An online operation that has failed to deliver promised Beijing Games admission tickets to hundreds of consumers worldwide unexpectedly closed down Monday, hours before a federal judge in San Francisco approved a restraining order aimed at halting the websites.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White's order prohibited Xclusive Leisure & Hospitality Ltd. from using more than a dozen website names, which include www.beijingticketing.com, www.beijingolympic2008tickets.com and olympic-tickets.net.
White also prohibited the company from using any Olympic marks, such as the familiar rings or the Beijing Games logo, to market tickets.
The International Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic Committee had gone to court seeking to shut down websites they said had ripped off hundreds of consumers around the world who paid thousands of dollars thinking they were buying Olympic tickets.
Some consumers held out hope in recent days that tickets would still arrive. But those who did business with www.beijingticketing.com reported receiving a mass e-mail Monday morning that confirmed their worst fears. The company acknowledged that it doesn't have any Olympic tickets to distribute -- including the opening ceremony admissions it had been selling for as much as $2,150.
The e-mail from "Alan Scott" told beijingticketing.com customers that "our suppliers have not been able to honour their commitments to us in supplying tickets for the Summer Olympics, despite having received written assurances from these suppliers. We are given to understand that they have placed themselves in to bankruptcy, despite having been paid in full by our company."
That assertion angered some customers who had grown increasingly frustrated in recent weeks because the company had stopped answering its telephones and responded to e-mails.
"It's a classic shell game," said Jonathan Murray, a British citizen who paid $4,950 for Beijing Games admission tickets.
The e-mail also advised customers to "immediately" seek refunds from their credit card companies and said that a call center would be created "that may be of further assistance."
But calls to a London telephone number that had been listed on the website did not go through Monday. Similarly, e-mails sent to the sales department at beijingticketing.com were bounced back as undeliverable.
