Diners head online to offload Fat Duck Melbourne tickets

Fans of British chef Heston Blumenthal who missed out on a table at the Melbourne incarnation of his Fat Duck restaurant have been warned off purchasing a reservation from auction websites because of the possibility the transferred booking will not be honoured.

While those who secured bookings through an online ballot last year were advised the tickets were non-transferable, some have taken to online sites such as Gumtree and eBay in an effort to cash-in on the huge demand for a seat at Fat Duck, which will open in Melbourne for six months only.

Crown's Peter Crinis, chief operating officer Crown Hotels and Food and Beverage, said his organisation had requested website Gumtree remove 30 ads offering seats at Fat Duck.

"Since the ballot was drawn in October we have seen a number of attempts to on-sell reservations across sites such as eBay and Gumtree," Crinis said.

In November, soon after the online ballot closed, desperate foodies were offering up to $1000 per head on Gumtree for the opportunity to dine at Fat Duck.

That month Fairfax revealed people had employed IT experts to secure at least 100 tables through the online ballot system, which allocated a total of 14,000 seats for Fat Duck from nearly 90,000 ballot entrants. Some of those involved told Fairfax they planned to gift the seats to clients or to on-sell them privately.

An ad posted on eBay earlier this week offered four tickets to the Fat Duck Melbourne on the exclusive chef's table.

"You can not [sic] buy these tickets as they are won from a ballot …" explained the seller. "Looking for the highest bidder to take these amazing golden tickets! Good luck!"

Ebay removed the ad on Monday.

"Terms and conditions of the reservations outline they are non-transferable and we strongly advise those considering to purchase tables using a method that challenges these guidelines may be at risk of having the reservation cancelled," Crinis said.

Consumer Affairs Victoria executive director Dr Claire Noone also warned would-be diners they risked paying for reservations they could not use with Crown not obliged to honour bookings secured through unofficial channels.

Successful ballot entrants have already coughed up the $525 per person required to secure their tables and Crown said names on credit cards were checked against those used in the ballot. However, yesterday a Crown spokeswoman could not confirm the number of reservations that had been cancelled, if any.

And while those with bookings have been warned that ID may be required upon arrival at Fat Duck Melbourne, the spokeswoman was unclear what procedures Fat Duck's management would use to ensure on-selling had not taken place when diners arrived to eat.