Stubhub’s lousy “Fan Protect Buyer Protection”

A couple of days ago, I was browsing Stubhub’s site to get a gauge of market value of Ariana Grande’s Las Vegas tickets.  While I was there browsing, the lowest priced tickets were $45 each for a 4 pack in floor F.  This was CLEARLY a misprice!  I then vaguely remembered that Retailmenot had a $50 off $100 off Stubhub, so I figured I’d double dip.  Unfortunately, the deal expired yesterday, but there was a $30 off $230 or so, and after fees, the 4 pack would come out to ~$240 before Retailmenot.  I was debating whether I should buy the tickets or not since I’ve been burned on the sell side before due to a misprice.  I was also wondering what would happen if the original seller sold the tickets elsewhere so when I resold his tickets, if MY BUYER can’t get in, then do I get dinged or the initial seller?  A lot of questions ran through my head, but in the end, I figured someone else is going to profit from these tickets, so it may as well be me.  Yeah, I know a shitty rationale, but what would you do if you saw a $100 Best Buy GC on Raise for $20?

Anyway, a few days later, Stubhub calls me and says that the the tickets are no good.  They are going to replace my tickets with section 8 tickets.  That’s when I pulled up the seating chart above.  This is roughly the conversation:

  • Me – “Huh?  How is that comparable?  The tickets I bought were floor F.”
  • SH – “Well they ARE comparable.”
  • Me – “Uhh no they ARE NOT!”
  • SH – “Well you only paid $45 for them, and I wish I could get you more expensive floor tickets but I can’t.”
  • Me – “Huh?  That’s not what your fan protection says.  It says COMPARABLE OR BETTER TICKETS.”
  • SH – “These are comparable”
  • ME – “NO THEY ARE NOT.  I HAD FLOOR SEATS.  THESE ARE WAY IN THE BACK.”
  • SH – “Sorry, this is the best I can do.”
  • Me – [At this point, I can see this is going nowhere.]  “Okay do you have anything in section 6?”
  • SH – “Hmmm how about section 7?”
  • Me – “FINE WHATEVER.”

Here’s a link to their Fan Protect guarantee.  I just found this nugget: ”

Other terms:

  • “Comparable or better” replacement tickets are determined by StubHub in its sole discretion based on cost, quality, availability and other factors.

By the way, the new seats were $160, so the poor seller had to eat about $500 + $100 = $600 for the typo.  Don’t get me wrong; I really do feel bad for them, but I think Stubhub’s arbitrary “comparable” seats is BS since they somehow think section 8 is “comparable” to floor F.  Maybe this lady has never been to a concert before, but she should have known better.

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