Ticket customer says she was misled buying Toronto Maple Leaf tickets

WATCH ABOVE: A Toronto woman ended up paying more than $500 US for standing room tickets at an upcoming Toronto Maple Leafs game. As Sean O’Shea reports, she says she was misled into buying from a U.S. site.

TORONTO — Brittany Sprung was shopping for Toronto Maple Leafs tickets online and thought she had entered the right ticket buying site. But multiple clicks and more than $500 USD later, she says she got scammed.

“It really bothers me that there’s a site out there that is designed to replicate a site you’re trying to access and buy tickets from,” said Sprung, who bought a pair of tickets to a Leafs game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Sprung had done a Google search in an effort to find the official ticket buying site. She entered “Air Canada Centre tickets” and clicked on the web site link that topped the listings.

That site — known as Online City Tickets — has the web address aircanada.centretoronto.com. That address is similar to theaircanadacentre.com — the registered address of the Air Canada Centre where the Maple Leafs play their home games.

“How does that makes sense?”

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The Online City site comes up first on Google because it’s an advertised site, not an “organic” one where rankings are based on a variety of factors and cannot be bought.

“Any business with an advertising budget can get onto Google Ad Words or Pay Per Click, as it’s called, by setting up a Google Ad Words account and allocating a budget towards it,” said Hazmah Khadim, president of Webryze, a Mississauga-based search engine optimization marketing company.

Khadim said “99 per cent of the time” sites that use advertising to reach the top of the paid rankings are run fairly.

“But like any business there’s’ going to be people who use it deceptively,” said Khadim.

Websites that pay to be listed prominently on search results are marked as advertisements.

“I think the responsibility is on the user,” said David Silverberg, Editor-in-Chief of DigitalJournal.com.

“Tech users should know the difference between a paid result and organic search result.”

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When asked whether the ticket website violates its rules, Google released this statement:

“We strive to show Canadians the most relevant and useful ads based on what they’re searching for,” said a Google spokesperson.

“That’s why we have policies in place so users don’t feel misled by ads that we deliver, and that ads are upfront, honest, and provide users with the information that they need to make informed decisions,”

Sprung says after paying for what she thought were seats online, she was told it was actually standing room space. She complained to the company which agreed to refund $62 in service fees. She says the company also apologized.

Abby Albino, communications manager for the Air Canada Centre, thanked Global News for bringing the issue to the company’s attention.

“We were not aware of this site but are looking into it and would like to reach out to fan directly,” she said.