Over 600 people claim to have been scammed by the organizer of Hailgate, a Michigan Wolverines tailgate service, several of whom say they paid thousands of dollars for Morgan Wallen tickets and received nothing in return.
A couple of weeks ago, a report surfaced that a Facebook group called “Hailgate Victims” has about 400 members who are sharing their experiences. Many of these people claim they paid for events or Michigan Wolverines memorabilia and received nothing in return.
On Tuesday, another report surfaced that more than 600 people have joined the group (that number is now over 800), with many claiming they purchased Morgan Wallen tickets, autographed memorabilia, meet-and-greets and tailgating packages and, again, received nothing.
“He was saying he could get team-signed helmets with Bryce on it, so I sent him the money. I ended up sending him $700 for a team-signed helmet and one of the footballs with the Michigan logo,” Brett Laskey, who purchased Michigan memorabilia, told Fox 2 News from Hailgate.
“I reached out to him. I go, ‘Hey, how’d it go? When are you going to send my helmet?’ And he comes back with, ‘Oh, they aren’t signing the way I wanted them to sign. They were only doing initials.’ He’s compromised. You don’t know what you’re going to get now. I would never buy from him again, any Michigan-related anything.”
Hailgate also allegedly sold Morgan Wallen tickets, then didn’t deliver
Another man, Bill Karpovich, says he paid $290 for tickets to Saturday’s Morgan Wallen show at Michigan Stadium through Hailgate. He didn’t get them.
Karpovich told The Detroit News that he contacted Hailgate’s founder, John Klein, when he didn’t receive his tickets. Karpovich said Klein blocked him after ignoring his message. A 70-year-old grandmother also says she paid Klein more than $3,000 for Wallen tickets, a backstage pass and a signed guitar, none of which she received.
“Later on that night I was going through my news feed and saw another lady on Hailgate was complaining, calling him out as a fraud,” Karpovich said. “I did some research, and within an hour 10 more people popped saying this (fraudulent activity) was going on.”
Hailgate and the Michigan Attorney General each responded to the allegations
According to Klein, he is attempting to reimburse patrons who spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars to see Wallen play. But it’s difficult to monitor every transaction because his HailGate page has over 10,000 members. Some people have reported finally receiving refunds after the negative publicity started.
Klein also attributes the missing tickets to a recent cease-and-desist letter he received from Morgan Wallen’s team prohibiting him from reselling tickets to the country music artist’s performances.
WhiskeyRiff reports that Wallen doesn’t do meet-and-greets, according to Ticketmaster, which should have raised suspicions among those purchasing that package from Klein. Additionally, the University of Michigan has also sent Klein cease-and-desist letters and said it has no connection to him.
Karpovich said he and several other victims have filed reports with Michigan State Police. Klein told The Detroit News that he would cooperate with any law enforcement investigation with “an attorney present.”
Last week, the Michigan Attorney General told ClickOnDetroit, “The Michigan Department of Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Team has received three recent complaints concerning John Klein. All three complainants report having paid Mr. Klein for sports memorabilia that was never provided to them. The Consumer Protection Team has an open file concerning these complaints against Mr. Klein and will continue to review the reports.”