I would like to share my negative experience with StubHub.com and make consumers aware of what I believe to be unsrupulous business practices. Allow me to explain my situation...
I listed 4 tickets for sale on StubHub.com for an exhibition game between a Major League Baseball (MLB) team and a University at a price of $25 each. At the time of the listing, I was not made aware that a sales transaction for this game could not be completed until February 20th (over 3 weeks later). I chose StubHub.com because they are well known and I was looking to sell the tickets quick (within a few days). I even set the price for lower than what I felt I could have gotten so that I could sell them fast. Furthermore, I chose Paypal as the method to recieve the proceeds of sale because that was the quickest way to get paid.
A few days later a buyer was found, excactly as I had hoped for. The same evening that I recieved the email notification that my tickets were sold, I went to StubHub.com to complete the sale by entering the barcode numbers for each ticket. When I tried to submit the barcode numbers, a message appeared stating that the transaction could not be completed because the teams ticketing system was not yet set up.
As someone who wanted to sell the tickets quickly, I called immediately to see what was going on. I was told by a representative on the telephone that the sale could not be completed at that time because of some issue with the reselling of MLB tickets. I was told that a response would be given to me shortly as to when the transaction could be completed. The representative made it seem like it was a minor issue that would be resolved within a couple days.
As you may or may not know, StubHub gives the seller 48 hours to complete the transaction after which the seller becomes responsible for the cost to replace tickets (of equal or greater value) to the buyer. Sure enough, StubHub notifies me that my tickets cannot be sold until February 20th after the 48 hour period to complete the transaction.
As an upset consumer I chose to cancel the sale of my tickets through StubHub. So guess what they did next... They were going to charge me $199 for the difference between what the seller already paid and what the cost to replace my tickets. Keep in mind, my tickets were being sold for a total of $100 plus fees. Therefore, the cost to replace my tickets was about 3x more than what mines cost.in my opinion that is an egregiously bad overcharge they are trying to stick me with. They also never called me to tell me this. I only found this out when I called them.
As you can imagine that was very upsetting to me, especially since I tried to complete the transaction the same day they were sold but couldn't because of their MLB integration issue. Again, while listing the tickets I was not informed of any issues completeing a transaction prior to February 20 (over 3 weeks later). Again, I was also unable to complete the sale when I tried to initially within the 48 hour timeframe.
When I finally spoke to a supervisor, they said they were willing to lower the charge to $85. Since I felt I should have never been charged to begin with (let alone $199), I refused the offer. They went ahead and charged the $85 anyway to which I am waiting for it to post with my bank so that I can dispute it.
I am also awaiting a copy of the seller agreement that clearly states I am responsible for replacement costs after I tried to submit barcodes within the 48 hours but couldn't. I have also asked how the replacement ticket costs were calculated since they are so much higher. They must of given the buyer tickets inside the dugout, ha! I am curious as to how they can justify the charge when there are better seats (4 together also) still available at a lower cost. I have screenshots of their webpage showing these available listings and their pricing. I also have all emails and communications between them and myself.
StubHub insists that they are not fully responsible. I believe they are fully responsible for 2 reasons mainly:
1) They did not notify sellers on their website that sales could not be completed within the 48 hours after a buyer has paid for the tickets.in my case over 3 weeks.
2) They didn't allow me to complete the sale when I tried to enter barcodes within 48 hours of the sale.
In conclusion, I don't feel I should be held responsible or charged $85. I recommend using another ticket broker service because StubHub may try to do to you what they did to me. There are other popular ticket resellers on the internet that you can find easily by doing an internet search. I find it hard to believe that other ticket reseller's service is worst than what I was provided with at StubHub.
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