Woman claims she bought $2,000 tickets to dream concert from reseller but never received them

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County woman said she is out nearly $2,000 after she used a popular ticket resale company to purchase tickets to a concert.

The woman said purchased the tickets to see the Eagles at State Farm Arena back in December, but claims she never got them. With summer right around the corner, she has a warning for all concertgoers.

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When Judy Anderson heard that one of her favorite rock bands was making a stop in Atlanta, she could hardly contain her excitement.

“I fell in love with my husband to an Eagles song in 1974 sitting under a Christmas tree,” she said.

This past December, she purchased three tickets through TicketNetwork, a popular online marketplace that provides a platform for buyers and sellers.

“With fees, we paid about $550 per ticket,” she said. “I’m not a concert person and I don’t usually spend that kind of money on something for myself, but this was a special treat.”

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Anderson received an email confirming her purchase for the March 4 show at State Farm Arena

“After the charge hit my credit card, I started looking for the tickets, and they just went there and weren’t there,” she said.

So, she started calling and emailing, and when she finally got a person on the line, they referred her to Ticketmaster, which sent her back to TicketNetwork.

“And this went on and on and on,” Anderson said. “About 33 emails. About 20 calls.”

She said she submitted three separate disputes to her credit card company and claimed they refused to act. She and her friends missed out on the concert.

“The next morning, I got an email saying, ‘We see your event passed. We hope you enjoyed it,’” she said.

Channel 2′s Michael Seiden reached out to TicketNetwork.

In a 2019 lawsuit, the ticket resale company agreed to pay $1.5 million after investigators accused the company of tricking tens of thousands of people into buying tickets for concerts and shows that it never owned.

“I was not familiar with the company. I should’ve done some research,” Anderson said. “All we ever wanted was our tickets.”

Channel 2 reached out to both Ticketmaster and TicketNetwork for comment.

TicketNetwork responded with the following statement, saying the issue is with TicketMaster’s system.

“Based on the lengthy exchange between our customer service team and this client, the issue at hand is Ticketmaster’s buggy mobile-only ticketing system.

After this client ordered these tickets through our marketplace in December, the seller on the other side of the transaction sent them via the only process available – digital transfer through the restrictive ticket system – within an hour. Once they were transferred and accepted into the client’s account, she reported trouble accessing them. Despite numerous exchanges with our customer service team attempting to walk her through finding them, the client was never able to sort out where they had landed. Upon being advised to contact Ticketmaster to request assistance from their technical team, they apparently told her there was nothing they could do, despite the tickets being within their system at all times, associated with the email address that the client used to purchase them.

As a third-party ticket resale marketplace, our customer service team does everything within its power to talk our clients through order issues. In this instance, that is evidenced by a trail of more than 40 emails and calls exchanged over the last 90 days with this client.

Had these tickets been issued in a format that allows for consumer-friendly transferability without restriction from the original vendor, there would have been no issue to speak of. Instead, we have yet another example of the consequences of the removal of consumer choice on what format they will receive their tickets. Since our customer service can’t troubleshoot Ticketmaster system issues, and Ticketmaster opted against troubleshooting it when she contacted them, there was nothing more that could have been done on our end.

It should be noted that legislation was introduced this spring in Georgia that would have required consumers be offered a choice in their ticket format. Unfortunately, companies including Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and local team owners lobbied hard against its passage, once again prioritizing their bottom line over consumers.

Also attached is a screenshot of the proof sent by the seller showing that the tickets had been transferred in December to the client. Once they have been accepted, the only two parties that can actually access those tickets are the person who owns that account and Ticketmaster – why they were unable to assist her in accessing and using these tickets despite her contacting them is a question you will have to ask them.”

Channel 2 Action News is still waiting for an official comment from TicketMaster.

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