With millions of people vying for a ticket for Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ crashing the website of the official ticket vendor Ticketmaster, some Swifties are finding other ways to get hold of a ticket, whatever the cost, including buying from resellers.
However, buying from resellers comes with a big risk of getting scammed, which is what happened to Stefanie Klein – who wanted to buy a ticket for her daughter for Swift’s six-night stop in Los Angeles.
Klein turned to StubHub, an online marketplace for buying and selling tickets after Ticketmaster crashed due to the high number of people trying to access the site the moment tickets went on sale.
On StubHub, Klein ecstatically found two tickets with “pretty good seats” that cost her roughly $1,400 (approx. P78,809), as reported by an international news site.
Unfortunately, not long after, StubHub reached out to Klein telling her that the ticket she purchased wasn’t available as the seller didn’t have the tickets.
While StubHub offers a ‘FanProtect Guarantee,’ wherein, they’ll refund the payment plus an additional 200% of their ticket purchase if they’ve been scammed by a seller, Klein didn’t get her money back swiftly.
“This Fan Protect Guarantee did not protect me,” she said. “I was given reason after reason, excuse after excuse after excuse. There’s nothing else I could get from customer service. I couldn’t keep calling. It was actually giving me high blood pressure; I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t spend my precious time arguing and arguing over and over again.”
On a brighter note, after the international news site reached out to StubHub, Klein got her refund plus the 200% addition, totaling $4,300 (approx. P242,100). However, the reason why the refund took so long wasn’t given – stating that at least 80% of the Eras Tour ticket sellers are first-time sellers, causing an unusually high number of order issues.
“Ah, such a relief that I’m out of this nightmare. Just such relief,” Klein said. “I have to tell my story because this has to happen to other people. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating. And buyer beware.”
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