StubHub Is Refusing Cash Refunds For Cancelled Shows – Issuing Credit Instead
Things are getting really crazy out there. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse than United charging award redeposit fees on flights they themselves cancelled StubHub said, hold my beer. StubHub is refusing cash refunds for cancelled shows and issuing expiring credit instead.
Details
Darren Rovell posted some screenshots on Twitter of correspondence that StubHub sent to their customers.
StubHub updated their policy today. Instead of full refunds for canceled events, they changed it to a COUPON worth 20% more than the value of the ticket. As pointed out by @don_shano, this is not only absurd (fans deserve their $ back), it’s unethical and likely illegal. pic.twitter.com/onFRrGVh6S
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 28, 2020
Instead of a cash refund they are giving customers a credit worth 120% of their original order. The 20% increase in value is a nice offer but it should be an option if you accept a credit instead of a refund and not the only option. And these credits expire in 12 months, who knows when people will want to go to concerts again. It could well be more than 12 months from now, no one knows for sure.
They are charging the sellers cards the amount immediately but then are not releasing that money to the buyers. How crazy is this?
Negative Seller Changes Too
StubHub also changed their terms for sellers on future events according to my friend. Sellers will not be paid for tickets until 7 days after the even is completed. This is a drastic change from a few days after they sold as previously. And they retroactively forced upon people that have just recently sold their tickets. My buddy sold his on Friday under the old terms and now will not see his money for months. This is a desperation move in my opinion and I would suggest avoiding StubHub for future sales.
Options To Get Your Money Back
Hopefully you paid for the tickets with a credit card that has good protections. This is the perfect instance where you can put the credit card company to work for you. Look into filing a chargeback on the purchase. I feel like there is a good chance that you will come out a winner in this dispute.
Final Thoughts
I know many businesses are under immense pressure right now but to refuse cash refunds on cancelled events, flights, classes etc. should not be an option. I am not sure if this is even technically legal. If StubHub doesn’t pivot off of this quickly I imagine they will end up spending even more than this in lawyer fees and settlements.
I know StubHub is trying to protect cash flow with this move but they should not be doing it off the backs of their customers. Offer the 20% bump to anyone who chooses to take a voucher, I imagine many will, and give the rest their hard earned money back!
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Kinda hard to do a chargeback for a ticket that was purchase 6 months ago. Card company wont allow it
True – it will depend on how long ago the purchase was.
That probably depends on the issuing bank. I’ve done a chargeback that was past the limit listed in the card terms and had it succeed. The vendor was Hyatt, and they had refused to refund a double charge which I didn’t discover until I went to do my taxes. They didn’t challenge my dispute though, so the chargeback worked.
I sold tickets to a soccer game on March 8th for a game that night and they didn’t pay me until March 24th.
Wow – some cash flow issues for sure then.
I sold on stubhub before, they deposit to the sellers’ account rather quickly, I wonder how are they going to get the money back from those sellers.
They charge it back to the credit card on file usually
Businesses are all running out of cash. They can’t refund. It will only get worse until we all get back to work. Even then the damage will be done. There will many retailers, travel agents, service companies like Stubhub that will all go out of business. As and example: Industry estimates are showing “at least” 30% of all travel agencies will cease to exist. I know this flu virus is serious but we need to continue to protect the fragile and the rest of us need to get on with it within the next few weeks or much more damage will be done.
I agree that there is a point where there will be more harm done than good by sheltering in place. When it reaches that point, I have no idea. Why I would have preferred the whole country go under it at the same time versus this rolling black out type of thing we have going on state by state. It is just going to prolong the whole thing.
Exactly right! It should have been a nationwide shut in for 9 days. 2 weekends and one workweek. That is enough time for 90-95% of cases to show symptoms. If a business, or family, cannot weather 1 week of a shutdown, they weren’t going to make it very long anyway. Everyone being on a different schedule does absolutely nothing.
[…] StubHub Is Holding Clients Cash Hostage – Refusing Money Refunds […]
Absurd. I bought tickets to an event from a venue directly and the show was canceled. They will refund the ticket price, but not service fees.
Haven’t service fees always been non-refundable.
No. For example, if you buy baseball playoff tix and the team doesn’t make it to the playoffs, Ticketmaster refunds all fees.
I would do a charge back with my credit card company.
If enough people get the credits the 20% increase will be worthless, because sellers will simply increase prices by 20% (or more, if people become desperate to get anything out of their voucher before it expires.) That’s how free markets tend to work.
Good point Scott. People will be less price conscious when dealing with a voucher.
E-BAY Recently sold to European rival VIA GOGO for 4 billion Just a few months ago. Im sure there cash poor. The whole industry is reeling (Including myself) from the amount of cancellations/Postponements.
I agree – I think that is playing a big part in all of this. If eBay still owned it I think it would be handled differently right now.
Just about everyone is claiming ‘force majeure’ which means they don’t have to follow their contract. That’s how the airlines are doing what they are doing and I’m sure it will catch on with many others.
That is a scary thought but I think you have a good point.
That’s not how force majeure works. It cancels BOTH sides of the contract. For example, if you cancel a concert, I cannot legally force you to have the Rolling Stones play for me. On the other hand, my side of the contract also is also cancelled, i.e., my payment to you.
May not have a choice. Could be out of cash or certainly not in the position to deal with all the requests. Then you have people who bought tickets to sporting events that are postponed (not yet cancelled) so I’m sure they don’t get anything.
BTW lawsuits don’t matter if there is nothing to go after. This sounds desperate for n the part of Stubhub and may indicate they are about to go out of business due to lack of funds.
Very good point. It sure doesn’t look good from a cash flow / solvency perspective.