Vinay’s StubHub tickets to see Lady Gaga never arrived in his inbox, but StubHub insists that they delivered the goods and refuses to issue a refund. StubHub’s only communication with Vinay was a short confirmation email promising that the real tickets would arrive via SubHub’s e-LMS system. The tickets still hadn’t arrived the day of the concert, and armed with only a confirmation email in hand, Vinay was turned away from the venue.

I am writing you in hope of getting some advice on how to deal with an issue I had with a StubHub purchase I recently made. My end goal is to receive a refund.

On Friday, March 13th, I purchased three (3) GA tickets to Lady Gaga’s Saturday, March 14th 10pm show at Mezzanine in San Francisco via Stub Hub since the show was sold out. I purchased these tickets at 2:36PM on the 13th and received a confirmation email saying that my order had been placed. This email contained an order number (#20475030). At 3:09 PM I received an email titled “Pick-up/Delivery Info #2075030). I didn’t bother to open this email because when I purchased the tickets, the website stated the tickets would be delivered via e-LMS (StubHub’s fancy name for PDF printable tickets). I made the wrong assumption that the tickets were attached to this email. So Friday passed and my mind was at ease. Saturday came around, and I was now ready to go to the show. I logged into my email account just after 8PM to print the tickets and read that another email will contain the attachments. I admit I should have logged in earlier and printed the tickets, but I figured StubHub is a reputable company, and I had received my order confirmation. I thought to myself ok fine, there must be another email with the e-LMS tickets. I go through my inbox and to my horror there are no more emails from StubHub after the 3:09 PM email. At this point I started freak out as I paid $534.70 for these tickets. I called StubHub through their customer line (866 STUBHUB) only to find that their customer service closes at 7PM PT on weekends. So now it’s less than 2 hours before the show and I have no tickets in hand. I decided that the best thing to do is to head to the show with a receipt in hand and hope that I can get in. So I head to the show and send a quick email to customerservice@stubhub.com stating that I haven’t received the tickets yet. Of course, without tickets in hand, I (and my two other friends) didn’t get in and pretty much no recourse for the night. At this point, we decide to go out and I would call StubHub on Sunday when they are open.

So at 12:12PM I called StubHub customer service. I spoke with a young lady named Felcia and explain the situation. She asked me for my order number, my email address, and my billing zip code. She looked up the information and says that StubHub did in fact send me the tickets through e-LMS on Friday, March 13th. At which point I say I did not receive them or we wouldn’t be having this conversation and I would like a refund. She then asked me if I had checked my spam filter. I responded, “Yes”. She then proceeds to tell me that their nothing they can do since StubHub sent the tickets. And again I re-iterated that I did not receive them and StubHub should refund my money. She said they cannot do so. After a few minutes of this, I asked her if she can trace the email. She says, “No”. At this point, I asked for a supervisor, hoping that maybe there is some recourse. Felica, at this point, tells me that I can’t speak to a supervisor because there is nothing a supervisor can do to help. I ask again, stating that I’d still like to speak to one and again she refuses this time adding that no supervisors are available for these types of issues. At this point I was at my wits end, and I hung up.

I decided to immediately call again and hope that another agent may be more sympathetic to my issue. This time I spoke to a gentleman named Ben. I explained the situation, and he again looks up my information says that the tickets were delivered at 8PM on Friday, March 13th. I tell him that I did not receive the tickets, and at this point Ben and I have a discussion about the difference between the meanings of the words “sent”, “delivered”, and “received”. I tell him that just because Stubhub sends something doesn’t mean that they were delivered and/or received. He then says that they are marked delivered when StubHub knows that they have been received on the other end. I proceed to ask him on how StubHub would know that I received them if he couldn’t check my inbox directly. He has no answer to this. Since I work in a related industry, I know tracking an email is possible with HTML email and a tracking pixel, StubHub’s emails to me are plain text and do not contain a tracking pixel. Ben then says that he will contact their engineers and trace the e-LMS email, but he cannot refund my money at this point This strikes me as odd as Felicia told me they couldn’t trace the email. I asked how long will this take and he says 2-3 hours and that is where I am at now.

I am now out $534.70 and with what seems very little recourse. I purchased the tickets through a visa debit card and hoping for some advice. I will forward the two order confirmation emails that I did receive from StubHub about this purchase as well.

Vinay later added:

I just wanted to update you, in case my email was posted on consumerist.com. I just received a call back form Ben at stubhub, and since their e-LMS system shows that the tickets were sent; they will not be able to refund my money. I asked him how he traced the email to guarantee they were delivered, and he still did not have an answer. I told him that I still did not receive the tickets and therefore they were not delivered, I and would still like StubHub to do the right thing and refund my money, at which point he said he felt that the matter was closed and that StubHub is doing the right thing. I asked him for a supervisor, which he tried to get, but none were available since their corporate office was closed. I then asked him for the corporate executive service number of email address. He refused my request. So at this point I am still out of $534.70 .

I am hoping that some publicity to the matter will help StubHub do the right thing. I am also looking for any advice you might have on the matter.

Vinay isn’t going to win a he-said she-said battle with StubHub unless he gets a powerful friend on his side. File a chargeback and make StubHub convince your credit card company that they delivered the tickets.

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