Mark Thomann had four tickets to see Noah Kahan and two tickets for Tame Impala. When scheduling conflicts arose, he decided to sell the tickets through StubHub.
"We realized we had some conflicts and couldn't attend," Thomann said. "So, we talked about selling them, and then I said, 'Yeah, I'll just put them on StubHub.'"
The tickets sold, but problems arose when Thomann tried to transfer the Noah Kahan tickets to the buyers. He says he received a message stating, "Ticket Transfer Unavailable," and immediately contacted StubHub customer service.
"They told me to wait 24 to 48 hours beforehand and that the message would go away and I'd be able to transfer them," Thomann said.
Instead, Thomann says he began researching the issue himself and discovered that both Noah Kahan and Tame Impala required tickets to be resold through Ticketmaster's Face Value Exchange. Under that policy, tickets cannot be transferred or resold through third-party marketplaces such as StubHub and must be sold at face value.
"Shame on me for not realizing that this policy was in place beforehand," he said.
Thomann says he contacted StubHub as soon as he learned about the restriction. He said he even offered to meet the buyer at Carter-Finley Stadium before the Noah Kahan concert in an attempt to resolve the issue. Despite those efforts, StubHub canceled the sale about three hours before the concert.
"They charged my credit card $4,200, the full value of what the transaction would have been," he said.
Thomann disputed the charge with both StubHub and his credit card company before contacting ABC11 Troubleshooter Diane Wilson.
"I'm hoping not only to rectify this for me," Thomann told Wilson. "Honestly, I'm doing this because I don't want to see it happen to thousands of others who live in North Carolina."
After Wilson contacted StubHub, a spokesperson thanked ABC11 for bringing the matter to the company's attention. Following a review of the case, StubHub reversed the $4,200 charge.
A StubHub representative said Thomann made a good-faith effort to deliver the tickets. The company also confirmed the buyers received replacement tickets through its FanProtect Guarantee after Thomann was unable to transfer the originals.
Now, Thomann hopes his experience serves as a warning to others. He encourages anyone buying or selling concert tickets to carefully review an artist's resale policy before listing tickets on a third-party marketplace.
When Wilson asked StubHub why sellers are allowed to list tickets for events where artists restrict resale to Ticketmaster's Face Value Exchange, a spokesperson responded in part:
"Fans deserve to choose where and how they buy and sell tickets, not to be trapped inside a closed system controlled by the same company that sold them the ticket in the first place."
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