Last Updated on March 5, 2024
Are you looking for a killer deal with tickets? Then Vivid Seats will inevitably appear on your radar. But wait a minute. Your inner sceptic is already asking important questions. What if you buy a fake ticket? Can you trust this site with your personal details? Grab our free review on Vivid Seats and discover the truth about this company.
Who is Vivid Seats?
Vivid Seats is a privately owned company and ranks among the biggest online resellers of tickets in the United States. They only operate in the US. Vivid Seats is basically the middle man. It connects buyers with sellers, the latter of which consists of both private individuals and professional resellers.
As the middle man, Vivid Seats provides a legal way for both parties to conduct transactions. It also facilitates the delivery of tickets to the buyer, be it a physical delivery or a virtual ticket.
Is Vivid Seats Legit or a Scam?
The company itself is completely legitimate. Vivid Seats will never sell your information to a third party or use it in ways you never agreed to. The site is also safe to browse and without malware.
Vivid Seat also goes out of its way to screen sellers. This process is designed to weed out scammers and fake tickets, although it does not always work. The fact that the company has been in business for roughly 20 years also gives it more credibility as a lot of fraudulent ticket sites pop up and disappear just as quickly.
How Do I Buy a Ticket at Vivid Seats?
The buying process is easy and user-friendly. You get plenty of payment options as well, including all major credit cards, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, PayPal, Android Pay, and PayPal Credit.
Does Vivid Seats Charge Fees?
You can expect extra fees for service and delivery. This amount, which is roughly 26 percent of the ticket’s value, will be charged to your account when you check out. You can expect e-tickets to carry lower fees due to their quick or instant delivery.
Do I Get To Choose My Seat?
Yes and no. When one event has plenty of tickets available on Vivid Seats, the site’s filters will allow you to narrow your selection by price, quantity and seating. But when tickets are scarce or close to sold out for a specific event, your choices might be limited to the seats that are available – even if their placing is not ideally what you had in mind.
What is the Buyer Guarantee Program?
Vivid Seats promises to reimburse you when a ticket is fake or problematic. This promise gives the site more shine but don’t let it blind you. A lot of reviews from customers claim that the company will not hesitate to use loopholes in this program’s small print to avoid reimbursement.
How Will I Get My Ticket?
Vivid Seats offers you a choice between physical and virtual tickets. The physical tickets can be mailed to your home address or to a special pickup point. Virtual tickets can be emailed, kept on your phone as mobile e-tickets and more. The variety of delivery options makes this site user-friendly.
On the other hand, some customers have complained that they received virtual tickets when they purchased physical tickets and vice versa. Some even received the wrong ticket, not tickets or worse – a fake item that denied them entry at the gates. Needless to say, being turned away at an event is an embarrassment that you don’t need!
Can I Cancel My Ticket at Vivid Seats?
No. Once you purchase a ticket, the site considers the sale as final and no returns or refunds are allowed. Needless to say, this is not a positive point for this site. After all, other online ticket resale sites accept returns under certain conditions. But if you have no interest in returning a ticket, then Vivid Seats’ strong stance against returns should not be a problem.
The only time Vivid Seats will give you a full refund is when the event is cancelled. The company understands that this is something beyond your control and it guarantees full recompensation. However, Vivid Seats will not give you a dime if the event is rescheduled. This can be problematic when the new date interferes with work or family commitments.
Can I Resell My Ticket at Vivid Seats?
Yes, you can. Vivid Seats offer steps to sell your ticket on their site.
- You simply follow the sales link, then click on the red bar “Sell Your Tickets.”
- Search for the event you wish to sell tickets for, choose the date the event is being held, and fill out more information about the ticket. These can include seat number, which row or section, and more.
- Select a delivery method, ticket price and give your Paypal address for payment.
- Provide your address and credit card information.
- Agree to the seller’s terms and conditions.
- Click on “Submit Tickets.”
- Confirm your listing.
While Vivid Seats do offer the opportunity to private individuals to sell tickets, it seems to be limited to customers who have purchased their tickets elsewhere. Indeed, there are numerous complaints from people who bought tickets from Vivid Seats and were denied the right to resell those very tickets on the site – even though the tickets were previously allowed to be listed on Vivid Seats.
Does Vivid Seats Have Good Customer Service?
The company’s shoddy customer service seems to be the number one complaint at several review sites. Some customers are perfectly happy because their queries are answered quickly but there is a caveat. It seems that Vivid Seats only responds to general questions in a timely manner.
They drag their feet when buyers have problems with tickets that never arrived or failed to be accepted as legit at an event. Then customer service reportedly became rude, vague, came up with excuses or even hung up on callers. Reaching an actual person also seems unnecessarily difficult. Frustrated buyers are instead faced with “live chat” bots and email addresses that provoke no response.
Our Final Verdict
Vivid Seats have a good side – the site is user-friendly, there are plenty of ways to pay and you can often get tickets that are sold out elsewhere. However, these things are basic benefits. As a buyer, you probably want this positive list to include great customer support, a guarantee that all tickets are flawless and refund options. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Vivid Seats.
While this site is trustworthy in the sense that it has no malware and transactions are safe, the company does not seem to value the very people who keep them in business. A major issue is faulty tickets or tickets that never arrive. Customer service is either poorly designed by accident or purposely created to give buyers a hard time.
Either way, we feel that other ticket retailers treat their customers better, offer refunds and deliver tickets in a timely manner and without stressful problems. Shop around before you settle on Vivid Seats.