StubHub facing ticketing complaints from World Cup, beyond

StubHub is “facing a flood of complaints” from FIFA World Cup fans who bought tickets months in advance, “only to be stranded hours before the games,” according to Hanna Krueger of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. A proposed class-action suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan alleging that “StubHub sold hundreds of World Cup resale tickets it was neither authorized nor able to deliver.” StubHub has “blamed World Cup disruptions on what it said were obstacles with FIFA’s mobile-ticket app.” StubHub has had “dozens of examples of ticketing failures” involving all kinds of events. More than 50 StubHub buyers said in interviews that “they were denied entry despite paying for valid tickets, were sent replacements worse than what they had bought, or spent months fighting StubHub for refunds it had already promised.” For many, resolution came “only after they hired lawyers or complained in the press.” Over the past three years, StubHub has drawn “11,338 BBB complaints.” Its BBB profile cites a “significant spike in complaints” since the start of 2024 and refund requests “extensively delayed by the company.” A StubHub spokesperson said that “about 1% of orders result in a refund.” Over a dozen current and former StubHub employees said that increasingly, the company’s customer-support operations “don’t have enough resources to clean up the fallout when something goes wrong” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/11).