Stub This...

I’m going to share this story as some helpful advice and a bit of a warning.

As most of you know, I am a diehard Buffalo Bills fan. I grew up in Buffalo, and my family was season ticket holders. I loved going to the games with my dad, cheering on the Bills.

So, a few months ago, I saw that the Bills were playing a pre-season game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa.

This is as close as the Bills get to my home in Orlando, so I thought I would buy a couple of tickets to the game. Yes, it’s preseason, but I was happy to hang out with the Bills Mafia and take in a game.

I went on Stub Hub and bought two tickets to the game, costing about $250.

After checking out online, I went to download my tickets and saw that I had to wait for the tickets to be released from the seller. Since the game was months away, I didn’t think much of it. As the game got closer, I checked, and they said that the tickets would not be released until 4:30 p.m. on game day.

This meant, on game day, I would be driving to Tampa and would have to download the tickets on my phone when they were released.

On Saturday afternoon, as I was nearing the stadium, I got an email from Stub Hub saying that my tickets were ready and I would be getting an email shortly.

I parked at the stadium, and I still had not gotten an email. I put in a request with Stub Hub to send them again.

Still nothing.

I called Stub Hub, and they said they would reach out to the seller and would “escalate” my claim since I was standing at the gate trying to get into the stadium.

I then got an email from Stub Hub saying that they had escalated my claim and I should hear from them shortly.

As kickoff neared, I had not heard a thing, and I called Stub Hub back. They told me to log onto the TicketMaster app, and my tickets would be there. The strange thing was, I never got an email saying to do that.

But, the kicker is, when I did that, still no tickets.

So if you're looking for a happy ending, it’s not coming. Stub Hub never got my tickets, and I never got to the game. I drove an 1 1/2 hours to the stadium, parked at the stadium, then turned around and drove an hour and a half back home.

Stub Hub claims they have refunded my money, but I haven’t seen it back on my credit card. The drive time and the parking, Stub Hub’s customer service just said you’re screwed on that and they will not reimburse me.

I shared my story with a few other people, and they said they have heard stories about Stub Hub doing this to others as well.

So, this is my advice, and you can heed or ignore it, but I would never use Stub Hub for any events. I will also never go to another event in my life unless I have tickets in hand.

I did learn, as I was walking around the stadium, that Scripps-owned WFTS building is located right next to Raymond James Stadium.

I thought about knocking on the door and seeing if they had an extra press pass lying around, but I get the feeling that Scripps CEO Adam Symson would not be happy with me being on Scripps property.

Anyway, Stub Hub is awful, who know if they’ll ever refund my money, but that is one service I will never use again.