TRAVELLING stallholders who swept through the Border before Christmas selling paintball tickets have left customers with worthless tickets.
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This week a Wagga-based paintball business received an influx of calls from Border ticket-holders whose vouchers were due to expire on Wednesday.
Project Paintball Wagga co-owner Dwayne Nicholls said the travelling ticket companies targeted the region about twice a year, but this was the first time he had ticketholders calling from Albury.
Mr Nicholls said Ministry of Paintball, which sold the tickets, was not affiliated with any of the region’s paintball venues.
“Generally speaking, they say you are paying for entry and hire equipment,” Mr Nicholls said.
“If you contact a local paintball place direct, you will realise you only ever pay for paintballs — all the other stuff is already included.
“The main reason people buy these is because they are not aware of the value of paintball.
“If you walk into a supermarket and it says “was $40 but now $4” for milk, you would know milk was never $40, but people don’t know what paintball is worth — that’s the confusion.
“Then these guys take off out of the mall and you have no after-sale point of contact.”
Mr Nicholls said the ticket stallholders usually set up in shopping centres, offering on-the-spot deals for between $8 and $10 per person.
He has received 15 calls in the past week from those wanting to use their tickets, but he said customers should do their research.
Rochelle Virgo was one of those who called Mr Nicholls. She bought a package for $60 from a stall at Lavington before Christmas.
As her tickets approached their expiration date, she had booked through the same ticket company online to play at Wagga and paid a $200 deposit.
When she didn’t receive a confirmation email she became suspicious and tried to call the company, but found both numbers were unreachable.
“When I couldn’t reach them I decided to contact Wagga because that’s where we are going to play and they are not even associated with them.
“I feel ripped off and disappointed really; just don’t do it, don’t listen to them, just walk away.”
Mr Nicholls said Project Paintball Wagga had been accepting $8 tickets so paintball doesn’t get a bad name.
The Border Mail could not contact Ministry of Paintball for comment.
