PSA - Avoid Stubhub if you care about attending the ticketed event

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is stubhubs motivation for allowing sellers to wait after payment?

The largest sellers on stubhub are brokers practicing arbitrage. Those brokers list accross multiple platforms and some brokers are more honest than others. If they can sell them for more than they initially sold for on stub hub, some will complete the sale on another platform and never deliver to the stubhub customer. If those brokers leave, stubhub ceases to be a viable marketplace and goes under so the behavior is tolerated

[Anonymous]

1,000$ for tickets to see Neil Young three months ago. When tickets did not arrive looked at the fine print and see tickets available no later than the day before the concert. In the same week purchased tickets to two concerts on Ticketmaster. Got them within 24 hours. On me for not reading the stub hub fine print. But waiting to the day before or the day of the concert is not fun. Will NEVER use Stub Hub again. Once I get the ticket (hopefully) I will block Stub Hub as a sender so never deal with them again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1,000$ for tickets to see Neil Young three months ago. When tickets did not arrive looked at the fine print and see tickets available no later than the day before the concert. In the same week purchased tickets to two concerts on Ticketmaster. Got them within 24 hours. On me for not reading the stub hub fine print. But waiting to the day before or the day of the concert is not fun. Will NEVER use Stub Hub again. Once I get the ticket (hopefully) I will block Stub Hub as a sender so never deal with them again.

I get your frustration. If the ticket you’re waiting on turns out to be fake, Stub Hub will give you other ticket options to chose from for no additional cost. I bought a last minute ticket to a show the day of the show. Stub Hub emailed me within an hour of purchasing (again, it was the day of the show) with 3 different replacement ticket options. I ended up in a box seat, which was better than what I’d originally chosen. It was hectic at first but I knew about this policy going in and knew I was guaranteed a seat. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1,000$ for tickets to see Neil Young three months ago. When tickets did not arrive looked at the fine print and see tickets available no later than the day before the concert. In the same week purchased tickets to two concerts on Ticketmaster. Got them within 24 hours. On me for not reading the stub hub fine print. But waiting to the day before or the day of the concert is not fun. Will NEVER use Stub Hub again. Once I get the ticket (hopefully) I will block Stub Hub as a sender so never deal with them again.

I get your frustration. If the ticket you’re waiting on turns out to be fake, Stub Hub will give you other ticket options to chose from for no additional cost. I bought a last minute ticket to a show the day of the show. Stub Hub emailed me within an hour of purchasing (again, it was the day of the show) with 3 different replacement ticket options. I ended up in a box seat, which was better than what I’d originally chosen. It was hectic at first but I knew about this policy going in and knew I was guaranteed a seat. Good luck!

DP, I'm glad it worked out for you, but that's not necessarily how it works for everyone. The Stub Hub messaging states that you will be offered replacement tickets, but in many cases, they string you along until hours before the start of the event. It is not unusual to have a final call with customer service when they promise to send a link with replacement tickets. Of course, they don't do it during the call. You have to wait 15-20 minutes to receive the link. In the meantime, time is ticking for traveling to the event or obtaining replacement tickets on your own. Once you get the link and click on it, it is not usual to find that no tickets are available. You then have to request a refund. I get that we probably hear about the negative experiences more than the transactions that go smoothly, but the only "guarantee" is a refund that is available only if you follow StubHub's protocols. YOU ARE NOT GUARANTEED A SEAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1,000$ for tickets to see Neil Young three months ago. When tickets did not arrive looked at the fine print and see tickets available no later than the day before the concert. In the same week purchased tickets to two concerts on Ticketmaster. Got them within 24 hours. On me for not reading the stub hub fine print. But waiting to the day before or the day of the concert is not fun. Will NEVER use Stub Hub again. Once I get the ticket (hopefully) I will block Stub Hub as a sender so never deal with them again.

I get your frustration. If the ticket you’re waiting on turns out to be fake, Stub Hub will give you other ticket options to chose from for no additional cost. I bought a last minute ticket to a show the day of the show. Stub Hub emailed me within an hour of purchasing (again, it was the day of the show) with 3 different replacement ticket options. I ended up in a box seat, which was better than what I’d originally chosen. It was hectic at first but I knew about this policy going in and knew I was guaranteed a seat. Good luck!

DP, I'm glad it worked out for you, but that's not necessarily how it works for everyone. The Stub Hub messaging states that you will be offered replacement tickets, but in many cases, they string you along until hours before the start of the event. It is not unusual to have a final call with customer service when they promise to send a link with replacement tickets. Of course, they don't do it during the call. You have to wait 15-20 minutes to receive the link. In the meantime, time is ticking for traveling to the event or obtaining replacement tickets on your own. Once you get the link and click on it, it is not usual to find that no tickets are available. You then have to request a refund. I get that we probably hear about the negative experiences more than the transactions that go smoothly, but the only "guarantee" is a refund that is available only if you follow StubHub's protocols. YOU ARE NOT GUARANTEED A SEAT.

Yeah, this was more along the lines of my experience. I only opt for stubhub for local shows. I would never rely on a Stubhub ticket for any show where extensive travel was involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1,000$ for tickets to see Neil Young three months ago. When tickets did not arrive looked at the fine print and see tickets available no later than the day before the concert. In the same week purchased tickets to two concerts on Ticketmaster. Got them within 24 hours. On me for not reading the stub hub fine print. But waiting to the day before or the day of the concert is not fun. Will NEVER use Stub Hub again. Once I get the ticket (hopefully) I will block Stub Hub as a sender so never deal with them again.

Sounds like your seller was a speculator. I had this happen to me on seat geek. Seller couldn’t deliver the tickets (even though I bought 8 weeks ahead of event). Seat Geek gave me the run around that venue hadn’t released seats (venue was Cap One, owned by Monumental so I knew this wasn’t true as I had several friends who had bought and gotten tickets at same time as sale). Seat Geek tried to get me alternative tickets which I declined (they were sneaky bc email said to accept the tickets and didn’t say anything about them not being located as same seats, I noticed myself before I “accepted”). Was a huge run around, even though they were 100% in the wrong. I didn’t a refund until 4 weeks AFTER event and they fought with me up until 1 hour after tip off. I discovered the seller was tickpick which is another selling platform (their gimmick is “no fees”).

Speculators should be banned. I was told specific seats, I had no way of knowing the seller was a speculator vs a real person. And this speculator thought they had 2 months to go out and procure those same seats for cheaper than they had sold to me. In the end they couldn’t do it and didn’t GAF. I do not think there are any negative repercussions for the seller in this situation other than they don’t get the money. They don’t get kicked off the platform.

[Anonymous]

What is the possible justification for giving sellers so long to transfer tickets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1,000$ for tickets to see Neil Young three months ago. When tickets did not arrive looked at the fine print and see tickets available no later than the day before the concert. In the same week purchased tickets to two concerts on Ticketmaster. Got them within 24 hours. On me for not reading the stub hub fine print. But waiting to the day before or the day of the concert is not fun. Will NEVER use Stub Hub again. Once I get the ticket (hopefully) I will block Stub Hub as a sender so never deal with them again.

I get your frustration. If the ticket you’re waiting on turns out to be fake, Stub Hub will give you other ticket options to chose from for no additional cost. I bought a last minute ticket to a show the day of the show. Stub Hub emailed me within an hour of purchasing (again, it was the day of the show) with 3 different replacement ticket options. I ended up in a box seat, which was better than what I’d originally chosen. It was hectic at first but I knew about this policy going in and knew I was guaranteed a seat. Good luck!

Tell that to people who paid to attend the Mystics vs Fever game. Anyone who purchased through the team or tickemaster was given new tickets when the venue moved. Tickets purchased through stubhub were just refunded.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/sports/mystics-fans-express-frustrations-after-ticket-chaos-for-game-against-caitlin-clark-and-indiana-fever/65-663ba8c9-c78e-4742-b2f6-d5919a72aa5c

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the possible justification for giving sellers so long to transfer tickets?

The sellers don't necessarily have the tickets. Seatgeek and Stubhub are massive arbitrage markets with brokers doing most of the selling. If it was just individual ticket holders, then it wouldn't be able to offer enough ticket to be viable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the possible justification for giving sellers so long to transfer tickets?

The sellers don't necessarily have the tickets. Seatgeek and Stubhub are massive arbitrage markets with brokers doing most of the selling. If it was just individual ticket holders, then it wouldn't be able to offer enough ticket to be viable

The Stubhub apologists will say that the fault lies with the venues/primary ticket issues, who place holds on the tickets that prevent transfer until a short time before the event (usually 48 hours). This is partially true - it's something that Ticketmaster and the like do to drive business to their own resale marketplace. With the holds, even if you have tickets in your Ticketmaster account, the feature that allows you to transfer them is greyed out until a certain point before the show. Even so, I doubt that any primary issuers actively prevent transfer until an hour or two before the show. This is a Stubhub policy that gives sellers as much time as possible to transfer the ticket and then requires the buyers who are in limbo to wait to see if Stubhub has any replacement tickets to offer before being able to get a refund. It's unfair to buyers, who might wind up with limited options to purchase alternative tickets for events they really want to attend.

[Anonymous]

Years ago, stubhub used to guarantee a seat, now it's "We go out of our way to find replacement tickets if there is an issue with your order" They can almost always get you a seat, but they would lose money on it. The change probably means that sellers backing out is common enough that they have to be vague.

[Anonymous]

Reading all these comments makes me nervous. I recently bought 2 tickets to a sold out concert on StubHub. About an hour later, I checked on StubHub and noticed they had sold tickets on the exact same section and row and one of my seats. I had seats 4,5. The other sale was seats 5,6. The price paid was higher than what I paid so it was not my purchase.
I called SH immediately to let them know. They tried to call the seller the same day to verify but no reply, so there was nothing i could do but wait until the seller replied. They asked me to wait 72 hours so that they can investigate.
Two days later I called SH to ask for an update. They told me that the seller was able to show proof that my seats are not duplicates. I requested an email saying such but I'm still nervous that is it legit since they add that I am protected by Fanprotect guarantee.
Now I am also worried for the other buyer and I asked them to make sure the other buyer knew about the seats. I have no confidence that they informed the other buyer and I have no confidence that my seats are safe.
Should I call SH back and ask for more guarantees that the seats are good?
At this point, I am a nervous wreck for the next 3 weeks. I am flying to DC to catch the concert with my daughter who lives in DC. I have alternative plans if the seats fall through but I hate having to fight for my refund when I informed them of the issue weeks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Same situation. I have a festival to go to with tickets purchased weeks ago and still no tickets. They keep telling me not to worry but I'm a realist so I'm not counting on anything positive coming from this situation what makes it really bad is im camping there which was purchased through someone else (which the passes have arrived) so I might be camping at a festival I can't even see the show with...I wish it was legal to choke someone

[Anonymous]

I sold my first set of tickets last weekend on stubhub. As others have said, the tickets were bought by another broker and listed again about an hour later. I was just happy to be able to sell them for sticker price but actually got double. The broker had them up for 4x the amount. To make things even more crazy, the event was the same night and I transferred the tickets 4 hours prior to the event.
They have yet to pay out too. Apparently, it can be a few weeks before they pay the seller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading all these comments makes me nervous. I recently bought 2 tickets to a sold out concert on StubHub. About an hour later, I checked on StubHub and noticed they had sold tickets on the exact same section and row and one of my seats. I had seats 4,5. The other sale was seats 5,6. The price paid was higher than what I paid so it was not my purchase.
I called SH immediately to let them know. They tried to call the seller the same day to verify but no reply, so there was nothing i could do but wait until the seller replied. They asked me to wait 72 hours so that they can investigate.
Two days later I called SH to ask for an update. They told me that the seller was able to show proof that my seats are not duplicates. I requested an email saying such but I'm still nervous that is it legit since they add that I am protected by Fanprotect guarantee.
Now I am also worried for the other buyer and I asked them to make sure the other buyer knew about the seats. I have no confidence that they informed the other buyer and I have no confidence that my seats are safe.
Should I call SH back and ask for more guarantees that the seats are good?
At this point, I am a nervous wreck for the next 3 weeks. I am flying to DC to catch the concert with my daughter who lives in DC. I have alternative plans if the seats fall through but I hate having to fight for my refund when I informed them of the issue weeks in advance.

Keep us posted!
I am invested in this story.