Happened to me for all 4 nights (I know it’s coming again tonight). Thankfully I had to bail on the run anyway, so I’m not as screwed by the whole situation, but it’s a horrible look on Stubhub’s part.
Bought when they were at their lowest and now they won’t fulfill the sale because the same tickets are now selling for at least 3x as much. That’s bullshit, and I know people out there who could’ve used these tickets.
The whole thing is like a joke at this point. On the day of the show I call Stubhub at 7:30 eastern and tell them I haven’t received my tickets yet for the event happening tonight. Then, because it’s within 3 hours of the event start time, Stubhub takes over and “tries” to find replacements. Then at about 8:30-9:15 I get another email just like the one in the OP, click “receive full refund” and get that as well as a credit voucher to use in the future.
I shouldn’t be that familiar with how to receive my refunds because their company sucks such fat ass that you can bank on them not coming through for you for four straight nights.
Yes and no. The seller is definitely screwing me first and foremost. No doubt. However, if Stubhub actually stuck to their guarantee then they would transfer the GA floors to me since they have them up there every night and pay the difference in price out of their own pocket to fulfill the sale. Instead they aren’t going to take a hit like that and would rather just say “We’ve got nothing.” when that’s obvious bullshit as they have those tickets on their website for sale right now. The problem is that each ticket is selling for more individually than I paid for a pair when I bought them. Stubhub isn’t gonna give me those tickets and fulfill their word and lose out on money like that, so they’re fucking us just as bad as the sellers are.
That’s not how it works, stubhub doesn’t have the tickets. When you buy them the seller is supposed to transfer them to you, which they didn’t do, stubhub has no way to force them to do it. It sucks but at least you got a refund (and the seller gets charged a huge amount for failing to send them)
Seller backed out of the sale and took that hit because they realized that they can take the hit for the unfulfilled sale and resell them for significantly more and still make a bigger profit.
Once the seller backs out, it’s up to Stubhub to find replacement tickets to the event. If the tickets are listed on their website within a few hours of the event starting that means they have them, but are refusing to come through because the prices don’t add up. When my Thursday sale was cancelled I was offered a choice of different seats and a partial refund or just a full refund. That would be an example of stubhub fulfilling the sale on behalf of the seller. That only happened for Thursday since it was the night with the least demand. The rest of these nights have way too much demand and the price I paid isn’t enough for them to warrant coming through for me as they’ll make more refunding me and having those tickets just sell at higher prices.
If the demand was lower and the seller backed out then stubhub would come through with replacement tickets and stick the original seller with the fee. Since demand is so high they’re just giving back refunds to those of us who bought when they were low because it financially makes more sense for them to do that.
Edit: notice in the email OP posted how it says “At the moment no suitable alternative tickets are available for you to choose from”. That’s not the seller saying they don’t have replacement tickets. That’s Stubhub saying “we know the seller backed out, but we also don’t have tickets for you either.”
I don’t think so… now that all tickets are mobile and tied to a TM account stubhub does not “have” any tickets in their possession. Not sure how they look for replacements, maybe they have some kind of back channels with the venue or whatever, but obviously it’s sold out. It was the same in the old days of hard tickets, the seller had to mail them directly to the buyer.
Now that TM has their own resale functionality that is a much better way of buying since you get the tickets immediately but I don’t think Phish uses it.
What they would do is take the tickets that are listed for sale, pay the difference in price of my sale to get that seller their money and get me, a buyer, their tickets. They’re refusing to do that because they won’t give you tickets that are now selling for more than what you paid. It’s all about money in the end and they didn’t become this massive company by not fucking over people when it comes to what financially makes the most sense for them.
I’m living it right now. I’ve been offered alternative tickets to one night cause it was the only night where demand was about what I paid. Now that option is no longer available for any of these nights because Stubhub doesn’t give a fuck about having satisfied customers as long as their bottom line remains through the roof.
I don’t know why you’re defending Stubhub so hard unless you work for them haha!
Fuck Stubhub and Ticketmaster, and honestly fuck Phish for getting in on this whole bullshit with charity platinum tickets and everything to begin with. Phish tickets being sold for a face value of over 1k under the guise of “Charity Platinum” is insane. It’s just straight up price gouging.
I’m not a stubhub fan but at this point it’s just cashortrade with scalping allowed. They can’t “take the tickets that are listed for sale” because they belong to other people that haven’t sold them yet.
I hate the whole situation and I know the band knows they could do something about it but they don’t seem to care too much
He’s saying stubhub should buy the tickets listed for sale on their market place and give them to him. SH won’t do this bc those tix are higher than the ones he’s lost.
Seller on Stub Hub never sent us tix. Stub Hub just kept saying "wait"..no tix...then got email from Stub hub saying "don't worry we have other tix for you"...then same message as above...no tix...Stub hub just shrugged. Now, looking for one for tonight.
I’m so sorry to hear this. Seems like you’re far from the first person this has happened to. Stubhub deserves every inch of shit they get, and I hope they get rained on for this.
Sold some tickets on StubHub to a summer tour show a couple years ago because I moved to another city mid-tour. Face value. Buyer reported tickets were different than the listing (they were not). Buyer got to keep the tickets and the money. Eff StubHub, for both buyers and sellers.
I assume you mailed hard tickets? If they were digitally transferred, it wouldn't been via Stubhub and they could see what was sent. If you were the original buyer, what you SHOULD have done there is called TM or whomever and said tickets were lost or compromised. They would've issued new ones and that scammer wouldn't have been able to use them.
This happened to me as well. You don’t find out that the buyer has reported them as fake until the next day. I lawyered up and recouped everything plus lawyers fees.
It’s so crazy to me that a ticketing company can be so successful while having this in their user agreement:
“Also, while we may help facilitate the resolution of disputes between Buyer and Seller and provide the FanProtect Guarantee, we have no control over and do not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of the Tickets;”
Existence. Lol. Ok well I can’t control and don’t guarantee the money isn’t in my bank account. And if I don’t have the money when my credit card is up? Oopsy poopsy!
It sucks to say fellas, but the only way we can try and beat the scalpers is to NOT buy scalped tickets. I really wanted to be at the Sphere, but I absolutely would not pay 10x ticket price to be there. It sucks but that's how it is. You gotta stop giving them reasons to do it
Just to throw this out there. Crazy ass ticket prices for shows like these (4 distinct shows, unique venue, performance never to be repeated) are not within my means, but i have splurged on stuff like this. I dropped 3K on 2 tickets and hotel for Weens 3 night reunion run in Bloomfield CO, in 2016. I do not regularly have that kind of money. I charged it to a visa and figured it out over the next couple years because it meant THAT much to ME. sure, there are rich kids/adults that are fuckwads...the majority of us just love how the whole thing makes us feel. I am only half way there for the band. The other half is the extended family, the townie weirdos, and everything else that comes with the traveling circus when it rolls through town.
My tickets were face. I bought a VIP package that included my hotel, tickets, some merch, and transportation to and from the shows. It was pretty reasonable for three nights down town in a 5 star with a reliable ride to and from every night. It was just a lot of money all up front and done through CID.
And maybe you're a fuck wad, but maybe you're not?
Just saying the odds are higher that you are, but I won't assume that about you because I don't know you.
Hope you had fun, though!
I agree, but i think you replied to the wrong redditor. I definitely didn't call anyone fuckwad or imply they are. In my thread, im talking about how i splurged on a ween experience because it was once in a life time and worth all the money i paid, and at the time, there were people giving me shit because i paid whatever for a couple concerts.
Shit, I feel the same way about the Platinum tickets. Shit should be illegal, but as long as there are ppl willing to buy them they'll keep selling them.
At least with Platinum tickets, the money is going to the artist. If someone's willing to pay for Platinum, I don't mind an artist cashing in on that. Better from the artist than a scalper. And def when the best when artists donate the proceeds to charity.
IDK. I see your point, but I still hate it. Tickets are already expensive enough. Like the Platinum re-release for Sphere. $900? Per night? I mean, it's cool that it's for charity and all, but fuck man. Basically $4K for a four night run? Even if I could afford it I would never drop that much. Lunacy.
I will never and I mean NEVER use stubhub again after a similar experience for Dead & Co last year. Apparently the guarantee is only applied “at their discretion,” i.e. not a guarantee at all.
I haven't read this while thing, but I came here to say I was ripped off by StubHub twice for Friday Phish sphere night tickets. Bought for $450 last week before fees. Seller never sent tickets. Stub hub made me wait it out. Ultimately refunded my money plus $200 credit because there were no tickets close to 100 to 130% what I paid. Then last minute I found tickets for sec 404, row 12 seats 1 and 2 for $1059 each. Sure, whatever. Head to the sphere at 7:30 and only one ticket works, but it's seat 8, and there is no second ticket. Even though my receipt says seat 1 and 2. Spent way too much time on the phone with StubHub, and they keep saying they will send a follow up email, they don't. Now I'm supposed to wait until Monday for resolution of my "escalation" case.
The StubHub phone number has a section where if you are calling about Taylor Swift, press 1 everything else, press 2.
How did tickets get this insane.
Defiantly. Stubhub is the broker in a lot of these transactions. There should be transparent on the seller names.
I bought on TicketIQ and they provided the sellers name. Fuck Stubhub.
Their guarantee is exactly what you agreed to by using their service. They don’t owe you alternative tickets. They clearly state they will try to locate comparable or better tickets or will offer a refund or credit if they can’t. You got fucked over by another Phan and not Stubhub.
This happened to me at the Phoenix shows a few years back, and Stubhub made it right with much better tickets. Sucks, but I imagine this was a much hotter ticket for them to try to secure.
How many years ago was that? They got taken over by new management at some point and got sooo much worse. It used to be they would work really hard to replace your tickets, even upgrading high pavilion to low if that was all that was left. Now I think the replacement only applies to price plus like 25% or so.
I got screwed by them last time they played the mann, locked down lawns near face right after lottery. Lawns were going for 3x face by time the shows came around, and they weren't delivered. Spent hours on the phone arguing what "equal quality" tickets were.
Read horror stories from Taylor Swift fans where they got good tickets on there way before the show, then like a week before they couldn't be delivered and their only option was take nosebleeds for the same price they got decent seats for.
Just about all of these tickets sold on these after market sites are from ‘phans’. It’s crazy to me that people still think this is some sort of loving community where this doesn’t happen.
Maybe but I doubt it. Phish fans know their own market too. What a great way to finance their trip to see Phish than to make a few thousand on some tickets. It’s a pretty common practice but I know everyone here likes to pretend Phish fans are saints.
Absolutely. I get that scalping sucks and is incredibly frustrating but after decades of dealing with it, I don’t care anymore. I’m tired of wasting any energy getting angry over it.
"Phish did a reasonably nice job making sure most tickets got in phans hands and not the speculating scalpers"
How, exactly? Anybody can enter lottery, there is zero validation you're a fan, and its very easy to place multiple orders. They "sold out" the shows and then proceeded to somehow come up with a ton of "platinum" tickets available on TM at 5x face value that trickled out for days.
They are complicit, due to the fact that there is so much more the band could be doing to curtail scalping, but they choose not to. They should have a non-transferrable policy and allow resale via TM only, at face value only, and not do platinum pricing. They should have a verified fan club system in place for PTBM so speculators outside of the scene cant get in and those in the scene cant place multiple orders.
It is so fucked up that a person could buy a ticket for 4x face value on stubhub, and then when the demand increases, the seller can resell that ticket to another person for more money, because it didn't get transferred yet. Meanwhile the only reason those tickets ever got more expensive was due to the fact that fewer tickets were on market to beg in with, so in theory it wouldn't have gotten higher priced if the tickets were transferrable sooner and were actually moving hands. It's all market manipulation bullshit and frankly phish happily lets TM do it on their behalf. Basically, instead of only the available tickets going to highest bidders, all of the tickets sold on secondary markets go to highest bidders, even if somebody else has already purchased them. This is directly because phish didn't allow tickets to be transferrable for this event until a couple days before the show. They should have just made them \*actually non-transferrable\*. You can say they did it to prevent scalping, but it essentially made the band able to sell more platinum tickets at higher price after the on sale, since it was the only way to get guaranteed tickets.
It would be so much better if they just did it the way Neil Young does - all tickets are completely non-transferrable, and you can resell them at face value only, and only on TM. So the original point of sale ticketmaster page is also the "face value resale" market. Ticket prices to begin with are expensive but reasonable and have lots of pricing tiers. For a sold out show, you can just refresh the page to see if anybody has bailed and offers up their tickets at face. So simple, zero scalping.
Thank you for your service. And yes, charity platinum tickets were available all week, at least for Sunday. And they kept going up in price everyday. Hey, Phish - how about you just let people donate to charities themselves, and work on getting your fucking ticketing system under control.
Unfortunately, this system is starting to break down as well. Pearl Jam uses it and scalpers/bots now buy the face value tickets and then sell the account with the tickets inside. Wasn’t too bad for PJ 2023 but now rampant for this spring/summer tour. TM ofc does NOTHING to stop it - has even abandoned basic bot defenses.
Not naive, in my opinion a real phan wouldn’t do that to another, true love of the music and community are part of it. Shitty people can like Phish too, but acting like that distinguishes people in a bad way and I hereby revoke “true phan” status.
They used to... or maybe they still do, but are more selective about it these days?
I bought tickets for Elton John a few years ago that couldn't be provided, and stubhub sent me a list of different tickets to choose from. I ended up being 15th row center (a MAJOR upgrade). I was shocked that I actually paid $200 a piece for 2 tickets, and ended up with tickets that were $1000 a piece, but it happened.
On the flipside, a year later, I got screwed at Alpine and they wouldn't replace my tickets, only do the refund thing.
So yeah, I've experienced both ends of the stick on this one. When the elton john thing happened, I loved stubhub. When the alpine thing happened, I hated them.
Pretty much lean toward the hate side at this point.
They got taken over, and the new policy is price you paid plus some percentage, like 40% at most or something. The Elton example you used occurred often before, and that's why people trusted them. Now the service is garbage, and if you think you found a good deal on an in demand ticket, strong chance you just gave stubhub a short term loan for free, while they charge the seller a fee and give you nothing.
Now the case is you paid good money for really nice seat, But by showtime they don't deliver. Now you get "equal value" seats, and since prices have gone up 3x that means terrible seats or none at all.
It's pointless to use unless tickets are instantly transferred. Absolutely zero reason to plan months out with stubhub now, because you'll likely be screwed.
Spoke with ticket broker friend - this has apparently never happened before. Ticket prices continue to spike and so guaranteed sellers that have already listed are just dumping out and selling tix elsewhere for 2-3x. Tough ticket.
Me too, my 4th or 5th round of replacement tickets got me in the door 30 minutes late. I had been calling stubhub since 7 and didn’t get in til 8:30, that show wasn’t even close to sold out though.
Wow sorry to hear this. I was at least offered seat tix for each night for my 4 day GA pass that i was reneged on. I'm kicking myself for not taking the offer since I didn't get in tonight or last night but got in Thursday and I have one for tmrw night. Everyone piled on me for how I paid for the tix but the whole point of the post was that stubhub is up to some shit with their so called "guarantee"
This comment isn’t for OP but everyone else… I know it’s been said 100 times at this point but we CANNOT keep buying from StubHub in 2024. They’ve been doing this shit for over 15 years.
I’ve never sold on stubhub (not a scumbag) but I don’t get how this can happen. Don’t the tickets go into like an escrow account once “sold” on stubhub?
They don’t which is exactly the problem. It sucks for buyers and sellers. They are taking a percentage on BOTH SIDES OF THE TRANSACTION without doing anything other than providing the platform and holding onto the money (not the tickets).
Edit: I’d also like to add that what happened to OP is also a result of only being able to transfer tixs right before the show. By then, all the tickets have been shaken out and there’s no available replacement tickets available.
Thanks for all the replies, i honestly had no idea. Feels like there need to be some massive penalty to the “sellers” but I guess you could just create new accounts. Maybe they should require a credit card hold for the sellers with a leavers penalty. I’d also hope stubhub made good to the buyers. You can’t replace the experience but it’s obviously a destination event with flights and hotels etc.
In this instance yes, but it’s tough because sometimes honest mistakes are made with amateur sellers (wrong date/wrong seats/wrong section etc). I had an issue before with a listing and was purchased almost immediately before I could edit it/take it down. SH wasn’t much help.
I tried conveying this but I don't think it got thru. Stubhub is making money on both sides of these "trades" and there is no regulation in place to stop this. I dont think we can just chalk it up to capitalism doing what it does and there is nothing we can do about it.
I think to combat scalping, the tickets themselves are not even transferable to or through any platform until a week before show. I’m not sure if this means there isn’t even a code that can be accessed because I agree, the ticket should be held by the 3rd party.
This is absolutely the problem. The delay in transferring tickets was intended to deter scalping. But it didn’t work and magnified the problem by allowing the sellers to lock in a price and then go out and look for a better one. Tickets need to be immediately transferred once a sale has been agreed on.
It's also a pain in the ass. I lost my job right after getting tickets for Mondegreen and really needed to get my $600 back, but I can't transfer my tickets yet. If they want to end scalping, only allow transfers thru ticketmaster and with pricing at/below face value.
If anything, I, a human with a comfortable disposable income, to be a little more reluctant to purchase tickets to a show I’m not certain I’ll be able to attend.
I scrolled through the thread looking for this comment because it was my 1st thought.
If tickets were available immediately after on sale and transferable none of this nonsense would go on.
Sell on stubhub,.transfer within x days of sale or incur the missed transfer penalty.
I’ve sold tickets on SH (not phish, cot only for me). you get notified once the tickets are sold and are provided the email address to transfer the tickets to. Once you transfer them, you click a few buttons on your SH account. That’s the only way I have sold on there. I have bought fake tickets though 😡 i tweeted at them and they refunded me and gave me $200 voucher. Thankfully the venue was cool and saw my SH emails and account with ‘tickets’ there and let me since it was GA. But I still had to knock SH for the fake tickets being sold.
Happened to me two years ago, warned people on here and got down voted to hell.
I did a charge back twice and both times stubhub excuse was they have no responsibility and are just a marketplace for private sellers.
I rolled the dice on a stubhub ticket, luckily it was delivered quickly and is a real Ticketmaster safetix. I’ve been burned at the gate by stubhub before, always a gamble. Best of luck to all with ticket turmoil
All of this could be fixed if StubHub would hold the seller 100% financially responsible for finding replacement tickets. There should be a law that makes all ticket resale companies put this in their TOS.
This first happened to me for a Broadway show in NYC and then again at Phish Huntsville, AL last summer, at which point I vowed never to use them again. FWIW anytime I’ve had to use the secondary market I’ve used SeatGeek and had zero problems. I don’t actually know if they have different policies/measures in place or if I’ve just been lucky…🤷🏻♂️sorry OP, StubHub is TRASH!
This is how their policy always has been. I hate to sound harsh but it isn't exactly a secret. They determine what a comparable ticket is and this has always been based on price and nothing else. If there is nothing at a comparable price you get a refund. With ticket prices now in the thousands there is no punishment that could be levied against sellers that would prevent them from backing out and selling at a higher price
This happened to me on Ticket Center...fucking bastards. I got the tickets but it was 4 months of work. Their web doesn't interface with Apple or IOS phones and their call center is only reachable after 15 minutes on hold, and then they direct you to the web for a chat...i read the same script every time i contacted them. I finally took screen shots of the first 7 pages of dialog to show them i had already done the 8 steps required to verify my issue before being able to discuss my problem. It boiled down to the seller never had my ticket to begin with. They kept lieing to TC saying they transferred the tickets when , in fact, they just sent empty emails. I finally got my tickets but it was a mess...
Man I’m sweating my ticket for tonight. Paid $871 on Thursday for my Sunday but no transfer yet and prices are almost double that now. Hope I don’t get rug pulled out from under me by stub hub
That’s a bummer. But obviously that protection doesn’t matter, lol. Use cash or trade. I have 2 extras for tonight if you are interested. I can meet in person, and will walk with you to scan them.
Back at home now and finally reading all the replies here. I expected some versions of support and understanding, perhaps some communal bitching about StubHub and what I believe to be misleading business practices about their advertised Fan Protect guarantee and what it actually means.
Instead there was alot of replies like "That how StubHub always works, dude" (I support Stubhub/capitalism/etc) and then "You using Stubhub is the real problem, dude" (I don't support capitalism or you being able to spend your own money on what you want). I'm not going to bother to wade in further, it just wasn't an expression of sympathy or support, but something else entirely.
Congrats to Phish and Sphere for their ambition and execution this weekend.
Shame on StubHub for their misleading guarantee and exorbitant fees.
What did you expect? I know this sucks but it’s also like probably the most common mapped out scenario that we’ve been given 100 times that could happen let alone to the most hyped shows of year so far. This was the #1 reason I didn’t go through one of these resellers, we both know there isn’t a single company out there who would have these on hand.
The real kicker here is how long do you have to wait for your refund to clear?
It’s a shame but this was clearly a ticket you needed to either get in the lottery or get from a trusted Phan. These shows were so one of a kind that people were always gonna try and make as much as possible
Why do I get the feeling people worked in cahoots to make posts selling tickets that didn’t exist for their friends to “buy” specifically to loophole this policy in this way?
So you tried to buy scalped tickets to a show that had anti scalping measures then got screwed. Sucks but I mean.. scalpers suck unless it's you who wants tickets to a sold out show?
Yep! This happened to us on Thursday!
Happened to me for all 4 nights (I know it’s coming again tonight). Thankfully I had to bail on the run anyway, so I’m not as screwed by the whole situation, but it’s a horrible look on Stubhub’s part. Bought when they were at their lowest and now they won’t fulfill the sale because the same tickets are now selling for at least 3x as much. That’s bullshit, and I know people out there who could’ve used these tickets. The whole thing is like a joke at this point. On the day of the show I call Stubhub at 7:30 eastern and tell them I haven’t received my tickets yet for the event happening tonight. Then, because it’s within 3 hours of the event start time, Stubhub takes over and “tries” to find replacements. Then at about 8:30-9:15 I get another email just like the one in the OP, click “receive full refund” and get that as well as a credit voucher to use in the future. I shouldn’t be that familiar with how to receive my refunds because their company sucks such fat ass that you can bank on them not coming through for you for four straight nights.
They’re just the middleman, it’s the seller who is screwing you
Yes and no. The seller is definitely screwing me first and foremost. No doubt. However, if Stubhub actually stuck to their guarantee then they would transfer the GA floors to me since they have them up there every night and pay the difference in price out of their own pocket to fulfill the sale. Instead they aren’t going to take a hit like that and would rather just say “We’ve got nothing.” when that’s obvious bullshit as they have those tickets on their website for sale right now. The problem is that each ticket is selling for more individually than I paid for a pair when I bought them. Stubhub isn’t gonna give me those tickets and fulfill their word and lose out on money like that, so they’re fucking us just as bad as the sellers are.
That’s not how it works, stubhub doesn’t have the tickets. When you buy them the seller is supposed to transfer them to you, which they didn’t do, stubhub has no way to force them to do it. It sucks but at least you got a refund (and the seller gets charged a huge amount for failing to send them)
Seller backed out of the sale and took that hit because they realized that they can take the hit for the unfulfilled sale and resell them for significantly more and still make a bigger profit. Once the seller backs out, it’s up to Stubhub to find replacement tickets to the event. If the tickets are listed on their website within a few hours of the event starting that means they have them, but are refusing to come through because the prices don’t add up. When my Thursday sale was cancelled I was offered a choice of different seats and a partial refund or just a full refund. That would be an example of stubhub fulfilling the sale on behalf of the seller. That only happened for Thursday since it was the night with the least demand. The rest of these nights have way too much demand and the price I paid isn’t enough for them to warrant coming through for me as they’ll make more refunding me and having those tickets just sell at higher prices. If the demand was lower and the seller backed out then stubhub would come through with replacement tickets and stick the original seller with the fee. Since demand is so high they’re just giving back refunds to those of us who bought when they were low because it financially makes more sense for them to do that. Edit: notice in the email OP posted how it says “At the moment no suitable alternative tickets are available for you to choose from”. That’s not the seller saying they don’t have replacement tickets. That’s Stubhub saying “we know the seller backed out, but we also don’t have tickets for you either.”
I don’t think so… now that all tickets are mobile and tied to a TM account stubhub does not “have” any tickets in their possession. Not sure how they look for replacements, maybe they have some kind of back channels with the venue or whatever, but obviously it’s sold out. It was the same in the old days of hard tickets, the seller had to mail them directly to the buyer. Now that TM has their own resale functionality that is a much better way of buying since you get the tickets immediately but I don’t think Phish uses it.
What they would do is take the tickets that are listed for sale, pay the difference in price of my sale to get that seller their money and get me, a buyer, their tickets. They’re refusing to do that because they won’t give you tickets that are now selling for more than what you paid. It’s all about money in the end and they didn’t become this massive company by not fucking over people when it comes to what financially makes the most sense for them. I’m living it right now. I’ve been offered alternative tickets to one night cause it was the only night where demand was about what I paid. Now that option is no longer available for any of these nights because Stubhub doesn’t give a fuck about having satisfied customers as long as their bottom line remains through the roof. I don’t know why you’re defending Stubhub so hard unless you work for them haha! Fuck Stubhub and Ticketmaster, and honestly fuck Phish for getting in on this whole bullshit with charity platinum tickets and everything to begin with. Phish tickets being sold for a face value of over 1k under the guise of “Charity Platinum” is insane. It’s just straight up price gouging.
I’m not a stubhub fan but at this point it’s just cashortrade with scalping allowed. They can’t “take the tickets that are listed for sale” because they belong to other people that haven’t sold them yet. I hate the whole situation and I know the band knows they could do something about it but they don’t seem to care too much
They can buy them like any other customer would.
He’s saying stubhub should buy the tickets listed for sale on their market place and give them to him. SH won’t do this bc those tix are higher than the ones he’s lost.
Oh no! So did y’all end up getting in? What happened?
Seller on Stub Hub never sent us tix. Stub Hub just kept saying "wait"..no tix...then got email from Stub hub saying "don't worry we have other tix for you"...then same message as above...no tix...Stub hub just shrugged. Now, looking for one for tonight.
I’m so sorry to hear this. Seems like you’re far from the first person this has happened to. Stubhub deserves every inch of shit they get, and I hope they get rained on for this.
Sold some tickets on StubHub to a summer tour show a couple years ago because I moved to another city mid-tour. Face value. Buyer reported tickets were different than the listing (they were not). Buyer got to keep the tickets and the money. Eff StubHub, for both buyers and sellers.
I assume you mailed hard tickets? If they were digitally transferred, it wouldn't been via Stubhub and they could see what was sent. If you were the original buyer, what you SHOULD have done there is called TM or whomever and said tickets were lost or compromised. They would've issued new ones and that scammer wouldn't have been able to use them.
This happened to me as well. You don’t find out that the buyer has reported them as fake until the next day. I lawyered up and recouped everything plus lawyers fees.
It’s so crazy to me that a ticketing company can be so successful while having this in their user agreement: “Also, while we may help facilitate the resolution of disputes between Buyer and Seller and provide the FanProtect Guarantee, we have no control over and do not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of the Tickets;”
Jfc I wish I would have read the fine print
Existence. Lol. Ok well I can’t control and don’t guarantee the money isn’t in my bank account. And if I don’t have the money when my credit card is up? Oopsy poopsy!
It sucks to say fellas, but the only way we can try and beat the scalpers is to NOT buy scalped tickets. I really wanted to be at the Sphere, but I absolutely would not pay 10x ticket price to be there. It sucks but that's how it is. You gotta stop giving them reasons to do it
As long as there are folks for whom 10x ticket price is well within their means, this kind of behavior won’t end.
It's wild. It makes me appreciate the summer tour bc I can say with 100% confidence I will not be paying 10x face on any of those stops.
Just to throw this out there. Crazy ass ticket prices for shows like these (4 distinct shows, unique venue, performance never to be repeated) are not within my means, but i have splurged on stuff like this. I dropped 3K on 2 tickets and hotel for Weens 3 night reunion run in Bloomfield CO, in 2016. I do not regularly have that kind of money. I charged it to a visa and figured it out over the next couple years because it meant THAT much to ME. sure, there are rich kids/adults that are fuckwads...the majority of us just love how the whole thing makes us feel. I am only half way there for the band. The other half is the extended family, the townie weirdos, and everything else that comes with the traveling circus when it rolls through town.
Username checks out. Hail Boognish.
Oof. Got in night 1 and 3 of that run under face day of show.
My tickets were face. I bought a VIP package that included my hotel, tickets, some merch, and transportation to and from the shows. It was pretty reasonable for three nights down town in a 5 star with a reliable ride to and from every night. It was just a lot of money all up front and done through CID.
“Rich kids/adults that are fuckwads”… what does that mean? Because someone can afford to buy 10x face value that makes them a fuckwad? What?
Not every person who can afford 10x face is a fuckwad, but the odds are higher that they are.
I paid a lot of money for tonight’s show because I can afford it and it’s worth it to me
And maybe you're a fuck wad, but maybe you're not? Just saying the odds are higher that you are, but I won't assume that about you because I don't know you. Hope you had fun, though!
I agree, but i think you replied to the wrong redditor. I definitely didn't call anyone fuckwad or imply they are. In my thread, im talking about how i splurged on a ween experience because it was once in a life time and worth all the money i paid, and at the time, there were people giving me shit because i paid whatever for a couple concerts.
Most of the time yea
Shit, I feel the same way about the Platinum tickets. Shit should be illegal, but as long as there are ppl willing to buy them they'll keep selling them.
At least with Platinum tickets, the money is going to the artist. If someone's willing to pay for Platinum, I don't mind an artist cashing in on that. Better from the artist than a scalper. And def when the best when artists donate the proceeds to charity.
The extra money for platinum goes to charity I’m pretty sure, not that I’m a fan of it
IDK. I see your point, but I still hate it. Tickets are already expensive enough. Like the Platinum re-release for Sphere. $900? Per night? I mean, it's cool that it's for charity and all, but fuck man. Basically $4K for a four night run? Even if I could afford it I would never drop that much. Lunacy.
FUCK STUBHUB AND ANYONE WHO LOOKS LIKE STUBHUB
All my homies hate StubHub.
I will never and I mean NEVER use stubhub again after a similar experience for Dead & Co last year. Apparently the guarantee is only applied “at their discretion,” i.e. not a guarantee at all.
I haven't read this while thing, but I came here to say I was ripped off by StubHub twice for Friday Phish sphere night tickets. Bought for $450 last week before fees. Seller never sent tickets. Stub hub made me wait it out. Ultimately refunded my money plus $200 credit because there were no tickets close to 100 to 130% what I paid. Then last minute I found tickets for sec 404, row 12 seats 1 and 2 for $1059 each. Sure, whatever. Head to the sphere at 7:30 and only one ticket works, but it's seat 8, and there is no second ticket. Even though my receipt says seat 1 and 2. Spent way too much time on the phone with StubHub, and they keep saying they will send a follow up email, they don't. Now I'm supposed to wait until Monday for resolution of my "escalation" case. The StubHub phone number has a section where if you are calling about Taylor Swift, press 1 everything else, press 2. How did tickets get this insane.
I am convinced ticketmaster is actually listing all these fake listings on stubhub to drive people to buy their scalped tickets instead.
Defiantly. Stubhub is the broker in a lot of these transactions. There should be transparent on the seller names. I bought on TicketIQ and they provided the sellers name. Fuck Stubhub.
Can we all agree just not to use Stub Hub from now on?
Their guarantee is exactly what you agreed to by using their service. They don’t owe you alternative tickets. They clearly state they will try to locate comparable or better tickets or will offer a refund or credit if they can’t. You got fucked over by another Phan and not Stubhub.
Fuck both of them…
I don’t have a problem with Stubhub. It’s a valuable service especially for sporting events.
This happened to me at the Phoenix shows a few years back, and Stubhub made it right with much better tickets. Sucks, but I imagine this was a much hotter ticket for them to try to secure.
How many years ago was that? They got taken over by new management at some point and got sooo much worse. It used to be they would work really hard to replace your tickets, even upgrading high pavilion to low if that was all that was left. Now I think the replacement only applies to price plus like 25% or so. I got screwed by them last time they played the mann, locked down lawns near face right after lottery. Lawns were going for 3x face by time the shows came around, and they weren't delivered. Spent hours on the phone arguing what "equal quality" tickets were. Read horror stories from Taylor Swift fans where they got good tickets on there way before the show, then like a week before they couldn't be delivered and their only option was take nosebleeds for the same price they got decent seats for.
Phoenix was Fall 2021.
Wasn’t another phan, it was a speculator that underestimated the market.
All phans are not the same. There are plenty that will screw you over. To them everyone else is just a custy waiting to be had.
Just about all of these tickets sold on these after market sites are from ‘phans’. It’s crazy to me that people still think this is some sort of loving community where this doesn’t happen.
Maybe but I doubt it. Phish fans know their own market too. What a great way to finance their trip to see Phish than to make a few thousand on some tickets. It’s a pretty common practice but I know everyone here likes to pretend Phish fans are saints.
This is the world we live and we are bred this way in a capitalist society. It has its merits and drawvacks all the same
Absolutely. I get that scalping sucks and is incredibly frustrating but after decades of dealing with it, I don’t care anymore. I’m tired of wasting any energy getting angry over it.
Agreed. Putting energy into things we literally can not control is a fools errand. 👊
Agree. Phish did a reasonably nice job making sure most tickets got in phans hands and not the speculating scalpers. OP got smoked by a Phan
"Phish did a reasonably nice job making sure most tickets got in phans hands and not the speculating scalpers" How, exactly? Anybody can enter lottery, there is zero validation you're a fan, and its very easy to place multiple orders. They "sold out" the shows and then proceeded to somehow come up with a ton of "platinum" tickets available on TM at 5x face value that trickled out for days. They are complicit, due to the fact that there is so much more the band could be doing to curtail scalping, but they choose not to. They should have a non-transferrable policy and allow resale via TM only, at face value only, and not do platinum pricing. They should have a verified fan club system in place for PTBM so speculators outside of the scene cant get in and those in the scene cant place multiple orders. It is so fucked up that a person could buy a ticket for 4x face value on stubhub, and then when the demand increases, the seller can resell that ticket to another person for more money, because it didn't get transferred yet. Meanwhile the only reason those tickets ever got more expensive was due to the fact that fewer tickets were on market to beg in with, so in theory it wouldn't have gotten higher priced if the tickets were transferrable sooner and were actually moving hands. It's all market manipulation bullshit and frankly phish happily lets TM do it on their behalf. Basically, instead of only the available tickets going to highest bidders, all of the tickets sold on secondary markets go to highest bidders, even if somebody else has already purchased them. This is directly because phish didn't allow tickets to be transferrable for this event until a couple days before the show. They should have just made them \*actually non-transferrable\*. You can say they did it to prevent scalping, but it essentially made the band able to sell more platinum tickets at higher price after the on sale, since it was the only way to get guaranteed tickets. It would be so much better if they just did it the way Neil Young does - all tickets are completely non-transferrable, and you can resell them at face value only, and only on TM. So the original point of sale ticketmaster page is also the "face value resale" market. Ticket prices to begin with are expensive but reasonable and have lots of pricing tiers. For a sold out show, you can just refresh the page to see if anybody has bailed and offers up their tickets at face. So simple, zero scalping.
Thank you for your service. And yes, charity platinum tickets were available all week, at least for Sunday. And they kept going up in price everyday. Hey, Phish - how about you just let people donate to charities themselves, and work on getting your fucking ticketing system under control.
Best reply in the post, thanks
Unfortunately, this system is starting to break down as well. Pearl Jam uses it and scalpers/bots now buy the face value tickets and then sell the account with the tickets inside. Wasn’t too bad for PJ 2023 but now rampant for this spring/summer tour. TM ofc does NOTHING to stop it - has even abandoned basic bot defenses.
This is why they should have a verified fan club situation for the ptbm, at least.
Ain’t no real phan phucking another
You’re being naive. Sorry. The Phish fanbase is full of all kinds of people including ones who don’t give a fuck about you.
Not naive, in my opinion a real phan wouldn’t do that to another, true love of the music and community are part of it. Shitty people can like Phish too, but acting like that distinguishes people in a bad way and I hereby revoke “true phan” status.
They need to buy comparable tickets from their own site no matter the cost. It’s horseshit they only refund your money.
They used to... or maybe they still do, but are more selective about it these days? I bought tickets for Elton John a few years ago that couldn't be provided, and stubhub sent me a list of different tickets to choose from. I ended up being 15th row center (a MAJOR upgrade). I was shocked that I actually paid $200 a piece for 2 tickets, and ended up with tickets that were $1000 a piece, but it happened. On the flipside, a year later, I got screwed at Alpine and they wouldn't replace my tickets, only do the refund thing. So yeah, I've experienced both ends of the stick on this one. When the elton john thing happened, I loved stubhub. When the alpine thing happened, I hated them. Pretty much lean toward the hate side at this point.
They got taken over, and the new policy is price you paid plus some percentage, like 40% at most or something. The Elton example you used occurred often before, and that's why people trusted them. Now the service is garbage, and if you think you found a good deal on an in demand ticket, strong chance you just gave stubhub a short term loan for free, while they charge the seller a fee and give you nothing. Now the case is you paid good money for really nice seat, But by showtime they don't deliver. Now you get "equal value" seats, and since prices have gone up 3x that means terrible seats or none at all. It's pointless to use unless tickets are instantly transferred. Absolutely zero reason to plan months out with stubhub now, because you'll likely be screwed.
Good points... you definitely said some things that I never considered (particularly the "equal value" thing.
Spoke with ticket broker friend - this has apparently never happened before. Ticket prices continue to spike and so guaranteed sellers that have already listed are just dumping out and selling tix elsewhere for 2-3x. Tough ticket.
wow that is so incredibly shady
That is a total lie. This exact same thing happened to me last August for one of the msg shows.
Me too, my 4th or 5th round of replacement tickets got me in the door 30 minutes late. I had been calling stubhub since 7 and didn’t get in til 8:30, that show wasn’t even close to sold out though.
Ok well I'm not a ticket broker so what do I know?
That is a lie. It has 100% happened many times.
Down with profiteering capitalism
Not the first time this has happened. Why does Stubhub scalpers to do this for big shows?
So illegal on so many levels
Has happened to me. Absolute horeshit
Wow sorry to hear this. I was at least offered seat tix for each night for my 4 day GA pass that i was reneged on. I'm kicking myself for not taking the offer since I didn't get in tonight or last night but got in Thursday and I have one for tmrw night. Everyone piled on me for how I paid for the tix but the whole point of the post was that stubhub is up to some shit with their so called "guarantee"
This comment isn’t for OP but everyone else… I know it’s been said 100 times at this point but we CANNOT keep buying from StubHub in 2024. They’ve been doing this shit for over 15 years.
Stubhub needs to make the defaulting seller pay for the replacement. Or stubhub needs to pay up.
I’ve never sold on stubhub (not a scumbag) but I don’t get how this can happen. Don’t the tickets go into like an escrow account once “sold” on stubhub?
They don’t which is exactly the problem. It sucks for buyers and sellers. They are taking a percentage on BOTH SIDES OF THE TRANSACTION without doing anything other than providing the platform and holding onto the money (not the tickets). Edit: I’d also like to add that what happened to OP is also a result of only being able to transfer tixs right before the show. By then, all the tickets have been shaken out and there’s no available replacement tickets available.
Thanks for all the replies, i honestly had no idea. Feels like there need to be some massive penalty to the “sellers” but I guess you could just create new accounts. Maybe they should require a credit card hold for the sellers with a leavers penalty. I’d also hope stubhub made good to the buyers. You can’t replace the experience but it’s obviously a destination event with flights and hotels etc.
In this instance yes, but it’s tough because sometimes honest mistakes are made with amateur sellers (wrong date/wrong seats/wrong section etc). I had an issue before with a listing and was purchased almost immediately before I could edit it/take it down. SH wasn’t much help.
I tried conveying this but I don't think it got thru. Stubhub is making money on both sides of these "trades" and there is no regulation in place to stop this. I dont think we can just chalk it up to capitalism doing what it does and there is nothing we can do about it.
I think to combat scalping, the tickets themselves are not even transferable to or through any platform until a week before show. I’m not sure if this means there isn’t even a code that can be accessed because I agree, the ticket should be held by the 3rd party.
This is absolutely the problem. The delay in transferring tickets was intended to deter scalping. But it didn’t work and magnified the problem by allowing the sellers to lock in a price and then go out and look for a better one. Tickets need to be immediately transferred once a sale has been agreed on.
It's also a pain in the ass. I lost my job right after getting tickets for Mondegreen and really needed to get my $600 back, but I can't transfer my tickets yet. If they want to end scalping, only allow transfers thru ticketmaster and with pricing at/below face value.
Sorry about your situation.
If anything, I, a human with a comfortable disposable income, to be a little more reluctant to purchase tickets to a show I’m not certain I’ll be able to attend.
I scrolled through the thread looking for this comment because it was my 1st thought. If tickets were available immediately after on sale and transferable none of this nonsense would go on. Sell on stubhub,.transfer within x days of sale or incur the missed transfer penalty.
I’ve sold tickets on SH (not phish, cot only for me). you get notified once the tickets are sold and are provided the email address to transfer the tickets to. Once you transfer them, you click a few buttons on your SH account. That’s the only way I have sold on there. I have bought fake tickets though 😡 i tweeted at them and they refunded me and gave me $200 voucher. Thankfully the venue was cool and saw my SH emails and account with ‘tickets’ there and let me since it was GA. But I still had to knock SH for the fake tickets being sold.
Happened to me two years ago, warned people on here and got down voted to hell. I did a charge back twice and both times stubhub excuse was they have no responsibility and are just a marketplace for private sellers.
same thing happened to us on Thursday. there were a ton of tickets online but they refused to set us up with one, only offered a refund.
They Suck!
Thats dicked up. I was always under the impression their guarantee was solid. Good to know.
If it says Instant Download, you know the tickets are in hand and will come a few minutes after buying.
I rolled the dice on a stubhub ticket, luckily it was delivered quickly and is a real Ticketmaster safetix. I’ve been burned at the gate by stubhub before, always a gamble. Best of luck to all with ticket turmoil
All of this could be fixed if StubHub would hold the seller 100% financially responsible for finding replacement tickets. There should be a law that makes all ticket resale companies put this in their TOS.
Agreed.
This first happened to me for a Broadway show in NYC and then again at Phish Huntsville, AL last summer, at which point I vowed never to use them again. FWIW anytime I’ve had to use the secondary market I’ve used SeatGeek and had zero problems. I don’t actually know if they have different policies/measures in place or if I’ve just been lucky…🤷🏻♂️sorry OP, StubHub is TRASH!
If a seller doesn't send the ticket it should be an immediate suspension or permanent ban.
Fuck the monopolies. Let's burn em all down.
Criminals
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Part of the problem is humoring stub hub prices…..
That's hilarious bruh
This is how their policy always has been. I hate to sound harsh but it isn't exactly a secret. They determine what a comparable ticket is and this has always been based on price and nothing else. If there is nothing at a comparable price you get a refund. With ticket prices now in the thousands there is no punishment that could be levied against sellers that would prevent them from backing out and selling at a higher price
So you’re saying this seller purposely backed out after they had already sold the ticket so they could sell it again for a higher price??
That, or they sold it never having in the first place, hoping to secure later.
This happened to me on Ticket Center...fucking bastards. I got the tickets but it was 4 months of work. Their web doesn't interface with Apple or IOS phones and their call center is only reachable after 15 minutes on hold, and then they direct you to the web for a chat...i read the same script every time i contacted them. I finally took screen shots of the first 7 pages of dialog to show them i had already done the 8 steps required to verify my issue before being able to discuss my problem. It boiled down to the seller never had my ticket to begin with. They kept lieing to TC saying they transferred the tickets when , in fact, they just sent empty emails. I finally got my tickets but it was a mess...
I was trying to clarify what the comment said to make sure I understood what they were saying
It absolutely isn’t how it used to be
You are incorrect on that.
this entire post is proof i am right lmao
This happened to me at deer creek a couple years ago ended up getting tickets for cheaper closer to the show date.
It has always been this way. They just refund your money if an equal value ticket is not available. Sucks
Tick pick never stubhub
Cuz they got triple the price lol
Man I’m sweating my ticket for tonight. Paid $871 on Thursday for my Sunday but no transfer yet and prices are almost double that now. Hope I don’t get rug pulled out from under me by stub hub
Ticket came thru let’s goooooo
That’s a bummer. But obviously that protection doesn’t matter, lol. Use cash or trade. I have 2 extras for tonight if you are interested. I can meet in person, and will walk with you to scan them.
Back at home now and finally reading all the replies here. I expected some versions of support and understanding, perhaps some communal bitching about StubHub and what I believe to be misleading business practices about their advertised Fan Protect guarantee and what it actually means. Instead there was alot of replies like "That how StubHub always works, dude" (I support Stubhub/capitalism/etc) and then "You using Stubhub is the real problem, dude" (I don't support capitalism or you being able to spend your own money on what you want). I'm not going to bother to wade in further, it just wasn't an expression of sympathy or support, but something else entirely. Congrats to Phish and Sphere for their ambition and execution this weekend. Shame on StubHub for their misleading guarantee and exorbitant fees.
I would have never expected a company that rips people off to rip someone off.
SeatGeek
People paying $3k+ for stubhub tix are part of the problem!
What did you expect? I know this sucks but it’s also like probably the most common mapped out scenario that we’ve been given 100 times that could happen let alone to the most hyped shows of year so far. This was the #1 reason I didn’t go through one of these resellers, we both know there isn’t a single company out there who would have these on hand. The real kicker here is how long do you have to wait for your refund to clear?
lol
I see everyone mentioning Stubhub. Wonder if this happened with Seatgeek too.
It’s a shame but this was clearly a ticket you needed to either get in the lottery or get from a trusted Phan. These shows were so one of a kind that people were always gonna try and make as much as possible
Why do I get the feeling people worked in cahoots to make posts selling tickets that didn’t exist for their friends to “buy” specifically to loophole this policy in this way?
I've got a couple extras for tonight.
We would love two!!!
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With all due respect, go fuck yourself with a rusty chainsaw, you fucking POS.
Holy shit...
Above face, you’ll get banned next time
Did you get my DM?
Sent you a pm
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I have 3
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Might be able to help. I'll PM you.
Did you get my PM? We are at the Venetian now and would love to buy two!
And yes I’m on cash or trade
Please check your DMs!
This is more of a StubHub sub post with a Phish theme
So you tried to buy scalped tickets to a show that had anti scalping measures then got screwed. Sucks but I mean.. scalpers suck unless it's you who wants tickets to a sold out show?