Traveled to Zurich for Taylor Swift American woman's tickets are canceled on the day of the show
American Catherine Nguyen traveled to Zurich especially for Taylor Swift's concert. On the day of the show, two of her tickets were canceled. She criticizes the complicated sales procedure.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Catherine Nguyen from the US state of Oregon had two of her four tickets for pop star Taylor Swift's concert canceled on Wednesday morning.
- She purchased the tickets via a secondary ticket market and criticized the procedure.
- The practice is permitted in the USA, but illegal in Switzerland.
It's probably every Swiftie's nightmare: shortly before the concert, you get the message that your ticket for the show is invalid.
This is exactly what happened to Catherine Nguyen. Together with her husband, she traveled from Portland, Oregon, to Zurich especially for pop star Taylor Swift's show. Her two sisters flew in from Florida and Texas respectively, also from the USA.
Then this morning came the shock. When she went to check her tickets online, two of the four tickets suddenly read: "Canceled". Catherine couldn't believe her eyes: "I'm very disappointed," she tells blue News, "we only planned the trip because of the concert."
1000 dollars per ticket
She bought her tickets via the "StubHub" portal - a secondary market where private individuals, not the promoter, resell her tickets at mostly inflated prices. This practice is illegal in Switzerland, but not in the USA. It is generally known that there are also many fraudsters on such platforms. So Catherine also sees herself as partly to blame: "I take part of the responsibility because I knew the risk."
Including fees, the American woman forked out around 1000 dollars (almost 900 francs) per ticket - around 700 francs more than the original price. The Taylor Swift concerts in Zurich are personalized events. The holder's personal details are noted on the ticket. If the ticket is resold, it must be transferred to the buyer.
Catherine knew that she could be the victim of fraud. She contacted "StubHub" several times: "They tried to tell me several times that it was not a personalized event."
"So everything is fine"
She also wrote to the seller by email, but never received a reply. At Catherine's request, "StubHub" also asked the seller to make the personalization. The response: "In Europe, they said they would check the IDs, but they never did. So everything is fine."
At least the financial loss, at least as far as the tickets are concerned, should be covered. "I have buyer protection," says Catherine. This means that in the event of problems through no fault of your own, "StubHub" will refund the purchase price. Her criticism is directed much more at the sales procedure itself: "You are not informed at all about how complicated it is to transfer personalized tickets."
Hope dies last
She is still stuck with the flight and hotel costs. Catherine is not holding a grudge: "We took a ten-day trip to Switzerland before the concert. Despite today's disappointment, it was a great vacation."
And the group has not yet given up hope that they will all be able to see Taylor Swift live: "We're trying to get hold of tickets at short notice." At least all four of them left the hotel at lunchtime today looking optimistic in their Swiftie look.
