Need a little help on who to contact at USCF. Recently, I was checking my name on the Player lookup and saw that a tournament has been listed under my name. I didn’t register for the tournament nor did I go to it…and I have proof that I was working (timeclock and I’m sure I can get video lol). I have tried contacting USCF (by e-mail, online form) but haven’t received a reply and wonder if anyone has had similar issues and may know who I can contact specifically. It has been two weeks. The problem is I am unrated and I am participating in my first OTB near the end of May and would like this taken care of before then because the rating listed from the tournament is 1140 and, not to be arrogant, but I feel I’m much stronger than that and don’t want my next few tournaments to be messed up.
One problem may be that several key staff members are tied up with the spring national scholastics the last of which starts in just a few days. I suggest a phone call and they will find someone to help you.
It is a very busy time for the office. It looks like there was probably a mistype of a similar ID number: nothing suspect, which does happen now and then.
It might also be that Greg M Thompson of IL (13036657 - lapsed 1/31/2008 and still in high school in 2005) did not have his ID card and the TD pulled up your ID (Gregory M Thompson of IL - 14421620 - good through 4/30/2011) when entering him.
The chief TD (David Long 12640682) would be the one to confirm with the office as to which player was really in the tournament. A one-digit typo on the number would be easier for the TD to detect (the name on the wall chart would not match up). An erroneously selected ID may need more investigation to verify just which GM Thompson from IL actually played.
It’s worth noting that we have several current or recent members from Illinois named Greg Thompson plus one named Nathan Gregory Thompson, so the chances of this being a simple case of someone using the wrong ID seems rather high.
Also, keep in mind that the USCF only accepts corrections to rated events from the TD, who is responsible for the accuracy of the events he or she submits.
Unfortunately, when it’s a case of mistaken identity and you have no connection to the TD or the organizer of the event, it can be difficult for you to get in touch with the TD. (Yet another good reason for TDs to provide the USCF with ‘public contact’ information, even if they’re not looking to be a TD for hire.)
I just emailed some contacts from the Tournament since no phone numbers were listed. I resent the e-mail. Should I use the contact form that USCF provides? That’s what I used first. I listed it under Ratings Questions or Problems.
If there’s a specific person I can e-mail to, I forward it to that address also.
I officiated the tournament.
I got a message from Walter last week and sent him a reply - I received his USCF #; forget what documentation he had but I think it was a printout of something. Maybe he has an impostor but more likely whoever played copied down the wrong line or something.
I just got a message from Greg on the scc site; I’m going to try to figure out what’s going on. Tomorrow I’m going to try to get hold of the people he rode with.
OK, I see why I didn’t find the earlier email yesterday, it came from a different email return address (‘gregmark…’ instead of ‘gregorymark…’) That may have affected getting a response from Walter.
BTW, it looks like it was sent on April 28th (last Wednesday) at around 7PM, not two weeks ago.
It sounds like Walter’s working on getting a corrected ID from the TD of the event, but it may take some time for the TD to figure out the right one.
The good news is that with rerating, even if we don’t get the correction posted by this Friday (when the June rating list will be run) we can still fix it later on.
The other aspect is that if you’re playing the event at the end of May, you shouldn’t need to worry too much. You are still unrated as far as the May supplement is concerned, which ought to be the rating list used for a May tournament. (Edit to add: Unless the pre-tournament publicity says otherwise.) Just confirm with the TD at your event that you are still being shown as unrated, in case of TD error.
The problem still needs to be corrected, but it shouldn’t affect your pairings.
Thanks everyone for the information. Yeah, my autofill for my browser must have used an old email address. I probably hit “enter” to quickly, so that makes sense why I didn’t hear anything.
I got in contact with the TD (he posted earlier in this forum about the issue), so I appreciate the response and timeliness!
I’m pretty excited to play in tournaments and I was just worried the rating given to me by a wrong player would affect my ratings later on. I’m glad it won’t!
Well, we’re not quite there yet, because we still need to figure out the right ID for that event, but we’re making progress. (And FWIW, Walter was working on contacting the TD before the first post was made in this thread.)
Maybe not a success for Crossville yet, but a success for the forum for pointing something out, and seeing a reaction to the satisfaction of the original poster that something is being done.
Just a heads up, I’ve written to the guy he rode with asking if he knows who it was, but I have not yet received a reply.
What time Friday is the cutoff?
As long as the correction is posted before about 11:45 PM Friday, it’ll get processed.
The office usually closes at 5PM but this is the weekend of the National Elementary and that may affect who’s available to process the correction Friday afternoon.
Ok, I’ll bug some people to see if I can get some information by tomorrow night, then. By the time I get off work on Friday, the USCF office will already have closed.
It seems to me that in this type of situation, when a player is listed through no fault of their own in a tournament and the TD confirms this fact, the office should be able to clear that tournament off the player’s history immediately. One way to do this without affecting the tournament’s ratings for the time being is to create a temporary fictitious stand-in player with the same rating as the one it was believed the player had during the tournament. I understand that this may take some programming although the basics are already there (create player, assign rating, assign player to tournament).
There’s simply no reason to make the victim endure any more inconvenience and to force the victim to actively try to resolve the other side of the issue. It’s enough that they proved that they did not play in the tournament.
Making these changes would also reflect what’s really happening. The temporary player should be named UNKNOWN PLAYER. Perhaps this would help if others who played know who they played and contact the office or the TD.
