They check out
 

I have the latest Lonely Planet Japan, and they are indeed listed. There are also feedback form customers on their FB site.

Go check it out yourselves. It's all public content.

Are you testing him? :)

It certainly seems logical that demand for sumo is depressed because of the match fixing.

Here is the info from the official site. You can buy at Lawson and the usual suspects.
http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/ticket/kaikata/index.html

And here is current availability that suggests that ticket agencies are not necessary unless you are extremely picky about where you sit. I have been told that the premium seating is extremely uncomfortable for non-Japanese because you are sitting on the floor for extended periods of time.

http://ent-sumo.pia.jp/en/vacant/va09.php

Richard, have you tried actually asking them for the reasons why they don't post the information, instead of speculating? And are you still in denial that this service is legitimate? You have access to opinions from the site's customers along with other information, but seem to be ignoring them. In your conclusion about the credit cards, using Paypal is actually safer for the customer. When you pay a merchant directly, they receive all of your card information. That is a bonanza for fraudsters. When you pay by credit card through Paypal, only Paypal has access to this information, the merchant never sees it. This is protection for the customer. And have you also considered that many small businesses around the world use Paypal because it's not so easy or cheap to get dedicated credit card accounts?

My PMs have been temporarily blocked as it seems new members are only allowed very few in a day. You know how to contact me from our previous discussion, however.

How, may I ask, do you expect this to happen when one of the most influential FlyerTalk users (yourself) warns people off every time the topic comes up in these forums? Are you waiting for somebody to go against your advice? Wouldn't it be more honest of you, more useful, and fairer to the merchant, to say, "I have never used this business and I don't know anybody who has. Why don't you try it and report back about your experience?"

I also want to add about the credit cards that Paypal has built-in protection for merchants that detects (or is supposed to) fraudulent credit card use and alerts the merchant. With a dedicated merchant account from the credit card company, that security is the merchant's own responsibility. Paypal isn't extremely popular for no reason, even if they do have their share of detractors.

Welcome to FT, backpackgal, and thanks for providing another testimonial. Certainly to many (but not all), being listed in Lonely Planet is a positive.

In our PMs, Jeff, I suggested you provide genuine contact information on your site. You replied that you had your reasons for not providing that. I suppose I could have then sent another PM asking for your reasons, but given your initial response, it didn't seem likely that would be productive.

Incidentally, I doubt that many Flyertalkers would regard me as influential! But in any case, I think all points of view have now been adequately aired and hence I'll stop making further posts in this thread.

Who, me? :)

I have never had any problems getting into sumo matches, in fact even scored some of those fancy shmancy cushion seats for my mother and her friend.

And what does "baba" actually mean, gnaget?

Buy Sumo Tickets Customer Review
 

Hello,

In July of this year I used the services of Buysumotickets.com for the Nagoya tournament. The service was impeccable. The tickets were aonly slightly more than face price reflecting a very small service fee and postal chage directly to my hotel. The seating was as requested and the web site even had a link on "how to get to Nagoya".

After this transaction I asked the site if they also dealt with other tickets as I had difficulty getting Noh tickets. They looked into this for me and that same hour had booked the tickets I wanted and again for a very small service fee and postal charge delivered to my Tokyo hotel.

I will use this service again with no hestitation. This site is not a fraud as intimated or some kind of scam. I had my tickets and 5 star service.

Steve
AUSTRALIA

Jeffca also wrote to me. I don't have any insight into his business, but I do dislike the tone of his participation in this community - orchestrating the swamping multiple threads with duplicate posts, using language when talking about his own company that implies he's an outsider (referring to his own company as "they") and so on.

For whatever reasons, Jeffca sees a need to operate his business anonymously. I expect some people don't mind that. Others will be a little leery of it. That's just a consequence of the business decision to remain anonymous and my advice to Jeffca is to accept that - or find a way to change the business decision.

Filling these pages with endorsements from user IDs that have been created with the sole purpose of endorsing Jeffca's company makes this place feel like Tripadvisor, where hotels talk up their own properties and trash-talk their competitors - and nobody knows who's real and who's not. That's not helpful and it's unlikely to assuage the concerns of the people who view an anonymous trader with some suspicion.

Perhaps a member of the Flyertalk community - someone we all know by reputation - will try out the service and report back. Barring that, I don't see anything more that can be said here. Therefore, like Richard, I'm bowing out of this discussion.

Ciao.

RichardInSF asked for testimonials, and here some are. Customers were happy to oblige, and they were actually pretty angry about what was being said here. I had to ask them for politeness.

Could my decision to use the 3rd-person language, as you point out, have something to do with the fact that the last time I was here and identified myself clearly, I was promptly banned for life, with absolutely no warning from anybody or explanation of why? I signed in and found this:


"You have been banned for the following reason:
spammer - if you want to advertise, buy ads

Date the ban will be lifted: Never"



Isn't that nice? NEVER! I was totally open, introduced myself as the owner, began to address the concerns, etc, and they did this. They also deleted all of my posts, leaving the misinformation in the thread to stand without response or correction. It's only a matter of time before this account is banned. FlyerTalk needs some improvements in that regard, to say the least. Surely you understand why I'd take a different approach this time. I also made no attempt to deny who I was. Look at the handle I chose! It's my first name and the first 2 letters of my last name! That's not exactly the work of a devious mastermind intent on deception, is it? Especially after I message the both of you with the same username and tell you who I am.

So if you want people on FlyerTalk to be open about who they are, perhaps you need to convince the forum mods not to ban people for life when they jump to the defence of their business that is being accused of being fraudulent by some of its members who have never used it and have never even heard from anybody who has.

That said, I am taking the idea of putting the address on the website into consideration. Richard was not telling the whole truth a few posts back when he said I refused to offer reasons, as I did explain to him in a PM one of the primary reasons why I still think we'll keep the phone number available only upon request. Why he didn't think I'd offer more if he asked is beyond me.

Thanks for that , you can apply to the Community Director (San Diego 1K) to become a company representative, and your name will appear in green! Please take up your moderation concerns with any of the Senior moderators which are tasked with moderation of "rogue" forums such as this one. They are: l'etoile, Canarsie, cblaisd, etc....

Just to clarify my own information. I usually use sumobaba or babaryutaikai for forums. I am female, 72 years young and have a full time day job in international finance. As I said, I would be happy to provide a link to my facebook page and I can be researched on the sumoforum.net under babaryutaikai. I use my real name on the sumo mailing list, but most know me as Barbara Ann. NY is where I was born and raised (and will likely die, unless I have death by bicycle in Japan from the sidewalk cowboys). Sumo is from my passion for the sport. Baba is what my grandchildren call me.

I did not go to Nagoya because of full-time job engagements. It's extremely hot and humid there, anyway, although I do like the cardboard fans that are handed out to the attendees.

RichardinSF, I apologize for getting your shikona wrong, but I was tired and crabby when I got home from work last night and didn't take the time to check. Nonetheless, I stand by what I wrote. although I may have been a little inaccurate on the number of years I have been dealing with the merchant - it's actually closer to 4, I have used them so many times, it seems as though I have been a client for 10 years!

I also believe I may have been on flyertalk previously but didn't find any reason to post.

I do have some wonderfully insightful photos of sumo goings-on, so I do invite private messages and requests for my links.

Now, it's off to work in this rainy, rainy weather. Cheers!

Well at least I got the Baba part correct !:p

Thanks so much!
 

Well dang, thank you for this! I wish they had suggested this to me before just getting rid of me last time! I'm pretty sure that wasn't in the sign-up information. I was completely unaware that there was such a thing as a "Company Representative" here, but I like the concept. I just signed on with a handle called 'BuySumoTickets' and began writing.

I'll work on this. In the meantime, please don't ban me while I get this sorted!

Well they will be sure to ban this and all your other alias when you have "got this sorted" ! By the way, being a company representative doesn't give you superhero "protection" on the forums. Many will still be skeptical , YMMV!

Company representative status: REJECTED

Grounds is that this business is not "core" to what FlyerTalk does or its charter.

I do not have any other aliases here. But this may mean that I'm not welcome here at all. If I identify myself clearly, banned for life. If I don't identify myself clearly, the users get upset until I have to identify myself, then I get banned for life. That seems somewhat unfair.

I understand the skepticism. I am happy to let the business' reputation rest with the lack of complaints online (from people who have used it), the Facebook site which has a decent record of what we've been doing this year (especially how we handled the tragic events that were February-May 2011) the inclusion in the new Lonely Planet, and our continuing good standing as a verified user with Paypal, and the reviews here. Only if one relies just on users from FlyerTalk to get information, might one turn up nothing useful in our support. There is enough external information available to be convincing, IMHO. And I have some serious doubts about whether or not anybody from FlyerTalk will actually use the service after reading this fiasco.

I'm not going to come on here and say we're a great service and to use us, just to say that we aren't criminals and we won't steal your money! If in doubt, ask yourself HOW. How did we do it? If we're a fraud:

1. How did we get into the new Lonely Planet?
2. How have we not been arrested after nearly 3 years, considering Paypal has the full names and addresses (conditions of getting verified)?
3. How did we build a Facebook page with user feedback and no complaints?
4. How did we avoid people posting online that they paid us and received neither their tickets nor a refund?
5. How did we get a glowing review from a very well-known lady in the foreign sumo community (Barbara)?
6. Why has Japan-Guide not kicked us out of their trusted advertisers?

etc.

I think you'd have to be a bit of a conspiracy theorist to mentally construct a scenario in which we managed to do all of this and continue to this day. I'll rest here, because banning is probably imminent.