After many reports of tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour being stolen from hacked Ticketmaster accounts, the company is working on returning them to the original ticket holders.
Unfortunately, this may be bad news for some scammed Swifties.
Many fans who unknowingly may have purchased stolen tickets on third-party sites like StubHub and Tickpick have been receiving emails saying their tickets have been cancelled because they were transferred to them by “a buyer who violated Ticketmaster’s Terms of Use policy.”
Frustrated fans have taken to social media to express their anger after spending hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of dollars on tickets that are now invalid. They could be eligible for a refund, but Ticketmaster’s new timeframe for ticket transfers could mean that they miss out on the show.
Last week, Ticketmaster paused ticket transfers for all remaining Eras shows until three days before each event due to the hacks.
One fan, Destiny Shelbe, told the Star that she purchased four tickets from a seller on Reddit for Swift’s Miami show next weekend.
On Wednesday she received the cancellation email from Ticketmaster. Unsure of its legitimacy, she reached out to both the company as well as to the seller she bought it from.
Shelbe says that the seller claimed to have bought the tickets from another person but would not share their contact with her, leaving her with no way to confirm if the tickets were stolen or if any other terms had been broken by the original seller.
From Ticketmaster’s fan support line, she received conflicting answers. One agent told her that her tickets were not valid anymore and she needed to reach out to the buyer. Another agent, however, told her that the tickets were indeed valid, although she thought that was just to get her off the phone.
Shelbe is currently unsure of whether she’ll be seeing the show next weekend.
Another fan with a similar story is Ashleigh Laak, who purchased tickets for a Vancouver Eras show on the third-party site, Handshake last week.
After purchasing the tickets, Laak herself reached out to Ticketmaster to confirm that the tickets she bought were not stolen and was told that her tickets were fine. A few days later she received the cancellation email.
Like Shelbe, Laak too reached out to Ticketmaster multiple times and received the same conflicting responses.
She also reached out to Handshake who, she says is in touch with the seller. She now awaits a response from them.
“These tickets have probably been sold and resold so many times that we will never be able to trace the original seller,” she says.
Laak says that apart from being out thousands of dollars, she is also disappointed with the lack of response from Ticketmaster, adding that she would understand if the tickets were stolen and were being returned to the original buyer but would appreciate being told that by the company.
The Star reached out to Handshake for comment but received no comment by time of publication.
Some other third-party sites have said that if any tickets sold on their platform are cancelled, they will work to provide refunds or replacements.
A spokesperson for Tickpick said, “If any tickets purchased on TickPick are deemed invalid by a primary marketplace, we will work with the buyer to provide replacement tickets. If a buyer experiences a ticket cancellation from Ticketmaster, all they need to do is provide proof of the cancellation so we can validate the issue. We will then take action to replace the tickets or refund the order, which is our standard policy.”
StubHub also said they had a similar policy with a spokesperson saying, “StubHub’s FanProtect Guarantee ensures that every order is 100% protected. No matter the issue, we work to provide an equivalent or better ticket or offer a full refund.”
The Eras tour will be returning Oct. 18 when Swift takes to the stage in Miami. She will be heading to Canada next month with six shows in Toronto and three in Vancouver in December.
