I transferred Declansmith 50GBP for two of his tickets for Crystal Palace vs. Manchester City.

The match was originally scheduled for April 13, 2019 but then re-scheduled to the next April 14.

As soon as I saw the schedule change, I reached out to Declansmith on Feb 25 and asked for a refund. I don't live in the UK and was travelling from Canada. My flight was leaving on April 14 and there was no way I could change my flight without exorbitant penalties.

Declansmith responded that he would return my money but I would have to wait until March 20 when he got paid.

So I waited.

March 20
No payment received. Declansmith says I must wait since his employer made a mistake with his pay. And it's been a tough month. And that since he sold me the tickets at a discount he lost out on the opportunity to sell his tickets at a higher price to other buyers. And now those other buyers had all found tickets and he was unable to sell those tickets. Imagine that logic.

He promises to send me 25 GBP on March 28th and then another 25GBP when he sells the tickets.

March 28
No payment received. Declansmith says his wife has not been paid and that he has no money and that there is nothing he can do.

April 1
I send a final note to Declansmith letting him know that I will be contacting Forum Moderators to let them know of the situation and posting in Ticket Talk.

I contact Forum Moderators who follow up with Declansmith.

April 2
He replies to both of us saying he is an honest fellow, not a bad guy, and that I will get my money.

Forum Moderators impose a deadline of April 12 for Declansmith to return my funds. An extra 10 days.

April 12
No payment.

Declansmith messages myself and the forum moderator and indicates he will pay on April 18 since that is when he gets paid.

April 18
It's now almost 4PM UK time and I haven't received any payment. I've reached out to Declansmith and have received nothing.

So long story short - Declansmith is not to be trusted. I think he saw an opportunity to make a quick buck of a fan coming from another country and that's exactly what he did.

I transferred the money via PayPal to what I assume is his wife's account nicolaharper3@hotmail.com when the initial transaction took place.

I was patient, understanding and reasonable and gave Declansmith many opportunities to demonstrate good faith and return my money. He failed on every account. He could have easily sent me half of the funds (as he promised) but again, I think his actions speak for itself.

So to the Crystal Palace Community, beware when purchasing tickets from Declansmith. It's not worth it.

This post has been approved by the Forum Moderator.

Thank you - I will look into this some more!

This would be justifiable if a refund was not offered. But it was, so somewhat of an irrelevant point.

Vive le Roy!

Here's where I see the difference.

I provided notice that I wouldn't be able to attend the game on Feb 25. The rescheduled game was on April 14. That's 48 days to attempt to re-sell your tickets. Tickets that the seller indicated on multiple occasions he sold to me at a discount, and did me a favour because he had so many other inquiries and that I got a really good deal.

If that was the case, wouldn't it have been easy to then sell the tickets again?

In that time period, the seller doesn't repost the tickets on this website (where he originally posts them).

I can't find another post from Declansmith indicating that "hey tix are back up for sale". Can you?

So to me, that indicates (in retrospect) that maybe he had already sold them again, or had no intention to sell them, or perhaps never even really had the tickets to begin with. At this point, I don't think we will ever really know. And it doesn't really matter does it?

Furthermore, the notion that you can incur financial hardship by returning a deposit of 50 GBP for a pair of tickets is asinine.

There's a moral issue and an ethical issue. In this situation, the empty promises of a refund are more indicative of unscrupulous behavior rather than financial hardship.

The one point you do make which I will concede is yes, I should've been more aware that matches could be scheduled for a different day entirely. It never occurred to me at the time. I was trying to be organized and get my trip sorted in advance. If anything I imagined the kickoff time would change.

Nevertheless, I don't think that's reasonable grounds to say "Oh too bad, you don't get your money back".

Love the different perspectives...keep it coming!

No, but then why should he? They were your tickets. I can't find a post by you either saying "I've bought these tickets , can't make the match, does anyone want to buy them?" They were YOUR tickets them so it was not his responsibility to sell them surely?

Excellent point. In retrospect I totally should've.

But at the time, they weren't my tickets. I didn't have them in hand (never did) and I was out the money. He was in control of both. SO how was I to sell tickets I couldn't transfer or even had the rights to sell? Upon receipt of the money, the tickets never came to me. So not sure how I was going to sell something I didn't have in my possession.