2,372 reviews for SeatGeek, 3.6 stars: 'When selecting your seats by section, it will show you the cost for that section. At that point, I had nothing to get into the game, he recalled. Eric Budish, an economics professor at the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business, describes the practice as a distortion, not a natural consequence, of a competitive market. The ticket buyers assume the high prices theyre seeing are official because they think theyve arrived at the venues box office. Brad Glasser, StubHubs director of global communications, said the companys user agreement requires sellers to abide by all applicable laws, including those that forbid the use of bots. You refresh your browser as the seconds tick down to a team or artists official sale time. But for years, no one did. Trader is currently being represented by layer Nicholas Coulson. Between Jan. 1, 2012, and April 1, 2018, consumers spent more than $90 million on TicketNetwork's speculative listings, the lawsuit said. Customer response. Top illustration by Maxwell Erwin. Sold out. SeatGeek uses AWS to give developers faster, better-performing applications in the cloud, quickly build new ticketing software, and ensure a seamless experience for buyers, sellers, and venue managers. DONATE NOW! Amazon N95 Masks. The Bills needed a victory against the Miami Dolphins. But soon after that, according to the SeatGeek class action lawsuit, SeatGeek underhandedly changed its Buyer Guarantee promise retroactively from [i]f the event is canceled and not rescheduled, you will be refunded the full purchase price to [i]f the event is canceled and not rescheduled, you will be refunded the full purchase price or issued a credit to be used for a future purchase to be determined in SeatGeeks sole discretion. ***** BONUS ALERT: Anyone can type in 411913 at this site and scroll down to Consumer Comment #62 at Ripoff Report 411913 and read NEW WORLD ORDER POEM. The FTC sued the reseller and two of its partners in 2014 for knowingly profiting from deceptive venue-mimicking tactics. The partners named in the suit had employed audacious methods to fool consumers into believing theyd arrived at an official venue box office, according to the complaint. When I selected a ticket and began the checkout process, I saw an advertised price of $439 and a digital timer ticking down from four minutes. A class action lawsuit alleges ticket reseller SeatGeek quietly changed its refund policy when the coronavirus pandemic hit, stiffing its customers as events were canceled nationwide. Following backlash from fans and a scathing letter from U.S. representatives, Live Nation updated its refund policy. Pender got a refund, but it provided little solace. status of any class action settlement claim. SeatGeek didnt immediately return a request for comment. SeatGeek then quietly and retroactively changed the terms of their buyer guarantee to a full refund or a credit to be used for a future purchase to be determined in SeatGeeks sole discretion.. For information on deleting the cookies, please consult your browsers help function. Thanks for contacting us. He has not received any indication that this will happen. It shouldnt be allowed.. 510-809-3160. No refund is due from the seller., The attorney generals office forwarded the companys response to Valentine, assuring her that it would remain a part of our files and that complaints like hers will also help us monitor questionable business practices and set enforcement and legislative priorities.. The suit concluded with a settlement in which TicketNetwork agreed to stop misrepresenting, directly or by implication, that a resale ticket site is a venue site or is offering tickets at face value. Today, the company maintains it has abided by the consent decrees terms. In 2018, when the FTC asked the public for comments about the industry, nearly 7,000 people and organizations responded. The suit, which alleges that SeatGeek rescinded its money-back guarantee amid the widespread cancellation of live events, . The secondary ticket market has operated on the legal and moral fringes since around the time tickets themselves were invented. https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/seat-geek/took-money-got-tickets-1512823, Seat Geek Did not refund my money from a cancelled game back on January 2nd 2021 NYC NY, Seat Geek Delivered package to wrong person. Please donate today. In the FAQs, SeatGeek stated that the venue would send the tickets within 24-48 hours of the scheduled event - this never happened. It also forbade the resale of tickets purchased with bots in a variety of circumstances. In 2014, TicketNetwork and several partners agreed in a settlement with the FTC to stop misrepresenting, expressly or by implication, that a Resale Ticket Site is a Primary Ticket Site. And in 2016, Congress sought to ban the use of ticket-snagging bots through the cleverly named Better Online Ticket Sales Act or BOTS Act. Sports. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_4" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Please note: Top Class Actions is not a settlement SeatGeek is the smart way to buy and resell tickets to thousands of sporting events (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS), concerts, festivals, and Broadway/theater shows. Additionally, Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster revealed that it would only refund customers for cancelled or rescheduled events, however, many postponed shows have no reschedule date in sight. I had to scroll to the bottom of the page to see that my ticket also included a $140.65 service fee a 32% markup over the advertised total. Original review: Feb. 9, 2023. Celebrity Skin Cream wrinkle cream rip-off advertisements US Based and Foreign companies bilked consumers out of Hundreds of Millions of dollars over the past 7 years. Say we owe over $22,000.00 for the rest of their so called contract !!!!!! I dont think that many concertgoers today feel that it is working well. They also needed the Cincinnati Bengals to beat a gritty and determined Baltimore Ravens team that was one win away from securing its own playoff spot. Improbably, miraculously, the Bills were headed to the playoffs. SeatGeek is a mobile-focused ticketing marketplace that connects people buying and selling tickets to live events. Send him the money.. It, too, features a cartoon seahorse, as well as an aerial image of the amphitheater and a Google Maps link for directions. (Google removed these videos from the web several years ago.) Copyright 1997-2023, Ripoff Report. "Mike". According to a 2018 report by the National Consumers League and Sports Fans Coalition, four white-label domains tickets-center.com, box-officetickets.com, ticketoffices.com and onlinecitytickets.com accounted for roughly two-thirds of Vivid Seats web traffic. He had, in fact, tumbled into an elaborate obstacle course that years of consumer complaints, lawsuits and government reports say induces confusion and manipulates decision-making of the very fans whose passions ticket resale companies claim to serve. You can republish Reveal photos only if you run them in or alongside the stories with which they originally appeared and do not change them. settlement administrator or your attorney for any updates regarding Pender instructed his brother to purchase them on the spot. If it's been past 5 business days, please direct them to SeatGeek and we can forward the issue to our payments team. Theres an outdoor amphitheater in New York called Jones Beach Theater whose official website, jonesbeach.com, features a cartoon seahorse on the homepages top left corner. your claim status, claim form or questions about when payments are He was part of Reveals Behind the Smiles project team, which was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2019. He reportedly tried to receive a refund, but SeatGeek denied to refund his money. . Resigned, Valentine asked to be emailed her tickets immediately. Dont click on those slick Ads! Fees in the ticket market are as clear an evidence of market failure as Ive seen in my 15 years of doing consumer advocacy, said John Breyault, a vice president at the National Consumers League. If you have any other questions, please contact us at republish@revealnews.org. TicketNetwork has also landed in hot water for other consumer practices. But on eventticketscenter.com, they were $643. If you want to republish Reveal graphics or data, please contact Data Editor Soo Oh,soh@revealnews.org. Say yes. Discover events you love, search all ticket sites, see seat locations and get the best deals on tickets. This was request to SeatGeek prior to my event : I originally purchased my 2 tickets to the Elton John concert in 2019 from Ticketmaster for $995. The event was later canceled because of coronavirus concerns. Now its effectively dominated by software companies. We've received your submission. The way these systems are set up, you make a decision about what ticket you want to buy based on the initial information, and its a few steps down before you realize how much the ticket actually costs, said Anna Laitin, director of financial fairness and legislative strategy at Consumer Reports. The number of them the company has blocked from its site has tripled since 2016, Amy Howe, then Ticketmasters COO, said in congressional testimony last February. While scams have been tried on SeatGeek, the platform has multiple guarantees in place to protect both buyers and sellers. If you want to run a photo apart from that story, please request specific permission to license by contacting Digital Engagement Producer Sarah Mirk,smirk@revealnews.org. Skip to Content. Patients made into prostitutes and sex slaves, bilking insurance companies out of millions, Sac_County Iowa Prosecutor Ben Smith pays $750,000 to settle Ripoff Report 1983 civil rights lawsuit.. Federal Judge stops prosecutors abuse of power against ED Magedson Founder of Ripoff Report. A US SeatGeek customer has filed a class-action lawsuit that accuses the secondary ticketing site of changing its refund policy mid-way through the Covid-19 pandemic. Tickets for the Ryder Cup, an international mens golf competition, were slated to go on sale in minutes. SeatGeek is entitled, except to the extent prohibited by applicable law, to disclose any information or materials on or in SeatGeek Properties in SeatGeek's possession in connection with your use of SeatGeek Properties, to (1) comply with applicable laws, legal process or governmental request; (2) enforce the Terms, (3) respond to your . Click Change Settings if you want to tailor the use of your cookies. In fact, for more than a decade, secondary resale markets have cranked up their own profit margins by allowing the sale of tickets that sellers dont yet possess sparking reams of consumer complaints, as well as warnings from regulatory agencies. X | CLOSE. As a nonprofit newsroom, we want to share our work with as many people as possible. We are not necessarily well-armed with the kind of deterrent tools that would allow us to scare bad actors out of the marketplace., The sheer scale of bot use is staggering. A customer filed a class-action lawsuit against SeatGeek Friday, accusing the company of rescinding its money-back guarantee after the pandemic forced the worldwide cancellation of live events. Its a great thing, he said. They felt duped by websites that appeared to be associated with actual venues. The SeatGeek Ticket Refund Class Action Lawsuit is William Trader v. SeatGeek Inc., Case No. We use cookies to improve functionality and performance, enhance user experience, and provide tailored content. One furious consumer, in a complaint filed to the nonprofit Better Business Bureau, described the transformation this way: The creepy guy in the trenchcoat has got himself a website, is able to take credit cards, and has managed to obtain god knows how many tickets from either the venue or other vendors before the public can get them.. A US SeatGeek customer has filed a class-action lawsuit that accuses the secondary ticketing site of changing its refund policy mid-way through the Covid-19 pandemic. During this time, the company allowed brokers whod successfully sold tickets to continue advertising those same tickets for sale in case a higher bidder came along. I'd like to hear about marketing opportunities, I accept IQ Magazine's Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, First StubHub, now SeatGeek: the US secondary ticketing site is being sued in New York for allegedly refusing to issue refunds for called-off shows, William Trader hoped to see Dead and Company in Chicago, image Julio Enriquez/Flickr (CC BY 2.0). This story has been shared 396,068 times. RedBall 4 SeatGeek 70. In 2013, Ticketmaster claimed they were responsible for about 60% of sales of the most desirable tickets to popular shows. Top Class Actions is a legal news source Best wishes, SeatGeek CX Team. The friend nodded. Sac_County Iowa Prosecutor Ben Smith pays $750,000 to settle Ripoff Report 1983 civil rights lawsuit.. Federal Judge stops prosecutors abuse of power against ED Magedson Founder of Ripoff Report. SeatGeek Stadium, formerly Toyota Park, in Bridgeview is the home of the Fire and the Red Stars soccer teams. SUPPORT Are we going to Jacksonville? he mouthed silently as the father of the bride took the mic. Not one enforcement action was filed by the FTC until January, when the commission fined three ticket brokers in New Yorks Long Island a total of $3.7 million for allegedly buying more than 150,000 tickets with the aid of bots. Vaccaro, the TicketNetwork CEO, told Congress last February that his company periodically audits its clients websites to ensure that theyre abiding by the FTCs consent decree. .newspack-inline-popup .end-of-article-prompt{border:3px solid #0093ff;padding:1em;}. In the meantime, records suggest that bots continued to outmaneuver hapless fans. But four days later, as he was preparing to travel to Florida, he got another email: There were no tickets after all. Grantham said she knows this personally because shes observed brokers on StubHub advertising Wilson Center tickets she still had in her inventory: On Granthams own seating chart, the price to one event was $49.43; StubHubs, meanwhile, was $88. Include all links from the story, and please link to us at https://www.revealnews.org. REBUTTAL BOX A lawsuit against TicketNetwork, filed by then-New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood in 2018, detailed the scope of speculative selling on its platform. administrator or law firm. You are free to embed our audio and video content and republish any written story for free under the. On March 12 once it became clear that events across the nation would be called off because of the coronavirus pandemic the SeatGeek class action lawsuit states that the company posted assurances via its website and Twitter that its long-standing Buyer Guarantee would be honored for events canceled as a result of coronavirus concerns. IQs news, features, information and analysis is read by 100,000 professionals worldwide each month. The secondary ticketing site SeatGeek was hit with a class-action lawsuit over the weekend regarding its refund policy.. A customer filed the suit Friday, accusing the company of rescinding its money-back guarantee following widespread cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic, The New York Post reports. Thanks for your interest in republishing a story from Reveal. Byard Duncan is a reporter and producer for engagement and collaborations for Reveal. He has not received any indication that this will happen 2013, Ticketmaster claimed they were for. 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