Last weekend I purchased what I thought was a General Admission floor seat to the Red Hot Chili Peppers through the up and coming StubHub.com. I read over the listing for the ticket, I read over the FanProtect guarentee, and I made the purchase. I felt comfortable that I was indeed purchasing a ticket on the floor of the American Airlines Center. I was trying to avoid what I witnessed in Atlanta at the U2 concert there. Watching young, happy couples skip up to the doors of the Phillips Areana only to be turned away because they had paid hundreds of dollars for fake tickets broke my heart.
Having seen so many fraudulent cases in the ATL I didn’t want to pay good money for a bogus ticket. I trusted StubHub and felt good about the listing. I pressed the purchase button.
When I received my email confirmation (see pic) I noticed that in the comments section I would also be receiving a parking ticket. At least that’s what I thought.
When my FedEx package arrived yesterday I quickly opened it to find that I had purchased, not a floor seat to the Chilli Peppers and Gnarles Barkley, but a platinum parking pass. The word livid comes to mind. It was late and there was nothing I could do last night so I gathered all the info I could and went to bed knowing that I was going to call StubHub this morning and get my money back come hell or high water.
I’m a college educated twenty something. I have been purchasing things off the internet since high school and have rarely run into a problem. In fact, I have never, never run into a problem by purchasing through mainstream sites like Amazon and Ticketmaster or even eBay. Once some monks stole my credit card but that is another story for another post. I felt completely duped. I know that this guy went to work yesterday and everyone had a good laugh at the stupid guy (me) who paid fifty dollars for a parking pass. My bet is that he will be sitting in a box next week and everyone would have another good laugh at my expense. Guess what, Homey Don’t Play That!
First thing this morning a called StubHub. A young woman answered the phone and I explained to her my situation. She politely put me on hold while she polished her nails spoke to her supervisor. When she came back to the phone she told me that there was nothing she could do. Most people would have been so frustrated that they would have cursed her out, hung up the phone, and then pouted. Not me.
I poured my heart out to this young phone operator. I told her that I felt that this was a case of blatant deceit on the part of the seller. Not only was it stupid to pay $50 for a parking pass but it was criminal. When she let out a small laugh I politely asked to speak to her manager because I knew I wasn’t going to get my money back from her.
Manager Mario got on the line and I explained the whole situation to him. I told him that I felt more comfortable with the StubHub process than the eBay one. I really believed that I was buying a floor seat and not a stupid parking pass. Most importantly, I told him that as a fan, I didn’t feel very protected by their “guarantee.” As nice as he was though, I felt like he was just humoring me. He kept saying all sales were final and that he was truly sorry but there was nothing he could do. Was I going to get stuck with this expensive parking space?
I threw everything on the line and said,” Mario, let me ask you something. When was the last time you parked you car in a seat?”
There was a pause. Mario quietly answered, “Never.” Bingo!!!
From that point on everything fell into place. Mario put me on hold while he called the seller and as soon as I publish the post I’m off to FedEx to send my parking pass back to the seller. I’m getting my money back although there was nothing that could be done!
Persistence. Patience. Politeness. It pays off.
