Two days ago, I purchased courtside seats for Celtics/Magic game 7 online with stubhub for a grand a piece.  When I picked up the tickets 30 minutes before the game, it turnrf out they were not courtside seats, they were floor seats (the section behind courtside).  I first mentioned it to the agent I picked them up from who told me there was nothing she could do and that I should call customer service after the game.  Well--I actually called customer service before the game.  They offered me a $20 coupon and asked me to fax the tickets in.  I laughed at this as it was now 10 minutes before game time, and asked if there was any reason we couldn't resume the conversation after the game.  She said no problem.  So I called back this morning, at which point StubHub offered to refund their 10% service fee.  After a lot of back and forth, the supervisor went back to corporate and was told that the best they could do was a refund that would amount to ~$400, because it was the lowest price the seller had agreed to sell his tickets for through the site.  I still thought that was ridiculous since I was still overpaying for comparable floor seats (our actual tickets were in row C near the baseline . . . I had seen front row floor seats for $200 less/ticket than we paid for our 'courtside' seats).  Besides, given that the seller misrepresented his tickets and violated StubHub's terms, I didn't see why the seller should receive any consideration at all.  The agent informed me that if I hadn't gone to the game, they may have been able to issue a full refund.  Unfortunately, the agent who gave me the tickets didn't mention this, nor did the agent I spoke with on the phone, nor does the Fan Protect Guarantee on their website.  And I'm not asking for a full refund--I've suggested that the fair thing to do is refund me the difference between the price I paid for the tickets I thought I was getting and the face value of the tickets I actually got.  Obviously, this works out to my benefit because the tix would have sold for more than face value, but when customers are misled, the ultimate resolution *should* work out to their benefit.  And in practice, I actually would have bought better seats for less money.

I generally buy tickets through ticketsnow.com and have had nothing but great experiences, contrasting greatly with stubhub, in which 2 out of 3 experiences have been bad.  The previous one was my fault--I bought tickets for the wrong date, realized immediately after I clicked submit and called customer service, who told me that despite the fact the seller hadn't yet confirmed the order, there was nothing they could do.  I totally understand this is their policy and I don't blame StubHub for it, although when I made the exact same mistake with ticketsnow, they told me it was no problem and immediately canceled the order.  Sigh . . . if only all e-businesses were as responsive and customer friendly as FullTiltPoker.com.