Already shaken by what turned into a massive scam over Super Bowl commitments, ticket forward market company FirstDIBZ now finds itself seeking to “recapitalize” over the next 45 days to complete its refund obligations.
The company sent out two emails this week apologizing for delays in allowing users to withdraw from their accounts, explaining that due to the unanticipated losses FirstDIBZ accumulated because of the fraud, it was asking users to wait for the company to improve its financial position before taking out their money.
FirstDIBZ officials did not respond to a request seeking comment. The company has issued refunds to most of the people who were victims of the scam, which centered on the fraudulent sale of “uDIBZ,” essentially promises to supply Super Bowl tickets for a fraction of the cost if a certain team made it to the big game.
The scam rocked the company, prompting it to not only issue the reparations to aggrieved customers, but also to overhaul its policies and operations.
In the first email, sent out Tuesday, February 24, the company said it would issue new withdrawal procedures within 48 hours:
We are aware that you have been waiting patiently on your withdrawal(s) for a period of time that has extended beyond our typical 14 business day processing cycle. Thank you for bearing with us as we continue to deal with circumstances that have been, to a large degree, beyond our control. Those circumstances have been addressed, but we will need an additional 48 hours to implement our withdrawal payment procedures.
Once again, thank you for your continued patience and understanding in these difficult times. Please look here for more information.
Best,
The FirstDIBZ Team
PS. Please note that our Customer Support staff will not be able offer any information beyond what has been outlined in this email.
In the second email sent out yesterday, FirstDIBZ reversed itself and said that after careful consideration it would need a month and a half to recapitalize in order to adequately address their financial standing:
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
PS. Customer Support will not have any more information than is presented here. For more information please send email to [[email protected]]
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For a company that intends to refund everyones money, taking their contact information down from their website does seem very slimy
I think he’s either full of sh!t, or this company was on its way down prior to the Superbowl/udibz problems. When I called prior to the udibz problems, the same one or two people always answered the phone, which I think is kind of strange for a company with $50 million invested in it. My friend also talked to the same people. I think especially during NFL playoffs, the number of calls to such a “big” company would necessitate more than two people answering calls. Of course now they have zero people answering calls (and answering emails)….
again i am not one the “scammers”, but am just as upset as the next guy, however your completely missing my point, which was that if firstdibz doesn’t secure tickets until after they know how many they need and they sell the most dibz for the teams that make it they are going to lose money on those, so if they don’t sell enough for teams that don’t make it they are going to be short and therefore running on a deficit. It is possible for them to lose money on an event, I was stating that in response to an earlier post in regards to where the money went.
I have exact names and addresses right now, as well as why, how and how much. Im going after the scammers myself and have already started getting the paperwork together.
One VP (Andy Leach – good name considering the company) told me he’s on leave of absence, and I’m guessing you are correct that most of the rest of the people are gone. The rest are probably trying how to stay out of legal trouble and how to legally take whatever assets (ie cash) are left out of the company. Although, I would think that money listed as pending withdrawals should be held in some type of escrow and not be legally allowed to use to pay “salaries”, “bonuses”, or any other real or fake “operating” expenses. If they are using money that was supposed to be paid out to us for such expenses, perhaps this could constitute fraud and maybe get these a-holes in jail?
unless they have enough money to satisfy all our judgements it will ultimately just cost us more money, however dibz should email everyone who they bought the dibz from and not just the names of all the scammers because that wouldn’t do us any good unless we knew who we specifically bought them from.
I used a mastercard for some purchases and a visa debit card for others. I filed disputes with both, and am waiting to hear back from them (something like 10 business days for their initial findings, and upto 90 days if FirstDibs tries to dispute my disputes).
Anyway, I might be ok with my debit card, but I’ve heard/read that disputes with debit cards are typically not as safe as with regular credit cards – so the lesson is, when dealing with some unknown merchants, it’s better to be safe and not use a debit card. Also, as you and others mentioned, Amex has a good policy on stuff like this.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my cc companies come through for me, because I have little faith in firstdibz having any money for me in 45 days or 45 years.
I think a lot of people seem to be getting off track…
Right now there is serious concern that FirstDIBZ is not going to be able to meet its financial obligations. This will ultimately affect everybody involved!! It is obvious that this 45 day “recapitalization period” is their way of extending any payouts until the end of March Madness in hopes of increasing their cash flow through their Final Four marketplace. However, this may just be a vicious cycle that ultimately may not lead to enough revenue for FirstDIBZ because of the skepticism involved in all of their markets. This ultimately may lead to bankruptcy!! If so, everyone will be affected… those that accepted the “customer satisfaction agreement” may never see their refund, cash compensation, or their account credits; those that did not accept the offer, and instead pursued a lawsuit on their own or the class action lawsuit may never get compensated, either!!
We MUST prepare ourselves for this kind of situation (albeit a worse case scenario)!! I am reading a lot about pursuing the people that posted the fraudulent uDIBZ; however, you have to think realistically. This is going to be a daunting task that may require a significant commitment of time, resources, and money (and may still never pan out). Instead I believe our time and effort would be better spent in submitting complaints to the appropriate authorities that can follow-through with potential criminal and civil litigation. You should do this even if you are planning your own lawsuit or involved with the class action lawsuit.
I strongly encourage everyone to submit a complaint through their state Attorney General’s office AND the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. These state officials are there to protect consumers like us from fraud, deception, and unfair business practices!! They have the time and resources to pursue criminal charges (even potentially against FirstDIBZ executives) and to potentially collect financial restitution. Even if the company files for bankruptcy they could potentially go after FirstDIBZ executives and ensure they are brought up on criminal charges if they were involved in any wrongdoing in this fraud.
I also encourage you to submit a similar complaint through the Better Business Bureau. This could also pay off for all of us in the future (not to mention it may warn others about getting involved with FirstDIBZ).
Each complaint through these agencies takes about 10 minutes; however, in the long run this will be time well spent. The more complaints submitted by those affected, the greater chance we will have in a potential favorable outcome.
I have already filed these complaints and encourage all of you to do the same.
I have included the links below to make things easier…
1. File a complaint with your state’s Attorney General (easy to find through a Google search).
2. Office of the Illinois Attorney General – http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/index.html
3. Better Business Bureau – https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx
anyone from firstdibz? what about calling the execs numbers? anyone tried that? 45 days cant get here fast enough, i want to know what will happen to my money.
I would be curious to see what kind of money we are talking about? Please post approximate withdrawal amounts. As I know many want to keep anonymous with First Dibz then please post a range.
My Withdrawal
Range 5-10K
Join my facebook page my name is firstdibz ripoff, let’s get organized
I and my friends just called our cc companies and disputed all charges with FirstDibz. The way I see it is if they don’t honor the winning dibz, they shouldn’t be able to pocket the money on the losing dibz. Sort of like a bookie collecting on losing bets and sometimes paying on the winning bets.
In our case we sold back our winning dibz to them, due to several factors, one being that they changed the ticket delivery/pickup options after the fact, however the sales person we talked to had no recollection of telling us when the tickets would be available. Of course they didn’t credit our cc accounts, but did credit our firstdibz “wallet”. After a week or two we were able to “withdrawal” (ie request a check), but of course those checks were never sent. I think they screwed around with delivery/pickup options so people would be forced to sell back to them, and FirstDibz didn’t have any intentions of paying you back anytime soon. If you didn’t go for their buyback deal, they would have to obtain the tickets for you, which of course would cost them money.
One odd thing about the uDibz problem is that FirstDibz said that these individuals couldn’t honor the dibz that they sold, which I assume is true. FirstDibz is in essence doing the same damn thing – not delivering tickets as they said they would, or in my case not giving me the money instead of the tickets. They are SCAMMERS just like the others.
Another thing I thought of is that the 45 day period coincides nicely with the Final Four. I think FirstDibz wants to keep as many people as quiet so that they can sell a lot of Final Four dibz, and maybe not pay out on them either. Or, maybe it’s one big Ponzi scheme – they are going to pay us back with Final Four dibz money, and then screw those people?
I think the best bet for everyone is to call their credit card companies and dispute all charges with this company. Hopefully the volume of disputes will lend some legitimacy to them. I would think if the credit card companies did some poking around, they would see how shady this company.
What technically happened to many of us was that we purchased goods and never received them. Your credit card company is set up and paid for (in the form of interest rates and other memberships you buy) to defend you as their customer when stuff like this happens. You have the right to call your credit card company and file a dispute: goods not received. If you have American Express, your odds of winning this dispute are greater.
It had been roughly 45 days since my “purchase” on FirstDibz when I called AE on Monday. They filed the dispute with relatively no questions asked and my account was credited by AE the following day. My assumption is that AE will now either go after FirstDibz for the $2000 or say F it and eat the cost. Either way, I have been reimbursed all the money I shelled out for this bullsh!t.
no thats not the case, whatever firstdibz arent sold thru a team they still have the ticket at market value. Nice try Jacob
Thank you to you posters for researching that and sharing it with the group, everyone keep posting and stick together.
Heres another thought we really do want firstdibz to do well with the final four and become financially viable because thats are best chance of getting paid.
The best way may be to file credit card disputes. I just filed with my credit card company. They promised refunds and did not deliver the tickets.
In my case, I used my mastercard to deposit money into my “wallet” as needed since December 2007. I used this money to buy and sell dibz for various markets to make a profit, I did not purchase any tickets. The total charged to my mastercard over that time was $626.11. After the Super Bowl this year, I requested a withdrawal of $2,400 and still have approximately $500 left in my account with FirstDibz. Even though I didn’t purchase tickets and since my mastercard charges go back to 12/2007, I wonder if I can dispute my charges of $626.11 just to get back my original amount.
I would give it a try. I’m guessing that given what I expect to be a lot of cc disputes, plus their lack of manpower(?), they might not want to or be able to fight all of these. Plus, I would think the volume of cc disputes would lend legitimacy to each other. I think this is everyone’s best bet. Lawsuits = time and money and I doubt they’ll be in existence and/or have any assets if/when a judgement(s) are won against them.
I think IF firstdibz is trying to stay in business they need to address their customers. People keep posting that this company is going bankrupt those type of post will only make it more difficult for firstdibz to come out of this ok. If they are really trying to stay in business I think they are doing themselves a real disservice by not addressing these issues.
I see they are still selling dibz for next year’s superbowl. If they are taking money from people while knowing they are going out of business this is criminal. I’m thinking about buying some cheap dibz just so I can file a criminal complaint against them.
To the person that ripped into “ex-employee” . THANK YOU!
I could not have said it better. The guy obviously has an ax to grind. Sounds like he got fired for just cause, now he wants to badmouth the company, YET, he wont divuldge his ID. He wants to hide behind the computer.
I dont believe firstdibz had their own corporate jet.Company is not big enough.
Hides his ID. Why? you dont work for them anymore.
He did not know that the NCAA severed ties to Firstdibz.
Doesnt he know CBS invested 8 million dollars in Firstdibz? Heck i knew that, and im not an “ex-employee”.
“ex-employee” is just trying to prey upon everyones worries and implant even more fear.
now trying to get final four dibz to pay for superbowl withdrawals? Eventually the bottom will (or has) fall out, and the people with pending withdrawals (like me) are screwed.
FirstDibz Should Sell it’s platform to stubhub or ticketmaster. They could probably get a few million for the technology patent. They can then pay back all their customers and the rest could go to their investors.
opinions?
did you talk to andy? What other info could he provide
just via email. I sent him an email asking what the f was going on. His reply was:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am on a leave of absence from the company so unfortunately I am totally “outside” of the company and the decisions etc. I forwarded your email to John Kaptrosky the COO at FirstDIBZ and I would expect that he or someone from his staff would reach back out to you.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I never heard anything else from FirstDibz after that, besides the 45 day email.
I’m still holding 2 dibz each for a handful of teams. When I logged in a few minutes ago, something strange is going on…all “initial” dibz offerings were removed and I have an extra 2 dibz of each team that I already had dibz on in my account. Anyone else experiencing this?
How can they be making any money on the dibz now? No transaction fees per their email last week and now all initial offerings removed?
How long have you been working for firstdibz?
Maybe Razorgator will use some of that new capital and buy them out… I’m sure there is some value in the database, technology, and patents….
Think of other buyers?
Ebay/Stubhub
Yoonew – best fit but doubt they have enough capital(plus they have a better platform)
TicketsNow/Ticketmaster
You shouldnt be bashing the ex employee you should be thanking him for coming forward and posting, one guy comes forward and gives valid inside info, you should be on your hands and knees thanking him.
He was let go because of the scam he could have been a very decent hard working person.
You expect him to be loyal to a bunch of crooks.
YOU BASHERS MUST BE WHATS LEFT OF FIRST DIBZ EMPLOYEES
EX DIBZ EMPLOYEE, PLEASE KEEP POSTING WE NEED YOUR HELP AND INPUT.
A guy is a turncoat because he wont stay loyal to crooks???
I could not agree more. You think this Ex-Employee need to do anything that FD has not done to itself to drive business away? You are treating this guy/gal like she is the one that has stolen your money. If I remember correctly FD is the one that has stolen my money and refuses to give it back. They are also the ones that have enough nerve to continue to conduct business like nothing happened and on top of that they have the balls to offer me a credit on their site to conduct future business with them when they have refused to pay me the money I am rightfully owed. No differant than having my best friend sleep with my wife and then continue to invite him over.
To everyone that says “I hope they pay me” or “I am sure they will pay me” you are all dillusional. Protect yourselves! File chargebacks try to recover anything you can. You are all putting trust in a company that has shown no signs of coming out of this. This is not one or two people saying they are owed hundreds, this is hundred of people that are owed thousands.
They are going down the drain. Notice that they took down their contact information. No address, phone #, or management team info. This is the first sign. Second sign is no one home, try calling them. Keep the pressure on the states attorney. Everything else is a waste of time. Threats are just that and won’t work. I don’t think it was intentional but like the wall street banks they got fat and wasted all the seed money on lavish wages and T&E. Now the good times are over and the rainy day is here. And without an umbrella they are going to get washed out.
Dont get fooled by dibz they are useing a basic strategy some people use when they dont have a leg to stand on, attorneys do it all the time, which is to counter attack with anything you can dream up to back off the victimized parties so they will take less.
I even had doubts about the recapitalization, that is some sort of hoax/ploy, since we know they collected from some of the fraudsters out of court, and since they never really compensated much that I know of, (I sure didnt get anything), they make us feel so thankful if we can just get the money back we deposited, we have all but forgotten the massive fraud they allowed and never took responsibility for. In reality right now we should have our deposit money and be negotiating a settlement on the super bowl tickets and lost profits they took away.
They seem totally incapable of taking any path in any situation other than the deceptive dark path.
What did the scammers do. They posted tickets for sale that firstdibz said were fraudulent. How do we know they were fraudulent tickets since firstdibz did not give them the chance to fulfill the tickets. I’m not sticking up for them because they were obviously fraud but firstdibz didn’t give them a chance to complete their fraud so I don’t think you could go after them in court. All they have to say is they had ticket connections and would have fulfilled any obligations and how can you PROVE they didn’t. Nothing is going to happen to the scammers so lets forget about that. Firstdibz is responsible for what happened.
I agree with what you say… FirstDibz can’t be trusted at all. File chargebacks if you haven’t already done so – it probably your best, and maybe only way of getting back any money. Once they go bankrupt, we might get pennies on the dollar, but who knows if/when we’ll see any of that.
They may be trying to raise capital through March Madness to pay out all withdrawals.
opinions?
That was my thinking also, which was a bit of a concern since I expect that to be a relatively weak ticket as compared to prior years. I wonder what event they make good money on other than the super bowl and bcs championship, this could be a long rocky ride.
Im gonna try and tally up what is currently owed as I know dibz has settled and provided super bowl ticket to some or their VIP clients, dont know the full extent. With the tally we can better access as a group what we can ask for or get a better grip on the situation in general.
From there we can try to go forward and settle with dibz and the scammers as a group if we all choose to.
Im looking for the following info;
1. Deposit amount of your money you cant withdrawl
2. super bowl tickets you lost out on, and specify, lowersideline, lower endzone, premium, upper endzone etc, because we can put a dollar value on these of market value less face
3. Lost profits
4. This is important to be fair and look credible in a court of law, how much you were refunded for teams that lost including transactions fees because that is money you got back that you wouldnt have if not for dibz canceling all scammers sales.
You can email to [email protected] Ill check back in a couple days to provide updates.
Yes something seems terribly wrong with this picture, you have a company that allows 1000’s of fraudulent dibz to be sold even when the public asked them for weeks to verify they were legit and we were all told they were legit, then the public gets scammed by them not honoring their obligations then they go bankrupt not only screw us on lost profits, super bowl tickets but now even out of own deposits and even innocent people who didnt know about the scam. The whole time they do a terrible job communicating whats going on.
Then you have 2 professional criminals whos scam was so massive they bankrupted a company, they get away with it and they sit at home and laugh about how smart they are, and plan their next scam.
As a minimum first dibz top officers should be made to cover deposits from their own personal assets and the attorney general of Illinois needs to take down the scammers.
I got an email back from a VP there (prior to the bs recapitalize email). Anyway, he said he couldn’t provide any info since he was on a leave of absence. He didn’t say why he was on leave, but could it be that they can’t make their payroll?
I don’t have much faith on getting any good news from them in 45 days. I think it’ll either be we have to wait longer, no news at all, sorry no money, or maybe they’ll offer some fraction of what is owed to us.
I think disputing charges on your credit card(s) makes the most sense for now. I’m no lawyer, but I think the longer you wait, the less chance you have of winning a cc dispute. So, if you wait 45 (or more) days like they say, maybe that will hurt your chances of winning a credit card dispute.
Another thing – they are blaming the udibz problem for their money problems. I think this is just a convenient excuse for them. How much (besides maybe on some legal fees) have they really spent on the udibz stuff so far? I accepted their $1000 offer for the udibz thing, but I haven’t seen a penny of it. I also haven’t got my other non udibz money. They are full of sh1t. In my opinion, they were already in bad shape prior to the udibz thing and/or they are just ripping everybody off and, who knows they may reopen a new company somewhere down the road, and the execs spending our money.
They have not issued any reimbursements to people who had the settlements placed in their online accounts! They are attempting to steal our deposits too!
I would like to know how many super tickets Firstdibz had to pay for and fill out of their own pockets because of the fraudulent sellers, and how much it cost them.
I to am concerned that this is the first step towards bankruptcy and what then, everyone is screwed out of their personal funds on top of the scam, plus they lose their money that dibz shouldnt be accessing to fulfill their obligations?
Where are the names of these fraudulant parties they have to pay dearly, and why no arrests like we were earlier promised, everything just seems fishy.
No udibz were honored and therefore not a single udibz seller was paid, so how are they out anything? where did the money go? Also arrests haven’t been made because what would arrests be for? No one got any money, nor was given the chance to fill, their orders, it would take a long civil trial to accomplish anything and that would only drain their funds and ability to repay people even more. NO goverment is going to spend federal tax dollars to help a “gambling institution” as declared by the NCAA make up for their lack of protection measures, if anything they might go after the people at firstdibz for running an illegal gambling institution without proper liscensing. The federal government usually isn’t to concerned either with gamblers and tickets scalpers lose out on potential profits. It appears that firstdibz was struggling before this scheme and maybe that’s why they allowed risky udibz in the first place, but unfortunately their is nothing illegal about filing bankruptcy. Which is why people should maybe be more skeptical in the first place about buying thousands of dollars worth of “risky-looking dibs” in hopes that firstdibz would honor them.
I always knew it was a broken business model. Idiots.
You sound like the person who sold the udibz
I really hope the justice department gets involved with this and moves forward to bring these people to justice. I know the attorney general of the state of Illinois is investigating this matter? Does anybody know the names of the people that are behind this matter or the states they are from? It is important that we bring them to justice. What they did was wrong and they need to be locked up in prison!
real nice but you sure were happy about having 80,000 of other peoples money in your account, before the titan,ravens and giants lost.
Let me ask you this, wasnt udibz operating in full view in front of the public and didnt you sell thousands of udibz with no intention of ever delivering but rather of screwing udibz and the public if you didnt get the super bowl match up you wanted, that sounds like preconceived criminal fraud, thats right you can delude yourself all you want but you have many skeletons in your closet and many people know where those skelotons are.
Actually firstdibz did fill some fraudulent super bowl orders, I dont know how many but some were filled and it had to be expensive, in addition they operated their business and didnt make money on all your thousands of fraudulent transactions.
Not given a chance to fill orders???, were you actually gonna fill hundreds to in excess of a thousand super bowl tickets, (did you have another way of scamming the public to pay for these.)
Actually federal tax dollars would be well spent to go after someone who purposely scams the public on a website that operates in full view, because of your fraud innocent people are out not only super bowl udibz they bought in good faith and you took their money but also now innocent people are out their money just sitting in their account because of the financial hardship you caused firstdibz.
The NCAA cannot make any legal declarations and did not.
People should be skeptical buying udibz?????? Is that why sold thousands and had 80,000 in your account????????????
The federal govt is concerned when 2 parties enter into a legal agreement in the market place and one accepts money and assumes an obligation, that money is call consideration and makes it legally binding so if firstdibz doesnt get you all the individuals you screwed will.
Most companys would have trouble surviveing the criminal activity and the money you caused them with you activities and I doubt they would be having financial trouble otherwise.
I dont think you causeing firstdibz bankrupcy is a good thing or something to be taken lightly
RICK HARMON
yes the two who sold the fraudulent udibz and they have quite a history and are a detriment to society and need to be dealt with so the public will not have to suffer at their hands again.
FirstDibz has a good business model if it’s operated right
Has anyone been in contact with FirstDibz people since this latest withdrawal email? If so, did they say anything beyond their email?
Has anyone had success in disputing any credit card charges from FirstDibz? With little hope of receiving the money due to me anytime soon, I would hope credit cards will refund any charges from FirstDibz. Some of those charges are deposits I made to buy Dibz at a later point in time, and now I can’t even get those deposits back!
PONZI SCHEME!!! Bernie Madoff #2!
If it was two sellers that did this to Firstdibz, why did I just have the same problem with my Final Four dibz? They canceled my dibz a month after I bought them because my teams are now ranked 1 & 2. They know the price for lower level final four tickets is going up, blame security and cancel the dibz. The whole company is a scam…..
Their business model was flawed, they rely on “ignorant fans” to make dumb purchases, when in reality its almost all brokers who know what their doing and therefore firstdibz is going to lose money on almost all events. Like someone said above the concept is great in theory but unless they actually have the tickets in advance all they are doing is gambling against our picks and if they don’t get equal money on both sides like a bookie theirs always a strong chance they will lose. I don’t know how they couldn’t have known the udibz were not real, likely they just took a shot, and needed an excuse anyways to file bankruptcy, how convenient, blame it on the fraud, when in reality the problem was their concept and negligence.
I too am very angry with the way FirstDibz has treated everyone and can’t believe they are still up and running! Not only are they really pushing people to buy NCAA Final Four dibz (Think they will come through with those?????) they act like they are doing us a favor by offering a “special benefit”: ZERO TRANSACTION FEES. I’ve requested over $3000 to be sent to me that I’ve had in my wallet and they can’t pay me, yet they want me to buy more dibz??!?!? Amazing!
I think I do am going to contact my credit card company and see what they can do, I’ll end up not getting the full $3000 since I made a little bit of money selling the Super Bowl dibz but I’ll hopefully get something back. I have no trust in this Harmon guy or anyone at FirstDibz. In 45 days I’m expecting to hear that they have shut the doors….
These 2 sellers are well known for doing business under multiple names, multiple accounts etc, it might not be recognizable at first. Also Im not letting firstdibz off the hook, they were very very naive/negligent if they thought there wouldnt be any ticket brokers who would try to scam the public, when firstdibz didnt put in limits or monitor this more closely it made it very inviting for these individuals to attack and scam thats what they do and look for oppurtunities like this, and its also possible maybe even likely firstdibz may have been monitoring and chose to look the other direction until it all blew up.
Looks like they took down their remaining offerings for teams… Only orders up are orders from users…
Sorry, John’s right – selling futures may work for the Chicago Merc or other financial instruments where inventory is more plentiful, but tickets are scarce. That’s why brokers and the secondary market are valuable – they take risk of the table for the teams/artists/promoters, and offer the fans access to scarce products. Of course, risk is involved, but good brokers know how to manage this risk and make money.
Think about pork bellies – are you afraid there aren’t going to be enough? Or even oil futures? We’ll have gas, just may have to pay $4 a gallon for it. Point is that there will be enough, but the futures markets work in these circumstances because the futures market protects buyers against extreme price fluctuations.
Super Bowl? A max of 80,000ish tickets, and few of those ever hit the open market. So, the commodity is scarce. If the commodity is scarce, and you have too many people trying to profit off that scarce commodity, that’s a bad thing – rife for fraud.
uDibz is a nightmare – it will always be open to fraud by unscrupulous crooks looking to profit (all brokers are clever, and some less-admirable folk will always take such a system down.)
So, yah, the uDibz model is f’d … and, even if you can back the tickets by making the market yourself, I find it hard to believe you could run a profitable ticket futures business.
This business is a pipe dream cooked up by some MBA on a spreadsheet … doesn’t appreciate how the real market works.
I believe we have to be realistic, dibz will not make whole the individuals who got scammed especially in this economy, thats why Im not sold on a long protracted class action lawsuit, we need to get what we can from dibz thru some sort of settlement, obviously better than the garbage they are presenting now.
Also we need to pursue the scammers, they are most likely ticket brokers who have money coming in every year, we could get some sort of plan set up where they pay over a number of years.
Something like this, we consider a price on the super bowl tickets not filled and lost profits and that would be the total loss per person, we figure out total damages and the money recouped from dibz and the scammers would be divided amongst us pro rated based on each individuals losses. Payments could be made quarterly or something to be determined later and divided up by an escrow company and disbursed.
There are more details to work out but thats the blueprint.
I would consider going along after I hear more details.
I think firstdibz is being hurt by all of the negative posts and speculation and is why they need to respond. Firstdibz is not doing themselves any favors by remaining silent.
Before we worry about the whole bonus/reparations, shouldnt we be worried about our initial fundings and wallet amounts? I have a feeling that they will ditch with out paying us our withdrawals. What would this mean? What if they dont return our withdrawal amounts? I am not sure about you guys, but i need my 6thousand dollars! this is a lot of money and i have plans for it. Any feelings on if we will get our withdrawals back in 45 days?
What team that I know is associated directly with FirstDibz/Ticketreserve is the Boston Celtics and actually advertise it on their website. I’m hoping they know what is going on and drop any relations with these scam artists. BCS also needs to drop any ties they have with them….very poor business practice.
Even if they do great with the Final Four dibz do you think they will own up and pay everyone they owe from Super Bowl? If they do, they I assume everybody with Final Four dibz are screwed…vicious circle.
I don’t get how they would have been able to mix in deposit money with operating costs. Its obvious they spent all their money on lawyers who screwed us both ways now. Mr. Harmon and the rest of these guys will be in jail too if they can not cover our withdrawals. Their primary focus better be getting us our money, before they put any more money into their company. If they can not pay people thier balances and keep the company going than they should pay the balances and close the company. Mr. Harmon and any of the other employees better be ready to take money out of their own pockets or work for free until everyone’s withdrawals are paid in full.
The numbers just dont make sense! It is obvious that they paid out some of their favorites or people connected to themselves before they paid us. otherwise they would have everyone’s money. I should have had superbowl tickets just like the next guy, so if I find out they spent money on someone’s superbowl tickets before refunding my intial deposit, they have another thing coming to them.(I certainly didnt get superbowl tickets)
They should have just put a freeze on the bonus money for withdrawals not my stake!
CEO – Rick Harmon
Chief Operating Officer – John Kaptrosky
Human Resources – Wendy Pruess (312) 357-4200
Still trying to dig up more information on First Dibz / Ticket Reserve
Bankruptcy – seems likely to me too. They are not selling any more stuff, because I think they’d be in big trouble if they kept selling their own dibz knowing that bankrupcty was right around the corner. I expect in 45 days or less we’ll get the official word that they are bankrupt.
aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what happened to all the money? why can’t these CEO’s that have made obviously huge money from this company kick in for our withdrawals.. We need payment! They have taken lots of money in bonus/salary over the past few years. ALL you EXECS PLEASE PAY up, you dont want to piss people off when they can just as easily COME TO YOUR HOUSE and ask for their share.
The last thing we want to do is put first dibz out of business at this juncture, they owe me alot of money and if they go bankrupt Im sol.
Yes I have a pending withdrawal
My understanding is that there is only 5 people left in the company… I think they’re going bankrupt…
All they had to do was reimburse only the winning superbowl tickets(amounts clients paid)with all the money they would pay to the scammers. Thus making big profit. From there they could have taken that extra profit and funded the reperations with only that extra money. However, they paid some schmuck lawyers and experts all our money to figure out this other genious way. This would have also left paper profits uneffected. Wow they are super dumb! and they still have the site up taking money from unknowing people, that should be illegal! In some way I am sure it is. Taking money knowing you will go BK. Put em all in jail! Stop it with the dumb lawsuite too, you just wasting my money to get even. Give me the names of the scammers instead of the lawsuite!
I didn’t even get the e-mails from them last week
do you have “pending” withdrawals?
Is that you again justifying your premediated scam. They are not gambling they are bringing buyers and sellers together.
If these guys go out of business and steal thousands from customers? I feel scared for them. I would very much hate to be in their positions. They should just raise all the money they can and payoff these people at all costs. I just know there are crazy people in this world. not to mention the “booking” world of sports tickets, that would not digest these losses well. By no means am I saying that the everyday booky is crazy…wait, thats exactly what I am saying.
I don’t know who that is , but I was referring to the dibz and not the udibz. If they don’t sell enough of the losing teams dibz, and sell a lot for the teams that qualify they are putting themselves at risk to lose a lot of money. Thats all I was trying to say, sorry for not clarifying better. I was just trying to explain how they could have been in the hole even before this years super bowl, because that what it appears was the case.
How much they owe you in withdrawals?
PLEASE READ ENTIRELY, there is a lot of anger vented towards dibz that should be directed towards the scammers.
This is what happened and this is where it is now, the scammers thought it would be a great idea to sell thousands of dibz with no intention of ever delivering, but before they did this they researched that it they got busted it would be a civil case and not criminal. Thats important, because they knew that dibz would be on the hook to fill orders or cancel them all together. They know they are also protected from the public by the privacy agreement.
So they sold thousands of dibz mostly for underdogs and maybe the steelers because of rothlisbergers concussion last game of the season. They had close to 100,000 in options in their accounts and figured they would walk away with that if they got giants,ravens/titans combo in the superbowl, which looked quite likely at one time, or maybe their card gets charged 10,000, either way they think its a great risk to take because they dont factor in any repercussions because of civil case as oppossed to criminal and they figure that it will be first dibz problem to clean up which its turned out that way. They also stated many times and one even had the nerve to post on here that anyone who was dumb enough to buy udibz deserves to get scammed this is from the people responsible for the fraudulent udibz.
Also remember these scammers have along history of this type of activity although maybe not on this scale, Who knows how many ticket related websites they have been kicked off of or tried to use as a scamming vehicle, remember when we could sell tickets on ebay for 3% sellers fee and that was it, now we have to sell on stubhub for %15 sellers and 10% buyers. So they have cost you and the ticket business in ways you cant even begin to factor in and now get off free and not only screw you on super bowl tickets (REMEMBER THEY WERE MORE THAN HAPPY TO TAKE YOUR MONEY) but now innocent people could lose their deposits.
So then firstdibz goes on record that not civil but criminal charges will be brought, what happens then, the SCAMMERS NOW THREATEN TO COUNTER SUE FIRST DIBZ FOR BEING AN ILLEGAL GAMBLING WEBSITE AND DRAG THEM THROUGH THE MUD AND FORCE THEM TO DEFEND THAT CHARGE, IF THEY DONT DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST THE SCAMMERS. Thats why dibz is in such a bad fianancial situation, trying to defend off a ficticious charge the scammers dreamed up to save their asses for the malicious premeditated crime they constructed and committed.
SO THE SCAMMERS DIDNT SCREW YOU ONCE THEY SCREWED YOU TWICE AND WERE HAPPY TO DO IT AND EVEN MOCKED YOU IN THEIR POSTING ON THIS WEBSITE AND THEY WOULD SCREW YOU AGAIN TOMORROW IF THEY COULD PROFIT FROM IT.
Thats why Im trying to collect from the scammers, I have all their personal info.
Do you see that there are 100’s of Udibz selling for the Lakers? Are you kidding me?
What in the Fuk is going on? Same sh!t as before. How did they verify all these tickets from these sellers now? Have they learned nothing?
Yes losing out on withdrawls would be a bitter pill to swallow after what we have been through, we need to keep a master list of people, what they are out in withdrawls, what they are out in super bowl tickets and what they are out in paper profits less what dibz refunded them for options for losing teams (this is only fair that this is subtracted from what we try to collect since this is money we would have been out if udiz wouldnt had been a scam)
We need the names of the scammers to persue them also.
If we lose withdrawls or dibz file bankrupcy, then we have to pierce the corp veil and ask the courts to go after the officers personal assests and we also have to go after the scammers for reparations freezing liquidateing of assests/homes. We need to get a list of the scammers names, addresses and the actual fraud amount they caused.
The officers names should be public record either on the internet or someone from Illinois could look it up in a local library somewhere, does anyone know the names/ locations of the fraudsters I know back when the story broke 4 names were given by someone on this forum, it was up a couple days and taken down, does anyone have those names and any info they could have as far as where they live and what kind of assets and incomes they may have.
my guess is they don’t have much money or assets, otherwise why would they have done this? and also what would prevent them from just filing bankruptcy? I want to go after them but I don’t want to spend several thousand in legal fees just so they can file bankruptcy. also some names have been posted on here several times, but until Firstdibz releases those we can’t really confirm anything or who each person specifically bought them from. I tried to get firstdibz to give me their names about a month ago, but they said because of the privacy agreement they couldn’t release their names until they were charged, but it seems kinda lame. Also we know their were multiple people who sold the bad udibz, so if we bought some from more than one seller such as myself I think, would we have to file lawsuits on 3 or 4 parties. this sucks
BTW , I started a yahoo group if anyone is interested in using it to post updates, ask questions, relay news, or even just to vent.
Group name is : Firstdibzcustomers
Email; [email protected]
but that would be considered harrassment and could end up with you getting charged and arrested, theirs better ways to handle this
It did nothing to the scammers or even charging firstdibz with anything. All the legal system has done so far is spent my money! What a bunch of BS. Why can’t these guys get it through their heads. We dont care about justice, we care about our money at this point. This should be firstdibz’s main concern as well. Not one withdrawal should go unpaid. I lost thousands in profits, but i understand Shi% happens and i can live without. If they say a counter lawsuit is costing them money, then what would they rather do? Go BK because of the counter lawsuit, or go BK paying back withdrawals. I perfer the second
Just curious if anyone went to the Final Four via FirstDibz. Were the tickets honored? Any issues?
Today is the 45th day. They better come out with something today. They better not have planned it on easter to buy another day.
I had a great time last night with great seats from firstdibz.com. Had no problem picking them up.
I didnt have a great time sitting at home during the superbowl. I didnt have a great time spending the 5,000 dollars of my own money they refused to return to me. I am not having a great time worrying if I should ever expect to see my money again.
I dont think they understand what this cash means to me, when I was told that this was a safe and secure company by not only FirstDibz but professional sponsors.
So anyways I am glad you had a great time at the Final Four, sitting in seats that FD probably paid for with my money. I mean you spend 50 bucks on Dibz and go to the final four with basically no risk, but when i spend THOUSANDS and win I dont even get free tickets to a high school hockey game.
Oh yea the ex-employee is the one that is hold thousands of my dollars.
I do not need any convincing to know who’s fault it is.
I do not blame the scammers, they do not have a penny of my money
I do not blame ex-employee, he does not have a penny of my money
First Dibz has around 3k of my money they have STOLEN and refuse to pay!
I do not care about any reasons, blah blah blah, I deposited money with them , they refuse to pay me they have STOLEN from me plain and simple.
All Execs have taken most money out of company over the last year. So when this thing crashes there will be nothing to pay us. I don’t think they will be paying us from their personal accounts. Someone should investigate and make sure they are not making anything for 2008-2009 if this company folds.
I will not direct one ounce of anger toward the scammers they are not holding MY money! Stop placing the blame on them and focus on what is going on! They are holding thousands or millions in deposits, the scammers do not have ONE cent of my money!
would someone mind posting the form letter/email you sent to the attorney general, so we all can put our own personal touch on and send it off.
Advice Needed!
What about those of us who did not buy/sell Udibz or buy and hold a winning dibz for the SuperBowl? I’m sure I’m not the only one who used my credit card numerous times over the years to fund my wallet to buy and sell dibz to make a profit? How would you go about explaining this to the credit card company? Although, I turned a profit and have more in my account than I originally charged to my card, I’m fairly sure the credit card company will look at the original charges as money that was used to gamble and that the resulting money is all winnings that is of no concern to them. At this point, I’d be happy with just my original money (less than $700) that I put in to First Dibz. I’d appreciate any help from other people who are in my situation and what you’ve done or trying to figure out what to do.
dispute everything you charged from your cc company(ies). I think you’re screwed on the excess/profits. In my case, what they owe me is about even to what I charged on my credit cards, so either way I come out about even.
I don’t even see how you can charge the scammers with a crime. Since firstdibz canceled these orders before giving the scammers an opportunity to fulfill them how can they prove they wouldn’t have fulfilled them. You can’t charge somebody with a crime for something you think they were going to do or in this case not do. All they have to say is they were going to supply tickets if they had to. Seems to me the only one’s we know didn’t fulfill what they promised is firstdibz.
If nobody is getting paid then where is all the money. I sold dibz during the championship game of the winning team that were from firsdibz. Somebody paid over $500 per dibz which firstdibz received but won’t give me. That’s like an auction house saying we sold your painting but somebody else sold a fake painting so your not getting your money.
Anybody can sell tickets I don’t think you need a patent.
“Ex-Employee” is Fake!
For the last 2 delusional posters crying because “ex-employee” is getting bashed, maybe you should research is posts and read carefully. This guy is only on here to spread more fear to everyone that is already worried about their money. Just because some says they are an “ex-employee” you automatically believe them? You must be very gullible, just like the buyers of UDIBZ that got burned. I said it before, and I will say it again. I saw that the UDIBZ had fraud potential all over it, and told Firstdibz so. But people bought the UDIBZ instead of DIBZ on the company line because they were cheaper, and people thought they were getting a great deal. Guess what people, by trying to save a few bucks, you got burned. you were gullible then, and your gullible now if you believe anything “ex-employee” says. I see toooooo many things in his statements about the company that isnt true. But if you want to believe him, go ahead. The guy didnt lose his job in the scam, he was FIRED before that.
And believe me, Im not an employee of Firstdibz, I have over $12,000 still stuck in account I cant withdraw. I have dealt with Firstdibz since the very start, and they have always come through in the past. I see signs that they are trying hard to get through this and make good to everyone, so I am going to be patient for a few more weeks. People you dont have much choice except to see what happens. But dont let some clown come on here and pretend he knows the ins and outs of Firstdibz, and feed you a bunch of bologna to toy with your fears. BE SMARTER THAN THAT.
They are not selling tickets but forward contracts. They could have patent their process or technology.
Well this is my take on the whole situation and my personal opinion.
I filed a chargeback with my credit card company requesting a full refund for all my dibz I purchased including the ones I lost. With this refund it will cover my current money in my account that they have refused to refund. I had Panthers forwards canceled for fraud as well 1 month after I bought and sold them for a profit. I was credited my initial purchase price minus my profit and that money was frozen. I also contacted them after purchasing Cardinals udibz in december and was told they are 100% legit since I purchased 30 of them. My take on it is that this company is nothing more than a big ponzi scheme and when a longshot (cardinals) made it they were exposed. With their business model and they money they were taking in not only from losing dibz and fees I do not see how they can lose money even after fulfilling winning dibz. That is what leads me to believe they have no intention of refunding our money and are only waiting for additional purchases to cover the money to be paid out. They were they ones that authorized the “scammmers” to post on their site which they stated they verified. Why would they have the nerve to offer us a credit to purchase more from their site? Do they think they can continue to operate given their image? Because they needed more capital and never intended to refund us any money. I do not plan on filing a lawsuit, it would just cost more then it worth and how much money are you getting from a bankrupt company? File chargebacks with your credit card companies and hope for the best. I am out 3-4k.
Google firstdibz scam and you’ll get to read a bunch of comments about people who got ripped off. Google yoonew Craig Cox and you can read about two guys who bought tickets to this years superbowl for $29 each and didn’t have to pay face value on top of it. $58 for two tickets to the superbowl and yoonew delivered, I know where I’m spending my money from now on. just check out this link http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?s=9776406
How do you patent fraud?
In one of the articles dibz stated they have spent 50 million dollars on their platform, I believe that was the wording, and furthermore I guess you can take anything they say with a grain of salt.
I believe it was $8 million. I remember reading that – $8 million for their platform.
One major point here. Most credit card companies have a 60 day period to file disputes for chargebacks. Notice the timing? The launch for the 2010 Super Bowl Dibz was the week before Christmas over 8 days (12/15 – 12/22). 60 days after 12/22 is 2/20. The withdrawal email notice was sent on 2/27 if I remember (at least that was when I received mine). Its almost like they waited an extra 7 days so they were not overly obvious, but it seems like they were hoping to keep all or most of those launch deposits from December. Many credit cards will go longer than 60 days. But the 60 day grace period is a good rule of thumb. This whole scheme, if indeed it was a scheme, seems very calculated when you piece the dots together. Fishy nonetheless.
By the way, thanks FirstDibz for contacting me since its been over a week since I emailed you. Way to keep the customer service! You think if you were really trying to stay afloat you would hire a couple pimple-faced teenagers for $8/hr to at least write some BS standard email response to your former loyal patrons. What a joke!
Here is the paragraph your talking about;
“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.
By that it sounds like in their opinion they do have something of value that could be sold.
If not, atleast we know where they live. Have you seen their houses on google maps satalite?($$$$$$) wow these guys live in luxury and they only owe me a few thousand! I think they can settle with us. A few 1000 to us is a drop in the bucket to them.
You shouldnt be bashing the ex employee you should be thanking him for coming forward and posting, one guy comes forward and gives valid inside info, you should be on your hands and knees thanking him.
He was let go because of the scam he could have been a very decent hard working person.
You expect him to be loyal to a bunch of crooks.
YOU BASHERS MUST BE WHATS LEFT OF FIRST DIBZ EMPLOYEES
EX DIBZ EMPLOYEE, PLEASE KEEP POSTING WE NEED YOUR HELP AND INPUT.
####################################
Are you serious? Get on my hands and knees to thank him? WOW, you have got a lot to learn. “ex-Employee” is just toying with you people. I have read through his previous comments. He doesnt know what he is talking about. You are very gullible people if you believe him. Have you stopped to think for a moment that “ex-employee” might just be some loser that thinks its fun to come on here and keep spouting that we are all never going to see our money again, because he thinks its fun? Ever stop to think maybe he is one of the thief ,lowlife scammers?
Grow a brain,,,and if you want examples of how I know “ex-employee” doesnt know/and or is lying about what he is talking about, speak up, and I will show.
I’m sure I can’t convince you of that… I have never participated in the uDibz but I can tell everyone that I’ve always gotten my seats from the company’s “dibz”. I went there as a UCONN fan and ended up selling my tickets for the championship game to a MS fan for for more than the face value on the whole strip.
I hope this company gets the financing it needs, pays the people they need to pay, and can continue to grow…
Is the big day. Just 11 more days until we either hear: “We will be shutting down” or “we do not have your money at this time, please allow an additional 30 days”. Does anyone know if CC charge backs hurt your score at all?
Thanks
I agree with you – I don’t want to see others suffer like we did. I don’t want to promote FD and help out their execs collect their paychecks, with the slim hope that some of the money could come back to us. Like others said, credit card chargeback(s) are probably the best chance all of us have in seeing any money.
I couldn’t get onto my account or my friend’s account. I tried creating a new account, but I kept getting some errors. I’m guessing it’s just a matter of time before they shut the doors on this company.
If you haven’t already done so, call your credit card company(ies) and dispute your charges with FD. I’ve done so, as have my friends. We’ve gotten provisional credits while they investigate our claims. I think if FD doesn’t respond and/or goes bankrupt, we should win our CC disputes with them. Plus, the cc companies should see the number of claims against FD and that should lend legitimacy to them all. Just my advice (i’m not a lawyer).
So good, I had to paste this so nobody misses it. Kudos, to the original author!
TO: “ex-employee”;;;
You are not trying to drive business away from FD??? Did you really write that? Do you think we are fools and that our money is just a game to be played with while you lick the pathetic petty wounds you suffered when they canned you? It is no wonder they did –what you are doing now is exactly what they no doubt saw in you as an employee -an emotional pygmy with no integrity. I would wager my dibz withdawal money that they know exactly who you are and are working with their lawyers on how to respond. Your type is not hard to profile. I only hope that they broadcast your name everywhere they go. You are hurting them, which is hurting us. If your inside information is so good -I suggest you quickly check on what their plan is for you!!
Turncoats, especially turncoats that fire from blinds, are low life forms. What you are not getting is that the only chance we have to get ANY money is if they can turn this crap around. Think about it: their are real signs that they have heard us. They have downsized. They have kept in communication with us (not as much, or as openly as we would like). They are opening new markets and pushing forward. Only a real low life would not grant them this and wish them such ill. When they publish your name, and they will very soon, I for one will be relieved. this is not about your battle with them. This is about us getting our money! Remember: what goes around, comes around!! DUCK!!!
Maybe thats their “special offer to sell your soul for” a 2-1 deal.. Wow that would be a dumb financial move for them, unless they had such high profit margins before and this is just a good way for cash infusion. Although this is all speculating on your email.
ponzi scheme? or are they just trying to win back some customers?
The duplicate dibz are now gone. Not sure what happened.
THIS HAS THE SMELL OF BANKRUPTCY ALL OVER IT! I WOULD FILE WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
The website yoonew.com is a much better website. First of all they don’t charge you face value for your tickets, the price of the forward includes the ticket. They offer NFL,NHL,NBA, NCAA FOOTBALL and BASKETBALL. They allow you to pick matchups so you can buy a ticket for the superbowl to see Pittsburgh vs Giants or whatever matchup you want. They sold Steelers vs Cardinals this year for under $40 at the start of the playoffs. The best thing about yoonew is they actually pay you when you withdraw money and provide tickets when your team makes it.
did anyone have trouble collecting/cashing on dibz prior to the Superbowl? I bought some world series dibz (which were no good since the red sox lost), but if anyone had problems with dibz for the world series, I might argue to my credit card company that they didn’t honor some winning dibz, thus they shouldn’t be able to collect on losers. I think I have six months to dispute charges, so I have to act soon on this one.
Well I requested a withdrawl in September and I didn’t get the check until late November. So maybe they were waiting to get super bowl sales so they would have money to pay me. So now that I think about it , it does seem quite likely that they were in debt before this years super bowl.
I briefly talked to an attorney the other day about the situation ( I am about about $2300 in paper profits) and he said I would definately be able to sue the company , although if they filed bankruptcy it wouldn’t do much good. However, he said it could potentially cost several thousand dollars even if they don’t fight it just because of court filing fees and appearance time by the attorney. However he said that most likely I would not be able to sue the scammers because they would only be liable to firstdibz, and firstdibz liable to us. He wasn’t sure about it though and wouldn’t do the proper research to find out as part of my free consultation. I emailed another attorney to get a second opinion , so if I hear back I will post an update.
The way I read it, it looks like the people who have successfully completed chargebacks will NOT be receiving their withdrawals from Firstdibz.
I am happy to report that FirstDIBZ is losing its “Satisfactory” Better Business Bureau rating. After a long back and forth through the BBB, I received an e-mail that stated they will change the BBB rating of FirstDIBZ on its site to “Unsatisfactory”. If you search FirstDIBZ now you will note that there is no rating; however, this is because they are in the process of changing the undeserved “satisfactory” rating to the deserved “unsatisfactory” rating.
I know some of you out there will say that this is only going to hurt our chances of recouping our money, because new customers may not use the site if they see this rating. However, no matter how badly I want my money I do not think it is right to wrongfully promote FirstDIBZ in order to get my money at the expense of other unknowing customers.
This outcome is promising and is why I am also continuing to follow-up on complaints filed with the Illinois Attorney General, my state Attorney General, and the Federal Trade Commission. These entities can pursue both civil and criminal charges against FirstDIBZ and its executives, and may be able to assist in recouping our money. I encourage ALL of you to do the same!!
Maybe the scammers used a fake or non legit credit card when posting for sale. Maybe they used fake names, addresses, etc.
Firstdibz clearly screwed up. I can understand allowing Udibz on baseball,basketball. Because season ticket holders keep their seats for the World series and NBA finals. So it can be verified if the people posting Udibz actually have those seats. But Final Four and Super bowl,there is no way to actually verify if someone has the seats or connections.
If you can not verify,then you must DENY! Firstdibz should have followed that saying and never allowed. I dont like UDibz anyway cause it devalues the Dibz bought from the company.
Read earlier comments the scammers pre planned this scam,and sold thousands of fraudulent dibz believeing they could stick dibz, (the scammers were were literally a million dollars short on their obligation), and if they could have met their obligations why didnt they or why dont they compensate is now for the fraud? Then when dibz tried to go after them to pay us, the scammers tried to counter sue dibz for being an illegal gambling website (which is what really screwed us) when they were the ones who put the dibz up.
We are getting emails from them regarding will call pick ups etc…
They took money out of my pending withdrawal to use towards the purchase of the tickets, and the charged my credit card towards the remaining amount.
My understanding is that they will have the seat locations on Friday…
Very few people actually have Superbowl tickets in advance… Most (if not all) ticket agencies don’t possess the tickets when they sell them to you in advance – they simply charge enough to cover what they expect their cost will be to obtain the tickets (plus some profits of course). I doubt Firstdibz had all of their tickets for the SB in advance either – although they might have had some deals in place with some ticket agencies for some of what they expected to need. So, I think FD is just like other ticket agencies, only they had sort of a unique way of selling tickets (via options instead of thru traditional ways of selling). My point is, FD is saying that “scammers” couldn’t honor the udibz they were selling, but FD isn’t honoring their own commitments either – and I think they knew it before the superbowl. Firstdibz is a bunch of hypocrits/scammers/liars/etc.
I know the scammers and I know them well, I dont work for first dibz.
The scammers committed a crime if they indeed sold tickets they had no intention of delivering. Firstdibz is not an illegal gambling site. Your defense of firstdibz is laughable. They were grossly negligent in this entire scandal. They were greedy and deserve to go out of business, it’s just too bad a lot of innocent people got screwed along the way. You wouldn’t happen to be Rick Harmon would you?
I dont get it….this board was going strong for days and weeks. But since monday there has none if any chatter. Are they erasing these or have people just decided to let this topic go???
Well in that case they should have had no problem lining up tickets, this year was one of the worst years for resale of superbowl tickets in some time.
Doesn’t matter how bad of a ticket this years super bowl was, they still need money to buy them if the first place. Maybe they used other people’s funds that was supposed to be in their accounts to buy back the tickets, since their company was in debt. Also I have question for the people who claim firstdibz bought back their tickets, did they give you $1500 a piece minus the $900 face value or did they really offer you the $1500 each without taking out the face? If so that makes me very skeptical they knew they weren’t going to honor withdraws. Because that means they were offering you about $2400 for your ticket, when tickets were never worth much more than $1700 or so unless their premiums.
I went to the final four (lower level) for less than $75 a ticket from yoonew.com. That is were I will be taking all my business, they were great to work with.
They werent fake, they were quite accurate with info you couldnt get anywhere else, its quite obvious you are a firstdibz employee with no shame for what you did to decent people.
In our case they offered between $1500-1600 per ticket including the $800 face value – not $2400 per ticket. So, they refunded on our credit cards the $800 face value per ticket. The $700-800 balance they owed us per ticket was added to our FirstDibz wallets. About a week after the Superbowl we were able to withdrawal the money from our wallets (request a check), which was supposed to be delivered within 14 (business?) days. Still waiting…
There is a little activity, but not much going on in the Final Four market. Does anybody else think that FirstDIBZ might possibly be buying up the dibz that are being offered? I’m thinking they are trying to buy low and then either hold the dibz to sell the tickets in case the market is good or turn around and sell the dibz at a significantly higher price once the Final Four is underway? How else could they make money in that market? Just a thought…
They make plenty of money even without transaction fees. They still get 100% of the price of all the teams that don’t make the final four.
They are now advertising 0% transaction fees. I guess if they are still updating their website that is a good sign that they are at least trying to stay in business or is this just a ploy to buy time?
I for one hope they stay in business. I have been using them for about 3 years and never had a problem getting my withdraws. If they can make good on all pending withdraws I think it will be a safe site to use in the future.
Are you one of the people who worked the phones. I, along with many others, called about the udibz and were told they were legit and guaranteed. Did they tell you guys to say that even though they knew they might be fraudulent and that they were not going to guarantee them?
Yea this site is a joke just like firstdibz? Why encourage a topic and then delete posts?
DID they erase a lot of the former posts?
there was 5 pages of comments. Not sure what got erased…
Are you kidding me about the scammers, THEY WERENT GIVEN A CHANCE TO FILL, one person alone was down 1500 lower level tickets. This was a malicious scam by the scammers knowing they were gonna take your money or stick dibz with the bill and threaten to counter sue dibz for being an illegal gambling website. These scammers have had multiple accounts closed on ebay, paypal and stubhub for multiple frauds, they are professional criminals always looking for an angle.
They found someone negligent like firstdibz thought they would be a good target and if thousands in the public get screwed who cares.
They need to tried and sent to prison with the people responsible from first dibz.
The world and the business community will be a safer place and a better one
They seemed to erase the postings from the “ex-employee”. Probably a good thing as those postings seemed fake to many, including myself.
First if somebody bought 1500 tickets that is just stupid. Second, firstdibz allowing somebody to sell 1500 tickets even stupider and if what you say is true I think gross negligence against firstdibz could be proven. Third, it is highly unlikely somebody could fulfill 1500 tickets but not impossible. If I had the money I could buy 1500 tickets to the superbowl. Don’t forget the sellers would be reimbursed face value plus the money made on the losing teams, plus the money made on the selling price of the winning dibz so they could actually have made money on the deal depending on what they sold the dibz for. My point is I believe they were trying to commit fraud but you can’t charge somebody with a crime that you think they were going to commit, they have to commit the crime first and firstdibz didn’t give them the oppurtunity to commit the crime because they canceled the dibz.
about 20 comments I assume first dibz and or the scammers demand anything that makes them look guilty be taken down. I know both groups have done that in the past.
Well Firstdibz opened their all-star game market today. I’m glad to see they are opening new markets and hopefully will start making some money. I did get a good laugh by reading one of their FAQ’S.
Are the winning DIBZ in the 2009 MLB All-Star marketplace guaranteed?
Yes, all DIBZ in this marketplace are guaranteed.
Sound fimiliar?
Not one person bought all 1500, hundreds did, we didnt know who we were buying from. Filling 1500 lower levels???? come on, say 1800 market value (less 900 face) which in reality would have been higher, 1500 x 900 thats 1.35 million. The scammer had 90,000 in his account from the options and your gonna give him the chance to fill???? You gonna wait till hundreds of people fly down to Tampa and then tell them their orders cant be met??? Not only that, the scammer told all his ticket broker friends he had no intention of ever filling and that firstdibz wouldnt be able to do anything to him, he tried to get his other ticket broker friends to do the same scam thinking their would be strength in numbers.
One thing I will agree on is yes firstdibz was grossly negligent because how can you allow someone to sell this many super bowl options, unless you are in fact looking the other way with your fingers crossed
My conclusion is we have 2 sets of criminals, dibz and the scammers.
Protect your rights against a bankruptcy.
I wouldn’t have given him a chance to fill, I would have verified him after say he posted the first set of 50 tickets.
That is why something really is not right here. We the customers called and called asking if these are legit and were told over and over again that they were. So you are telling me that several concerned customers where smart enough to figure this out but they were not? My guess was they did not predict Arizona would make it, and Boom they lost.
Come on they are not new to this they know the value and scarcity of Superbowl tickets how could they ever realisticly think someone could come up with hundreds of superbowl tickets. The whole thing was a shame.
As someone with a little inside info, although I’m not going to say anymore than that because you have already rediculed the other former who employee who tried to help provide inside info, I can tell you the most Super Bowl seats any one account owed would not have been anywhere near 1500 or even 1000, so it was not that obvious that the people weren’t going to fulfill. Although I am not going to disclose any specific info for reasons I can not disclose. Also the accounts down the most seats were down mainly upper level tickets with a few lower levels, and based on what we paid for upper level seats it wasn’t much above face value. Filling all the orders would have been possible if the funds existed, because as mentioned face value plus what the people had in their account would have been feasible had the funds been their in the first place.
I can assure you they do not get 100% of the money made by the teams within the final four market place( for those teams who don’t make it) There is a profit share with the NCAA teams and I believe that is the only market that they have left that does this sort of system. So if your going to sit there and say that they do indeed have enough money to pay back the people who were scammed, because they are making so much on the final four markets is a bad call. I can vouch saying that yes they do make quite a bit of money during this market but I don’t think it will be able to cover the extensive damaged caused by this super bowl nonsense.
Sincerely
ex-dibz employee
Maybe you weren’t informed, but according to an article on the Indystar they no longer have a deal with the NCAA, so therefore I’m not sure why they would have to give them anything. But maybe I’m wrong.
I hope they are selling Udibz and doing the shady $hit so i have a chance to get my money back.. then they will hopefully pay for this the second time around. The legal system sucks so just give the names of these scammers out and be done with it.. All of them. Make a new privacy policy stating if you scam the company your name will be made public. Thats all.
Get your money back? You will never get your money back.
It has been 60 DAYS since I took my money out and have not seen it.
A lot of people have made accusations and insinuations regarding this issue. I don’t know what is true and what isn’t. I have my suspicions, but I can’t say I’m 100% sure.
I will give my opinions on what has occured. These are not facts, just opinions based on what I’ve experienced and read.
First, I don’t think this “scam” is as large as it’s portrayed to be. In the first article on this site regarding this subject, it states that 250 orders were cancelled. This from a writer who basically accepted what was told to him as gospel. So I doubt that the figure is much higher than that.
The vast majority of the so-called fraudulent uDibz postings were for two seats. Yes, there were some postings for 50, but I’d guess that 95% of the postings were for under 10. The reason it seems so many were affected is because there was a lot of reselling in the market. Several people are out “paper profits”, while a lot more, including myself, were cheated out of actual tickets. The joke is that FirstDIBZ is holding onto EVERYBODY’S money.
Someone stated that one of the scammers would have owed 1500 tickets. I find that hard to believe. I just did not see that kind of volume transacting in the market. I CAN believe that the scammer sold 1500 options over ALL of the markets. However, in the end, the total number of tickets he’d need to make good on likely wouldn’t come close to a thousand. I may be wrong, but there’s nothing that I’ve read that would lead me to believe that I could be.
Second, FirstDIBZ refusal to honor withdrawals is ridiculous. They have EVERYONE’S MONEY!!!!! Including the scammers’! How could they possibly be short on cash?! At the very least, they should honor the withdrawal requests of customers who were not involved in this incident or those who accepted their insulting reparation offer. BTW, I’m not in either category.
In reading the comments in other articles on this site, someone mentioned that he had withdrawal problems several months ago, well before this story broke. That leads me to believe that FirstDIBZ has had solvency issues for awhile now.
Third, to those who suggest we should continue participating in markets, that is a ridiculous proposition. If you want to throw good money after bad, go right ahead. I have no intention of doing so.
Nor, it seems, do many others. Sales in the Final Four markets are almost non-existent, even for heavily favored teams. I still have some options for North Carolina, the current No. 1 ranked team. However, if I were to sell them in the market, I couldn’t without taking a loss. Under normal circumstances, I’d be able to sell them at least for a small profit at this time. Even if I wanted to sell, why bother? My money would just be stuck in my wallet, where I wouldn’t be able to withdraw it. I look at the remaining dibz in my account as lost money.
Finally, who do I believe? I don’t know, but I do know who I DON’T believe. I don’t believe FirstDIBZ. They’ve given me the runaround from the start and have flat out lied to me on several occasions. If they had been forthright from the beginning, this situation wouldn’t have become nearly as heated as it is now. How about some communication from them on a semi-regular basis? Is that really too much to ask?
Another thing I was thinking about, if you have 7 scammers, you would think they could at least charge there cards on file for 10,000 to 20,000 , thats 70,000 to 140,000, does anyone know how many super bowl tickets they filled for the scammers.
Also, there response was no withdrawls for 45 days to people who requested them I believe , what about all the other deposits in accounts, if they cant meet withdrawls how could they meet the full deposits they have out there?
I agree that something is not right and your argument for Arizona (and Philadelphia as well) were unlikely choices to make it through. However, I don’t understand why this approach would be tried with Pittsburgh, which also had a lot of “fraudulent activity”.
The big payout for them was Titans V Giants thats what they were looking for
I for one think the criticism of the whistleblower is unjustified. I bet there are a lot of people out there who wishes someone blew the whistle on Madoff years earlier. If you think it’s some scammer making up criticism, that’s one thing, but to criticize him for violating some oath of “loyalty” if he is really an ex-employee I think is non-sensical.
I know the person who did it, he sold the steelers because he thought rothlisbergers injury (concussion) the last game of the season would prevent the steelers from advanceing very far in the playoffs (remember at first there were reports he could miss some postseason games) and he thought the steelers were way overrated, those 2 things led to his to selling the udibz along with eagles, cards, dolphins, falcons and vikings.
Wow! I just saw the MLB AllSTAR game market and it is beyond rediculous. Guess the starting pitcher of the game and if your right you get tickets for face value. You have about a 1-100 chance at that, and those tickets generally aren’t worth much above face value, especially if its will call pickup. But whats so rediculous about it is that they have udibz for it, you have got to be kidding me. They better make damn sure they verify these sellers or its going to be the exact same thing as the Super Bowl.
Trust me I know the scammer, it was 1500 and mostly lowers. Were getting alot of false info on the sight from first dibz trying to discredit former employees and the scammers themselves who want you to pay for their multi million dollar fraud.
Send them all to prison!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bought bad panthers, cowboys, and giants, you may have talked to one of the scammers, but remember their were atleast 7 if not more, so its possible every team had bad udibz, I know another guy who had bad ravens.
I still don’t understand where all the money went, between all our accounts it could be over a million dollars. Just cause someone threatens a countersuit doesn’t mean a million dollars should dissapear. So where did it go?
Very nice post and I agree with you 100% on everything you said.
Why these firstdibz lovers are trying to get everyone to continue to use a site that has not paid honest people their money is beyond me?
Why shift the focus from the company that scammed is also a concern. I DO NOT care what happened with these scammers ect ect. I want MY money that is owed to many and no more excuses.
yes one scammer was down 1000 arizona and 500 eagles,(not to mention 500 steelers) when they both made it to the nfc championship game, thats when dibz all of a sudden found the fraud and we were all screwed.
I agree with the prior “truth” post. FirstDIBZ is ultimately responsible for all that has happened. They are responsible for the “fraudulent” uDIBZ market, the false promises and guarantees about the legitimacy of all their markets, the inability to back up their promises, the lack of communication with their customers, and now the inability to pay ANY of their customers (those directly involved with the fraud AND those that were not).
I have a significant amount of money owed to me by FirstDIBZ, and was directly affected by the uDIBZ fraud; however, I cannot agree with anyone that feels we must continue to promote FirstDIBZ and their existing markets in an effort to recuperate our money. This is turning out to be very similar to a ponzi scheme… they do not have the funds to meet our withdrawals so they are now trying to raise more cash from other “victims” in an effort to pay us off. This is a dangerous vicious cycle that will eventually fail. There seems to be plenty of indications that there business model is dependent upon this contiuous “ponzi”-like scheme cash flow… It used to be that they released the Super Bowl market for the following year a few weeks after the prior Super Bowl was played. Slowly it became as soon as the prior Super Bowl market closed, and now it is weeks (or even months) before the prior Super Bowl market is closed. Similar indications have come from the BCS Championship and NCAA Final Four markets. Last year they offered significant discounts to those that bought forwards very early on in the BCS Championship market, this was obviously an effort to stimulate the market early and generate some early revenue almost a full year before the market closed. They also did a roll-out initial offering in the 2007 and 2008 Final Four markets… this again was an obvious attempt to generate false excitement in the upper level markets for this event and generate some early revenue streams.
Now the uDIBZ fraud has brought all of this to the forefront. After the fraudulent activities and all the “settlement” offers there must have been a run on withdrawals. Unforunately, they probably were not prepared for this type of withdrawal volume and did not have the funds to meet our demands… therefore, they imposed this 45 day “recapitilazation” freeze in an effort to raise more cash. This 45 days coincidentally ends after the Final Four market will close, which was previously a very fluid market with fairly high demand. In addition, they are offereing this “0% transaction fees” on all markets to further increase the cash inflow. Isn’t it obvious this is run very similar to a ponzi scheme??
I personally have used FirsDIBZ for several years and have purchases totaling greater than $125,000 with them over the past few years. It is true that in the past they have successfully fulfilled their orders; however, it has not been without problems. Take the 2007 NCAA Final Four market for example, then followed by the roll-out initial offerings of the 2008 Final Four market. These markets were customer service nightmares, too. They were just the first indications that FirstDIBZ would give up customer service (especially, to their loyal customers) at anytime in an effort to increase revenues.
I personally cannot accept them trying to recruit more “victims” in an effort to payoff others. Trust me, I want my money back too; however, with every indication that this is going to end badly I don’t think it is fair for us to not publicize this in an effort to protect others!! This is why I think it is essential that everyone file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General and your own state Attorney General. They have the ability to potentially recuperate our money through criminal and civil lawsuits and will not allow the executives that perpetuated this scam get away with it. Otherwise, 6 months from now we may still not have our money, FirstDIBZ may be gone, and all involved executives may be sitting at home without any appropriate repercusions for their actions!!
that’s assuming the scammers gave valid credit card info, and they have 10 to 20k available on their cards.
I keep hearing about the scammers, but in my case, and perhaps alot of others, most of my money owed to me from FirstDibz isn’t (directly) due to the scammers. FirstDibz owes me and a friend close to 15k, of which maybe 3k is for udibz stuff. The rest is first dibz (regular dibz). They can say what they want about the udibz costing them alot of money, but I think that is only part of the problem and this company was already in trouble. Just my opinion.
Also, I know a few people asked the ex-employee, but I’ll ask again. What is his/her thoughts on FirstDibz fighting credit card disputes (ie chargebacks) that will file?
15K? What did you buy/sell?
I just read on their blog where they’ve updated their website to be PayPal compatible. Another poster mentioned the update of their home page with the 0% transaction fees promo. So it appears they are still up and running as the website is still being updated, but is this all smoke and mirrors? I’m hoping they make it out of this so I can get my $$$$.
I think the main problem could be that they made HUGE transaction fee profits on all the fraud dibz, which they probably took out of the company to pay bonuses/salaries, extra nonsense spending..etc. Then when they had to void all those HUGE transaction fee gains, they found they blew a ton of money that wasn’t realized. This should lay square on the sholders of the CEO. Are you kidding me Harmon? You better take the money out of your own bank account as you blew all my money on who knows what.
Firstdibz has begun offering Paypal as a funding option. (I have begged them for 3 years to do that) also they are going to start offering MLB all-star game dibz soon. As far as withdraw problems, i agree, it has not been looking good. I have $4000 stuck pending, and my family has a total of another $9000 stuck in pending. lack of communication with us is a MAJOR sore point with me, I mean take 5 minutes to speak with your customers worried about their money. It would put alot of minds at more ease. Anyway, hoping that they are moving forward and lining up money to make good to everyone. I still do not believe all the posts from “ex-employee” though.
They have a blog? Can you post a link please?
How do you know they are doing the all star game?
I think firstdibz should offer everybody with a pending withdraw a special deal on dibz, maybe 25% off. Because my funds are frozen I can’t even buy dibz right now if I wanted to. I think this would help get the markets going. I’m not going to give them any new money but if they are not sending me my money anyways I would probably re-invest some of the money into more dibz if I got a good deal. I think this would lower the amount of cash they needed to come up with now as a lot of people would probably take advantage of the 25% off.
They should also offer cash settlements. They only owe me $1000, if they offered me $800 cash right now I’d take it. They could save themselves a lot of money because I think a lot of people would take a settlement. If the company goes under we are all screwed so we need them to succeed.
Dont throw good money after bad. You make a good suggestion, but I for one will not buy anymore into Firstdibz until I see ALL mine and my family money come back home. I think a better idea would be for Firstdibz to make good on withdraws first, THEN offer all of us that had to wait for our money a 25% discount as an goodwill gesture to earn our trust again. In any scenerio, they will have to do something to gain back my trust and money
The lack of respect the company has given out to its customers is beyond excusable. As far as not believing the posts I have written before, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Like I said I will answer what I can. As far as the fact that some people have these so called major sore points, why do you continue to do business. I’m not trying to drive people away from FD, but the people that have seen the system fail them still continue to return to see if there is hope, something of which they aren’t going to get it. As far as the FACTS that it is you don’t believe, I’d be curious as to which ones you are pointing out. I will do within my power to try and reassure you that information I provided is in fact true.
Also to the guy who wanted the link to the blog here it is
http://blog.firstdibz.com/
posting on their blog is useless because the comments are on an approval basis so unless your posting something positive guess what they wont show it. Really shows how afraid they are of people bashing them on their own site.
Sincerely,
ex-dibz employee
I’m leery about cash settlement. That would set a VERY bad precedent and give other companies an idea to just act like their going broke, then offer to let them get a percentage of their own money back. They could make a killing doing that once a year.
I think accepting less than what is owed would give online businesses a scare tactic to constantly use against customers. I really want my money, but I am willing to see if they can come out of this stronger. remember, CBS invested I think 7-8 million in them less than 2 years ago. I’m sure CBS doesnt want to see that money wash down the drain, nor do they want to be associated with them going bankrupt, leaving alot of people mad. I know its hard to do when we want our money, and we cant get them to talk to us. But lets be patient , hope for the best, and see what happens. I’m angry, and nervous,but I will for the time being continue to believe everything will be ok. (we dont really have a choice). I have invested over $30,000 in dibz over the last 4 years. I made a good bundle of money, and they have always delivered in the past.
I agree with you, the hardest part is their refusal to talk to us other then in mass e-mails. I get the idea a lot of people believe they are just stalling to go bankrupt and it does look that way because they won’t talk to us. They need to start doing some PR, let us know what they are doing.
A good idea for them would be to set up a 30 minute online chat session, or a conference call. setting aside 30 minutes to speak with those affected in withdraw issues would be a good first step in the right direction.
No heated arguments (yet), no name calling (yet), no blaming (yet). Just lay out the plans, pacify us,and give us some info.
I would not worry as much as you guys have been. There are positive ways of looking at what is going on. I believe first of all, they are trying to keep up the website and pay the few people they still have, operating bills, etc. Then comes our withdrawal money. They obviously have a good percentage of this, but do not want to payout and then close up shop, because they will have nothing left for operating.
They have the site still up and taking money from people. If they were not going to pay us back all or a good percentage then this would not be happening. They have to atleast be smart enough to know if they have a chance to get through this or not. They are probably not certain, but are showing that they are running on the bare minimum and keep taking new money, which will keep any further loses to a minimum. I just feel that they would not take the legal risk of going to jail or having another X hundreds of new customers all over their back if they felt like they were going to fail. So the fact that they are trying means they have a good % of our money. No one would give a 45 day deadline if they weren’t already half way there.
They have assets in their patent value, cash on hand, possibly small settlements from scammers and I am sure other things. We would be first in line to get all this. We will get most of this back if not all.
about 10-11k of that 15 was on SuperBowl tickets we sold back to them. Of course we never saw that money (withdrawals are pending of course). 2k (1000 on 2 accounts) was for the udibz settlements, the rest was for refunds on bad udibz.
I thought we got a good deal from them on buying back the SB tix (1500-1600 each, and some people were buying from brokers for less than that), but now I’m thinking they had little intention of giving us our money, so offering more than market value was no big deal to them.
I agree. I really think they are trying.but like I mentioned earlier, taking just a few minutes to let us know what kind of progress they are making would be a HUGE boost in keeping my faith afloat.
BTW , I started a yahoo group if anyone is interested in using it to post updates, ask questions, relay news, or even just to vent.
Group name is : Firstdibzcustomers
Email; [email protected]
This post is almost exactly how I feel and couldn’t have said it any better.
Like which ones?
The one where he said Firstdibz stole all our money and we are idiots?
The scamming thiefs are the only ones who think “ex-employee” is legit. Can tell the thiefs by their smart aleck, sarcastic comments. Let’s see, how come “ex-employee is not posting here anymore? Cause he got exposed for who he is, one of the lowlife crooks. Firstdibz did not have a coprorate jet like he claimed. He also claimed that the posts on First dibz blogs were from fans,,, WRONG. Firstdibz posts their own comments on their website blog. He also claimed that he had firsthand knowledge of EXACTLY how much money was involved, but his figures were less than Firstdibz even admitted themselves. When asked to give ANY kind of proof, he declined, he also declined to give interviews, name names, tell anything substantive, yet he claimed he was extremely angry at Firstdibz. Yea right people, if you believe “ex-employee is legit and not one of the thiefs, then I have got some wonderful beachfront property for sale dirt cheap in Kansas. Oh but wait, I’m sure the scamming thiefs trying to pose as an “ex-firstdibz employeee” knows much more about shady deals than I do. And no, I am not connected to Firstdibz in anyway, other than them still owing me thousands of dollars. I’m just not that stupid to fall for the lowlife thiefs tricks.
They cant even pay their child support duties cause they are too busy trying to rip people off. Hoping I run into them first, then when done, turn them in for being a thief, as well as deadbeat dads.
I think we all see what crooks they are.. They are holding thousands of my money from me, until their “financial situation gets better”. Is this legal? Where is the attorney general in the matter? Guess they are not doing their job’s either
As far as I can see the money went a couple of places, 1. they did in fact fill many super bowl tickets for VIP clients, this is money right off the top and an unplanned expense, anyone who runs a business knows a pretax expense off the top,in cash, paid at one time can be tough 2. they operated their ubidz business and all associated expenses and then had to refund everything they made on it, so I know its only part of their business but had to really increase operating costs and then not a penny to show for it, 3. they spent alot of money getting ubidz operational, 4. they spent alot of money trying to persue the scammers without anything to show, 5 they had to spend money defending themselves against the scammers, 6. the economy isnt as robust so maybe they didnt have the superbowl activity they had had in the past especially with the bad publicity caused by the scam, 7.They spent enormous amount of time and energy on the scam/scammers and couldnt pursue their normal business.
They definitely erased the ex-employee’s posts. I’m willing to bet it was because of all of his or her ACCURATE information which hurts FirstDIBZ…I mean after all, if it’s just a lie then it shouldn’t hurt them….obviously they are hiding the truth AGAIN…I’m sure this post will be removed at their request as well…don’t you people see what crooks this company is?!!!
If one of the scammers did indeed settle with Firstdibz, then wouldn’t that most likely release him/her from any obligations to the individual buyers? I’m sure that would’ve been looked into.
The names have been posted several times by myself and others and each time they get taken down, the people on the sight can vouch for me that they have been up before, if you post their names ticket news will block your IP address. If you call me or email me Ill tell you.
While I would like to know who the scammers are, since their was 7 (according to former employee above) it really won’t do any good unless firstdibz confirms who each individual udibz was bought from. Plus a majority of my profit was from real dibz anyways and not udibz. I already filed and won my chargeback(plus previous dibz from the world series), so I think I’m ready to be done with this, as it is now just a waste of time and a lost cause. Also while they may be raising some revenue, I doubt it will even outweigh what their losing in charge backs.
there are multiple people who know the inside scoop from the scammers side and various ones have posted, the readers just arent picking up on it because they see it blending in with all the other posts or just conjecture etc.
I think the eagles action was similar to the steelers action , as for the cardinals there had been heavy selling at low price all during the playoffs figureing they had no chance.
Some legal people may say its a contract between the buyers and sellers as much as it is with dibz. After all the sellers put up the obligation, the buyers paid for them, that sounds like a legally binding contract, I believe what firstfibz collected is should be turned over to the peoples who lost the money not for dibz themseleves unless dibz is taking 100% responsibility for what happened to the buyers.
While your info is appreciated, some parts of it don’t really make sense. For instance, saying the scammers were going to ask for money back that they had lost on the site previously? I really doubt that the scam artists ever made any legitimate purchases and even if they did I’m sure it wouldn’t be a significant enough amount to scare off firstdibz. I think the real reason they aren’t going to pursue the scammers is because they don’t want to have spend money to make up for their negligence when anything they won would go back to us and they wouldn’t get to pocket. But if they really did settle with dibz and they still go bankrupt and don’t pay us then I believe we have a strong corporate fraud case against Firstdibz. Anything they got from the scammers belongs to us.
They are ticket brokers, they make good money, they have lost about 50,000 on first dibz, thats one of the reasons that didnt mind getting first dibz back with their scam.
As for sueing for prior losses that just more weight to throw at dibz as a scare tactic, whether it sounds reasonable or not is another thing.
They are scam artists the same way some brokers short tickets and only fill in declineing markets and bust the orders in rising markets. Which this was a variation of. A two sided transaction that you will only complete if its in your favor. Otherwise refund.
FirstDIBZ may or may not be able to divulge names of the scammers, but what’s stopping you?! I’ll take what you say with a grain of salt unless you can directly identify someone. After all, there’s no reason you couldn’t, is there?
So now it’s almost two thousand dibz (1000 + 500 + “several hundred”)?! From what I saw myself, there was a LOT more action on the Steelers than on the Eagles and Cardinals. Steelers uDibz were the first ones voided by the company. Eagles and Cardinals uDibz weren’t voided until two or three days had passed and this situation arose.
You act like this “inside scoop” is common knowledge; how about letting the rest of us in on it? Don’t protect your ticket broker buddies!
You are not trying to drive business away from FD??? Did you really write that? Do you think we are fools and that our money is just a game to be played with while you lick the pathetic petty wounds you suffered when they canned you? It is no wonder they did –what you are doing now is exactly what they no doubt saw in you as an employee -an emotional pygmy with no integrity. I would wager my dibz withdawal money that they know exactly who you are and are working with their lawyers on how to respond. Your type is not hard to profile. I only hope that they broadcast your name everywhere they go. You are hurting them, which is hurting us. If your inside information is so good -I suggest you quickly check on what their plan is for you!!
Turncoats, especially turncoats that fire from blinds, are low life forms. What you are not getting is that the only chance we have to get ANY money is if they can turn this crap around. Think about it: their are real signs that they have heard us. They have downsized. They have kept in communication with us (not as much, or as openly as we would like). They are opening new markets and pushing forward. Only a real low life would not grant them this and wish them such ill. When they publish your name, and they will very soon, I for one will be relieved. this is not about your battle with them. This is about us getting our money! Remember: what goes around, comes around!! DUCK!!!
I’ve read some people say they filed complaints with the Attorney General. Has anybody had any response from the Attorney General’s office? Are they looking into it?
I have filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General (since I live in PA), and am in the process of updating them on the latest events in which FirstDIBZ will not allow any withdrawals.
I also inquired with the Illinois Attorney General regarding how many complaints they have received. They will not disclose this over the phone, but they sent me a letter that they have only received one complaint against FirstDIBZ since 2002. This is not enough!! I am submitting a complaint today and encourage everyone else to do the same. The more complaints they receive, the greater likelihood they will take action.
I was advised that we should file complaints with both the Illinois AG (since FirstDIBZ is located there) and our home state AG.
Please keep posting updates regarding action through the Attorney General.
Im gonna make several comments regarding various posts, let me say I agree with the posts and they are very good.
The reason they say they have a privacy agreement is because they settled out of court with one of the scammers.
The deal was something like this first dibz wont pursue criminal and civil charges, if the scammers make a payment and drop there counter lawsuit for firstdibz operateing an illegal gambling website. Now this is somewhat of a bogus lawsuit but you can see why dibz wouldnt want to pay to defend it, because the scammers were also gonna ask for all the money they ever lost on the site and this could open a huge can of worms and be expensive.
Im assumeing as part of the agreement the names couldnt be made public the scammers really do not want their names out there, because I couldnt believe a privacy agreement could protect the identity of a scammer especially when a name was given out the first day.
The payment Im guessing is around 100,000 maybe as high as 150,000, I dont know if it has exchanged hands,because the scammer may hold up payment if he thinks he can avoid it, if dibz goes bankrupt hes hoping he can walk away without following thru on the agreement. This I was suspecting would be used to pay off the withdrawls.
It was about 1500 hundred total dibz, 1000 for the cardinals (figured the cards had no chance), was selling massive amounts of them at a very low price for cardinals before the playoffs even started and alot more at a low price the week the cards were going out to carolina. I believe 500 on the eagles also which have large paper profit ramifications. Then several hundred for the steelers as people can attest there were hundreds sold during that san diego game. Remember for all these games there were multiple 50 packs up at any one time and then more put up.
Just more info I am doing what the others are doing, filing with my state attorney general and Illinois, I am not letting dibz off the hook in any way they are responsible to the public for the sight they run, and they repeatedly gaurenteed the dibz were legit and they would have been more than happy to keep peoples money if a different match up would have happened.
I want all withdrawls/deposits obligations to the public to be made first, then Ill try to settle with dibz and get what I can if anything from dibz and I will take a percentage of what they owe me, if I get little or nothing from dibz I will pursue the scammers, I will get a payment plan set up with the scammers to be paid over 5 years. Im assumeing the scammers will settle out of court because to many people have the inside scoop on them and they dont want prison time.
“ex-employee” is a fake. too many statements he/she made were not accurate.
From their website: Face Value: Based on 2008 Face-Value $150-$725
$725 face value? That’s as high as the superbowl. They can’t give a better spread then that, who is going to buy those when you give a face valu spread like that?
Again why are we getting off track talking about an ex-employee?
Ask yourself these questions
Does Ex-Employee owe me any money? NO
Does the scammers owe me any money? NO
Does firstdibz owe me any money? YES
I do not care about the scammers, or any of these other things to do with firstdibz, what I care about is my 3k they owe me and refuse to pay me. Then they have enough nerve to send me emails to purchase stinking MLB forwards. Hey instead of soliciting more of my business, try paying me the money you owe me!
I am sure they will just change their name from firstdibz to ticketdibz or first reserve like when they changed from ticketreserve.
I think that people are hoping they get their money back. If they fail to return all the money then you will get these execs addresses posted again. I myself am thinking about taking a trip to IL to speak with one of these guys at their home if need be.
I myself was so irate when I got the 2/27 email about withdrawls I couldnt help but come and post, but I know nothing can really be done until we see where we are at when the 45 days are up.
I for one am sick of what I see in our country of those of shameless greed, wanting the honorable decent people to pay for their mistakes. To me this is more than just about me getting screwed, its like my little opportunity to fight back in way I cant against politicians and the AIGs of the world.
Obama isn’t going to get our money back, he is too busy trying to clean up the mess left behind by Bush……..
Pres Bush inherited Pres Clinton’s recession and gave us 6 good years. All I’m asking from Pres Obama is 2 good years without bankrupting this country with all the pork spending.
I wonder if that ex employee has any new info about the status of the dibz, as far as the corp jet sale, potential buyers, selling of assets, what might be going on with execs etc.
What did you expect? Many Americans voted for a president because looked young and kept saying change. Now they find out he is a consistent liar and the U.S. is paying for it.
Obama is what this country needs
Has anyone received any money from firstdibz in the last 3 months? Be honest
Yea that is the direction this thread needs.
Obama is going to get my money back.
I’ve often wondered about FirstDIBZ’s business practices even before this incident. Let me explain using this year’s Final Four markets, specifically North Carolina. First, they staggered the initial pricing – some at $90, some at $95, some at $100. I think that is highly unethical because we’re not privy to how many actual seats are available overall. We can only see 8 at a time, since that is the maximum amount one can purchase. So if a market is “hot”, is there a set amount at each price, or do they arbitrarily decide how many seats are for sale at each price? If the market is “cold”, as it currently is, do they then start offering dibz at below the initial offering? That would screw those who did purchase the initial offering, because they’d have no chance to recoup their money. I’ve often felt that the company does exactly that, and I despise it. How else does one explain a market falling precipitously when the underlying team is doing quite well?!
Yeah I am not sure they are doing too well with this market which does not help our cause. Does anyone think they will come up with the money? Would one beable to go after the CEO or an individual for their money if this company goes BK and refuses to pay? If the liquidated would we have any financial rights to their property, patent or anything? Info would be appreciated.
Thanks
The President of FD resigned and is now at a company called Inexpo…good luck to Inexpo, he will probably drive them into the ground like he did FD.
Anything new, I see they keep opening new markets, is this a good sign, are people buying their dibz. I see somebody bought 4 green bay packer dibz at $60 each. I wonder if that’s a new customer who doesn’t know about the problems. I would pay $60 each for the packers if I could trust them.
LOL, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink……..
First of all I think the president has bigger fish to fry then this but the difference between Bush and Obama is Obama would hold firstdibz accountable to the customers and Bush would let them declare bankruptcy and then give them money to start over.
Nope…not one cent from my withdrawals from FirstDibz.
It’s ok though – I just challenged all my charges with Firstdibz and got them all reversed by my credit card.
That was much more money than my withdrawals.
Should anyone have confidence in the ongoing viability of this company?
The Final Four markets have gone completely in the tank. Dibz for the #1 seeds are selling at about 1/3 – 1/4 of their initial offering. There just aren’t any buyers. With the company trying to unload their remaining supply by continually dropping prices, there’s probably no hope for those stuck with dibz in their account, like me. I no longer want the tickets, and I’m going to refuse to accept them if my teams go.
They opened their Masters market the other day. I looked it over, and guess what? There’s NO MARKET for Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods! The two golfers they might actually get some action on, and nada. It sure looks like they don’t want to deliver the goods on this one!
Well, they added markets for Woods and Mickelson, under the radar. At least, I THINK there’s a market for Mickelson; no bids or offers, though.
As for the Final Four, dibz for the #1 seeds are selling at the lowest possible price. Everybody who owned dibz before this mess wants out, and no one wants in. Even if the company were to continue, what does this say about the viability of future markets?! I’ll probably never buy dibz ever again under any circumstances. What good is getting in if you can never get out?!
I dont understand the laker’s dibz…does first dibz have these or is it really Udibz again for all those dibz? WOW i hop not…anyways if they have access to those tickets it might just save our money
I think you would be foolish to do business with this company till they pay what they owe people.
I just don’t see why they cannot or do not already have a line of credit from a lender. They cannot continue with the company unless they pay everyone back by the 45th day or they will lose 100% of their existing customers that were wrapped up in this $hit. I think people would have a tendency to use the site again (in a smaller, and less $$ exposure way if they were paid back by this 45 days. If the company is to survive they need to find as many lenders as it will take to pay their customers, because that is the only way for future revenues. If they do not pay people back by the 45th day, I feel as though some of thier execs would be looking at jail time. Not because of the whole superbowl thing, but because they are still collecting $ from people with the knowledge that they will not beable to follow through on the deal. That is why I still feel confident that we will be getting the money back.
Mr Harmon,
Just pony up some of the money to get your company back on track (since it was the company that gave you the money in the first place). Next, stop with the zero transaction fees as it makes your company look desperate and unstable. Then spend months contacting your customers effected by email on a personal level and discuss the new direction of FD. You would be amazed how much people are willing to forget when they have someone to vent to.. As for your decision makers who advised you over the last 3 months-WELL GET RID OF THEM!!
i heard that some people were starting to get paid near the end of last week. i dont know how many though.
We are so hosed on our money. Uconn dibz are selling for $6 as I type this. This is a team with an 11 point lead in the game that will get them into the final four. I’m afraid they put their eggs into the final four basket and unfortunately the demand for legitimate tickets has been crushed. Anyone that has seen the sweet 16 stands knows what I mean.
I fully expect that as our 45 days approaches in a week or two we will get final announcement that they are done.
the reason they are only going for $6 is because it is will call pick up only and you can get uppers are stubhub for basically face value anyways
I doubt they will pay anyone who filed a chargeback.
Agreed, there is no demand for College BB at this time, for upper level seats anyway. Its been that way all tourney. I think they were counting on a big market for seats, now they are probably sitting on a bunch of seats that aren’t even worth face value. I have about 3K with them that I’m pretty much not counting on anymore. Such a shame, I followed this company for 2 years and I jump in the week it all hits the fan. Live and learn.
If they do not pay even those that had chargebacks, that will violate their reparation agreement resulting in new lawsuits possibly with punitive damages too.
I am in law in the state of Illinois.
FILE CHARGEBACKS AGAINST FIRSTDIBZ AND PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS IN CASE OF BANKRUPTCY.
I’m looking for Julio Rodriguez from Miami, FL. I understand that you were offered a specific settlement by FirstDIBZ and received a check from them that subsequently bounced. Can you please e-mail me or post here? I’d like to discuss details of your situation and compare notes with you. Thanks.
Someone who has been following the dibz and the final four markets please give us your input, I have looked just briefly but werent the dibz prices pretty weak and now the fianl four is showing strength with the lowest price like $450 a ticket,and am I correct that dibz no longer gets its tickets at face from the NCAA, so arent they going to have to go out in the secondary market to fill there dibz orders? So does this mean they will be paying $450 for a $150 face ticket, where someone might have paid $25 for a dibz? This would be a money money loser?? Or am I missing something.
Wow, didn’t realize the prices went up through the roof. At the other futures sport ticket site, the winning teams options were all selling at around $200 once the game was decided. The only thing I can think is that you are getting the initial surge from people that just found out their teams are going but you haven’t gotten the fans from the losing teams to list their tickets yet. Regardless though, I would think that firstdibz had some sort of agreement on the tickets before they listed them as options. God help us all if they were selling short and the prices stay at $450 a ticket.
The company knows from the time the markets open exactly how many tickets they would be alloted. The problem for them this year has nothing to do with them getting tickets. The problem is that they’ve been trying to squeeze customers with overpriced initial “tiered” offerings and they didn’t sell enough of them. This was even before the Super Bowl mess.
Once the SB s**t hit the fan, nobody wanted any part of ANY market. So they began to offer down the markets to get rid of their inventory. Never mind the fact that it would screw those who DID buy the initial offering. That’s why the prices dropped so precipitously the past couple of weeks. Nobody wanted to buy in, and those that already did had no way to get out, not to mention that they were competing against the company to try and sell their dibz.
Prices fell so much it was too inviting for those who wanted to go to resist. Prices were around $20-30 for most of the FF teams, with the exception of North Carolina. Because it was the last game, prices wound up spiking back to the original levels.
I wound up selling my dibz for a big loss, and I’m not that sorry I did. The biggest joke in all this is the fact that fulfillment of dibz is done on a will call basis! That makes it almost impossible to get rid of the tickets in the secondary market, because you have no idea where your seats are until a couple of days before the event! For instance, if tickets were sent out by FedEx like they should be, I could post them on StubHub or sell them on eBay without having to trek to Detroit to pick them up in person. I wouldn’t participate in any markets unless I wanted to actually go to the event. This will call nonsense is ridiculous.
Its already been mentioned that they no longer get their tickets through the NCAA, my guess is like the Super Bowl, once they determine how many they are down they fill on the street like other brokers do, so therefore they are going to have a hard time filling their orders. That’s probably why it’s will call only is because that way they figure prices will drop. They can’t send the tickets out in advance because they don’t have them. The only reason UNC prices went up is not because it was the last game, but because MSU , the only team who would make upper levels worth anything, had already clinched their spot.
Even though they don’t get their tickets directly from the NCAA, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to try and fulfill their orders in the secondary market. They get an allotment from someone, just like they do in the SB. It wasn’t THEIR SB tickets that were in question; it involved the uDibz markets. They SHOULD have tried to fulfill those uDibz orders in the secondary market, but they, like most people, thought that the market would be better than it wound up being. They COULD have bought up tickets in the secondary market without losing too much money, but instead they came up with their misguided “plans” instead. IMO, the problem was they had too MANY dibz that weren’t being bought up.
Who are you and why are you using my name in a public forum? I, like many others, have been working with FirstDIBZ to find some way out of the uDIBZ fraud. I am not happy yet with them, but I am really unhappy about my name appearing here. WHO ARE YOU??? Please do not incriminate me. I will continue to work with FirstDIBZ in the hopes of getting past what has been done to them (and getting my money out). You, on the other hand, appear to a stab in the dark type. LEAVE ME ALONE!!
I believe he posted his email in the comments section of the initial first dibz scam article, you should be able to find it if you search thru it
has anyone had any luck with final fours?
I did some searching and it looks like chargebacks can have an effect on your credit scores. However, in my case, I’m out over 5k to firstdibz, so I’ll take the (slight?) hit on my credit score in order to get back my money.
Yes that is exactly what mine does, i can pretty much do everything but access my account tab.
I also cannot access my account. Are they shutting their doors? Looks like it.
This was taken directly from the BBB website:
“BBB Rating –
Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to a pattern of complaints and has failed to correct the underlying reason for the complaints.
Consumer complainants allege paying money to reserve bids on tickets for a variety of events in the hopes of purchasing these tickets at face value, or reselling their tickets for a profit. The BBB received complaints that allege the consumers paid money upfront to reserve tickets that were never made available by the company; therefore, consumers were unable to purchase the tickets and/or resell the tickets. Consumers allege the company failed to provide promised products and/or services.”
Hopefully, this will work to warn others of the fraudulent ways of FirstDIBZ!!
who cares if the person was an employee or not. I don’t care who got Final Four tickets – that market was probably so weak that it couldn’t have cost FD much money. The fact is, they still owe me and alot of other people thousands of dollars, which I doubt we’ll ever see.
got on this morning
I thought I read 450 days and 15 months?
Most were less than 60 days when I started the chargeback process (right after the “recapitalize” email we received from FD). Some were older than 60 days though. I seem to remember reading somewhere that you have up to six months to dispute cc charges, but not sure how accurate that is.
Various credit card companies – I have a PNC bank debit card and a WAMU/Chase mastercard that I used. I’m not sure which companies my friends used.
They said 1 and a half months =45 days….that is what they said…..you say end of April??????????? you are dumb!!! Otherwise they would have said 2 months =45 days. They planned on their 45th day being on Easter to buy another day. So one would figure they would announce tonight, unless they suck that much. They never stop amazing me. First and for most they better get back to me tonight with their answer and yes my money is first priority, but if i dont get it soon they will continue to lose partnerships 🙂 What a nice email to directors and teams can do. I can even add some emails they sent to me showing how much of a joke their company is. They can’t even hold on to deposits.
Plus i think i have the right to be angry and to show who they really are. They cost me thousands upon thousands and now squander MY MONEY…No way. These fuK$ living in huge houses in Lake Forest better be prepared to send me MY MONEY
Can’t access my account either………
When I log in my internet goes to can’t find page but once I go back to firstdibz I am logged in. I can put in offers to buy and sell buy can’t access the “my account” tab.
do you know if FirstDibz even responded to your credit card company(ies)?
Same here. Something is going on. T minus 5 days until we hear: “We were unable to recapitalized; and therefore we have filed for bankruptcy. Regretfully, we were unable to fulfill most of the withdrawal requests. We will no longer be able to process unfulfilled withdrawal requests or future withdrawal requests.”
Did anybody anywhere get Final Four tickets from FirstDibz? Does anybody know of anyone that received Final Four tickets from them? Any problems there with FF ticket distribution? This information is critical to know if FirstDibz is continuing to make an effort to fulfill its obligations.
I was notified by my credit card that my reversal was accepted b/c FirstDibz was unable to prove that they either did or can supply the goods!
Frustrating….
Maybe they meant 1.5 business months or maybe they meant 45 Mondays.
It must be nice to be so wonderfully unemployed; so clearly unemployable; so far from the world of working men and women. In the business world, 45 days generally means 45 business days (45 days equals 9 weeks at 5 working days each week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! Can you follow this?). I took their request to mean they needed 45 days to WORK on the business/criminal issues, not non-working days such as Passover, Easter and the like. I could be wrong, but I do not think they will respond, if they do at all, until the end of April, which was roughly 9 weeks from when I got my recapitalization note. Uuugggggg!!! People like you are not helping. You are more interested in inflicting pain than GETTING PAID!!! Please strap yourself back down on the couch. Your TV and bottle of Night Train are calling.
They should NOT be allowed to sell Dibz during their “recapitalization period”. How can they have a market when they are deliquent on paying every account? It should be illegal.
And how are the credit card companies still allowing them to take CC payments after hundreeds of thousands in credit card chargebacks. Seems absurd.
This is just an attempt to buy more time…dont expect to see your money ever again.
I also was having problems accessing my account, both last night and this morning. I was just able to access it without a problem, so perhaps it was a technical glitch.
I would suggest trying again.
were you able to execute the chargebacks after the 60 days window? What credit card company? Thanks.
There are five days left of the “recapitalization peroid”. Should be very interesting to see if they can come up with the cash or if they are forced to make another annoucement. We shall see. Thoughts?
The major question left unanswered is how long do they anticipate that it will take to, “honor all withdrawal requests systematically by request date?” One month, One year, Never? Since no one knows where they are in line, this message is no help. A definative statement line, “All withdrawls will be paid by XXXX at the latest.” would have been more reassuring.
Why wait for these jokers?
Who knows when any of us will receive our withdrawals?
I can’t access my acct either
The only thing that has stopped me from doing a chargeback was the hit your credit takes when doing something like that. Plus how long do you have to make chargebacks? most of my purchases were from August-October 2008.
Dear FirstDIBZ Customer:
As promised at the end of February, we’d like to update you on the status of current recapitalization efforts. The company has made great strides to recover from significant losses incurred by the fraud in our uDIBZ marketplace, and we have been working earnestly on a number of cost-cutting and investment fronts. We have restructured our business, and streamlined our operations (including customer support) while continuing to manage active markets and launch new markets.
As a result of these efforts, we will accelerate our customer withdrawal reimbursement program on May 1st. Based on the recommendation of counsel, this must be done in a methodical manner and, therefore, we intend to honor all withdrawal requests systematically by request date.
It is important to highlight that disbursements will only be made in chronological order, based on the date of each request. The only exceptions will be in accounts where credit card CHARGE BACKS have already been initiated, or where third parties have been engaged (in pursuit of legal remedies). In the case of CHARGE BACKS, those funds are subsequently reimbursed by the related credit card company and in cases where third parties have been involved, our general counsel will respond as due process is performed.
FirstDIBZ has been able to persevere through this very trying time ONLY with the patience and forbearance of its loyal customers. We appreciate what you’ve been through in dealing with this crisis, and the subsequent changes we have made to our changing organization and operational environment, and hope that you will continue to view FirstDIBZ as a game-changing platform in the live event space.
As we look ahead, we’ll continue to bring innovative offerings to captivate your imagination, such as the newest launch of our Major League Baseball 2009 Match-Up Market (with over 4,000 possible match-ups for games you anticipate the most.)
Sincerely,
The FirstDIBZ Team
What you say is true, but those transactions for the NFL could have taken place months ago. I do like the slight improvements they’ve made; the transaction charts are good to see. However, I can’t imagine anyone investing new money in markets after what’s taken place the last few months.
They did not do well on the Final Four. In fact, they screwed people who already had dibz in those markets. They weren’t selling enough of them, so the company offered dibz down in EVERY MARKET! Prices went in the tank. I had some dibz and was forced to sell them for a big loss even though MY TEAM MADE THE FINAL FOUR!!!
They’re not going to make a lot of money on the Masters because they don’t have much inventory to sell. (I would guess the number of badges at their disposal is under 10!) Plus they have to deal with all the chargebacks I assume most people have done. It wouldn’t surprise me if the major cc companies decline to do business with them in the future.
They need to do a major overhaul on how they do business. First, initial offerings for dibz should be one set price, not this tiered pricing nonsense. Second, all employees of the company and their relatives should not be allowed to have accounts. Third, users should be aware of exactly how many dibz the company is offering in total, even though there are limits on how many we can own. Fourth, if the initial offering isn’t selling, the company should not be allowed to undercut users by offering the market down unless money is rebated to those who already have holdings in said market. Fifth, all tickets should be fulfilled by FedEx. Enough with the will call, especially for the Super Bowl. There is more than enough time to determine the location of the tickets alloted to the company, and more than enough time to deliver the tickets to users to resell if they so desire. Finally, honest communication from the company. Their lies throughout this mess has only made matters worse.
I’ve had problems with this company over the years (none of this magnitude, of course). They need to do things to earn back the trust of longtime users like myself.
I can’t access my account? anyone else having problems
Not sure where you learned to count but i have 46 or 47 if they want to count the day they sent their 45 day email out on. This is unreal!!!! how can they even miss their own 45 day date and not email us?
I hope they make it and are able to settle with the users they owe… It’s such a great concept.
I have continued to contact FirstDibz. I last heard from them 34 days ago by email. Same story – phone lines have answering machine and they have not responded to recent email attempts.
I noticed that once you since into your FirstDibz account, you can access your money records and account history by clicking on the bottom of the screen instead of trying to access “My Account” up at the top. Hope that helps some of you. I printed a copy of all my transactions – deposits, withdrawal attempts, holdings, winnings, etc. Never know, might need that info someday.
Please keep updates coming before and after FirstDibz clues us into what is going on. This should be resolved soon as the 45 days are up!
Just because they arent accepting credit cards anymore doesnt mean much. Anybody wanting to buy dibz only needs to create a paypal account and then you can use your credit cards thru paypal to purchase the dibz. Firstdibz is just not accepting credit cards directly, but will accept thru Paypal.
How many times does this company have to lie to some of you until you get the message?! They haven’t dealt honestly with any of us since this whole mess began. I’ve been flat out lied to on the phone on numerous occasions. Did you really believe there was going to be a resolution after 45 days? If any of you haven’t filed chargebacks by now, you deserve to lose your money. This company cannot be trusted. Wake up, people!
Firstdibz has made a few changes that makes it a little easier to see if there is any activity. When you click on a market you can see the last transactions. It looks like the All Star dibz are selling and the NFL dibz. Hopefully they will be able to meet their obligations. I for one have used firstdibz for several years and this is the first problem I ever had with them.
So what does this mean? By May they begin to get to the withdrawals and then who knows where you are in line???? Hmmmm so they once again do not have an answer for each person….Listen up FIRST DIBZ …Contact each person you owe money to and let them know where they stand. …if they will not be paying due to CC companies collecting or if they will be paid, where they are in line and the time frame!
All this email seemed to say is give us another 2-3 weeks just to get started.
i’ve heard and read six months, but also heard that it could be longer than that too. Doesn’t cost anything to call your cc companies to ask (other than waiting on hold)…
I think they want people to do chargebacks with their CC companies so they only have to pay deposits and not the whole lump sum. FirstDibz sucks and this is criminal. Has the attorney general’s office or BBB done anything? Nope!
Dear FirstDIBZ Customer:
As promised at the end of February, we’d like to update you on the status of current recapitalization efforts. The company has made great strides to recover from significant losses incurred by the fraud in our uDIBZ marketplace, and we have been working earnestly on a number of cost-cutting and investment fronts. We have restructured our business, and streamlined our operations (including customer support) while continuing to manage active markets and launch new markets.
As a result of these efforts, we will accelerate our customer withdrawal reimbursement program on May 1st. Based on the recommendation of counsel, this must be done in a methodical manner and, therefore, we intend to honor all withdrawal requests systematically by request date.
It is important to highlight that disbursements will only be made in chronological order, based on the date of each request. The only exceptions will be in accounts where credit card CHARGE BACKS have already been initiated, or where third parties have been engaged (in pursuit of legal remedies). In the case of CHARGE BACKS, those funds are subsequently reimbursed by the related credit card company and in cases where third parties have been involved, our general counsel will respond as due process is performed.
FirstDIBZ has been able to persevere through this very trying time ONLY with the patience and forbearance of its loyal customers. We appreciate what you’ve been through in dealing with this crisis, and the subsequent changes we have made to our changing organization and operational environment, and hope that you will continue to view FirstDIBZ as a game-changing platform in the live event space.
As we look ahead, we’ll continue to bring innovative offerings to captivate your imagination, such as the newest launch of our Major League Baseball 2009 Match-Up Market (with over 4,000 possible match-ups for games you anticipate the most.)
Sincerely,
The FirstDIBZ Team
Are there any other live threads on FirstDibz.com besides this one?
Thanks
GET OUR WITHDRAWALS BACK. At this point I could careless about the criminals, we all know no money will end up coming out if it and we will lose everything. How about dropping the case paying the withdrawals and moving on. Then sometime down the road, someone could leak exact names
This guy is in denial, what a sucker. If they don’t pay me I will at least get the satisfaction of knowing this moron didn’t get paid either.
Didnt think they had any left.
“expect to emerge in 45 days” (I do not see the words business days)
“over the next 1.5 months” (This means 1 month and then a half of a month)
For the guy who can’t count. Put these two thoughts together and tell me if April 12th is not the day. Do you think a company with lawyers assisting would make a statement that immediately contradicts it, one line lower?
So accept you are wrong, no need to atttack me as FirstDibz is the one’s with our money. Well atleast my money, who even knows if you have any lost anything.
Wow, only accepting paypal is a new twist. I agree they are cooked but they probably didn’t have a choice after getting so many chargebacks. The credit cards probably don’t want to do business with them. They messed up so many things with the way they handled this fiasco. I’m not in public relations, but I’m thinking locking the funds from the user, not refunding it, and not being clear about what is going on is probably not the way to run a company. They pretty much tried to put out a fire with gasoline. I’ll give them another month before I file a lawsuit to get back the difference they owe me.
Really? They are no longer accepting credit cards? If they are unable to accept credit cards, they have no chance to survive. Absolutely no chance. Thoughts?
I just heard from our friend inside FirstDIBZ that as part of their ongoing investigation, which he says is finally producing admissible case data, they have formerly begun the process of subpoenaing IP addresses from Ticknews because of the published threats to visit company executives at their homes and the publishing of personal data. Does anyone know if they can really do this??
It could have been worse…I was really expecting a message of “give us another 45 days or more”…
Still, it’s not very clear about how this will all work.
I filed a chargeback with Amex and am still waiting to hear. Has anyone been successful with Amex? Am curious to know.
they might also be trying to discourage more credit card chargebacks… Maybe they’re hoping that anyone who hasn’t done any chargebacks will wait to do so with the hope that they might get money from FD after May 1st. I doubt they’ll pay back many (if any) people though.
AMEX processed all of my firstdibz chargebacks successfully.
So they can do this, but if you set up numerous phony accounts with phantom tickets and bogus credit cards that are going to break the company, no problem. If they had been that diligent with the scammers, they wouldn’t be in this mess.
Instead of going after customers blowing off steam on this site, why don’t they use their legal resources to go after those responsible for the situation?!
They can hire numerous lawyers to go after people who have already been victimized, but they can’t hire anyone to answer the phone? Puh-leeze!
i think it’s possible that they could get the IP addresses, but I don’t know if they would go to that extent to obtain, especially for people who only published personal data – i’m not sure that’s even a crime anyway. As for the threats, that’s a different story. If something happens to someone from FirstDibz, they might come look for who made threats (I didn’t, but wouldn’t shed any tears for the FD execs either).
I agree that people should not threaten anyone, however I have said somethings when i was heated on this blog that I hope no one would ever view as an actual threat. I wish some of these execs would hold a meeting so they can talk to us victims face to face and hear how this whole mess has effected each person on a personal level. I am just an average joe who used their company to try to make enough money to pay for 2 superbowl tickets. Then got screwed over. I personally filed my chargeback yesterday and I am done with this whole mess. I hope that down the road these execs,employees and most of all us victims have learned from this. Good luck to everyone on receiving their money back and don’t get to hung up on everything as life will go on.
Not sure if they are trying to say a chargeback resolves them of any and all payments but they are opening up another can of worms if they believe that.
I don’t think they would be taking the time to open new markets if they didn’t plan on sticking around, not to mention that would be criminal. I think this is a good sign though I still have me worries.
Just FYI… A lawsuit has already been filed against FirstDIBZ (formerly TicketReserve). The suit was filed on 3/20/09 in the Illinois Northern Federal Distric Court. I found this by searching “Ticketreserve lawsuit” on Google.
The reason they are not accepting credit cards may be because the credit card cos. are refusing to honor their charges after all the chargebacks. Firstdibz handled the situation all wrong. They should have contacted each acct holder they owe money to individually and personally.
Firstdibz should just pay everyone, put all this behind them and concentrate on running their business. The longer this stagnate, the worst it gets for them. Who is advising Firstdibz on this PR fiasco should be fired immediately.
Chargeback people will still have to be refunded any balance after chargebacks or their reparation agreements may be null and void thus putting their company subject to lawsuits.
AMEX also refunded me chargebacks too.
I still have a balance and my attorney is looking to file a lawsuit if they do not pay the balance. If multiple accounts that are not fully refunded, a class action suit may be best option.
Looks like Paypal is the only option now… Must be due to the chargebacks…
My Read:
1. They raised further investment but not enough to just make this whole mess go away, so they are doing something while waiting to raise more. This is not great news, but a lot better than what I was expecting.
2. Yes, chargebacks seems to be the ONLY way to insure a guaranteed payback in a reasonable amount of time, but you are then instantly taken OFF their payback list (or a member of SOL List -see 3 below). A reasonable trade off -so chargeback!
3. Anyone who filed anything (e.g. Better Business Bureau, State’s Attorney General or Class Action) clearly will NEVER, EVER see any money!
4. They haven’t lost their creative mojo -the MLB things is NUTS!
They just better pay me my money or else.
I was not involved with UDIBZ, have not attempted any chargebacks, have not contacted any “third party legal counsel”, have not made any threats, and have not posted any personal information. If they bump me to the end of their list or try not to pay me just for filing a complaint with the BBB I’m gonna lose it.
Well 45 Days is either today, or Tomorrow depending how they count. When do they expect to make this announcement? Someone from the company, can you please comment?
Has anyone been paid yet?
I assume most everyone filed a chargeback, so I doubt they will pay people who filed chargebacks, and allow them to get twice their money.
That was for sure an employee, the way it was written. Plus, almost everyone using this site is a reseller, and wouldn’t have used the tickets to actually sit in. Also I’m sure they gave everyone uppers and not lowers, and any upper at that stadium with the setup is absolutely terrible, so you wouldn’t have come on here to gloat about getting great seats even if you had dead center front row uppers, which surely you didn’t. Good try though Harmon.
Since I filed a chargeback, I’ll refund them if they pay me the full amount….. in 45 days, after waiting 21 days to tell them.
In english?????
I won a chargeback. If they still pay me in full I’ll refund them after a few months. Maybe keep stringing them along a month at a time.
However, FirstDibz needs to cover their obligations to fund their customer’s withdrawals BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. Basically what you are saying is that not only did Firstdibz not have a protection inplace to let these guys screw us over, but now are turning around and fighting a legal war, funded with our money. As a customer and victim, I would vote to pay back withdrawals as a first priority rather than see these guys go to justice. I have lost my superbowl tickets and I can forgive and forget, but if lose my withdrawal worth thousands of dollars, I am financially going to be screwed. I need this money and am telling you to pay me off before you spend another cent on advertisements/systems/payrolls or legal fees.