Gifting tickets this holiday season? Avoid secondary marketplaces, expert says
Tickets to concerts, musicals and plays are in even higher demand than usual this time of year, but if consumers aren't careful, it's a gift that could turn into a lump of coal.
One Westchester County woman shared her cautionary tale with CBS News New York investigative reporter Tim McNicholas.
The show won't go on
Scarsdale resident Debra Fischer bought tickets to see the off-Broadway play "House of McQueen" back in the fall and planned a trip to the city, but when she showed up, she found a crew dismantling the set and learned the production had closed two weeks early.
"This burly guy comes out ... and he goes, 'Well, youse don't have a show here.' And I said, 'What do you mean?'" Fischer said. "And he said, 'Well, the show closed' ... And I said, 'How come no one told us?'"
A spokesperson for the production says Ticketmaster customers were quickly notified of the change and offered refunds or tickets to earlier performances, but Fischer bought her tickets on eTickets.com, a site the "House of McQueen" team says it has no working relationship with.
"I went there excited. I left stunned," she said.
Fischer said when she contacted eTickets.com, she received an email reading, "We apologize for the inconvenience, however we haven't been able to find any indication of the event being canceled."
CBS News New York reached out to eTickets.com, and then it gave Fischer a full refund. Customer Support said the canceled show had not been updated in its system, adding, "We regret any confusion or inconvenience this delay in communication may have caused."
"I don't want this to happen again. I mean, now, I'm second-guessing every single purchase that I make using those kind of formats," Fischer said. "It makes me really feel very uncomfortable about ordering things online."
Buy from the official vendor to be safe, expert says
Professor Jared Watson, with NYU's Stern School of Business, says stories like Fischer's are common among customers of many secondary ticket marketplaces.
"They don't have partnerships with the providers of the service, so they can't necessarily maintain the authenticity of the product, and they're not privy to any developments, whether there's cancellations or any sort of changes to the production schedule," Watson said.
He says to be safe, buy from the official vendor.
Complaints lodged against secondary market sites
Secondary marketplaces such as StubHub, VividSeats, SeatGeek and eTickets.com all guarantee valid tickets or your money back, but issues still pop up.
New York State's Division of Consumer Protection tracks complaints, including unexpected cancellations and issues with third-party sellers sending consumers tickets they have purchased.
The agency says it hasn't fielded any complaints about eTickets.com. It has logged one complaint about VividSeats and 20 about SeatGeek since the end of 2022.
When it comes to StubHub, the biggest secondary marketplace, the agency fielded 11 complaints in 2023, 19 in 2024, and 34 so far this year.
None of the companies mentioned in this story would agree to an interview with CBS News New York.
StubHub sent a statement saying issues on its platform are extremely rare and when problems do arise, it has 24/7 customer service to help. The company says people should only buy from third parties that offer dedicated support.
If you do run into problems, contact the vendor ASAP to try to get it fixed.
