A woman bought Bruno Mars tickets on StubHub, then Ticketmaster canceled them as fraudulent and StubHub said she’d already accepted them

Stephanie Keith (lawofattractiontribe), host of the Law of Attraction Tribe podcast, recently took to Instagram and TikTok in hopes that a social post might get her a refund from StubHub. In a post that drew hundreds of thousands of views, the Florida creator said she had bought tickets for a Bruno Mars concert through the site, only for Ticketmaster to tell her right before the show that the tickets had been “discovered to be fraudulent.”

In her video, Keith spoke directly to viewers, stitching in screenshots of emails to tell her story. She said she bought the tickets on September 13, accepted the transfer, and added them to her Apple Wallet. “Then, a few hours before the concert starts, we received this email from Ticketmaster. Transfer was canceled, and our tickets were no longer valid for the event,” she said, adding that the tickets then vanished from her wallet.

When Keith reached out to StubHub, she said she was initially told she would get a refund. After waiting nearly two weeks, however, she claimed the company told her she was not eligible because the tickets had been successfully accepted. Keith pointed out that StubHub’s FanProtect Guarantee says tickets will be valid for entry, asking, “If Ticketmaster, the company issuing the tickets, says in writing that the tickets were fraudulently obtained, canceled, and no longer valid for the event, why am I being charged for them?”

Commenters said they’d been through the same thing

One Instagram user tagged the company and wrote that “someone shouldn’t have to turn to social media to force you to honor your own policy.” Others claimed to have had the same experience at the CMAs, a Rosalía concert, and an Ed Sheeran concert, with the last user saying they went to the Attorney General and adding, “They are destroying their own business.” StubHub has faced complaints from buyers before, including a fan who said her World Cup seats were downgraded shortly before a match in Seattle.

In a follow-up post, Keith said she eventually received a refund, though she didn’t believe it was because of her posts. Instead, she credited an email to StubHub’s PR team, which she addressed to the CEO in her capacity as a podcast host, saying she was preparing an episode about her experience. She said she asked several pointed questions, including whether StubHub disputes Ticketmaster’s statement that the tickets were fraudulent.

Keith claimed she received a reply, along with a refund and credit for future use, just over an hour later, and said she hoped her strategy would help others. One user, however, commented, “Most of us don’t have a podcast and are not content creators. I hope they would refund others who don’t have these.”

Attack of the Fanboy was unable to independently verify StubHub’s side of the story, as this account originates solely from Keith’s Instagram and TikTok posts.