Dallas Cowboys officials have severed a long-standing relationship with a North Texas package tour company, Maximum Sports Connection of Dallas, after complaints from out-of-town fans that the firm failed to secure tickets and hotel rooms, then delayed refunds or made only partial payments.
The team has sold the "official Cowboys fan tour partner" sponsorship to a new Euless company, Star Sports Tours."We terminated our partnership with Maximum after the season," Brett Daniels, a team spokesman, said Tuesday, citing problems that fans encountered with the travel firm last season. Daniels said Maximum Sports held the sponsorship for three years.In December, several fans from the Washington, D.C., area contacted the Star-Telegram to say Maximum Sports did not deliver promised nonstop airline flights. When they did arrive at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center on Lake Grapevine, they were told that no reservations existed. Maximum Sports had made arrangements at another hotel without informing them, but some fans insisted on staying at the Texan, they said.Some received refunds, while others say they've gotten nothing. Darron Mayes of northern Virginia said he and his brother are still owed $8,000 for their group's Gaylord hotel bill, which they personally covered when Maximum Sports failed to secure reservations as promised.Maryland travel agent Betty McKenzie-Mabry said two fans who didn't make the December 2010 trip from Washington for a Redskins-Cowboys game haven't received refunds for stadium and airline tickets, while five in her group did, some by disputing their credit card charges.Last week, Maximum Sports owner Ronni Sokol said in an e-mail to McKenzie-Mabry that the two will get their refunds once the NFL lockout is resolved. That left the East Coast travel agent puzzled -- "What does the lockout have to do with our refunds?"In December, Sokol insisted in a Star-Telegram interview that the problem was a one-time "hiccup," blaming a brief cash-flow problem.However, Embassy Suites Hotel in Grapevine said the firm had failed to pay a tab from earlier in the season worth tens of thousands of dollars.The money has not been paid, and the hotel's owner, Missouri-based John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts, said Wednesday that it sued Maximum Sports in state district court in Fort Worth on May 31 to recover $52,768.50 in unpaid room and food charges for three bookings in October and November.Maximum Sports responded to the action in a filing on Monday, denying all of the hotel's allegations but providing no details. The company's Dallas attorney, Christopher Robison, declined to comment.Two other sports fans, one in Kentucky and another in Utah, contacted the paper this week to say they've had problems with Sokol's firm since March.Sokol did not respond to several calls and e-mails seeking comment.Maximum Sports Connection's website, www.cowboysportstours.com, carries glowing testimonials from dozens of clients. One attached a photo of a family with a sign that thanked the company "for making our dreams come true.""We pride ourselves on our integrity and commitment to provide the best service to all of our customers," the company says.Star Sports was created this year by Barry Griffith, who operated sports tour operator Cowboy Corral, and brothers Hank and Lane Wendorf, who own The Ticket Source of Dallas and Arlington.The partners followed the events unfolding between the Cowboys and Maximum Sports and took advantage of the opportunity when the sponsorship became available, Hank Wendorf said. He declined to say what they paid for the sponsorship: "It's not cheap. But this is a pretty unique opportunity to be affiliated with that brand."The timing could have been better, Wendorf acknowledged, as the NFL lockout will have a financial impact on the fledgling venture.In securing the sponsorship, he said the partners stressed that both Cowboy Corral and The Ticket Source had A-plus ratings from the Better Business Bureau. Since December, Maximum Sports Connection's own BBB rating dropped from an A-plus to a C-minus, with 15 of its 17 complaints filed in the past 12 months.Flying instructor Alex Derthick of Richmond, Ky., said Tuesday that he won an eBay auction in March for this year's Kentucky Oaks and Derby race tickets with a $975 bid. After he waited weeks, Maximum Sports finally said in late April that it couldn't deliver the Derby tickets. They agreed on a $675 refund, but two purported attempts to make the payment through PayPal failed. Derthick said they apparently were deliberately canceled.Derthick received his refund only after complaining to eBay, which said it withdrew the money from Maximum Sports' PayPal account in line with its dispute resolution agreement with vendors, he said. Maximum Sports then took credit for the refund, Derthick added.Wendy Tanner, 38, of Payson City, Utah, said Tuesday that she has tried for months to secure a refund of $2,090 from Maximum Sports after she was forced to cancel a 2012 season package for four.Only after Tanner told Sokol that she would complain to the Cowboys, the news media and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott did the Dallas company refund $290 last Friday, she said. The firm gave no indication when the remaining $1,800 would be refunded, she said."I am just livid," Tanner told the Star-Telegram. "It's not a ton of money, but they just shouldn't be doing business like this. I've been good about keeping my temper, but this was ridiculous," she said of Sokol and her staff repeatedly dodging calls until she used her mother-in-law's cellphone and delivered the ultimatum to pay up.The entire family had been staunch Cowboy fans for years. But Tanner said she's now refusing to spend hundreds of dollars every Christmas on new jerseys for her four sons. And her father-in-law has been forbidden from watching Cowboy games by his wife.Barry Shlachter, 817-390-7718Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
