Caveat Emptor

So yesterday I had the most unwelcome birthday surprise--I discovered that I'd been scammed by an online ticket agency. My dad, half-brother Anson, Uncle Trow and cousin Robert are all heading over to Austria in a few days to go to the European Cup (soccer) finals. We were all supposed to go with them but then we found out that we were expecting in May and so that sort of put the kibosh on travel in June. Anyway, back in January I bought 4 tickets for a game in Vienna on June 20. The tickets were supposed to arrive in early May...then that got changed to late May...then it was "tomorrow"...and then it was "next week"...and finally, quite suddenly I couldn't get a hold of anyone at the "customer service" number.

I thought I had done my due diligence on this company (Eurofootballtickets2008.com), but I clearly hadn't dug deep enough. There was nothing amiss about that site, but when I checked out their parent company, Xclusiveticket.com, which supposedly had "over 25 years of experience in the ticketing business" it became all too apparent that they were a sham business, set up "xclusively" to scam unwitting customers. If you Google "xclusiveticket.com" and "scam" you'll read all sorts of angry testimony from other people who have been duped by this ticket scam.

Anyway, so we (my dad and I) spent the morning yesterday calling American Express, the FBI, the Better Business Bureau, the British consulate (supposedly they are registered in the UK), the Austrian embassy, and finally some legitimate ticket brokers to get new tickets for the game, which at this point are more than twice what they cost in January. Argh!

A day later, it doesn't seem like such a big deal, we'll get our money back from American Express and the guys will still get to see the game, but boy was I stressed out yesterday. What really burns me up is that these shysters have been operating with impunity for a few years, and they haven't been shut down. They have a front for Beijing Olympic tickets as well as other concerts and festivals in the UK. One of their employees even has his CV, or resume, posted on the web...it can't be too hard to find these people, right? Why aren't they in jail??? Another ARGH!!! (I feel like a pirate!)

In other news, I attempted to cut Oliver's hair a few days ago. Disaster. My hatchet job had to be fixed by a friend with more experience and wisdom. It looks pretty cute and all grown up. Here are some pics.

Of course he's crying! "Mom, what have you done to my bangs?" This was "mid haircut". It actually got worse after this. I had been taking pictures of Elliot, and I thought, Oliver, you are so cute, but your hair is a mess. A wet comb would have worked wonders, but no, I grabbed the scissors instead. Big mistake.
This is actually an "after" picture...there's not much we can do but wait for the bangs to grow out, but at least it looks normal everywhere else. And even the bangs look cute when I comb them over to the side, you can't tell that they have been hacked.