Grey Cup 50/50 ticket buyers overcharged hundreds of dollars

Issues with the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation’s Grey Cup 50/50 ticketing system unexpectedly shrunk some fans’ bank accounts by hundreds of dollars.

Robyn Mckay was at her home just north of Warman to watch Sunday night’s football game in her garage, alongside the 20 people she’d invited over.

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As she watched the 50/50 prize jackpot grow higher, she said she figured it was a good time to buy some tickets. Her plan was to spend $100 on tickets, but to split the costs with a friend.

Mckay went onto the foundation’s website and entered her first and last name, credit card information and birthday.

“All of that was fine,” she said.

That is, until she tried to hit the confirm button. Instead of showing her purchase had gone through, the website brought up an error message.

“It was saying that there was an email error,” Mckay said, noting it didn’t have to do with her email address being misspelled. “It was quite a weird message.”

So, Mckay tried again, and again. Each time, the error message came up.

She didn’t pay much attention to the issue because she was preoccupied with “trying to watch an exciting football game at the same time.” Plus, with all the guests in her home, she was making sure they were all happy and fed.

“It was a bit much all at once,” Mckay said.

Instead of trying a fourth time, Mckay’s friend, whom she was splitting the tickets with, also went on the website to order them. He also got the error message multiple times before finally being directed to a confirmation page on the website.

This was the error message that showed up for Carly Magoffin as she tried to purchase her 50/50 tickets. (Carly Magoffin/submitted)

But it wasn’t until the next morning that he got a confirmation email for his ticket purchase. It was also around that same time when Mckay got her own confirmation email, despite the website never moving her past the error message the night before.

Then, Mckay went on social media and saw people mentioning they’d been overcharged for their 50/50 tickets. She went to look at her own credit card charges and realized she was overcharged.

She initially planned to spend $50 on the tickets, but ended up spending a total of $250, which was five times what she initially intended to spend. She’d been charged $100 two times by the foundation, in addition to the $50 she sent to her friend when he was buying them.

“I am fine with the initial $50 and I’ll even suck up an extra $100, but $250 bucks is a bit much,” Mckay said.

For another ticket buyer, her bank account was depleted seven times more than she’d budgeted for during the Grey Cup.

Riders season ticket holder, Carly Magoffin, typically doesn’t take part in gambling.

But, supporting the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation 50/50 is “the one thing that I can feel good about doing,” she said.

So, Magoffin went online to buy the tickets — like the many times she’s done before. She went to confirm her order. That’s when the error message popped up.

Before retrying, she went to check her bank account and noticed that, “the money did come out.” However, Magoffin still hadn’t received her 50/50 tickets.

This was the email sent by the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation to Robyn Mckay on Nov. 17, under the subject line “Grey Cup 50/50 Update.” (Robyn Mckay/submitted)

She didn’t fill out the form again as Mckay had done, but Magoffin kept refreshing the website.

Then, she got a notification.

“(I) checked my bank account, and I had seven withdrawals for the amount,” Magoffin said.

In total, those seven separate transactions withdrew $350 from Magoffin’s account, while she was expecting to pay $50.

“I was quite surprised, a little bit shocked. Just kept trying to figure out what was going on,” she said.

Refunds on the way

According to an email sent by the foundation to ticket buyers on Nov. 17, the issue turned out to be too many fans trying to buy tickets.

“Due to an overwhelming volume of orders, some confirmation emails and ticket numbers were delayed. We’re carefully reconciling all orders, and anyone who has not received ticket numbers will be sent them shortly,” said the foundation in an emailed statement.

For those who, “placed more than one order, in response to a processing delay or error message, only your original order will be retained. Any duplicate orders will be refunded within 7 – 10 days,” according to the email.

But, even though Mckay and Magoffin can look forward to reimbursements by next week — one question remains.

“I’m not sure if that all that money is included with the 50/50 total, either,” Mckay said.

The 50/50 prize jackpot’s total was $2,005,107. Wade Gasmo had the winning ticket, which was announced Nov. 18, earning him $1,002,553 – or exactly half of the listed jackpot amount, according to the foundation’s website.

Based on that information, it appears the jackpot only accounted for legitimate purchases.

The Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation didn’t respond to requests for comment in time for the publication deadline.