A New York man’s long-awaited dream of attending the World Cup came at a significant cost after his StubHub ticket purchase fell through just hours before the kickoff. Albert Shiue, who had been planning to attend the World Cup for decades, said his passion for the event began as a child watching the 1994 tournament.

Planning and Purchase

Determined to attend this year’s event, Shiue began planning before the teams were even decided. He signed up for the FIFA ticket drops but unfortunately never got contacted to buy them directly. In December, Shiue found two tickets on StubHub for nearly $900, which he thought was a great deal despite being expensive.

The tickets, categorized as Category 3, did not include seat or row numbers, but StubHub promised delivery by the June 13 match day. Months passed, and Shiue began reaching out to StubHub as the game approached, trying to figure out when he could expect to get his tickets.

StubHub’s Failure to Deliver

On game day, Shiue and his wife headed to the stadium, but StubHub delivered bad news: the seller was not going to deliver the tickets. StubHub sent them a link for replacement tickets, but the link did not work. With the game just two hours away, Shiue and his wife decided to find tickets elsewhere, as StubHub had also taken down the listing for the game.

Shiue purchased two tickets from another site for nearly $3,800, more than four times the original price. Despite the setback, Shiue and his wife made it to the game. Afterward, Shiue discovered coverage of other customers experiencing similar issues with StubHub.

StubHub blamed the World Cup ticket issues on transfer problems with FIFA, stating it was a technical problem, not a ticketing problem. The company said it had responded by standing up a dedicated World Cup support team and expanding its capacity to source replacement tickets for affected customers.

Original reporting: KCCI Des Moines — read the source article.