StubHub crushed the dream of the lucky fan that bought a $6 World Series ticket, but eventually did the right thing - after some prodding.
Deadspin.com, which originally broke the story about a fan named Erik who was able to buy a ticket on StubHub to Wednesday night's World Series opener between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, today reported that StubHub told the fan that he had been sold a fraudulent ticket and cancelled the purchase.
Erik called StubHub to complain, to little avail. After a lengthy conversation, StubHub offered a $50 account credit to the fan. Only when a Deadspin.com reporter contacted the website did it then give the buyer a free ticket.
ESPN Sports Business reporter Darren Rovell tweeted Tuesday morning that StubHub had cancelled the sale. Deadspin.com then contacted Erik to find out what happened.
According to Erik, the website told him he was protected by a buyer-protection guarantee and refunded his $6.
"Also, I got a poorly worded voicemail saying that the ticket was fake and that I was protected by the fan protect guarantee. I'd get my 6 bucks back. Woohoo," Erik wrote to Deadspin. "I called stubhub and spent 41 min on the phone with them and spoke to 4 different people. The story changed to that the seller of the ticket had committed fraud. I really think that they just listed it wrong and complained and stubhub is acting so that they can get a large commission off of the ticket by reselling it for full price or something to that effect.
"I asked them to comp me a comparable ticket but they said there weren't any available. I said there were literally dozens of tickets in the same section or adjacent sections, but they refused saying they couldn't.
"After more time on the phone I finally got them to give me a $50 account credit. That's it. ..."
After Deadspin called the company, Alison Salcedo, StubHub's head of U.S. communication, sent a statement, saying, "A recent sale for a $6 ticket to Game 1 of the 2013 World Series ticket has proven to be a fraudulent listing. Per company policy, the sale has been cancelled and StubHub will make it right for the buyer by providing replacement tickets in a comparable location at our expense."
When asked why StubHub didn't originally offer the fan a free ticket, Salcedo told SportsWorldNews, "With an investigation into a fraudulent order, there are several checks and balances in the process which, you can imagine, does take time in most cases."
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