NBC 5 Responds

Packers Fan Turns to NBC 5 Responds After 2020 Tickets Don't Show

A Packers fan spent hundreds of dollars for game tickets that were two years away, so when it was finally game time and no fans were allowed in the stands, his Hail Mary came from NBC 5 Responds.

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The rivalry between Green Bay Packers fans and Chicago Bears fans is legendary, which is precisely why Steve McKay, a lifelong Illinois resident, became a Packers fan more than 60 years ago.

“I grew up a [White] Sox fan and a Chicago Cardinals fan, so when the Cardinals left town in 1960, I went with the team that the Bears hated the most, so I became a Packer fan back then,” says McKay said.

Despite home games being sold out at Lambeau Field since 1960, and a season ticket waiting list with at least 141,000 names on it, McKay has managed to make it up to Green Bay for the past 25 years to watch a game played on the so-called "Frozen Tundra."

“My daughter and I are the duo that head up there," McKay said. "She always wants to take a selfie of the two of us at about every game we've ever gotten to."

For the past decade, McKay has turned to eBay to purchase the Green Package from a season ticket holder, which are tickets to one pre-season game and six of the eight home games.

“You just kind of hope when you get the Green Package that the Bears aren't going to be playing them the second or the fifth week,” he said, because the tickets are only for games 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 of the regular season.

In the fall of 2018, McKay, like he had in the past, purchased the Green Package from a seller on eBay for $2,400. But the catch, pun intended, is that teams don’t send out the physical tickets until the following summer. So when summer came and went in 2019 and no tickets arrived, McKay looked at the paperwork from his sale and discovered he’d made a big mistake.  

“I thought it was 2019, but it was 2020, which was my error,” he said.

With no choice but to wait another year, and $2,400 in limbo, it wasn’t until the coronavirus pandemic took hold, putting the 2020 NFL season in jeopardy, that McKay finally tried reaching out to the seller. But the seller had removed his profile from eBay.  

He turned eBay for help, but the online resale retailer initially denied him a refund, citing its money-back guarantee which states: a buyer must report that they didn't receive the tickets no later than 7 days after the event date or 30 days from the latest estimated delivery date, whichever is later.

“Well, how can you take a listing for something that's two years away, and then not honor it,” McKay questioned. 

He got a similar response from PayPal, which he used to purchase the tickets. 

Finally, as a Hail Mary, he reached out to NBC 5 Responds who got eBay to refund his money, plus the $144 in fees.  

“I say it solved a lot of headaches for me and that would have probably been what I pursued in one way or the other, but you guys certainly sort of shortened the process,” said McKay, now grateful to have both his money back and a 8-3 Packers team.

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