I’ll try to make this story somewhat short. So I had originally bought 16 pairs of tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert. I then went and sold off 15 pairs of them back through Ticketmaster. I sold my 16th pair to a friend who was willing to take the risk of them being cancelled (if they had cancelled, I would have refunded her the money.) So now the only tickets I had were my buddy’s tickets that he bought. We were in section 10 around the middle in the chart below:
About 24 hours before the concert, we decided to go onto Craigslist to see if we could get better seats. We found a pretty legit ad about someone who was selling 4 x Floor 3 tickets. If you look closely, floor 3 tickets are along the catwalk. I’m not even sure how the person got the tickets (I think they were some VIP package because I don’t think they got it on the regular pre-sale. Anyway, I had contacted her, and she said she had 2 reserved already and I could have the other 2. We agreed that she would walk in with me to the gate and if they worked, I’d hand her the money. Pretty legit sounding. Fast forward 4 hours and I see her ad AGAIN on CL. I thought this was odd. How would someone have 8 tickets in a row, right? That’s nearly impossible. So I immediately assumed that she was trying to line up backup buyers in case there are flakes (if you’ve ever sold anything on CL before, you know what I mean.) If either of her buyers didn’t show up at the gate at the start of the concert, then she’s basically lost her money on the tickets (assuming she’s not selling them outside the concert). So it made sense, but I still felt as if she didn’t keep our agreement. Then when my buddy messaged her, she agreed to sell him all 4 tickets. The odd thing was at first, she thought he was trying to buy her 300 level seats that she was trying to sell for a friend. That then made me think, “Oh wait, I never confirmed with her the seats she was selling me…maybe she thought I was buying the 300 level seats from her friend..” So then I messaged her about 2 hours after my buddy messaged her to confirm seats and price. She replied back with the info. I didn’t write back since I was driving home, and in exactly 10 minutes, she replied back saying, “Sorry, I’m selling the tickets to a father who is taking his daughter.” Miffed, I asked her what happened to our agreement. Her reply, “Well you didn’t respond in time, so I thought you didn’t want them. You know CL buyers.” OOOOOOHH I WAS LIVID.
While my friend and her were messaging each other, I came up with a backup plan just in case she flaked out on me. There was another seller who was selling pit tickets. If you look on the seating chart, pit tickets are standing only tickets right in front of the stage. The buyer wanted $325 for the hard tickets, and they had 4 of them. I figured since these were hard tickets, I would be okay with them. So after the lady flaked on me, I arranged a time to meet up with the pit ticket seller that night (day before concert.) While this was going on, my buddy sold his tickets to a friend of his. That means, from the time my buddy sold his tickets, we were ticketless until we bought either the pit tickets or the lady’s 4 tickets.
The meetup
I had told the pit ticket person to meet me at a party I was going to on Friday night. He was an hour late, but eventually told me he was close by, so my buddy and I went outside to wait for him. He walked up to us with a polo shirt and jeans and looked pretty legit. He showed me the 4 tickets, but they were on FLOOR 5. I asked him, “Huh? I thought I was buying PIT tickets…” That’s when I realized I never finalized what tickets I wanted to buy from him either. Mental note – always make sure what you are buying and how much before meeting up with the person. Anyway, because they were hard tickets, we didn’t think any of it. He showed his receipt, but we stupidly didn’t ask to see his ID (to match up with the receipt.) I’m going to blame it on the open bar at the party, but really, we should have asked to see his ID and even take a picture of his ID. We asked him how he got such great seats, and he said the MGM casino in Vegas had a pre-pre-sale, if that was even possible. So we gave him the $650 in cash for the 2 tickets, and then my buddy posted on FB if anyone wanted the other 2. His buddy then later went to buy the other 2 tickets. As he was walking away, he said he was going to go sell the pit tickets to someone else. Anyway, we went back to the party all excited that we got GREAT SEATS.
An hour before the concert
Fast forward to the day of the concert, and 30 minutes before the concert starts, as I’m driving to the venue, I get a text from my pit guy saying, “Sorry, my boss sold the tickets online. You won’t be able to get in.” I replied, “WHAT?” Nothing. I sent another reply, “Well, how do I get my money back?” No reply. Clearly I had been scammed, and the funny thing was that I wasn’t even that angry. I was more angry with the first lady who potentially sold the seats she reserved for me. Anyway, I met up with my buddy and told him the situation. He was even more calm and collected than I was. I then went on Stubhub and found some Floor 6 tickets for about $220 each. As I was checking out, I noticed the total charge dropped down to something like $375. I thought that was odd, but proceeded to check out anyway. After submitting the order, Stubhub gave me an error saying the tickets had been sold. I went back and found 2 other Floor 6 tickets for about $220 each as well. I was able to secure those. A quick run to a printer, and we were on our way to the concert. Now, you know I was scared when they scanned the tickets, but luckily, they worked just fine. About an hour after the show started, I got curious to see what the prices were, but I couldn’t even find them again. Stubhub must cut off sales after a certain time after a show starts (I haven’t Googled to see when that is.)
Moral of Story – I’d advise against buying tickets from Craigslist if possible. If you do, I’d want to get a picture of the person’s ID and even license plate just in case they do scam me. But the true moral of the story is – wait until the last few minutes of when the event starts to buy tickets for dirt cheap on Stubhub. Now, was this karma for me flipping 16 tickets? Possibly. But karma would have been if I scammed someone by selling fake or bad tickets, and then got scammed myself. I thought I was too old to be scammed on Craigslist, but I guess an old dog can learn new tricks. Another life lesson – just because they are hard tickets doesn’t mean they are 100% legit.
I cannot believe that! So wrong!
A lot of people got scammed for her concert since the TV news ran a story on it afterward. Haha.
Sorry to hear, but glad you were able to eventually get into the concert. Maybe you can still find the CL ad in your browser cache and file a police report + CL report? That way at least it was reported versus not.
Nah, a lot of people got scammed and it wasn’t just me. I’ll just chalk this up to an expensive life lesson.
no vinh, screw that, report these assholes. send a screenshot from cache or atleast their phone numbers. dont let these clowns get away with it or think that since so many got ripped off that someone else might report em.
do your civic duty. $600 may not be much to you, but that might have been some fans utility bill or rent or something that they lost and/or didnt even get to attend this concert. even tho I’d imagine this particular one would mostly be upper, middle-class teenage girls — it doesnt matter, coz you can be sure these dbags are out there scamming ALL kinda other concerts/events.
remember all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is when good men do nothing about it.
You right BW. Let me do my civic duty to protect all the future teenage girls!
lol, well mostly their money unless you wanna be a bodyguard too. but seriously, I hate scammers and predators who prey on ppl’s trust/goodwill. least of which is cause I’ve been scammed by craigslist scum as well.