Taylor Swift fans are again struggling with access issues and fraud on ticket-resale sites as they desperately try to snag tickets to the Eras Tour.
While there was a previous debacle with Ticketmaster running out of tickets for the international tour, StubHub finds itself in the hot seat after a fan tried to buy tickets through the reseller site only to be told the tickets didn't exist.
NBC Los Angeles reported on an incident in which a California woman, Stefanie Klein, managed to purchase some in-demand tickets for her daughter to see the tour — with a whopping $1,400 price — only for StubHub to reach out to say the seller she'd purchased from had never actually uploaded the tickets to transfer to her.
Through StubHub's Fan Protect Guarantee, which promises users a full refund plus 200% of their ticket purchase price in a cash stipend if they're fooled by fake sellers, Klein believed she'd get her money back quickly.
But she didn't, and she was thrust into a limbo of calling the site repeatedly and getting no help or solutions, she said.
"This Fan Protect Guarantee did not protect me," Klein told NBC Los Angeles. "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."
A representative for StubHub told Insider that Klein had begun the refund process prior to being contacted by NBC and initially failed to provide information needed to complete the process.
While Klein's refund was ultimately completed, it remains unclear how many other fans are struggling to get their money back after being fooled by fake listings online.
"The great majority of our sellers for this tour (>80%) are first time-sellers, which is driving an unusually high number of order issues, many caused by human error, that are requiring us to substitute tickets for buyers more than usual," the StubHub representative said in a statement to Insider.
She added that there is no incentive to list fraudulent tickets, because sellers on the site don't get paid unless they provide legitimate tickets, adding: "There are many different reasons a buyer may not receive the original ticket.– It could be that the seller sold the tickets on another platform, decided to keep the tickets for themselves, or they gifted them to a friend, then forgot to remove the listing."
Representatives for Taylor Swift did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.
While fans continue to shell out big bucks to get seats at the sold-out shows, not all of them are pleased to have paid the astronomical price tags offered by resellers.
"I'm embarrassed I did it, I regret it, and I kind of just wish I had a nosebleed ticket," a 31-year-old fan who paid $5,500 for seats told Insider. "Because I just don't feel like giving in in this way to the resellers was the answer."
