The mother of a big Taylor Swift fan had to wage a prolonged battle with StubHub after the company wouldn’t give her a refund when the seller she bought her tickets from didn’t have them. Lolita Lopez reports Aug. 4, 2023.
It’s the hottest ticket in town: Taylor Swift’s six-night Eras Tour in LA.
Stefanie Klein was ready to snag tickets for her daughter the minute they went on sale.
“As a lot of people who are Swifties and parents of Swifties know, the Ticketmaster site crashed because this is the event of the universe right now,” she said.
So Klein turned to StubHub. She found two tickets and paid a pretty penny, roughly $1,400.
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“So I was like, 'Yes, score, I got tickets!' And they were pretty good seats. And she was thrilled,” she said.
But not for long. StubHub later told Klein the tickets weren’t available – the seller didn’t have them. But, through its Fan Protect Guarantee, it offered Klein a cash refund of the cost of her tickets plus 200 percent.
But Klein’s refund never happened.
“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.”
The I-Team reached out to StubHub and Klein got her a $4,300 refund the next day.
“Ah, such a relief that I'm out of this nightmare. Just such relief,” she said.
In a statement to the I-Team, StubHub didn’t explain why Klein’s refund took so long. But it did say that more than 80 percent of its sellers for the Eras tour are first-time sellers, which is causing an unusually high number of order issues.
“I have to tell my story because this has to happen to other people. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating. And buyer beware,” said Klein.
After this story aired on August 4th, StubHub issued a revised statement to the I-Team that said, in part: "Our number one priority is to get fans into the events they purchased tickets for..." and "We regret the prolonged time it took to gather all necessary payment details to be able to issue her (Ms. Klein's) refund expeditiously, but we have now completed the refund and credit." It also said most ticket problems for the Eras tour were due to "human error, tech problems or communication issues."
Steve McFarland with the Better Business Bureau warns Swifties that most ticket problems start on social media.
“The biggest scams again, it’s not your transactions with a legitimate broker, it’s scams that have been portrayed to look so real on social media. That’s where the big scams are,” he said.
If you’re looking for last minute tickets, the BBB says to avoid buying from strangers on social media. Other red flags include people selling cheap tickets or paper tickets; all tickets to the Eras show are digital.
As for Klein, she ended up finding other tickets, so her daughter won’t miss the show after all.
“That’s the happy ending, is that she gets to go,” she said.
