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Everyone who has been taken by First Dibz needs to file a compliant with the BBB in Chicago. This company actually has a satisfactory rating, and that will only change if everyone who was taken complains. Keep it clean and state the facts. Not likely to get you anything but satisfaction. It is just not right that this company has a satisfactory rating.
As someone in the field of business law, I can definitely say that their customers have a strong case against the company on grounds of Negligence and failure of contractual obligation based on contradicting contractual terms.
I agree with you. Even the headline was very misleading. Leaving the average unknowledgable reader to assume First DIBZ was doing everything possible and was going over and beyond. Facts are they were responsible for the lack of controls and failure to provide due diligence and have cost people millions. The losses are not to brokers and ticket scamers. They are to average hard working people that invested money for the chance of going to a special event. Provisions were available for them to determine proper reimbursement for cancelled DIBZ and market value of tickets. Yet, FirstDIBZ chose to talk about making their customers whole and then doing little to fullfill that commitment with their bogus offer. They could still do the right thing and reimburse the many customers that THEY have harmed in full, otherwise their business will become worthless. Without the trust and integrity in the market they should be put out of business. Even the release of their weak settlement fund are being held for 14 business days, which is way beyond the super bowl date therefore not even putting funds back in the hands of the customers they screwed if they needed it to purchase tickets at a loss somewhere else. I guarantee you they wouldn’t wait 14 days to receive funds if they were purchasing tickets.
For now Im sitting tight waiting to see what they offer me on my Eagles that I bought and sold, they told me they would compensate me but had to handle super bowl dibz first, if I dont like their offer or cant reach an agreement then Ill propose a class action lawsuit. We as a group need to stay in contact.
I’m in the same boat. I emailed them early in the day yesterday asking when I might expect to hear something. As usual, no response.
Thanks for the stellar customer service First Dibz!
Any updates on the first dibz scam, I was hoping to here from them on what they were going to offer on the profits they removed from my account.
Close them down, shady bastards deserve whats coming to them.
Close them down, shady bastards deserve whats coming to them.
I just logged into my account this evening to find even more transactions had been reversed. Today, they took an addtional $3,851.00 from my account. This was after they went back the second time and “verified” the remaining uDibz.
Total loss to date: $4,697.60
So has there been any word on what will happen with Eagles and Ravens dibz? Are we just screwed as is???
They should remove the uDibz for all sports while they figure out how to properly verify seats/tickets. They still have uDibz out there for NCAA and MLB (although they are not allowing new contracts to be written).
While I didn’t end up with any fraudulent uDibz left in my possession, I had made many transactions buying and selling these dibz that resulted in a net loss after the transactions were reversed (specifically these were Ravens and Eagles uDibz). I had not received any word until today (after many attempts at communication).
Anyhow, I spoke with one of the higher-ups who was very professional and polite. He informed me that they are first taking care of those left with fraudulent uDibz relating to the Cardinals and Steelers as they were more time sensitive. He said their goal was to get back to me sometime mid next week with a solution.
While I feel this should have been communicated to all of us who were affected, though not left with Cardinals/Steelers dibz in our possession, I would guess that you will be hearing something from them next week.
I am 1 of tose that got scammed and will not accept that agreement. Anyway, I bought 2 tickets from a list of 50 for $195. After I received an e-mai of the fraud, those set of 50 were taken off first dibz and nobody else advertised having 50 tickets available.
three days later what re-appears are a set of 50 tickets for $850 now.
seems really fishy to me. I think the same tickets that were supposedly fraudelent were put back on afew days later at the substabtially larger price.
They canceled 4 steelers and 11 cardinals on me last week. Their offer is pretty low, so I don’t know if I will take it. Has anyone heard of a guy named Derek Gummersheimer? One of my friends says that he heard that he might be one of the bad sellers.
The Systemic Protections are the steps our technology team has taken in our overall uDIBZ market operations and processes to better protect you. These include but are not limited to:
1. FirstDIBZ has temporarily taken offline the uDIBZ Seller’s Tool in order to conduct a full and comprehensive security review, the results of which will be integrated into its next version.
2. FirstDIBZ has formed an internal uDIBZ Selection Committee to review the initiation of all proposed uDIBZ markets and to monitor each market’s activities.
3. FirstDIBZ has formed an external group of advisors, which has helped through the last week, and which has agreed to help us in the future.
I think these steps are a good start, however, they are not enough. While I reallize there is likely much more for FirstDibz to consider, I would like to make a suggestion. There is a trust issue here. Having been told both over the phone and by email that the uDibz that turned out to be fraudulent were verified, I need a guarantee. I would like to see FirstDibz put something in their user agreement that specifies exactly what the company will do if any uDibz, despite their best efforts to prevent it, actually do turn out to be fraudulent. Should they have confidence in the verification process, I do not believe there is any reason for them not to do so.
When groups of 50 started popping up I became very concerned and made multiple calls to Firstdibz to see how this was possible. I was told each time that the dibz were verified and that if anything went wrong the seller would be charged. Clearly with millions of dollars in fradulent options that isnt possible as we all see now. The udibz market can clearly be minipulated so maybe it is in their best interest to no longer offer this type of market anymore
They still have 50 option lots available for NCAA Final Four teams. I wonder if all of them are verified?
Like how they wait till everyone says they are contacting their lawyers. They will be at fault for the real losses here and this is jsut a buyout. Imagine how many dibz these fradulent sellers sold that never existed? Say for the Eagles, Ravens, Giants and everyother team. Say they sold the same amount for every team while the Giants at one point were more expensive dibs than any other team. 32 teams, 100-300 per team, thats why they want you to take that cheap 250 and sign with the new terms. I hope someone involved gets a lawyer and exposes that ti was not just the dibz that made it but the dibz that did not make it. Force them to repay everyone for all the fraud involved. Think of the fees that FirstDibz made off all of those sales as well. They are not losing at all, they are still hope as part of this fraud. That is why they are willing to cheaply pay off the people involved. I am sicken by these pro-firstdibz articles just because they are a ticketsummit sponsor affliated with ticketnetwork. If this was Stubhub or Ticketsnow, these articles would be agressive and actually really negative. Don, you sicken me. FirstDibz, sickens me. This all sickens me.
Interesting to see posted article where First Dibz stated that most of their customers have signed the agreement. Surprising, because when one looks at all the facts (i.e., primarily the First Dibz terms and conditions; the clear lack of due diligience and customer protection on their part (e.g., how could they allow 1 seller to sell 50 uDibz on any one team – NO ONE has access to 50 Super Bowl tickets and NO ONE has a credit limit on their credit card to cover the cost of 50 Super Bowl tickets); and the fraudulent statements made by the CEO (uDibz were listed only late at night when no one was looking), the odds of a successful lawsuit are astounding.
Part of my dilema is – do I take the $250 offer per uDbiz now and go away knowing that the cost of the lawsuits, potential penalties, consumer protection act sanctions, etc., could close them down and leave me with nothing.
I just logged into my account this evening to find even more transactions had been reversed. Today, they took an addtional $3,851.00 from my account. This was after they went back the second time and “verified” the remaining uDibz.
Total loss to date: $4,697.60
That sucks on the 4600 you lost. What are you going to do? I only lost 6 steelers and nothing since last week and am still pretty mad and still thinking if I am going to sue or accept their “agreement.”
Also, one of my broker friends who got a bunch more than me taken away told me that he heard that a broker named Tim Morley from either Missouri or Illinois might be one of the scammers.
First of all, I hate to see a name brought up on these message boards unless your absolutely certain that it is a fact. Otherwise, it’s not fair to the individual you mentioned.
That said, I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the money taken away at this point. I have received no agreements from them to date, but as I have been given assurances that they will contact me next week with a solution, I will wait until then to determine my best course of action. If they make right on the situation (i.e. refund my money), I’ll certainly post it on the message boards. If not, I will post that as well.
MOST IF NOT ALL SUPER BOWL UDIBZ WERE FAKES. I have not heard of anyone receiving any Super Bowl tickets that won dibz from Udibz marketplace. Firstdibz business model is faulty and will likely be sued in court over this fiasco for their negligence.
The company needs to pony up and do the right thing and reimburse their customers fully, not this pittance of reparation.
CEO HARMON HAS STATED NUMEROUS TIMES IN THE MEDIA THAT THE COMPANY WOULD CHARGE THE BAD SELLER FOR THE DIFFERENCE IF THEY CANNOT COME UP WITH THE TICKETS.
THIS IS VERY DAMAGING EVIDENCE IF IT EVER GOES TO TRIAL. YOU CAN GET THE TRANSCRIPTS FROM ALL THE MEDIA SOURCES.
I feel your pain. I had 4 eagles and 2 cardinals and I sold them before the end of the NFC conference game. This made me about 4900$. I had bet 1000$ on the giants to beat the eagles because I was hedging my eagles tickets. Last night they took all my money away. I have been a loyal customer for 4 years and have lost quite a bit of money especially with NCAA football. I finally make a little cash this one time and now they take it all away. I sincerely hope that blogger is correct when he stated they will be addressing us at a later time and if all my money isnt put back into my account I will do whatever it takes to contact a lawyer for a class action lawsuit against firstdibz for all the people that sold dibz for a profit only to have it taken away because Firstdibz failed to execute their sellers agreement.
I’ve had transactions reversed for every single one of my NFL uDibz. Purchase dates range from 10/7/08 to 1/14/08, with 25 “Bought” transactions for a total of 178 uDibz.
Sorry…typo:
*10/7/08 to 1/14/09*
I guess we know why Al is writing for an internet site. This article infers that millions of dollars are coming out of FirstDIBZ’s coffers. That is simply not true.
The majority of the reparation is refunding money spent on the fraudulent uDibz. That is primarily money that would have gone to the seller, not to FirstDIBZ. FirstDIBZ is refunding the transaction fees, which is 7% of the gross amount of money spent on the uDibz.
FirstDIBZ is offering a maximum reparation of $1,000 to any customers who held fraudulent uDibz on the Steelers and Cardinals. Unless there are several thousand customers in this situation, it’s not going to add up to millions of dollars.
FirstDIBZ is offering a $100 credit to use on the site for every fraudulent Steelers and Cardinals uDibz, with no maximum. If this were a cash refund, I’d be more amenable to the agreement. They’ll recoup at least 7% of this money on transaction fees alone. Since the majority of this money will be spent on ultimately unsuccessful Dibz, the company will likely recoup almost all of this money eventually.
The cost to the company under this agreement is hardly in the millions of dollars, unless this situation was far more pervasive than has been indicated. Then their lack of reasonable diligence would be even worse than it already seems.
FirstDIBZ needs to increase the reimbursement. Not drastically, but more than this lowball offer. The company dropped the ball on this one. Its customers should not have to pay for it.
They reversed more of my Eagles today that I bought in the second quarter of the Giants game, these were later verified as good and I sold then thursday before the cards game. They have now taken about $7800 from me.
I bought the Eagles because I liked how the game with the Giants was looking for them during the second quarter, I could have bought firstdibz and made the same profit, although the first dibz were a little higher they also would have sold for higher, this whole thing just seems crooked.
At this point I will most definately sue for the $7800 especially how they lie everytime I call for an update.
Because they told me my udibz was good they were just reversed today, I bought some ravens firstdibz right before the steelers game and obviously lost, I never would have bought those if I knew they were lying about honoring my eagles udibz. Will they reverse that transaction also????
Had the same issue on profits being taken away. When I spoke to someone over the phone last week they said that would be the next order of business, as cards/steelers stuff was first. So I expect something from them next week.
LOL. This just keeps getting more ridiculous. I went into my account this morning and they reveresed about 6-10 more dibz I purchased back in Dec. Funny thing is that I kept asking them about these and was told that they checked them and double checked them. Now this morning they are fradulent. These guys really need to stop speaking because they clearly keep putting their foots in their mouths. Cant complain on these 6-10 because they were for the Panthers and Colts
I lost $3,159 in profits that they HAD in my account. I also lost 2 premium club tickets worth about 5K-7K a piece. So about 15K they screwed me over for. You know how many affects that has when you are spending money you thought was guaranteed or setting up superbowl plans, airfare, hotels,etc.
The one thing you cannot put a price tag on is, getting all excited when the Cardinals pull a huge upset and calling everyone you know to tell them you are going to the superbowl and sitting in the Premium club section!! It gets worse. You tell your dad who is 60 years old and has never gone to the superbowl in his life.
I am a middle class person who works a 40+ hour work week and does enough just to get by. So why can’t I use the FirstDibz site as intended, to give a normal fan the chance to go to the superbowl? This country has handed it to the middle class people like me for sometime now. Can for once, a business or some greedy CEO’s be held accountable for the harm they have caused people? The firstdibz team has treated me like crap. They baically told me if they do the right thing they would go out of business. So it cost them 1MM already, it should cost them their business if need be. For those who believe firstdibz has paid the price for what they have done, you have had the shades pulled over your eyes. This company has probably made a few million dollars on their superbowl market and still wants to rake in the profits even though they have taken advantage of the little guy. I am sick of corporate greed screwing us all over, so if they can not make it right, they have no good reason to be in business. Please write your local newspapers and file with the BBB and FTC. Really it only take a few minutes. Greedy firstdibz should not stand behind their lawyers anymore. I lost about 15K and the customer care person could care less. Well deduct this from his paycheck and see if he is okay with it then. If so then I will sign their scam of an agreement and bury my pride.
charge them back just charge every transaction you have made with them back every one just charge them back they do not know what is real or fraudulant. so just charge them back charge them back charge them back dont be a p@#sy charge them back they can not do shit
I refuse to sign their agreement and if they do not at least refund me my initial cost, I will be contacting my credit card companies within 30 days to get a chargeback because the whole company looks fraudulent
I have some “verified” dibz that will not be fulfilled. Their execs. have promised me an additional $250 per ticket plus $100 in credit for these after I spoke with them. Anyone else get any other different offers? What was the offers to their “preferred” customers that held a lot of dibz? Those were mailed offers.
I know with the advent of sites like Stubhub and TicketsNow, that there are alot of people who bought tickets with the intent of reselling them. I’m sure many people, like myself, presold the tickets. I listed them as Upper Level on Stubhub and had dibz on the Steelers, Eagles, Cardinals, Giants, and Ravens so I was pretty sure that I’d have tickets since those were the only teams left. Shouldn’t FirstDibz be responsible for reimbursing more than what they are offering, considering that Stubhub is now sticking me with the cost of replacements ($2500 each). This has a defamation of business lawsuit written all over it if the same thing happened to a broker who bought alot more than I did. Their proposed settlement is a joke.
Thank you for your comment concerning this story, and thanks for your interest in TicketNews.com. As you’ll see within the story, FirstDIBZ officials are the ones on the record with their losses, which was a response to a direct question. They have not fully disclosed the exact amount because their investigation into the fraud is ongoing. Again, thanks for your time.
Not all Udibz were fraudulent.
I had 4 Cardinals Udibz that I will pick up this weekend in Tampa.
Thank you for responding to my post. However, I’m not going to let you off the hook. Your opening paragraph states the amount of losses as fact, not an estimate or an opinion.
If you researched the story marginally or even read the responses to your first article on this matter, you would know what FirstDIBZ’s reparation offer was and how much it could potentially be. The only way that offer would cost the company “seven figures” is if the number of customers involved in this were in the thousands. Why didn’t you get Harmon to give you a more specific number regarding the number of customers affected, the number of orders involved, how long this activity went on?
Making a phone call and accepting every word said as gospel is irresponsible, especially when the person involved (Harmon) has multiple motives to obfuscate the truth. Ask the right questions. Demand the right answers. Past, present and possible future clients of this company deserve to know.
you werent goin to get your tickets until the weekend of the super bowl anyways, and stubhub is making you send them out by tuesday if you want to sell on their site, so you wouldnt have been able to use those for stubhub anyways. Also not sure how much you sold you uppers for but the market was about $1800 2 weeks ago on stubhub and not theirs hundreds of uppers for between 15-1600 . So im not sure how they can justify charging you $2500 each unless you sold your tickets for negative $1000 somehow.
Okay, I just have been made aware of your final notice – pressuring those left into signing your agreement. This has now officially gone too far. You will lose in so many ways FirstDibz. Your CEO Rick Harmon’s initial interview with the Chicago Tribune, suggests the time of fraudulent buys, amounts, and numbers affected. All completely misleading. So you you may say he did not know all the facts. A CEO doesn’t make statements without all the facts! CEO 101.
Next is the fact that FirstDibz is in the process of upgrading their UDibz site. This is proof that your Udibz site initially(prior to the superbowl market place)was not capable of handling measures against fraudulent activities. When you collect fees and control a market place, you are responsible for safe and legal transactions.
Reperations agreement. Nothing smells worse than a company pressuring their customers into a binding legal agreement. If this agreement was out of “good faith” then there would be no reason to speed up the expiration process. This is to pressure victims into giving up all their rights, due to a monetary figure.
Your policy. You have a policy regarding winning items that mentions you have the “right”, but not the obligation to: make things right.(With all the legal mumbo jumbo aside)..However you are quoted numerous times in your emails in numerous different ways (suggesting) that you will do “every thing you can, or at your disposal” to make things right.
Your figures. Your $250 offer equalling millions of dollars does not make sense. Going by your figures, there would have to be over 1,000 customers affected and that is assuming all had 4 fraudulent superbowl tickets. Your 100 dollars udibz credit can and should not be contributed to your bottom line: “million(s) dollar loss. You would be recooping most if not all of this promotion like credits. It is almost like a marketing ploy to keep people “dibzing”. Should a Casino be able to give out a match play coupon and record that as a loss?
Prior Udibz market place. Have you done the necessary DD to figure out how legitimate the Chicago Cub’s World Series Udibz were? Were these Udibz that would have been fullfilled had the Cub’s made the world series? You may hide behind the fact that there is no value to these dibz so there is no reperations to be had. Which is true, but it won’t sit well with your Chicago Cubs fans AND the odds that your company paid off fraudulent sellers, only fueling a fraud superbowl market.
Last but not least. I will not accuse you of, because I have no proof. Although I read in a blog that someone has a e-mail from your management of an offer. This offer is to keep the particular party quiet. This sort of action would not only end your careers, but bring criminal charges against those involved. I certainly hope this did not happen. Actually I know this did not happen, because Mr. Harmon is not stupid, right?
First Dibz. Just come out and give these people a fair offer. I have read their posts and most do not seem greedy. I do however believe you may be. You have been given a chance for your company to survive, even though your neglectful ways could have put you under. Actually it still could, so give these few people what they deserve and COMPROMISE. We both know this would never go to court, so no need to pay the lawyer. You work with your customers, you may just keep them and get all your money back. Never underestimate the power of just one man/woman.
After promising that my sale would be fine, I have had Dibz that I bought and sold for the Cardinals “refunded” to my account. Of course, if I hadn’t sold the Dibz, they would now be making me an offer. This is no different – this is of course a loss as I hedged to make sure I made money on the sale.
I have just started up a forum on my site http://www.thesupergiant.com Please post your stories there as well. We have to make as many people aware of the scandal as possible. I know many of my friends that use FirstDibz as well.
I have just started up a forum on my site http://www.thesupergiant.com Please post your stories there as well. We have to make as many people aware of the scandal as possible. I know many of my friends that use FirstDibz as well.
HOW THE HECK DO WE KNOW THAT FIRSTDIBZ IS NOT POCKETING OUR TICKETS ($4500 CLUB SEATS EACH) AND GIVING US $250 IN “REPARATION”.
FOR ALL I KNOW, FIRST DIBZ OR THEIR EMPLOYEES ARE MAKING A TWIN KILLING OFF OF THIS.
POCKET THE TICKET PROFITS AND CLAIM THERE WERE FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES?
How is Udibz going to compensate buyers of udibz that sold their dibz for a profit??
What is that reparation going to be like??
FirstDibz website using the word Guaranteed
http://www.firstdibz.com/news.html?ugid=&contentId=700021203
Big Game? Invest for Tickets
08/28 03:49 PM
By: Andrew Buttaro
Loyal fans looking for tickets to the big game can forget about dealing with scalpers, thanks to a new company allowing them to bid on tickets for their favorite teams.
Ticket Reserve operates as a futures market, allowing fans to place a bid on their team’s tickets for a big game on its Web site, http://www.FirstDIBZ.com. The market, operating on the basis of probability, determines the price of the bid. By purchasing this reservation, called a Fan Forward, passionate fans are guaranteed access to a ticket, at face value, if their team makes it to the Final Four.
“It’s not some kind of shopping cart that we’re manipulating,” said Robert Hamilton, vice president of marketing for Ticket Reserve. “It’s the market just doing what it does best.”
For example, if a Duke fan wanted to reserve tickets at the beginning of March Madness in the event of the Blue Devils going to the Final Four, they could place a bid. A fan from George Mason University could do the same. Since Duke was a heavily favored team, the market may have valued the Duke Fan Forward more than the GMU one. But if a dedicated Patriot fan placed a bid early on, he could now redeem it for the option to buy Final Four tickets at face value – likely at a much lower cost than trying to buy tickets from a third party.
“We have some people this year who bought a Fan Forward for George Mason,” said Hamilton. “They may have bought ticket rights for $5, thinking that this was the year the stars were aligned in their favor. By purchasing this reservation early, they now have the chance to buy Final Four tickets to see their team at face value.”
Of course, the system can be used by more than just devout fans. At any point in the process, a Fan Forward holder can option out and sell the ticket.
“To stick with the George Mason case, this guy who bought the fan forward for $5 now might say, ‘I want to let go of it for, say, $75,'” said Hamilton. “Someone else out there might determine that they’re willing to pay $75 for a chance at tickets. So the original holder could sell it at a substantial profit.”
The company can offer ticket opportunities because it has worked out individual deals with distributors who promise to share the revenue from the tickets. Hamilton sees this as “the model of the future.”
“In the revenue sharing deal, everyone’s a winner,” he said. “Fans win, because they get to see their favorite teams. We win, because we earn money off the tickets. And the rights owners win, because they can charge a fee for each ticket sold.”
In an era when a Super Bowl ticket can fetch thousands of dollars, Ticket Reserve believes it can not only offer fans a better deal, but help cure some of the corruption involved.
“Everyone stands to benefit when we can take back sports from a lot of the greedy forces that have overtaken them,” said Hamilton. “We’re not trying to be overly rebellious here, but we do feel like we offer a much better alternative.”
Ticket Reserve was founded in 2001 by Rick Harmon and Herb Rudoy and originally just offered the futures market model for Super Bowl tickets. Since then, it has grown to include everything from Indy car racing to the NHL – and yes, it must be said in March – college basketball.
“George Mason was definitely the big story this year,” said Hamilton.
Ticket Reserve also touts as one of its advantages its high security. Unlike scalpers, who can easily scam unknowing victims, Ticket Reserve is fully legal and guaranteed.
Hamilton won’t say exactly where Ticket Reserve is looking next, but he sees a lot of potential in the model.
“The model for how seats could be allocated plays very well where there’s other sports with very high demand,” he said.
http://www.bcheights.com/home
Did you really get them. My client did not get his even after several promises he would.
I have a client who bought Super Bowl tickets from us. He had also bought DIBZ futures on the Steelers. He was in for about $2000, so I don’t think it was from one of the complete fraudulent sellers who were selling them for around $100. Much like in the old days of buying from certain scumbags we all know who would not fill their orders, DIBZ left this guy in the lerch. They first told him to come Saturday at Noon. In a very aggitated state, he actually spoke to the CEO himself who basically lied to his face telling him the tickets would be there by 5pm, than 7pm than Noon the next day (haven’t we heard that one before!). As opposed to the brokers out there who fill their orders when the going gets tough (ie: Tampa 2002), they did nothing but give his money back. Perhaps he should get back double as in NATB. Sounds like the same type of scum in different clothing that have given brokers black eyes for the ages.
while i feel for you, udibz are not firstdibz.
However, FirstDIBZ never said they weren’t good. They opened uDibz markets so they could profit from outside transactions similar to eBay or StubHub. They failed to provide “reasonable diligence” as outlined in their customer agreement. Their refusal to properly monitor the activities of their sellers led directly to this situation. I want them to live up to their responsibilities. The reparation offer is insufficient.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20090201/SPORTS/902010371
Called today and customer service said they planned to do something but didnt know what or when?
Are they refunding prior to the Super Bowl of fraudulent dibz. There were numerous Cubs dibz that were likely fake dibz going for low prices in big quantities.
Any news?
I think you should post over at yoonew.com.
They have a forum over there and a good community.
Haven’t heard anything on lost profits yet. Has anyone else heard anything?
I don’t know one person who had Cardinals or Steelers Udibz that received Super Bowl tickets. There whole business model may be flawed as all their NFL Udibz may be fraudulent.
Havent heard anything on lost profits either, Im gonna call them today if they keep blowing me off, Im gonna be part of the class action lawsuit, I had been hoping to settle and move on.
they told me when i picked up my tickets that everyone ended up with tickets. is this not true?
Call everyday at least once, no one ever picks up, want an update on when arrests will be made, hope to pursue the perpetrators and get what I can from them also.
Nuff said.
Waited forever but I ended with all 8.
Firstdibz delivered.
I noticed they finally took down the big orders of uDibz for NCAA Final Four… Good move.
That comment must refer to people who owned regular Dibz. Most people who got screwed in this whole uDibz mess were SOL. I’m pretty sure they took care of their larger uDibz clients, though.
Note: I never received any previous email as they mentioned. Will not sign without a written amount. As for a 25% site credit, are they crazy? No way I would accept that as payment.
Just got this email:
Our records state that you have not viewed the FirstDIBZ Customer Satisfaction Paper Profit Agreement. In order to receive the compensation that was indicated in the email sent this past Thursday, February 5, 2009, please click on the above link and accept the agreement.
To reiterate, in recognition and in good faith, we are offering you a site credit of 25% or a minimum of $50 on your “paper profit,” less refunds for eliminated teams and associated with your Customer Satisfaction Agreement. This credit is offered until 12:00pm February 13, 2009. Simply click through to our Customer Satisfaction Paper Profit Agreement and follow the posted instructions to accept.
Please refer to the previous email to obtain the amount of the settlement or contact FirstDIBZ directly.
Please be aware that the online agreement will not display your specific credit. The previous email will act as confirmation of the amount your account will be credited.
If you have any questions or concerns, please give us a call at 312-357-4281 or email [email protected].
The FirstDIBZ Team
Looks like the took down the rest of the uDibz… Guess they weren’t legit after all…
i have been working with a great attorney group in chicago.. i paid them to try and negotiate a settlement. they have more information on this case then anyone out there. first dibz are really bad people.. i would like to find few others who would like to get him to file suit and probable force a fair settlement for us. Do you know of any others? there is a class action being filed buy another group, but that will take years and the lawyers usually make all the money. My lawyer has spent over 5 hours on the phone with firstdibz council and has a good repetoire with them. If you are interested and we can find a few more people that are still out there we can make this happen. for the record i am out 16 superbowl tickets and 10000 in cash in my account so u know im serious.
dave
[email protected]
I was confused myself, I dont know what they are really offering, but I need more than $50 for paper profits, I know there in a tough situation but they havent made any more announcements on the total damages etc.
Due to a variety of issues at play in the FirstDIBZ world, such as the need for funds to cover the unexpected losses incurred as a result of the fraudulent activities perpetuated in our markets in early January, we have been unable to honor all withdrawals in a timely manner. Because of this, we have had to enter a recapitalization period from which we expect to emerge in 45 days. In short this means that we are asking for your continued patience and understanding over the next 1.5 months as we continue to raise capital and generate enough revenue to process our payment obligations to you.
We ask that you understand that without the time to recapitalize, honoring your requests will take a great deal longer than 45 days. We have considered all options and feel that this is the fastest and safest route to meeting our commitments.
We will continue to operate FirstDIBZ with the singular purpose of honoring your withdrawal requests as fast as we can. We have also taken additional and necessary steps to ensure the validity and safety of all markets going forward. Also during this 45 day period there will be ZERO TRANSACTION FEES as a special benefit to all of our customers.
These are very difficult times for many companies, large and small. In response, we at FirstDIBZ have decided to fight back and rebuild rather than capitulate to market insecurities and negative economic factors. We understand that we can only do this with your continued patience and understanding. As we move forward we will keep you informed.
The FirstDIBZ Team
When I got the email I about hit the roof, now I cant even get my money, how do we know we ever will, what if the fraud bankrupts firstdibz, where are names and info on the fraudsters and some numbers on the damage. Where is the attorney general of Illinois?
Just so everyone doesn’t forget the names of these bastards
CEO- Rick Harmon
President- Dan Lotzof
Chief of Marketing- Tim Browne
COO- John Kaptrosky
These are the scum bags that have stolen from all of us! If you see them on the street make sure to spit on them.
Very disturbing. How can they be short on cash?! The vast majority of the money involved would have gone to the sellers. At most, FirstDIBZ is out their 17% in transaction fees, plus the $1,000 maximum offer to Steelers and Cardinals uDibz holders. I refused the offer, and I can’t see why many people in my circumstance would accept it. Site credit has no bearing on their cash flow. That credit will be absorbed through purchases of ultimately unsuccessful Dibz or other transactions. After having read comments in articles such as this, it’s apparent that FirstDIBZ was having severe cash flow problems even before this incident.
The zero transaction fee “benefit” indicates that customers who were screwed like me have decided to no longer participate in markets. That’s what happens to companies who don’t do right by their customers. It seems as though they took care of the bigger clients and decided to give the average guy the finger. Well, I’m giving it right back. I don’t believe this company is going to survive this “recapitalization period”. I still have valid holdings in my account, but to me that’s lost money. They’re not getting any more from me.
Anyone have any new updates, Ive called them several times and left messages and they dont respond.
This latest 45 day ploy is the last straw and convinces me that none of us will ever see the money owed us by FirstDibz. It’s time for not just the Illinois attorney general to hear what is happening but also the U.S. justice department (because of the use of the Internet in perpetrating this scam, I’m wondering if federal wire fraud charges are a possibility). If the end result is only that the company goes bankrupt, it will be a great disservice. Individuals must be brought up on state, if not federal, charges to help ensure they can never rip people off like this again.
Has anyone been successful in having their credit cards reverse charges from First Dibz? I have now decided to pursue that route as I am increasingly doubtful that I will receive what is owed to me from my wallet.
FirstDIBZ has removed the customer support telephone number from its website. What a joke.
If they had just come clean from the start and took the short term hit, however large it would have been, it would have been better for them in the long term. All the lies and doubletalk they’ve spewed the last six weeks is ridiculous. I don’t trust them anymore, and I will never trust them again. Instead of making things right with their clients, they chose to lowball everyone with insulting offers. Now it appears that they won’t honor any more withdrawal requests.
The clock is ticking. I’m thinking of starting a pool to select when the company files for bankruptcy or goes out of business. I’m thinking just after this 45 day period ends, which is around the middle of April.
First off I cant understand why anyone bought Udibz instead of Dibz thru the company. I knew the Udibz was a mistake for the company to offer and told them so. Really people NOBODY would have 50 seats to the Super and sell the “rights” for such little amounts. 4 teams left and selling the Dibz for $100 and less for each team? Face value was $800 per ticket, so everyone should have known something was shady. Remember if its sounds to good to be true? Sorry, I cant feel sorry for those that chose to go the Udibz route. Everyone got there money that they paid out. The company is not going to give you what you could have sold the tickets for. What I am mad about is that Firstdibz is not allowing people to make withdrawels. I didnt use Udibz nor did my family, but the company will not let me pull our money out. I think the company was going bellyup to begin with, hopefully they dont. But I want my and my familys money. If Chavet Sikes and whoever else reads this, take note:: If I lose my money, you better hope the authorities find you before I do. The Ssame goes for Firtstdibz executives.
I don’t think you have a clue as to what actually happened. First, not all of the supposedly illegitimate uDibz were sold for under $100. I personally bought several uDibz for over $200 apiece. Second, almost every offer that I bought were for two tickets. It’s not like there was one order for 50 seats that was priced well below “market value”. There were several orders posted, none significantly cheaper than the others, mostly for two seats. As far as whether someone would have 50 seats, FirstDIBZ had several hundred, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility, especially if the seller was a ticket broker.
What does the face value of the ticket have to do with anything? If you sold uDibz on the Steelers for $200 and did the same for the Ravens, you’ll end up with $360 per seat after fees. Is that pricing out of line?
I wasn’t looking for a big payday out of this, but that lowball “reparation” offer was an insult. No one is going to get their money out of this. If you believe the “facts” in this article, you’re being incredibly naive. I don’t feel sorry for you, either.
I complained and my credit card took care of it for me.
Dibz did fulfill my order..it wasn’t easy…tons of stress but they did do it on Super Bowl sunday (few hours b4 the game).