ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – At nearly 3 million views, an Illinois sports fan’s post on X about trouble re-selling March Madness tickets on StubHub has gone viral.
Dozens of others posted in the comments that they’ve had problems selling event tickets on the platform, too.
“It’s crazy how many people say they’ve experienced something similar,” said J.R. Boudouris, a Rochester, Illinois basketball coach and fan.
The post is not about March Madness. It’s about ticket madness that Boudouris says happened when he tried to resell four tickets on StubHub that he said he purchased for the St. Louis March Madness games for $2,000. He says the tickets were originally purchased through the NCAA website and Ticketmaster.
“Sold all four on March 15, they sold really quickly,” he told us.
Boudouris says he received emails from StubHub stating, “Thank you for delivering the tickets.” But right after the games were played, he received emails stating, “The buyer canceled this sale because they received the wrong tickets.”
“I guess my biggest hang-up with this whole process is, A, that I got emails confirming they were delivered, and B, received no notification from the buyer or StubHub that there was any issue, because I would have cleared it up immediately,” he said.
Plus, Boudouris says StubHub charged him a $600 penalty.
“Almost treating me like I did something deceptive or criminal, and then punishing me financially,” he said.
Boudouris filed a dispute, and showed us emails from StubHub saying, “you were not at fault” and that it would credit him for the sale. But when he hadn’t received the funds, he posted about it on X and it went viral.
“I got a lot of positive feedback from people saying, ‘This has happened to me,’” he said.
We asked ticket reselling expert Andrew Vitale with QuickAsyst for advice for ticket sellers using any reselling platform.
Vitale says take your time to make sure there are no errors in the event, date, or seats that you post. And make sure you’ve received confirmation that the tickets were both transferred and accepted in advance of the event.
“If you wait until the day of the game and realize your tickets haven’t been accepted, you might be in a difficult situation compared to if you had checked in maybe a week or so in advance,” said Vitale.
And he says document every step of the transaction.
“Always document everything, take screenshots of when you have that email or tickets being accepted or transferred. That’s the best proof you can have as a seller if you run into a situation like this,” he suggested.
Boudouris says he had used StubHub to buy and sell tickets in the past without any issues. But he says he won’t use the platform again.
“I’m a public school employee, I have four kids. So the money is important. But maybe even more so, I just wanted to bring awareness to this,” he said.
We contacted StubHub, which sent us a statement reading:
“StubHub is aware of Mr. Boudouris’ experience and we are actively working to resolve his case. We have requested documentation from him confirming the correct tickets were transferred, and we are awaiting that proof. The moment we receive it, we will review it immediately, and if it confirms he fulfilled his order correctly, we will reverse all charges and pay him in full. Our goal is always to make things right, and that commitment stands here.”
Since more than two dozen people commented on Boudouris’ X post that they, too, had issues selling event tickets on StubHub, we asked the company about the sellers’ concerns that a financial penalty is unfair.
A StubHub spokesperson responded that users must accept the platform’s seller agreement that penalties are charged if buyers don’t receive the right tickets, and that money funds its FanProtect Guarantee. The spokesperson writes that the ticket transfer process involves multiple platforms, they know it’s not always straightforward, and that the company is committed to improving how they communicate with sellers so that situations like this are as clear as possible.
Copyright 2026 KMOV. All rights reserved.
