The better question is why SH allows sellers to cancel complete orders where payment has already been taken. Frankly, it's ridiculous that the seller had any input a month after the order was marked as confirmed, and I can only assume that payment was taken if SH was willing to issue a nearly $1,000 credit.
To be fair, the very first section of the StubHub user agreement warns about this scenario:<p><i>"1. Using StubHub<p>Ticket Marketplace.<p>StubHub is a marketplace that allows users to buy ("Buyers") and sell ("Sellers") tickets, related passes and merchandise or other goods (collectively, the "tickets") for events. As a marketplace, StubHub does not own the tickets on the Site nor does it set prices for tickets. Because sellers set ticket prices, they may be higher than face value.<p>While StubHub may provide pricing, shipping, listing and other guidance in our Services, such guidance is solely informational and you may decide to follow it or not. Also, while we may help facilitate the resolution of disputes and provide the FanProtect Guarantee, StubHub has no control over and does not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of the items advertised; the truth or accuracy of the user's content or listings; the ability of Sellers to sell tickets or Buyers to pay for them; or that a Buyer or Seller will complete a transaction."</i><p>The takeaway from this seems to be that:<p>1. StubHub should be more transparent about the seller-side risks involved when "selling tickets" to customers.<p>2. Buyers should be more aware of the fact that Stubhub is only a marketplace, and they are really at the mercy of the seller.<p>3. Given StubHub's policy above, anyone who wants a guaranteed ticket should never ever use StubHub.
Looks like "ticketsforless.com" got some great free PR (if they manage to spin the media on this) - from the FB comments:<p><pre><code> Jason Durbin · VP of Ticket Operations at Tickets For Less
Jesse Sandler – I’m the VP of Ticket Operations at Tickets For Less. We’ve reached out to TheLeadSports.com and are trying to contact you. We have four seats for you in section 106 for Kobe’s last home game. Please contact me or our President Dan Rouen at 913-685-3322.</code></pre>
The is normal for stubhub. Here's an article from last where the same thing happened to a friend of mine: <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/super-bowl-tickets-stubhub-ebay-sellers-leave-diehard-b-c-seahawks-fan-ticketless-1.2938040" rel="nofollow">http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/super-bowl-ti...</a><p>tldr, bought tickets for Superbowl, prices went up, order was cancelled, was refunded and given credit which would not cover the cost of the increased cost of tickets. Then repeated the same thing with another reseller.
This reminds me of the Hawks v. Pats SuperBowl fiasco last year. Flippers selling tix they didn't have, people buying their flights and then not getting tixs:
<a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/super-bowl-dream-becomes-nightmare-for-seahawks-fans-after-shortage-of-tickets/" rel="nofollow">http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/super-bowl-dream...</a><p>Though in that case StubHub guaranteed the tixs:<p>"Instead, StubHub as of Saturday had spent $5 million on tickets to avoid defaulting on orders. StubHub policy guarantees that fans will get a ticket to the game if a seller can’t provide a ticket."
He's getting 4 free ticket from Budweiser in section 112 and 4 free tickets in section 106 personally delivered by the CEO of Tickets For Less. Now, Stubhub has apologized and promised to get him to the game.<p>If I were him I'd deny the Stubhub tickets regardless of how good they are. Budweiser tickets are middle bottom level section (great view) while Tickets for Less are offering behind the backboard seats. Both are better than the original location he purchased.
tl;dr it was the seller who screwed him over, not StubHub, but StubHub responded poorly and has policies that incentivize this behaviour when ticket prices go up by more than 20%.
Simple way to solve this is to make SH an escrow service that requires the tickets up front.<p>Of course that would increase costs and their responsibility, so it will never happen.
If the seller changed their mind and pulled their tickets then StubHub should own up and say so. The tickets weren't listed "incorrectly". They were sold correctly but then the seller refused to forward the tickets when the price changed.<p>StubHub and similar services should also guarantee ticket possession within 7 days. If you buy the tickets you get the tickets immediately. It's bullshit that you buy the tickets but don't receive them for weeks or months. That's too big of a window to let sellers change their mind.<p>I bought tickets through SeatGeek via BigTicket for on November, 19th for a January 7th show (tonight!). I wasn't told at time of purchase that my tickets would not be delivered until after January 1st. In fact I wasn't told until I e-mailed customer support and asked where the hell my e-mail delivery tickets were. I expect e-mail delivery to be instantaneous. Not 7 weeks later and 6 days before showtime.<p>What if the Lakers ticket seller had until the final week to deliver tickets? If they're expensive today they'll be even more expensive then!<p>This is inexcusable and StubHub is fully responsible for the situation. They do not get to shift blame to the seller.
I'm a season ticket holder for an NBA team that runs its own secondary market for tickets. I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, I can't use services like StubHub to list my tickets for sale because the tickets are locked down into the secondary market account. On the other hand, I've never seen crap like this happen on there.<p>I was lucky/smart enough to list all the games I couldn't attend at multiples of face value and adjust the price as the game dates come closer. This worked out well with my tickets to the game against the Lakers because they sold pretty quickly after Kobe's announcement. I definitely didn't get full market value for them, but people were getting their tickets poached at far less because they set them for a pre-retirement announcement value. Since the Lakers stink and it was a weekday game, that value was probably below face value.<p>But with the market we're forced to use, you can't take your tickets back, which is clearly a good thing.
Update: StubHub, via their Twitter account, has promised to get this guy to the Kobe game.<p><a href="https://twitter.com/StubHub/status/684906796813697024" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/StubHub/status/684906796813697024</a>
Really this just shows how corrupt and broken the entire entertainment ticketing stack is.<p>TicketMaster, StubHub, etc., all prey on fans, and the fans ALLOW it by paying ridiculous fucking prices to attend events.<p>We're long past the days of needing an entity like Ticketmaster to be in the middle of ticket transactions. And we're long past the days of needing to worry about ticket scalping if we actually have an efficient ticketing system.
The seller probably never had tickets in the first place, which is why they had to cancel the order, since they would have taken a huge loss trying to flip tickets.<p>It happens all the time with big events: tickets will appear on StubHub before they even go on sale to the general public. Speculators will gauge interests using StubHub for tickets they do not even own. If they make a StubHub purchase, they have time to find a cheaper ticker to cover the transaction.
Most of these comments ask how this is legal, when the guy owns the tickets, etc.<p>The "when the guy owns the ticket" part is a question of title.<p>Let's take a gander at yon UCC, which covers these questions in most cases in most of the US.<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/2-401" rel="nofollow">https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/2-401</a><p>Blah blah blah blah. I'm too lazy to read all the stubhub fine print again, but last time i did, it said nothing.
That means, in circumstances like these, title passes to buyer when physical delivery of goods occurs.<p>That's when the buyer <i>owns</i> the tickets.<p>The rest of the questions are pretty standard breach of contract and damages questions, which others seem to have covered.<p>Here, the buyer would definitely have recourse against the seller (but probably not against stubhub).<p>Of course, stubhub is being stupid in this case too, there are a variety of mechanisms it could use to prevent this from happening (escrow, charging sellers difference in current price vs old price if they reneg on tickets that have gone up more than, say, 100% in price, etc). Sadly, it looks like Stubhub <i>also</i> has a financial incentive to let this happen, since they make 20% of the price.
The article might be more compelling if half of it weren't in all caps.<p>Though as is, I probably won't ever use StubHub if this is the case.
People need to realize that buying from Stubhub guarantees you only this:
if your order isn't filled (or is filled with bogus tickets) and we can't find you tickets we consider equivalent or better at some point (even during the game, then you'll get a refund). The only thing "guaranteed" is your payment.
(You might also get additional credit toward a future purchase.)
People need to be aware of this when buying major-event tickets: they are happy to "walk" you (give you no ticket alternatives at all) if it's at all costly to cover a bogus sale. I've seen it a number of times at their pickup sites.<p>So, for example, if this happens at a Super Bowl, you are still out all of your transportation, lodging, and other expenses.
I have to admit that I always assumed Stubhub took some kind of ownership interest in the tickets either (1) once posted; or (2) once sold through Stubhub.<p>Situations like this make it clear why it's in their interest not to do so.
Does anyone know how this compares with Bait & Switch laws? It seems like the merchant's behavior fit the definition perfectly (but im not a lawyer)<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait-and-switch" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait-and-switch</a>
I bought tickets to the New Year's Game, and I couldn't list it for sale on stubhub the day of. I had to use their Last Minute Services, but the office was closed.