Q: I recently bought tickets for a Nikki Glaser show through StubHub. When the event was rescheduled, I received an offer for a refund from the ticket promoter, which I accepted.
I never got the money back. I found out the refund went back to the original seller, not me. StubHub refused my refund request, citing its resale policy, even though I no longer had the tickets.
After months of back-and-forth, a StubHub representative promised a refund, but it never arrived. Customer service then called the email I received “misleading” and claimed no record of it.
StubHub’s excuses shifted. First, the company blamed a closed credit card dispute. Then it claimed the seller was unresponsive. Even after escalating to StubHub's executives, I received only a useless coupon for $83. This feels like intentional deception. Is it legal to lie about processing a refund? -- Christi Barguig, Austin, Texas
A: StubHub should have found a way to get the money to you, as promised. And to answer your question, no, it's illegal to lie about a refund. That violates numerous laws against unfair and deceptive practices.
Your case is complex. StubHub is a platform for selling event tickets. When you requested a refund, the money went to the original seller. When StubHub refused to help you recover the refund, you filed a credit card dispute, which you lost. StubHub offered a voucher for a future event, but you refused that settlement.
StubHub's FanProtect Guarantee promises valid tickets or a refund when an event is canceled, but the company sidestepped this by claiming rescheduled events aren’t eligible. That's a questionable position, since you couldn’t use or resell tickets you no longer owned.
As much as you might like to pin this on StubHub's negligence, I think this comes down to a series of misunderstandings and bad policies. One consumer-unfriendly policy is the loophole for refusing a refund if an event is postponed instead of canceled. That's just playing word games. If the event isn't held on the day it's scheduled, it's canceled.
Refunding the original ticket holder is also a questionable policy, given that StubHub is a platform for selling tickets. StubHub should have worked directly with you to ensure you received your money back.
I understand why you would file a credit card dispute. But when that happens, it limits what a company can do until it's resolved. That explains why StubHub took so long to respond. It had to wait for your credit card company to make a decision about your refund. (It made the wrong decision, but that's a topic for a different article.)
The absurdity of your situation might make a good punchline in a Nikki Glaser joke. I can only imagine what she might have to say about this comedy of errors. It's policies that don't make sense, coupled with bureaucracy and slow customer service.
It looks like you tried contacting StubHub's customer service executives, with disappointing results. (I publish their names, numbers and email addresses on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.) I recommend starting at the bottom of the chain and working your way up, to maximize your opportunities for a resolution.
Regardless of its policies, StubHub offered to refund you, and it should have done that months ago. I reached out to StubHub, and the company processed your $331 refund.
Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy (https://elliottadvocacy.org), a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him at https://elliottadvocacy.org/help/