My Traumatizing Experience Buying Tickets via StubHub and UPS

T-2 months 🤔

Earlier this year, I decided that I was going to attend the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC 2022) in Las Vegas. Since I saw that the ticket prices were really high on the official website (mid $400s), I decided to check resale sites out of curiosity. I stumbled upon StubHub and found tickets for under $400, which were appealing.

After doing some research and verifying that StubHub was legit and had a 100% guarantee, we decided to purchase our tickets off StubHub. I purchased 1 on my own for $389 and then my cousin and his friend purchased 2 for a few bucks more (from a different seller).

EDC was set to start on May 20 and our tickets were supposed to arrive that same week, which was cutting it close. However, we couldn’t get them earlier because EDC mails the tickets (wristbands) out only the week before. In any resale scenario, the original ticket buyers become the resellers on sites like StubHub and are responsible for mailing their tickets out.

T-2 weeks 😳

Fast forward to May and my cousin and his friend received their tickets in the mail. I didn’t receive anything yet so I called StubHub to confirm the status of my tickets. StubHub told me that every seller receives and mails their tickets out at different times, so I needed to sit tight and wait.

T-1 week 😥

A few days passed by and I got an email saying that my delivery date originally set for May 17 would be delayed by a day or two. This was not ideal given that we were already cutting it so close, so I called StubHub to see what was going on. I got the standard response that there was nothing to worry about and that I would receive my tickets before the event.

T-4 days 🫣

Now, we’re in the beginning of EDC week and I am anxious because I still haven’t received anything in the mail! Since the tickets were supposed to be mailed via UPS 2-day delivery, I checked the tracking number and saw that there was still no update. I called both StubHub and UPS only to be told the seller still hasn’t mailed the tickets yet.

T-3 days 🫠

In the days leading up to EDC, I called StubHub and UPS a couple of times a day and received different responses each time. Eventually, one of the support staff told me that my reseller actually purchased his tickets from another reseller and was waiting for the original reseller to mail the tickets… to them to mail to me. It was OFFICIALLY a freaking gong show!

T-2 days 😐

Now, we’re finally at 2 days before EDC and the tickets still haven’t been mailed out yet! This meant that the 2-day delivery would not get the tickets to me in time. So I called StubHub once again and they tried contacting the seller and updating the UPS to 1-day delivery so that it would arrive by May 19.

T-1 day 🙄

Finally, I got a notification that UPS received the seller’s package and it would arrive by the next morning. I woke up and saw that my package was out for delivery and should arrive by noon… so my anxiety eased a bit.

But then noon came and went… with no update and no package in sight. I called UPS to see what was up but they said that sometimes the drivers take a bit longer than usual and that I should check back in a couple of hours. I waited a few hours… but still no package, so I called again. This time, the support staff tried contacting the driver and came back to tell me that the driver could not locate my package inside the UPS truck.

W T F ? ! ? ! 🤬

At this point, my heart dropped in utter shock and disbelief. How could my UPS tracker status show that my package was scanned onto the truck, but the driver could not find it? The support staff then told me that it could show up by the end of the day (around 7PM).

I really didn’t have much faith in the system, so I decided to visit the UPS centre that my package was last seen at (and is also where the trucks return at the end of the day to take inventory of any packages that never got delivered). I spoke to the UPS staff who tried checking the back to see if my package somehow got misplaced and left behind. Sadly, they told me that my package got “lost in the system” and should be retraced sometime in the next few days.

Here’s the thing… I don’t have a few days… The event starts tomorrow. My flight is scheduled for the next morning.

I was officially SCREWED… Flabbergasted. Disappointed. Upset. Angry.

T-1 day cont’d… 😭

After wrestling with my inner frustration, I called StubHub to explain my situation and they told me that they couldn’t replace my tickets because the resale prices skyrocketed to $900. The only thing they could offer me was a full refund.

This really sucked because I was so excited to go to the event… I was absolutely SHOOKETH!

I then proceeded to do what every young millennial does when they get upset—go on social media!

I shared an Instagram Story and everyone was now wondering what I was going to do so last minute… Should I get on that flight to Vegas tomorrow? What was the point if I couldn’t even go to EDC?

While I wallowed in my own well of self-pity and hopelessness, my brother and cousins asked around for last-minute tickets. By some miracle, my cousin Jeff (who was already in Vegas) found a friend who was selling their tickets that evening and he picked them up by midnight.

T-0 😬

So I started packing… and I got about 3 hours of sleep before I boarded my flight and (fortunately) had the time of my life 🎉 The End.

P.S. StubHub ended up processing the refund without any issues and I never saw the UPS package. I am forever traumatized by this event and will likely never buy resale tickets again (unless it is from someone I know).

Thanks for reading this random blog post… Most of the time I write about career stuff which you can find here, but sometimes I write about other experiences because why not!? Check out my YouTube channel for more not-so-serious content.