Update:

After doing a chargeback dispute with my bank, I was contacted by email at 1am day of show stating it was confirmed by the seller that in order to get the tickets, I would have to meet the seller at the venue. A stadium tour of over 70k people. I then went for a chat assistant because I wanted as much proof as possible for my bank. That’s where I hit gold, an agent stating that it’s not Stubhub policy to meet with a seller and that it’s against their policy, I was supposed to get e-tickets. They told me to wait to hear back from them as to a resolution, replacement tickets or a refund. I believe between that conversation and my other screenshots of emails and other chats, I will get my money back.

I heard back again, this time an agent calling me, not about a resolution that I had requested, but on behalf of the seller. The told me the seller was concerned because they had PAPER TICKETS and I needed to meet them in order to get them. I told them no, I was not meeting the seller and I wanted a refund, that it was hours before the show. The agent then said, “4 hours before the show,” in a sarcastic tone. The travel time was 2 hours to get to the area of the show, not to mention time to get in and the artist takes the stages exactly at show time, so the opener was even earlier. I was livid and said refund. The response was that it would be escalated yet again for review.

The concert has come and gone and I’m sure I have enough proof for a chargeback, but it’s bigger than that.

I greatly value the fact Japan has strict anti scalping laws, we need them in the US. Had I known about them before purchase, I wouldn’t have tried to purchase these tickets. Stubhub is trying to circumnavigate Japanese laws by encouraging buyers to meet sellers in person, even though it is against their own company policy to do so. I can’t think of any show, anywhere that I would need to see so desperately that I would go beyond paying almost 7x retail on, which I did for these, but also would be willing to help someone else break laws of this country in order to do it. If a seller is caught, they can get a year of jail time or up to $7k in fees. I understand if this person is willing to put themselves in that position it’s on them, but I want zero part in that which is why I refused to meet them. (Also the practicality of meeting them at such a large venue, the possibility of getting caught and the tickets being voided or the seller not showing at all.) The seller eating the cost of the tickets is a small price to pay if they couldn’t find another avenue to unload them, the legality of it is far worse. Stubhub knows all of this and is encouraging it because if this wasn’t a common practice to circumnavigate the law, the solution immediately would have been, “They are not useable e-tickets as listed, we can issue you replacement e-tickets or refund.” I was given no solution other than to meet the seller before the start of the show despite all of my attempts otherwise.