Fan denied 'once in a lifetime' experience after Paul McCartney tickets turn out to be invalid
Adrian Brijbassi spent $650 for tickets on Stubhub but was denied entry to concert — and says he wasn't alone
After snagging a pair of floor tickets to Paul McCartney's Vancouver concert on Saturday, Adrian Brijbassi was looking forward to a night of music and dancing.
But when he arrived at B.C. Place with his tickets, which he'd paid more than $650 for, he was told that they were invalid because someone had already entered the venue on the same tickets.
Brijbassi had purchased them on StubHub, a resale website that allows people to upload tickets and resell them — and he found out from B.C. Place staff that he wasn't alone in his experience.
"They said I'd have to contact StubHub and that I wasn't the only person that it had happened with through StubHub that night," he said.
Brijbassi tried to get in touch with StubHub through their online chat portal, where he was promised they'd find a solution, but he eventually went home without getting into the concert.
He has since been reimbursed the price of his tickets, but said he's disappointed that he missed out on a concert he'd been looking forward to for weeks.
"It wasn't about the money, it was about having the experience of seeing Paul McCartney. I was denied an experience that would be once in a lifetime and StubHub needs to do better," he said.
Local ticket broker Kingsley Bailey said the problem often comes from when a seller, either accidently or on purpose, uploads their tickets on more than one resale site, or uploads the same ticket multiple times.
"An individual might have have uploaded them twice due to human error and the tickets were sold, or could have been sold three or four times," he said.
Bailey said the benefit of working with a local broker is that if you do run into a problem with your tickets, you're more likely to get it resolved.
"People want the convenience of online, but these are the situations that are going to happen," he said.
StubHub did not immediately respond to CBC's request for comment.
Brijbassi said he won't be buying tickets through the online ticket reseller again, despite the convenience.
"Someone should be looking out for the consumer, some kind of watchdog — but this has been happening since I've been going to concerts," he said.
With files from Deborah Goble