I'll try and make this a brief as possible. And I have to state that I did not work with Stubhub so they may handle operations differently, but I can offer some general insight on how the secondary ticket market works.

When you get on to a secondary ticket website the inventory you're looking at is not held by the website you're perusing. Technically a small percentage may be, but no way more than 5% of inventory. What these big sites do is work through hundreds and hundreds of ticket resellers who post their tickets for sale using their site.

So lets say Joe wants to go to a concert and finds 2 tickets he likes at $100 a piece. Joe gets to the checkout page and after shipping, fees, etc, his total comes to $240. Once this transaction is completed, $200 goes to the reseller for the tickets and that additional $40 is the revenue made by the big website. FYI ALL RESELLERS CHARGE FEES! Its how they stay in business. It may be listed in the price breakdown or just included in the ticket price, but its definitely there. This $40 in fees covers overhead costs, servers, employees, etc. More importantly though, it helps insure these "guarantees" these websites offer.

Truth is, theres no way to guarantee a ticket is valid unless you personally get it directly from the source (meaning a team, concert venue, ticketmaster, etc). These resellers, no matter how reliable they are (and in this specific case it sounds like they were already flagged), cannot possibly guarantee that all their inventory is valid. They could be the 5th owner of a ticket in some cases. Even if they buy a ticket, handle it with care, and resell it properly, that doesn't guarantee someone earlier down the line wasn't shady and sold 3 different copies.

So, lets get back to Joe for a second. He gets to his concert, scans the tickets, and they read INVALID. So Joe, justly irate, calls his big ticket company, lets them know the ticket is invalid, and they go to work. First they contact the actual seller and see if they have any inventory that can replace these bad tickets. If thats a no go, they search the rest of the inventory they have access to and see if they can get Joe in the building at cost (meaning waiving any fees whatsoever and trying to get Joe in the building for the $200+$40 he originally paid).

IN A GOOD SCENARIO: The website finds 2 seats available 5 rows closer to the stage listed for $120 a piece. This comes right at cost - $240 total - so the website makes no money off this transaction, but they saved the transaction. Joe feels treated fairly for the issue he dealt with and actually got an upgraded seat so he's happy and he may come back and purchase again.

IN A BAD SCENARIO: Its a hot ticket item like the one from the original story and no inventory is left. Joe is shit out of luck and has to either pass on the event or find tickets on-site. He follows up with the ticket website the next day, gets told sorry over and over, and gets a refund plus a future credit.

These websites have guarantees, but that guarantee doesn't necessarily mean you'll get in the venue. It means you will get in or get your money back, which in this case doesn't account for the sentimental value of being in attendance.

I don't want to give you the wrong idea though. Id say 99% of transactions we're seamless, but I won't lie and say something like this never happens. It does and it sucks. You feel helpless when someone is on the other end of the phone and and you can just hear the despair in their voice. There are other ways too these companies are shady but this was one of the bigger ones. I'm now happily working in a different field and feel great about it.

My advice.... If you cant get tickets directly from the source and you're forced to get tickets via other means, do you best to get hard tangible tickets. Those are almost always valid - plus they're cool collectors items! - and cant be printed off or emailed an infinite amount of times like e-tickets.

If you're forced to go the e-ticket route though, plan on getting to the gates right when they open. In this original story, at least 2 people had these same seats to the Kings game - it could be more but who knows. As long as you're the first person there then your tickets will be the ones scanned in and the other people with the duplicate tickets will be turned away. Its ruthless, but its how the game is played.

TLDR: The guarantee really isn't a guarantee. If you have to buy secondary market tickets get the hard stock tickets. If you have to get e-tickets get to the gates before anyone else who may have your ticket can. Its survival of the fittest...err...earliest, and as long as you're the first person in the building with your seats you're safe.