Yankee/Steiner Game-Used??

[nolongercollect]

This will boggle your mind...I purchased at the new Yankee Stadium a set of game used dirt Yankee/Steiner coasters.Out of the 4 that come in a box,1 made me realize i will no longer buy any game used items.Each of these have the MLB hologram on them.The one in question has these: LH-516319. Now keep in mind that this is a game used dirt coin....when you go to the MLB website to authenticate this item it shows up as Yankee Stadium Seats-Main Box Top,session dated;July21,2009,PLEASE PLEASE read the fine print.Heres where the boggling begins...you must read and follow the instructions given to you by MLB...if you follow these instructions correctly,you will see yourself going in Circles,Thats right! Circles....
this is the most BOGUS thing i have ever seen.Steiner rep offered me a M.Cabrera and R.Cano autographed balls and a new set of coasters just for this 1 piece."WHATS IT REALLY WORTH".
can anyone tell me if this has any value?

[murfsteve25]

game used dirt coasters sounds right up there with my Sheffield socks and my Shea Stadium knapkin holder. no idea what its worth...

[legaleagle92481]

Not much Steiner sells alot of game used dirt from Yankee Stadium and it is just dirt. The MLB database as other threads have shown misdescribes items all the time. I own a Jim Thome gamer that I won in an auction on there it is autographed with a Game Used 2008 inscription, has his name on the barrell, his custom tape job and also came with a letter from the White Sox stating that it was a Thome 2008 gamer. There is no doubt that this is a Thome bat but the hologram corresponds to a B. Johnson 2009 spring training used bat.

[jkalathas]

They are sure as hell not worth the $500 you want for them in your joke of an eBay auction. They made a mistake, you should have let them fix it and taken one of the two different stories you tell of what they offered you. Just my humble opinion.

[mbenga28]

does anyone know what bob malandro is up to nowadays? Steiner can really use him as their game used contact, the current one is a joke and has no clue how to write proper sentences nor informed answers on game used inquiries.

[suave1477]

IMO it's really not that big of a deal, it's dirt.

Even though it says seats you clearly know it is not.

[ferro39]

lol, i had to see it for myself

http://cgi.ebay.com/Yankee-Steiner-Game-Used-Dirt-or-is-it-Yankee-Seats_W0QQitemZ220529127320QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_D efaultDomain_0?hash=item33588f6f98

[legaleagle92481]

Why would this make you stop collecting? It is an error in the database that if you brought it to their attention they probably would correct.

[suave1477]

I can't believe he actually made an ebay auction out of this.:confused:

You got to love this line!!
My point is that this is a HUGE ERROR ........considering that Yankee/Steiner and MLB assure you "100%" that each item is "Authentic".


Yes folks it is huge lmaooooo


:eek: Dirt was mislabeled, oh no what are we all gonna do???? lmaoooooo

[mbenga28]

was this ever mentioned on here before?

Being a long-time Season-Ticket holder at Yankee Stadium, I wanted to get one of my seats as a keepsake when they closed the Stadium. I wanted the seat that I always sat in, seat #9. I was willing to bite the bullet and pay close to $1,000 to Steiner Sports for my seat since I figured it was a one-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.

From the start, things with Steiner were questionable. At first, they tried to force me to buy both of my seats. I repeatedly stated that I only wanted one of the seats, and had neither the use, nor the room for two seats. I was told that I had to buy both if I wanted the actual seats in my plan. I told the Steiner agent that I would see if any of my friends wanted to purchase my other seat. I called her back the next day to tell her that none of my friends wanted the other seat so I would have to pass on their offer to allow me to buy my seats. I was put on hold and when the agent returned, told that due to a just changed policy, I could indeed buy one of my seats. So I did, in mid-May, at a cost of close to $1,000 instead of the advertised $749. This was because I was getting my exact seat, as I was told.

Then began the wait. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into Months. When the 2 month mark passed, I tried reaching the agent, I got no response to my phone calls or emails. I did get a mass email from Steiner Sports stating that the chairs were being shipped by August 7th. Of course that day came and passed without me receiving the seat that I paid almost $1,000 for.

I called and emailed the agent once again. No response. I called several days later and she actually answered. She told me that she did not respond because she was on vacation. (Why wouldn't she have an "on vacation" message on her voicemail directing people to another agent in case they needed help while she was gone???

Then I was told that there was a delay in making the chairs (even though the chairs that were removed from the Stadium in mid-May according to the video shown on the local news reports at the time). I was then told that I was not informed because they had misspelled my Email. Of course, if that were the case, how did Steiner send me that mass emailing the week before??? I let that go though, as all I wanted was my seat.

I was told that I would receive an update email stated when my seat would be shipped. Days passed, no email arrived. I called the agent back, received no answer, and then emailed her and asked what happened to my status update. I finally received an email containing a FedEx tracking number from the agent stating that the chair was shipped and I would be receiving it in a couple of days. Those days passed. I indeed received a package, I opened it, and after a three month ordeal...

...IT WAS NOT MY SEAT!!!!!

My seat was seat #9. The seat that they sent me was #7. Needless to say, I was quite irate. After spending three-plus months waiting for this seat, after three-plus months of the Steiner agent ignoring my phone calls and emails, after being told that I would get my actual seat, I finally get a seat and its not mine. It wasn't even a seat from my row, as I knew what seat #7 from my row looked like, and this dirty, scratched seat, was not even the seat #7 from my row. I immediately called the Steiner agent and expressed my displeasure.

Her response was not "I'm so sorry", her response was "Oh, it's not your chair? I'll have to find out what happened to your chair". Incredible! My response to that was to tell her to cancel my order and refund my money. Including the shipping costs. She told me that she would put the refund in immediately.

I went on vacation. After a few days, I checked to see if I had received my refund. No. I tried calling the Steiner agent. As usual, no response. I emailed the agent. As usual, no response. I finally got her on the phone one day, and she stated that she had put in the refund request with her accounting department and she had called me back at the number that I left in my message. Given that the number I left in my message was my cell phone, I was well aware that she was lying. I gave her an out and suggested the she might have called my home number instead. She insisted that she called the number that I left in the message. I chose not to call her on this as I simply wanted my money back.

A week and a half later, I return home from vacation, still without my refund. At this point, there is no reason to contact the Steiner agent because she has chosen to be untrustworthy. I send an Email to Steiner Sports Customer Service clearly stating my displeasure and outlining what had happened. I state that this is unacceptable behavior on their part, and that in addition to having lost me as a future customer, I will tell everyone I know not to patronize Steiner Sports. I state that I know that they won't even notice the loss of potential funds but they shouldn't think that they can treat people like this. I state that I will file a complaint with the New York State Attorney General if I don't receive my refund within the next day.

I then go to Brandon Steiner's web site (he's the founder of Steiner Sports). I use the email on his "contact Brandon Steiner" link to send a copy of the Email that I had sent to Customer Service, with the preface of "I thought you might like to know how your staff is treating potential customers".

Within a half-hour, I received a call from the head of Customer Service at Steiner Sports. He profusely apologized for the mix-up with my seat (but did not offer to get me my actual seat, nor apologize the behavior of his Sales Agent). He also said that he would make sure that their Accounting department processed my refund. To which I asked how it was possible that it wasn't already processed when his agent told me two weeks prior that she was sending the refund request to the Accounting Department. He had no answer for that, other than to say that he would make sure that the refund was put through.

I finally did receive my refund. So after close to four months, all I have to show for my hassle is the lost Interest on close to $1,000. I do not have my seat from the old Yankee Stadium. Disappointing. Even more disappointing is the dubious behavior of Steiner Sports during this debacle.
To further illustrate the less than honorable way in which Steiner Sports operates, my friend who sat three seats to my right in the old stadium tried to buy seats from Steiner also. However, all he wanted was two random seats. He received two seats alright, attached to a piece of plywood as a base. Hardly what one would expect after shelling out $1,500 for those seats. In addition, the seats were mounted in a stand that consisted of plain metal. One would expect that they would at least have the Yankees logo on the sides, and a decent paint job. Upon looking at the seats, one would have no idea that they came from Yankee Stadium since there are no identifiable markings on the base or stand. Add to that the fact that the seats were so filthy that he had to get his power washer out to clean them before he could bring them into his house. Terrible.

In short, do not patronize Steiner Sports. It is plainly obvious that their only concern is getting your hard earned money, and once they have it, they could care less about your satisfaction, or the quality of the product that they eventually get to you (if they do). Their Sales Agents will ignore you once you've paid Steiner, and they will blatantly lie to you regarding their actions if you can actually get them on the phone.

FYI, the Sales Agent that was less than truthful, or helpful, to me was named Yanerys Rosario. If you do choose to patronize Steiner Sports, avoid dealing with her.

http://www.andreglenn.com/General/BadCompanies.htm

[Jules9]

Should probably talk to this guy....

Yanks' costly error

$5M suit says seats are cheats

By JAMIE SCHRAM, AUSTIN FENNER and JEREMY OLSHAN
Last Updated: 7:14 AM, October 26, 2009
Posted: 5:09 AM, October 26, 2009

John Lefkus paid $2,000 to own the seats where for 23 seasons he cheered his beloved Bronx Bombers, but when the relics of the old Yankee Stadium arrived at his New Jersey home last summer, he instantly knew that something was wrong.
A new paint job had erased the two decades of wear and tear created by his posterior, and this new blue was at least a few shades off the original. Still worse -- and for this he had to consult photographs to be certain -- the original armrests were completely different from the ones that once supported his elbows.
http://www.nypost.com/rw/nypost/2009/10/26/news/photos_stories/cropped/john_lefkus--300x300.jpg Brian Branch Price
ONCE MORE INTO THE BLEACHERS: John Lefkus says the Yankee Stadium seats that he bought for $2,000 aren't the real originals from which he watched the team for 23 years.

adsonar_placementId=1482040;adsonar_pid=871774;ads onar_ps=-1;adsonar_zw=300;adsonar_zh=225;adsonar_jv='ads.ad sonar.com';


Steiner Sports, the company handling the sale of memorabilia from the old stadium, promised "authentic" and "unrefurbished" seats, but when company owner Brandon Steiner told Lefkus that it was impossible to locate his original armrests for section M11, Row A, seats one and two, he said he had no choice but to sue.
"Seats sold as authentic, unrefurbished, and original Yankee Stadium seats were simply new pairs of seats constructed with a combination of new hardware and repainted parts of old seats," according to the $5 million federal class-action lawsuit Lefkus filed against Steiner and the Yankees on behalf of thousands of fans who bought their old seats.
"I feel like the steroid stars. My seats come with an asterisk," Lefkus, 52, told the Post. "My boys grew up in these seats from boys to teenagers to men. We had them for 23 years."
Back in May, when the sale of seats was announced, Steiner and the Yankees made no secret of the fact that all the original paint would have to be stripped because of lead. A new color, resembling the faded blue, was used to simulate their original appearance.
Although the seat backs and bottoms were all tagged for identity before being treated, the armrests were not, Steiner said.
"It was impossible to tag all the armrests," he said. "They all had to go into an oven and we didn't have a system in place to keep track of them."
Steiner claims that he offered to refund Lefkus' purchase and even give him the seats for free.
"Then he tried to extort me, demanding I upgrade his season tickets and get him a whole bunch of autographs," Steiner said.
"Steiner's effort at changing the subject really doesn't address the problem raised in our lawsuit," attorney Ralph Stone responded.

[mbenga28]

for the Yankees, what are the benefits of having Steiner as their partner vs. selling their game used directly themselves like other teams?

[suave1477]

for the Yankees, what are the benefits of having Steiner as their partner vs. selling their game used directly themselves like other teams?


Well I think some of you are missing the point.

The OP is upset that his dirt coaster was mislabeled as being Stadium seats.
1) It's not like your buying these for invesment purposes. They are coasters that are mass produced, that your going to use and have them for possibly sentimental value.
2) Does it really matter what they are marked as??? I mean really. It is not like they are trying to pull a wool over into making you think dirt is an actual stadium seat!!!
3) It is the labeling that is wrong not like they took dirt from Busch Stadium or Tropicana field and trying to pass it off as Yankee Stadium dirt.
4) This has nothing to do with Steiner - this was labeled by MLB not Steiner - So who is at fault for this (MLB). Steiner does not have control at the end of the day what an MLB rep puts into MLB Database.
5) It is most likely just a human error nothing more. It happens!! I am sure if there is a way to contact MLB it can be rectified somehow.
6) The fact that Steiner tried to help by exchanging the coasters and offering a $100 gift certificate is to me is pretty darn nice of them since it was not there error. Even if they did give the rounaround at first.
7) Last nut not least as I mentioned earlier we are talking about (DIRT)

[mbenga28]

my question is more off topic from OP's thread, but since we are discussing Yankees and Steiner I decided to ask this separate question here as well.

[cjclong]

Its one thing for a guy to be upset over the seats, I can certainly understand why he wanted the seats at the old stadium he sat in. But when he is offered the seats for free, meaning he is out nothing financially and just disappointed, to sue for 5million is the kind of thing that gives law suits a bad name.