Facebook Ticket Purchasing PSA

[bono_212]

I don't know about any of you, but I have almost always only bought my tickets from Interference, if I didn't get them in a presale/onsale. This was the first time I attempted to use one of the Facebook fan sites. This is regarding the U2FT fan site, which I had been told was, and generally seems to be, very reputable.

The person who runs the site, Phil, sold me two tickets to LA night 2. This is the account of the event I messaged to one of the admins of the site:

Now that the craziness of the week is over, I'd like to report a major issue I had purchasing a ticket on U2FT this week, and it's actually rather awkward/difficult, as Phil is the person I had an issue with.




I purchased two GA tickets from Phil, on behalf of someone else, last Wednesday, the 9th. He gave me the total of the tickets as $173. I PayPal'd him the money, and he was supposed to contact someone at one of the Vegas shows to bring the tickets to me in LA.




On Sunday I received frantic messages from him that he had told me the wrong total and that the tickets were actually $195. He then insisted on refunding me the money so I could pay the person he was selling the tickets for directly. He also told me he was now going to be shipping me the tickets. I was unhappy with the situation, but told him I understand mistakes happen, and asked him to refund me the money so I could go ahead and pay. He then insinuated several times that he had already relisted the tickets for sale on the Facebook group, despite me saying repeatedly I still wanted them. He finally looped (the person he was selling the tickets for) into the conversation, where I was informed that up until that day she had still been trying to sell the tickets. The tickets I had already paid for several days before hand. I don't know if Phil just didn't tell her he'd sold them to me, or what. She then wanted me to also pay for the FedEx fee, but I explained to her that Phil said I didn't have to pay it, and I think he was going to pay it for me.




Unfortunately, Phil kept spelling my e-mail address wrong when he tried to issue the refund through PayPal, at which point he began to get very aggressive and rude with me. By the time he finally spelled it right, I just asked for the money back and told [Ticket Owner] to sell the tickets to someone else, because the whole thing felt insanely sketchy. I don't really know why anyone would want to use the page if the guy that runs it is this unreliable.

 

[shika]

I’m on that page as well though have never traded on it. I don’t think he’s a scammer; I just think he’s busy, over-committed and, perhaps, a little stupid.

 

[bono_212]

For what it's worth, I didn't feel I was being scammed as much as I felt like I got taken for a ride. In that if they'd found a seller *in* Vegas, they would've just refunded me my money to save a headache, and that's pretty messed up. But I get where you're coming from and it's a fair assessment.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

When I get a minute I’m going to review your story and post my own and see if these admin names match up because I had a really shit experience with Facebook and likely the same group.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

So, yes, same Facebook group. Similar sketchy interaction, but not directly with Phil. He just didn’t seem to care through the ordeal.

I was living in France at the time. Looking for a London/Twickenham ticket. A seller from London posted an offer. I engaged. I bought the tickets from her at face value, she shipped the tickets with tracking. The tracking arrived to the wrong address in France (across the country, in Paris). The tracking suggested as such. When I realized, I frantically tried to get in contact with the recipients to no avail. The seller, coincidentally from France, first attempted to make contact but couldn’t do anything. She didn’t really try after that, but refused to offer me my money back. Phil was eventually induced into this conversation by myself, only to repeatedly shrug it off like it was no big deal. But... I was due to fly to England for the show in a few days, with no tickets in hand. So it was a big deal. The seller gave up at a certain point because she’d been paid, and he didn’t care that she was unwilling to reconcile. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I learned that it wasn’t a scam, but rather the English postal service appeared to mess it up. This was discovered because the mail was returned to sender and she showed me a pic. And they were adamant that the person who insured the tickets, the seller, was the only one who could make a claim. She refused to pursue it any further - for all I know she filed and received her own insurance. I never saw a dime and was on the hook for having paid for two GAs.

You’re not protected by those admins. They do nothing.

 

[bono_212]

Yeah, see, this is way worse than what happened to me. I think the major thing here is to be more weary if the tickets are getting shipped, regardless of which site you buy from.

That's awful, man. Sorry that happened. Did you still see the show?

 

[trevgreg]

I'm sorry this happened to you. For the most part, I go through StubHub or TM resale just to avoid these types of situations, even though I imagine most people out there have good intentions and something can be worked out ultimately. I wished it did for you in this case.

 

[bono_212]

It's hard to say no to face value, ya know?

 

[trevgreg]

It's hard to say no to face value, ya know?

Right. I certainly don't blame you or anyone else for that. I mean, I've even sold a ticket at face value on here for someone during the 360 tour. It's definitely nice when fans are able to come through for others like that. But on the rare occasion it doesn't work out after money changes hands, it must stink.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Yeah, see, this is way worse than what happened to me. I think the major thing here is to be more weary if the tickets are getting shipped, regardless of which site you buy from.

That's awful, man. Sorry that happened. Did you still see the show?

For sure about the shipping thing. My seller didn’t want to meet in person for an exchange.

I was lucky that weekend - I was able to meet up with another fan in central London who sold me a spare GA. All turned out fine given the circumstance.saw the killers the night before, too! Left with a rather big hole in my wallet, of course.