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View Full Version : Word of Warning about Conquest tournaments.



Reecius
08-30-2010, 12:54 PM
My name is Reece Robbins, aka Reecius, and I want to let the community know about a tournament organizer named Gabriel Vega, aka Mondo, who runs the "Conquest" series of tournaments in the Western United States.

Mr. Vega recently ran the LA Conquest Grand Tournament, scheduled to occur on the weekend of June 26-27. He advertised for the event throughout the forums associated with both 40K and Fantasy claiming it was a Golden Ticket event, meaning that GW sanctioned it and would be providing the winners a ticket to the Las Vegas Invitational tournament next year. I am an avid tournament gamer and decided to attend the event.

I paid $60 for the ticket through PayPal a few weeks out and anticipated a fun day of throwing dice with friends.

A few days before the event was meant to occur, Mr. Vega decided to shorten it from the standard 2 day, 5 game format, to a 1 day, 4 game format and to change the venue.

Myself and several other players decided that making the long drive was not worth it for a one day event, especially not for $60. It also meant we might have to alter any lodging plans and reservations we had made since the location and duration of the event had changed. The event was also going to be very small, I believe only 16 people played for 40K and 4 for fantasy. Since the event that we were going to get was not what we had paid for, several of us asked for a refund.

Mr. Vega called me on the phone and assured me I would get my money back as he did several other individuals. He did ask that I allow 6 weeks for the money to come back through PayPal. I said that was reasonable and didn't give it much more thought, expecting Mr. Vega to follow through with what he said he would do.

6 weeks goes by, and I had not received my refund. I gave it another week, and still nothing. I began emailing Mr. Vega through the email address I had been communicating with him through and through forum private messaging services to his account. He did not return any of my emails. I then emailed other people associated with his company including the Conquest general email, and Keisha Patterson, who works with Avalon Games, a company that organizes gaming conventions and works with Mr. Vega. I also called Mr. Vega and left voice messages, and called the number listed for their customer service with PayPal, but still he did not respond to me. The only individual that did respond to me was a former employee (who I shall not name to respect his privacy) who had been Conquest's head judge but quit because he was not being paid by Mr. Vega.

I then called PayPal and told them what had happened. They were kind enough to refund half of my money as a courtesy but they were unable to reach Mr. Vega either. They also told me that 6 weeks is exactly how long you have to file for a dispute on a charge to your account. Mr. Vega had asked me to wait 6 weeks for my refund, meaning that after that period of time, PayPal couldn't reverse the transaction.

I then called Games Workshop. I asked to file a complaint against Mr. Vega and the Conquest series of events. All I had to say was Conquest and the customer service rep, John Hollingsworth (who is an awesome guy, very helpful) stopped me and said, wait, is this about a guy who goes by Mondo?

I just laughed. Games Workshop has apparently had many complaints about Mr. Vega and said they do not work with him and will not work with him again.

Mr. Vega, however, still advertises his events, such as the upcoming Conquest Oregon Insurrection on October 1-3, as a Golden Ticket event when according to Games Workshop, this is untrue.

Mr. Vega has a less than stellar track record as well. He canceled the Los Vegas Conquest at the last minute, leaving many gamers, including Dawson from the Imperial Vox Caster Podcast, left holding the bill of airfare and hotel reservations when the event they planned for was canceled last minute.

Be wary of these events. I do not know why Mr. Vega refuses to refund the money he promised to refund to myself and others who paid to attend his event in good faith. I also do not know why he will not at least communicate with any of us, including PayPal, as to what is going on. His silence and poor track record indicate to me unethical business practice. I am a reasonable person and a simple explanation would have been sufficient for me to wait for my refund, but it appears he is avoiding myself and others with no intention of giving us our money back.

I would give my strongest recommendation against attending any Conquest event, or any event run by Gabriel Vega, aka Mondo.

Porty1119
08-30-2010, 02:14 PM
Thanks for the heads-up. That's pretty low of him..anyways, if you haven't done so already, I'd reccomend to put this up on a few more forums. Just to get the word out.

Inquisitor Hate Machine
08-30-2010, 02:29 PM
Someone should get this to TastyTaste. This is right up his alley.

Reecius
08-30-2010, 03:35 PM
Yeah, no worries guys.

Well, after posting that message all over the net, low and behold, I got my money back this afternoon. Still no explanation from him, but in all fairness, he finally did give me my money back.

BuFFo
08-30-2010, 05:15 PM
In all fairness?

You seem like a nice guy, but don't be so naive.

He only caved in once he realized you could actually 'reach out and harm him/hold him accountable' after your postings. He probably wants to keep his scam on the down low, and paying you back is a way of keeping you silent.

He has ripped off many people, most of which I assume stay quiet and forget him, but you actually did something about it, and his yellow nature caught up with him.

Good work on your part.

Porty1119
08-30-2010, 06:20 PM
I couldn't agree more. Hats off to you Reecius!!

crazyredpraetorian
08-30-2010, 09:37 PM
......nevermind, I don't want to get into trouble for encouraging criminal behavior on the internets.

Tynskel
08-30-2010, 10:06 PM
Aren't Con-Artists fun!

doc
08-30-2010, 10:27 PM
Hi Guys
Long time lurker... My name is Jason Dyer, known as "Doc" in the Pac NW. I've been on the GT circuit since 1999 and have played in over 30 official NA GTs. I was also an Outrider of a number of years and as such ran a couple of the Vancouver GTS.

Recently I was the Head of Gaming (volunteer - I did not even get lunch!) at the Vancouver ConQuest, run by the "Mondo" discussed here. Whilst the experience was not perfect from my perspective (the hotel screwed Mondo around a lot and messed up our space/tables), I can say the the gaming itself appeared to be run with integrity and all concerned seemed happy.

I would be rather dismayed, and would need to contact GW, if it was found to be true that they are no longer supporting the ConQuests. Those players that won are expecting to attend Las Vegas next year.Assuming GW does not renege on their side of the bargain (and who knows) I hope they honor the winners.

As for Mondo; I will not speak about the way he runs his business , and yes it is a business - suck it up - but to date I have been involved in two other Conquests as player, I have had no issues (even when one cheating ******* was publicly "flogged" for his activities) with that side of the events.
GTs are going through a rebirth in the Pac NW right now, and as GW has deemed us insignificant in the GT sphere (Seattle was one of the best GTs...) we are having a difficult rebirth. I applaud Mondo for at least trying to do this for the Western Region of North America; we don't all have an AdeptiCon in our back pockets.

I'm sorry to hear that one person, here, has had a bad experience....

Old_Paladin
08-31-2010, 07:44 AM
Well, I decided to do a little checking around of stuff myself; and what I found is:

The ConQuests are claiming that they are Invitational Events, however, GW still also has them listed as Vagas Invitationals as well.

If they don't like what he is doing, then I guess they'll drop him from the 2011-2012 runs; but as it stands, both groups are saying his tournies count.
If people go to his games and then GW backs out, I'd hold it against GW at this point.

Torcano
08-31-2010, 01:51 PM
Does anyone else detect something off about "doc"?

Reecius
08-31-2010, 02:28 PM
Hey fellas, just to clarify a few points.

@Buffo
I agree and understand with what you are saying. I was not being naive so much as no wanting to throw Mondo totally under the buss without knowing all the facts. In my estimation, he was being shady. He avoided me, didn't respond to my attempts to contact him and only gave my money back after I started making noise. It very strongly appears that he only gave my money back to try and shut me up, although I can't say that with 100% certainty.

He also stiffed Blackmoor out of his money, Blackmoor has been unable to reach him either.

Straight from GW rep John Hollingsworth: Conquest IS NOT SUPPORTED IN ANY WAY by GW and has been removed from the golden ticket event list. They will honor all of the Golden Tickets awarded to date, but will not support any further events.

As to why this i snot updated on the site, or if it is even true, I don't know. I am only repeating what I was I was told. GW told me directly that they wanted nothing to do with the guy as they had had a lot of complaints about him and the way he does business. I have no further details as to what, that is just what I was told.

In all fairness, the people I know who did go to the LA Conquest said it was well organized. The fact that Mondo, for what ever reason, told me on the phone he'd give me my money back but that it took 6 weeks through PayPal (which is flat out untrue) seems very suspicious. The fact that he did not, and still ha snot responded to any of my calls or emails and only refunded money to me once I started making noise, further casts him in a bad light. Add to this his bad track record of canceling events and the fact that I am not the only person he has said he would refund but still has not and the evidence gets pretty damning.

I love tournaments and want to see more of them but not if the price is shady business practices as that will only turn people away from attending.

Old_Paladin
08-31-2010, 03:01 PM
My point was mainly that if GWNA is sick of his behaviour, then they need to do more then just talk to you and him. They need to take responceblity.

As of right now, all of his events are listed as Golden Ticket games, own GW's own site. (So he's technically not even lying when he says, GW has these games listed as Invitational games)
If people go to his events, then GW needs to hold up its end of the mistake; or GW needs to make it clear that this events are no longer legit (if that is the position they wish to take).

I'm not saying that he doesn't sound shady, or he hasn't hurt people in the past, but GW's 'behind closed doors' words aren't matching their 'public voice' either. It takes two parties to screw over the gamers in a situation like this (and right now, neither party has clean hands).

Cherub
08-31-2010, 04:07 PM
Does anyone else detect something off about "doc"?

I know doc in RL, hes a member of the gaming club I belong too and I was at the event hes talking about. While the event wasnt as well advertised at it vould have been for warhammer events there was a suprising amount of people there for other events like blood bowl and some board game tournies that where going on at the other end of the hall. I found it to be very well organzied and there was an amazing amount of prize support for the players.
While Im not doubting what your experiance was with him, mine was alot different. If he holds another event in Vancouver BC I would deffinatly go again. The only thing different I would do is since it was a zero comp event I would bring a much much harder list then I brought this year.

Limey El'Jonson
08-31-2010, 05:32 PM
Does anyone else detect something off about "doc"?

There's nothing "off" about Doc. I should know. I was there as a painting judge, Jason is a friend of mine and I'll swear to a judge that everything he said is true. That was his first post because I showed him the link and he felt compelled to comment.

BuFFo
08-31-2010, 05:58 PM
There's nothing "off" about Doc. I should know. I was there as a painting judge, Jason is a friend of mine and I'll swear to a judge that everything he said is true. That was his first post because I showed him the link and he felt compelled to comment.

Anyone detect something may be off about "Jonson"?

scadugenga
08-31-2010, 06:11 PM
Reecius,

The only additional thing I would recommend doing, is consulting the local BBB--if he's registered as a legal company, you can report him through the BBB and at the very least, it creates a paper trail.

Anyone claiming paypal takes 6 weeks is a scam artist, bar none. Money is transferred pretty much overnight, if not faster depending on where the funds are being drawn from.

And you have 45 days to lodge a dispute, and a further 20 to file a claim, IIRC. ;)

Glad you got your money back--but it's important that other's not just "go with the flow" and get fleeced too.

Edit: A quick google check shows this guy having more than one LLC he claims ownership to. As well as some websites that are/were his that are pretty much defunct.

Sounds like he's having some pretty bad cashflow problems, which might be why the squirrelishness is going on.

Limey El'Jonson
08-31-2010, 06:20 PM
Anyone detect something may be off about "Jonson"?
What's your problem pal?

Reecius
08-31-2010, 07:24 PM
@Scadugenga
My intention is not to crucify anyone and I, as an avid tournament player, want to encourage the scene to grow. However, I have no desire to see people get screwed out of their money.

I was gong to take the next step with the BBB but as my money was refunded, albeit late, I don't feel that that would be the fair thing to do at this point in time. Had he continued to ignore me, I would have continued to escalate matters.

You are correct too, the 6 week thing is the worst of it. PayPal's refunds are pretty much instant. The fact that 6 weeks is the amount of time it takes to be unable to file for a refund screams out scam. That is just unethical in the extreme if he was aware of how that worked, which it would seem he would as nowhere is it written PayPal takes 6 weeks to get money back. It seems that it would have had to be something he made up.

doc
09-01-2010, 10:17 AM
Does anyone else detect something off about "doc"?

well, that is a first!
you want a picture? :)
here is my blog: http://docsprojects.blogspot.com/
no, you can't have a blood sample for ID verification!

MadCowCrazy
09-01-2010, 04:51 PM
I have a zero tolerance for scammer and I would post this up on every forum out there to get the word out. To me it seems he is doing the same scam that happened in sweden some years ago. Basically he arranges events and collects money for it, at the last minute he cansels everything or parts of it to save money. Then he just disapears until he does it again a few months later.

I would say he is running a scam, could the mods here check if doc and jonson is the same person, it wouldnt surprise me in the least.

All in all I would stay the hell away from any event related to mondo, if you see any events related to him post up warnings about it so people know what to expect.

Limey El'Jonson
09-01-2010, 06:07 PM
I would say he is running a scam, could the mods here check if doc and jonson is the same person, it wouldnt surprise me in the least.



Yes, I would welcome the mods proving this guy wrong. If they PM me I'll give them my phone number and talk to them on the phone if they want. How do we do this?

Duke
09-01-2010, 08:08 PM
I think I have heard about enough.

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Duke