I found out the hard way that any purchase on StubHub is contingent. I ordered basketball tickets in the evening and paid by credit card. StubHub added a 10% markup $16.95 Fedex delivery charge. The next day around lunchtime, I received a breezy email from StubHub canceling the sale. A companion email offered a $20 discount on a future purchase. There was no explanation for the cancelation, nor did I ever receive one.
I did not want the consolation prize — I wanted the tickets. I contacted StubHub and complained that its own User Service Agreement requires sellers to deliver the specified tickets on time. Nowhere in the User Service Agreement, the StubHub website itself, or the confirmation email is there any mention of the fact any StubHub sale is contingent upon the seller's electing to fill the order. From what I can tell, after the order is paid for the seller can cancel a sale for any reason, legitimate or not, and the buyer is screwed.
I asked StubHub to persuade the seller to complete the transaction. StubHub refused to take this step (or even attempt to do so).
I then asked StubHub to use its own website and procure tickets from other sellers in order to complete the transaction. The tickets are out there, albeit at a higher price than I paid. StubHub refused to do this as well. So StubHub made a business decision NOT to complete the deal when there was plenty of time and plenty of product.
So the bottom line is this — when you deal with StubHub, until Fedex shows up at your doorstep, you have no guarantee of tickets. The StubHub FanProtect Guarantee in reality neither protects nor guarantees anything.
If I were running StubHub, the first thing I would do is prominently display the following message in the User Service Agreement, the website, and in any email communication sent to customers:
"All sales are subject to seller acceptance."
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