It’s been two and a half months since Taylor Swift took over Toronto with her ‘Era’s Tour.'
At the time, it was the hottest ticket in town.
There was a frenzy for tickets which led some fans to choose to sell their seats to make thousands of dollars.
But one ticket seller told CTV News Toronto he was still waiting to get paid.
“I’m extremely disappointed and extremely frustrated. I did everything that was asked of me, and I still can’t get my money that is owed to me,” said Mustafa Hamid of Toronto.
Hamid is student and Taylor Swift fan and was excited when he was able to purchase four tickets to her concert last November for $365 each for a total of $1,460.
But as the concert grew closer and ticket prices climbed higher, the student thought he’d be better off selling the seats for a profit.
“I was going to attend the concert with my friends, but then decided to list them on StubHub and I was hoping to use that money to pay off student loans and help my family,” said Hamid.
Hamid put the tickets on the resale website StubHub. It was his first time selling on the site and he was pleasantly surprised when the four tickets sold for $18,314.
The tickets were used by the buyer to go to one of Swift’s Toronto concerts and StubHub said he could expect his payment for them soon.
“My payment was processed on November 29th and I was told to wait five to eight business days to get my money,” said Hamid.
But Hamid became concerned when weeks and then months passed without getting the money, and he said felt he was being stonewalled.
“I followed up with [StubHub] multiple times and I spent over ten hours on the phone with them,” said Hamid.
After two months of getting nowhere, he contacted CTV News and we reached out to StubHub on his behalf.
A spokesperson told us, “StubHub initiated payment to the seller following the event within the allotted timeframe, but the initial payment failed due to the seller needing to provide additional documentation. However, our team failed to request the additional documentation that was needed from Mr. Hamid in order to process the payment.”
“We have since reached out to Mr. Hamid to request the additional information which he has now provided, and the payment has been re-processed.”
“StubHub strives to provide a seamless experience for both buyers and sellers - typically when someone makes a sale on our platform, payment will be issued 5-8 business days after the event. We regret this was not the case but can confirm we have issued the payment for the money that was due. Additionally, we have applied a voucher to the account equal to 25% of their total sale ($4,4578.50), given the payment timeframe did not meet our standards.”
In the end, Hamid was reimbursed for the tickets and a ticket voucher totalling $22,892 which was great news for him since he paid less than $1,500 for the tickets in the first place.
“It’s honestly such a relief to have the funds in my account,” said Hamid.
