A Calgary concertgoer is warning others about the possible risks of getting event tickets from second- or third-party resellers.
Lisa-Marie Fair has been a fan of the group Hanson for the past 20 years. So when she noticed they would be performing in Calgary this summer, she clicked on a link for their concert dates.
“I clicked two tickets for $69,” she told Global News.
Fair used TicketSales.com which bills itself on its website as a “trusted secondary marketplace.” She added that since it is a secure, verified site with a 100 per cent satisfaction guarantee, she felt safe entering her credit card number to “proceed to purchase.”
“I didn’t see a total anywhere,” Fair said. “It says ‘place order,’ but it looked to me like it was just a proceed to payment screen.
“Suddenly it was, ‘Thank you for your purchase…’ So I was, ‘Ok, I guess I’m going to Hanson.'”
Fair said she then got an email stating she had been charged USD$185.52 — much more than the $138 she had expected for the tickets.
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She then checked her bank statement and said she was further floored.
“I was pretty shocked to see that they had taken CDN$242 out of my account.”
Fair reached out repeatedly to the reseller to get a breakdown of the charges. She said she was eventually provided one via chat stating a charge of $138 for the tickets, but also a charge of $7.50 for delivery and $40 for a service fee — all in U.S. funds.
Fair maintained that the fees had not been listed anywhere on the site or at checkout.
“It was definitely not disclosed beforehand, and I know if I had seen the fees going in, I would have looked around at least for a better deal,” she said.
“There’s no way I would have just paid that.”
Global News reached out repeatedly to TicketSales.com to get a response to Fair’s concerns but we did not hear back.
The Better Business Bureau Serving Southern Alberta & East Kootenay said these types of complaints about these types of ticket resellers are common, but that doesn’t mean it’s a scam.
“It (the reseller) is legitimate,” BBB’s president and CEO Mary O’Sullivan-Andersen told Global News. “I mean, the company can charge additional fees and taxes and whatnot.”
O’Sullivan-Andersen added the issue is when a company is not transparent about those often hidden fees.
“When the consumer thinks they’re paying X and they’re actually paying Y, that’s really where the discrepancy and the concern comes from,” she said.
“It’s less about the company doing something fraudulent and more about making sure that the consumer is taking time and understanding what they’re agreeing to.”
The BBB suggests anyone buying anything do the research up front instead of in the back end of the transaction, adding it’s easier to not fall victim than to try and fight for a refund afterwards.
Fair said she was denied a refund. Her only option now is to contact her bank and dispute the charges if the tickets don’t arrive as promised.
And if they do: “I am going to go. Hopefully it’s the night of my life,” she said. “That’s all I can say.”