Complaint Review: SecureBoxOffice.com - Chicago Illinois

High pressure sales tactics are used to 'rush' you to purchase tickets online.  The 'official' looking website looks to be an official place to buy legitimate tickets online for whatever show you are looking to purchase. They may sell you a real ticket, but the actual cost of that ticket is many time more than double the true cost. 

They use deceitful marketing to urge and rush you to buy because 'time is running out' and 'tickets are selling fast'.  While on the site, you have absolutely no idea that they are a 3rd party.  It looks so official and they seem to have accurate information about the ticket availability down to the seating that it appears to be official.

I paid almost $500 for two tickets to see Hamilton in Miami.  I was not really too happy with the seating, as it was the 4th tier, but they were supposedly the 'cheapest' prices available and they were selling fast.  After I received the tickets, I realized they came from Chicago. 

Which made no sense, since, the venue is in Miami.  So, I called the venue on the ticket. The Adrienne Arsht Center explained that the tickets I have were only $99 and purchased by someone else....  Only at that moment did I realize I was scammed. The venue explained to me that they would notate the person who actually purchased the tickets and mark them as an unauthorized vendor because the person who actually paid for the tickets from the venue was not authorized to resell them. 

Furthermore, the center suggested I immediately do a chargeback on my credit card, as we were clearly being taken advantage of, which I did.  However, my bank explained that the moment I paid for them, I agreed to the 'terms of service', which no one really reads... and the Secure Box Office terms say no refunds whatsoever.  However, I could not in good conscience actually use these tickets, then I would certainly forgoe any claim.

I did call Secure Box Office and asked for a refund, though... I asked them why they thought it was ok to charge more more than double for tickets I could have purchased directly for $99.  They had several 'canned' responses... and I just asked them to refund me and they said no. I asked for a refund by email and this is what they said:

"We cannot provide a refund for your order as the tickets have already been provided by the seller. As our Sales Terms and Conditions state and were agreed to before being able to purchase through us, all sales are final. As a resale marketplace, we list tickets that come from a vast network of sellers, all of whom own or manage their own ticket inventory. Sellers are automatically notified when an order for their tickets is placed, and must confirm the order to finalize the purchase. Once this happens, you are backed by our Guarantee and the seller is guaranteed payment in exchange for fulfilling your order. Sellers do not allow cancellations and are not obligated to offer any refunds, discounts, or exchanges, so we are unable to extend those to our customers.

Since sellers own the tickets that are listed on our site, they are able to set their own prices for the tickets being sold. We provide disclaimers on our site as well as in our terms that tickets on our site may be priced higher or lower than the face value of the tickets. We strive to remain transparent on this which is why the information is provided while tickets are being browsed through.

We understand this may not be the result you were wishing for. However, we do want to inform you that just because you cannot refund the tickets, does not mean you do not have options. Because the tickets are yours, you are free to do with them as you wish. This can also include reselling them yourself. Many customers find that they are able to recoup the costs of their tickets by placing them on sale via various websites, social media, or privately among friends and family. The best part of being able to resell your tickets is that you can set your own prices! It is important to keep in mind to keep your price competitive so that you have a better chance of selling them.   

A great resource to find out more about reselling is to plug in terms like "fan ticket selling", or "fan resell market" on search engines. We recommend researching various sites, making sure to pay close attention to their policies regarding reselling tickets. Once you find one that you are comfortable with, please contact them right away in order to begin the reselling process. The more time between your listing and the event, the better the odds that you will be able to sell the tickets.

"Really?  They said that I could resell the tickets myself?  This is just another scam to part consumers from their money.  Why would I knowingly pay more than double for a ticket I can buy direct?  I decided I would not consume the tickets they gave me and buy 2 more tickets, but from the actual vendor directly. I got 10 times better seats for less money.

The reality is more likely they purchased this ticket for themselves to sell.  I bought them on a Friday and it was overnighted to me and received on Monday... sent from Chicago.  So, someone had to have already purchased them in Miami, then sent them to Chicago for them to send them back down to Miami?

This site scams people and others can contact me so we can organize. We need several of us to get together in order to have them stopped and sue them.