30 May,2014 07:35 AM IST | | Neha LM Tripathi
The 32-year-old booked three tickets for a May 10 Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings match at Wankhede Stadium on BookMyShow, but found that they had been allotted to the Pepsi VIP box instead
What was meant to be a fun night of watching the Indian Premier League (IPL) turned into a horrid experience for a Mumbai Indians fan.
(Left to right) Bharat Devjani, Sandeep Ghag and Tauseef Shaikh were not allowed to enter the box for the first 45 minutes, and watched the rest of the match standing. Ghag wants a full refund for the tickets (top) he bought for the match
Sandeep Ghag (32) had booked three tickets for the May 10 encounter between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, but was shocked to learn that his seats had been included in the Pepsi VIP box. They were not allowed entry to the enclosure, despite having paid for the tickets.
Ghag reserved the tickets (G-430, 431 and 432) at the Wankhede Stadium via popular online ticketing portal BookMyShow (BMS), for himself and two of his friends Bharat Devjani (38) and Tauseef Shaikh (27).
'Where are my seats?'
On match day, they found that they were left without seats, since they were now VIP seats. Said Ghag, "We had especially chosen these seats as, originally, Tauseef's wife was supposed to come for the match and she has a hypertension problem. These seats were near the washroom."
For the first 45 minutes, they were made to change their seats thrice. In the end, they were left stranded, without any seats. The trio watched the match standing. Devjani, who himself has high blood pressure, experienced issues while standing for such a long time. "I would take a small walk in the stand just to feel better," he recalled.
'Case of cheating'
Ghag said BMS should have checked the seats before selling tickets. "This means they sold us tickets for seats which were not even available in the first place. This is a classic case of cheating people," he added.
Shaikh told mid-day that BMS employees at the stadium were not at all helpful, and claimed it wasn't their mistake the seats were not available.
They told the three men they couldn't do anything. Each ticket was worth Rs 750, and including BMS's charges Ghag paid a total of R2,400. He has been writing to the company since May 11, and has been told that the matter is under investigation. He expects a full refund for what he calls were "fake tickets."
