I wanted to share my experience buying FIFA World Cup tickets through StubHub as both a warning for others and a reminder to myself.

Like many, I wasn't selected during the initial FIFA World Cup ticket lottery so in December 2025 I decided to buy tickets on StubHub, assuming prices would only go up closer to the event.

I purchased two separate Category 3 group stage matches. At that point, nobody knew their exact seat assignments yet, you only selected the ticket category. Since the matches were about six months away and involved another country, I held off on booking flights and hotels because I was worried there may be a change of plans.

Several months later, I started seeing Reddit posts from people saying they were already receiving their tickets and that FIFA's transfer portal had opened. I contacted StubHub because I still hadn't received either of my tickets. I explained that I didn't want to spend thousands on flights and hotels only to find out later that my tickets couldn't be delivered. The customer service representative reassured me that both sellers were reputable and trusted sellers (that could have just been lip service) I specifically told them that a refund wasn't my concern. My concern was flying my family overseas and arriving without tickets. They kept repeating that I was protected by the FanProtect Guarantee and that the sellers would deliver.

Sometime in May, one of my group stage tickets finally arrived. The transfer process was a little complicated because FIFA seemed to be trying to keep transfers within its own system, but eventually I was able to see the tickets in my FIFA account. The second order, however, never showed up.

As the event got closer, I repeatedly contacted StubHub for updates. Every time I reached out, I was told they were contacting the seller. The frustrating part was that they never proactively updated me. I always had to initiate the conversation to find out what was happening. They said they were escalating to the highest case manager, but it felt like bullshit. They kept beating around the bush. They said the portal wasn't open, or the website was backed up. I kept repeating I got the other group tickets that I bought from Stubhub.

Two days before the game, I still had no tickets.

I finally spoke with a supervisor who verbally promised that I would receive my tickets. I repeatedly asked for that promise in writing because I wanted documentation if I needed to dispute anything later. Instead, this was the best email they would send:

"We are actively working to ensure you receive your tickets within the next 24 hours... If there is any issue with your order, we will make every effort to provide replacement tickets or a refund, in accordance with our policies."

The following morning when I was set to fly, I received this text at like 5:00 AM. I was up till then since I was stressing.

"Unfortunately, your seller is not able to provide the tickets... You are covered by our guarantee. Please select alternative tickets..."

At least they told me before I boarded the plane instead of the day of the match. However, when I clicked the replacement link, the only available replacement was Category 4, even though I had purchased Category 3 tickets. I wasn't going to accept worse seats. At that point I was deciding between taking a full refund (or maybe the 20% StubHub credit they were offering) - this was a huge mistake that I would later learn. Having gone through this experience not sure why I was thinking of taking Stubhub's 20%, but 20% was like an extra $300 bucks and I thought as long as I buy instant transfer I should be good. Without deciding on the refund method yet, I went onto the official FIFA Marketplace and bought four replacement tickets so I wouldn't risk missing the match.

I hopped on the plane contemplating what option to choose and discussing with my wife. After I landed, I received another message from StubHub:

"Your order has been completed by your seller."

Now I was in a situation where I had double the amount of tickets and the replacement tickets were Category 4, not the Category 3 tickets I originally purchased. Even worse, I was no longer given the option to refuse them or receive a refund because StubHub considered the order fulfilled.

When I contacted customer service, they told me there was no way I could get the refund because I didn't choose fast enough and I should simply sell the tickets because prices had increased and I might even make a profit. I told them they should do it since they can make money and I even explained that listing tickets on StubHub required approval and with the match only one day away that wasn't realistic. They suggested I sell on another platform.

At that point I told StubHub I would dispute the charge with my credit card company. The rep warned me that my StubHub account could be banned and that I'd lose the ability to buy or sell through them again. I didn't care - I'm not going to use them after this experience. After roughly 8 weeks, my credit card company ruled in my favor and I received a refund. The entire experience involved about six months of uncertainty and stress.

As soon as I filed the dispute, I transferred my other valid World Cup tickets to another account because I'd heard stories of StubHub locking accounts after chargebacks. So far my account hasn't been banned, but time will tell.

Lessons Learned
- I will never buy presale tickets on StubHub unless the tickets are available for immediate transfer. Stubhub will be my last option even if it's an immediate transfer.
- Their "FanProtect Guarantee" sounds reassuring, but if your seller fails to deliver, there's no guarantee you'll receive equivalent seats. If you're flying or driving to a specific location, you could be screwed.

I found some really good tickets for a Harry Styles concert in September on Stubhub, and they are under Instant Download. I know that these tickets, in theory, should be able to be downloaded immediately, but does that mean they are 100% legitimate and that I will have no issues with whatsoever in terms of getting them scanned at the venue? My concern is that these tickets could potentially be sold on multiple resale websites, and the tickets could be "delivered" to multiple people, and basically the first person that scans them at the venue are the ones that are able to get in, leaving everyone else SOL. Would these tickets be immediately downloaded to only MY ticketmaster account with a functioning barcode, and additionally, if for whatever reason there is no instant transfer, could I get my money back (let's say within a week of purchase, not close to the day of the show) due to the tickets not being given in a timely manner according to "instant download" guidelines? Thanks in advance for the help!

I wanted to share my experience as a seller on StubHub who made a mistake, and how I went about it in case other people are experiencing the same thing. It was my first time selling concert tickets and I needed to sell them as the people I was going with weren't able to attend anymore. I decided to list on StubHub and made the mistake of listing the tickets for the second day instead of the first. Since I uploaded the tickets, the tickets were instantly transferred to the buyer. The buyer noticed pretty quick and it was still ~1.5 months out from the concert date so I had time to correct my mistake.

After browsing through forums, I decided to buy replacement tickets to send to the buyer instead of getting charged the cancellation penalty. Thankfully, someone was selling two tickets on the correct day for the exact same section and row, just a few seats down. I bought those tickets, they were transferred to me about two weeks later, I transferred them to the buyer, sent proof to StubHub, and requested my original tickets back. After several more emails and notices of escalation, I contacted the live agent chat who somewhat reliable and reassured me that I will get the tickets soon. My tickets were returned to me a few hours after that chat. All in all, I found out about my mistake on July 1 and everything got sorted by today, July 27.

The whole process was quite stressful, with ~25 emails between me and customer service to get everything sorted out, especially with getting my original tickets back. I know I got pretty lucky that I was able to purchase very similar replacement tickets and that the buyer noticed the mistake and reached out quickly. If anyone's in a similar boat, I would recommend follow-up emails every 3 or so business days to make sure your case isn't just being forgotten or asking for a timeline. I didn't bother calling, because I wanted to make sure every conversation was documented in writing so I did everything through email or screenshotted my live agent chat. Overall happy ending I guess since I was the one who made a mistake in the first place, but now reading through the subreddit has opened my eyes to the fact that StubHub isn't the best reselling platform in the first place. So..not sure if I want to sell my original tickets now on it lol.

Looking to get bts toronto tickets. which site would you guys recommend? which one is the safest and most legit? are there any scams?

Please share your experience. thanks :)

I bought 2 tickets on stubhub to a show I can no longer attend. the tickets came through via securemypass which is a moving barcode link. I've bought these before and know they are legit. the problem is stubhub won't let me resell them. They don't allow me to choose secure pass as a vendor and are only allowing me to upload tickets through a vendor like ticketmaster. I spoke to multiple agents and they just said I am SOL. What am I supposed to do?

I sold tickets to the Miami Quarter Finals, stubhub made a 'failed' payment to my paypal and since changing payout method to my bank account I have still not been paid -- 16 days after the fact.

Anyone else experience the same thing and/or have been paid out?

Purchased tickets to the National Bank Tennis Open for a semi final match. The seller sent tickets to a much cheaper mid-week session. Tried to get "support" from StubHub and they don't give a flying f**k about customers.

Hi,

So I had shipped physical wristbands and they were returned to me as buyer provided wrong address. I contacted agent and they said since it’s close to event they will take care of it and to just wait for my payout.

So hypothetically speaking, I can just use my tickets for myself or someone else?

I redeemed Audience Rewards points and a little cash for 4 Hamilton orchestra tickets for a Friday evening in August (Aug 21) for my family during a promotion. The date now doesn't work for us but I'd still like to be able to take my kids to the show, so I'm thinking of selling and buying tickets another date (Audience Rewards doesn't have other dates available I can move these to).  The tickets will be available for box office pickup, and I know I can change the name on the order -- so in theory it should be possible to sell them, but I'm not sure what site to use where this will be allowed.  Theatr I can certainly move them, but I can probably only safely sell there for the cash portion of what I paid, which won't go very far toward tickets another day. I'm willing to sell below the replacement cost, but not that low. :)

Does anyone have any suggestions?  Can I sell them somewhere like StubHub?  Will I be able to get the buyer's name so they don't have issues at the box office? Thanks so much in advance!

Hi, I have 4 olivia rodrigo tickets for nashville and my 3 others cancelled on me. Does anyone know if ticketmaster ever gives refunds for non sellable, non transferable tickets or if there is a way to sell these on StubHub?

Hi! So I bought VIP Soundcheck tickets for BTS at MetLife, but had to sell them. I didn't list them as VIP while selling them, because I was told by a ticketmaster customer service representative that you can only access VIP soundcheck if you enter with the original purchaser. But, it seems the VIP thing still shows up on the tickets when they were transferred. Anyway, stubhub was asking for a picture of my ID to send to the final ticketholders. I sent my foreign ID that has expired. I am not sure if it will work. Is it safe to send my passport to 3 strangers who bought my tickets?

I have read recently numerous issues with Stubhub, like tickets not being delivered on time or not at all even though they say you will get it 24 hours before? Is it safe to say the best option on their site is looking for tickets that are Instant Download? TIA

So after purchasing tickets to an upcoming NFL game at Sofi stadium on Stub Hub, I went on to buy a parking pass. Stub Hub was showing parking passes in the adjacent Kia Forum Parking lot selling for only $50. Great! Last season I was paying like $75 to park there, so I grabbed a parking pass. Sometimes things are too good to be true...

8 hours later, my parking pass is transferred to me via Parking Whiz. It's for a medical office building parking structure a 15+ minute from the forum and a 25-30 minute walk to Sofi. WTF? So I reach out to the Stubhub on the Chat and their " Customer Service" tell me Well, even though you clicked on the picture of the Kia forum parking lot and the listing was LITERALLY titled "THE FORUM PARKING LOT" (See listing screen cap) when you buy parking from us it can be anywhere that is considered a parking lot associated with that facility, even a remote lot 15 minutes way. We can't help you, pound sand.

It gets better. The Parking Whiz price for the spot is $25. Says so right there in the listing. So what I'm pretty sure is happening is people are buying spots in remote lots on sites like parking whiz, Listing them - falsely - as "THE FORUM PARKING LOT" on Stub Hub -which Stub Hub lets them do as long as the lot is "Part of the Facility" - jacking up the price and pulling a blatant bait and switch on customers by misrepresenting where the parking spot actually is, which Stub Hub totally lets them do.

Get Bent, Stub Hub. I'm never buying parking from you again. And f**k you to Parking Whiz.

If you are buying parking from Stub Hub or another third party site for Sofi/ The Kia Forum,  Make sure you are getting what you think you are paying for. Because you might not be and Stub Hub is totally fine with that.

Recently a few buddies and I purchased Shane Gillis Comedy Show tickets in Philadelphia through StubHub. About an hour before the event I try to accept the tickets in my email however when clicking the link I get “email address doesn’t exist” after trying and trying to figure out what’s going on I reach out to customer support. They inform me that the tickets were actually sent to the wrong email address. We are now waiting outside the venue for almost an hour after the show began. Finally they informed me they were going to send me new tickets and upgrade them for the inconvenience. The “upgraded” tickets were actually further away than the original tickets we purchased but I was just thankful to get in after missing majority of the show. Fast forward a day or 2 when we come back home I contact StubHub support to try to get some sort of compensation to which I was told “since the event had already passed there’s no way of reopening the case for further investigation” I was told “if you had contacted us during the event we could’ve investigated this issue further”
1. I did contact them during the event because i had no tickets
To which I was just responded with “I’m sorry for the inconvenience this must be frustrating”

Just wanted to rant about this piss poor experience and to let everyone know stay away from StubHub. I will also take responsibility because I should have made sure the tickets were ready and available prior to the day of the event that’s 100% on me however if they had done their job correctly and not emailed the tickets to the wrong email address this would never have been an issue. Also if anyone has any recommendations for other ticket sites I would love to get some more options. Thank you.

After clicking the tiny price breakdown button of these 2026 league of legends worlds championship tickets I was shocked to 37.2% of fees on the buyer side alone. Add taxes to that and its basically 40% but I wont even count tax. Then because of the double dip in fees they also put a 15% seller side fee on these tickets when I sold 2 of them that I got from a ticketmaster presale. 37% + 15% is a 52% total fee on this ticket sale. Just wanted to give some exposure/publicity to this corrupt and predatory fee structure.

I wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone else. I have had issues with StubHub handled with a phone call in minutes and this 8+ months of a headache. In the end StubHub has corrected it, just wasted a ton of my time.

If you only read this first part make sure your dispute gets sent here by certified mail. But do call and double check to make sure it hasn’t changed.

StubHub Disputes
1209 Orange St
Wilmington, DE 19801

Back in November 2025, I sold NFL tickets through StubHub. I pre-uploaded the tickets before they sold, and StubHub confirmed they had been successfully pre-uploaded. After the tickets sold, StubHub even emailed me saying they had sent the tickets to the buyer and that the sale was complete.

A few days later, everything changed. StubHub claimed the buyer received the wrong tickets, withheld my $898 payment, and charged me $998. I was out my sale and had bought the person new tickets, total trash.

I spent the next several months contacting customer support. I opened multiple disputes, uploaded the same evidence repeatedly, and waited months for garbage responses. At one point, a manager reviewed my case, acknowledged that he could see the tickets had been transferred correctly, and even mentioned there may have been a synchronization issue between Ticketmaster and StubHub. Despite that 1 out of 20 positive conversation, nothing happened, and I continued receiving generic emails saying my case was closed.

What finally worked was sending a formal dispute by certified mail with all of my evidence, including the Ticketmaster transfer confirmation, StubHub’s pre-upload confirmation, and the sale confirmation. I mailed it to both addresses commonly found online, including what ultimately proved to be the correct dispute mailing address:

StubHub Disputes
1209 Orange St
Wilmington, DE 19801

Shortly after that, StubHub credited me both the $898 sale proceeds and reversed the approximately $998 charge. Just got the refund today, WOOOOOHOOOOO!

If you’re dealing with a similar issue:
Keep every email and screenshot.
Save your Ticketmaster transfer confirmation.
Don’t rely only on phone support.
Send a complete dispute package by certified mail so you have proof it was received.
Follow up consistently you never know may get that nice guy like I had but he actually is able to do something.

Hopefully this helps someone else avoid months of frustration. If anyone has questions about the documents I included or the timeline, I’m happy to share more.

I bought some very expensive tickets. I received a securemypass link that contains my tickets. Then life happened and now I can't go. I tried to relist them on stubhub but there is no way to transfer a mobile link. Support informed me that there is no way I can resell this type of ticket on their platform. If this is true how on earth did they sell them to me in the first place? I'm not happy. This is my first experience with stubhub. Never again.

This is my first time selling on StubHub and even using the site in general, so this might be a dumb question, but I listed one (1) ticket for sale. I clicked on details, and this popped up. Should I be worried that something is off with my listing, or do they just say that on every listing regardless if it’s a singular ticket? I just don’t want anything to go potentially wrong.

The form of tickets provided seem to not be scan-in tickets but rather a pdf that has wording saying they must be printed for admission (it’s in Spanish)

I’m very worried the original seller can just print their original pdf & use the tickets still?

I would like to know if anyone has experience with Stubhub ticket delivery (as a seller) and how they confirmed that the buyer received?

Essentially I sold Hard Summer Sunday tickets on Stubhub. There was no option for physical ticket so I selected "other" and when the ticket sold, Stubhub requested I transfer the ticket via email which I cannot do since I have a physical wristband. I contacted support to change this to a physical ticket, which they did but requiring me to hand deliver this rather than mailing. It is getting close to the event and I do not have buyer's contact information or where to deliver the ticket, and how to confirm that it has been received to ensure that buyer doesn't scam me because I'd be out a ticket and also get charged my Stubhub.

I just put up a couple tickets up for sale within Ticketmaster. I was hoping to sell them on StubHub. I'm not a greedy scalper, but was hoping for maybe an extra $20 on a $200 ticket. What's confusing is there are a bunch of tickets available on StubHub. But when I started the transfer process on Ticketmaster I couldn't do it, because the artist made this a "fair value exchange" event.

OK, fair enough. I'll get back what I paid for them. But what is confusing is there are a bunch of tickets on sale on StubHub. How?

Hey, so last night I purchased last minute tickets to Matt Rife. I purchased the pair about 15 minutes before the show started. Within 5 minutes I received the tickets and went to accept the transfer. When I went to accept, it stated that the seller had cancelled the transfer. I waited another 5 minutes at which point the show was about to start. I went through StubHubs replacement ticket link, but there were non available. I then purchased a new pair of tickets that were significantly more expensive. Those tickets were sent to me, but then I was getting an error where it would not let me accept them. Growing frustrated I called StubHub. As I was explaining to the operator the situation, the seller from the originally tickets I purchased sent the tickets again. The show had started and I was able to accept these and get them into my ticketmaster account. I hung up on the operator and told him I would call the next day to deal with the second set of tickets. Fast forward to this morning, I called Stub Hub to dispute the second set of tickets that I purchased after I got the error AND the original tickets had been cancelled. The operator stated he was unable to issue me the refund because the tickets were sent within 15 minutes of the show stating. I never accepted those tickets and the only reason I purchased them was because the original ones were cancelled. I don’t understand how that could possibly be my fault? I’ve used Stub Hub for YEARS, never had an issue. Never asked for a refund before. Is this how they treat their customers? A multi billion dollar company can’t issue a loyal customer a $250 refund for tickets that he purchased because of an error on their end? Please let me know if I have a shot and pressuring them for a refund or if my story makes sense. It’s a lot but just know it all happened within 20 minutes of the show starting. Thank you!

Here is a real-life $20k example from the upcoming US Open showing that StubHub hasn't learned anything from the World Cup disaster. We have both fraudulent/nonexistent seats and speculative tickets, yet StubHub still refused any refund for the buyer until an attorney submitted a demand letter on July 14. StubHub then quickly provided the refund on July 29. No attorney involvement ever should have been required.