Learning from Stub Hub

I love Mumford & Sons. Since the very first song I ever heard by them, I've loved them. They don't come to Colorado often which is why I was so excited when I heard they were going to be here for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. We missed our chance to buy the tickets for the festival- being poor college students, my friends and I didn't have money to buy the passes before they sold out. We were majorly bummed until I found out Mumford & Sons was performing two dates at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver.

Thanks to being a KBCO member, I was able to get the pre-sale code and my friend and I got on yesterday morning at 10 am, as soon as the tickets went on sale, to purchase 3 tickets. We couldn't get through. No matter how many times we tried, we couldn't get through. All day yesterday, we would try and fail. This morning, all tickets went on sale at 10:00 am. We were on there at exactly 10 trying to get tickets. Still, we were unable to get through. We called the Fillmore directly and found out the show was sold out. We were crushed. Our favorite band and we'd missed them.

Then my sadness turned to anger. You see, the website Stub Hub listed 513 tickets for sale to Mumford and Sons at 10:30 am this morning. Mysteriously, although Live Nation had no tickets, Stub Hub had tons of tickets! Not only did Stub Hub have a lot of tickets, they also had tickets on sale for $72- more than double the price of tickets, before fees, from Live Nation. When my friend and I went online this morning to buy tickets, both on separate computers at separate houses, we had no idea we were competing against a major site like Stub Hub for the purchase of three tickets.

So I went online, like any consumer in "the digital age" can do and I found Stub Hub's Twitter account and their Facebook page. I sent them a few tweets letting them know how disappointed I was with their business practice and the fact that I couldn't get tickets because they had them all. It may not be illegal but it certainly is ridiculous and unethical. No response from the great Stub Hub. Then I went on their Facebook page.

Person after person was unhappy with Stub Hub's service. Person after person felt taken advantage of. Person after person was upset that they had tried to buy tickets to see their favorite band, only to be told the tickets were sold out, and then have tickets magically reappear on Stub Hub's site. Stub Hub's response to these upset potential customers? A cut and paste response. "[customer]thank you for the post. We wanted to clear up any misconceptions you may have about our service. StubHub is a secondary ticket marketplace where fans can buy and sell tickets to and from other fans. All of the tickets listed for sale on our site are being provided by other individuals. StubHub does not buy or sell tickets, and we hold no ticket inventory. Thanks!" At least they bothered to change the name of the customer.




Here's what Stub Hub has failed to realize. I can see these comments. You can see these comments. Anyone with access to the internet can see these comments. A company shouldn't have Facebook page or a Twitter account just to plug more stuff about how fabulous they are or to try to sell more stuff to people. What Stub Hub has ultimately failed to see is that Facebook and Twitter are connection devices .Instead of using their Facebook page as a way to connect with customers, they tried to crank out responses as if it was a customer support line and they were reading a script. Stub Hub doesn't get that they could have turned a bad experience by a handful of upset potential customers into a chance to connect with their customers and reverse the negativity towards their company. They don't understand that even though Facebook and Twitter and any other social media outlet may be online and technology reliant, the people who use these sites are just that- people.

Stub Hub should have at least attempted to make a sincere apology to people who are upset. Perhaps they never would have fixed the relationship with that customer but here's the thing- they could have stopped potential problems from other customers. Customers want to know that they are heard. If you're not going to change your business practices, at least come up with a better explanation for why you're not so terrible in the first place.Humility is important in business no matter the size. Social media has made it so I can connect with a company as big as Stub Hub or as small as the bakery down the street. And everyone is a part of the interaction and conversation that we're having.

Because here's what happened- I was upset. I went to Facebook to get my voice heard. There I saw that Stub Hub wasn't really listening to what their customers were saying. Instead of engaging, they were pasting a response as quickly as they could to any customer who was upset. To me, they were being fake, insincere and unapologetic. So what did I do? I made more noise. I put it on my Facebook. I put it on Twitter. I put it on Reddit. And I wrote this blog about it and sent it to everyone I know.

Here's the thing, Stub Hub. You may think that when somebody posts a comment on your Facebook page, your interaction stops with that person. You did your part right? You posted a comment back. Problem solved. But the fact of the matter is, whoever can see that is now part of the interaction too. I don't know those other people on your page but I feel connected with them. And now their anger is my anger. And my anger is this blog.