Steven Cohen  |  April 27, 2020

Category: Covid-19

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Vivid Seats has allegedly failed to refund consumers in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Vivid Seats by three consumers who claim that the ticket company has not refunded their money for events that were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Timothy Nellis, Janel Dranes, and Lucy Sousa say that Vivid Seats deprived them of the long-standing “100% Buyer Guarantee,” which provides ticket buyers with a legally required full cash refund, when Vivid retroactively discontinued the program.

Did you purchase tickets from Vivid Seats and have not obtained a full refund for cancelled events? Get legal help here.

Nellis states that he purchased a ticket through Vivid Seats to a March 21, 2020 baseball spring training game between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees, which was to take place in Florida.

Unfortunately, on March 12, 2020, Major League Baseball announced that all remaining spring training baseball games were to be cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, the plaintiff maintains.

Nellis claims that he received an email from the defendant stating that he would receive a refund due to the MLB cancellation.

He was allegedly told by the defendant that he would receive a refund within 2-4 weeks. When that timeframe went by and he did not get his refund, he says that he was told that he would receive his refund within the week. He claims to have not yet received a refund from the defendant.

“When Plaintiff Nellis purchased the event ticket through Defendants, his purchase was subject to the 100% Buyer Guarantee. His event was cancelled, and Defendants have utterly failed to honor that guarantee,” the Vivid Seats class action lawsuit states.

Dranes had a similar experience with Vivid Seats. She claims that on March 9, 2020, she purchased tickets through the defendant to the Big Ten Conference Basketball Tournament which was scheduled to take place in Indianapolis on March 12, 2020. She alleges that she paid $200 for tickets to the event, which was subsequently cancelled.

Dranes says that the defendants contacted her via email shortly after the event was cancelled and provided her with the option to select a credit for a future event or a refund. She claims that she chose a full refund.

In mid-April, when Dranes still had not received her refund, the defendant contacted her via email which indicated that she would be receiving a credit by default unless she contacted them within seven days and requested a full refund, the Vivid Seats class action lawsuit states.

Vivid Seats, a baseball ticket seller, allegedly refuses to refund consumers following coronavirus cancellations.Dranes then says that she called Vivid Seats and spoke to a customer service representative who offered her an additional 20 to 25 percent in credit value. However, Dranes states that she still requested a full refund from the defendant.

The customer service representative allegedly told her that she would process the refund request but that it would take a while before she could receive any refund.

Dranes says that she was given no timeline and no firm commitment from the company.

The Vivid Seats class action lawsuit states that the company is dependent on “ticket brokers” or professional scalpers who collect as many tickets as possible to popular events and sell them on secondary markets, like the defendant.

A key portion of the defendant’s success is the “100% buyer guarantee” which provides the buyers of tickets with the assurance that they would not be left empty handed in case an event was cancelled, the plaintiffs note.

The Vivid Seats class action lawsuit maintains that the “full refund” has been a long-standing policy of the defendant and that its customers relied on that promise when they purchased tickets.

The plaintiffs say that Vivid Seats customers are willing to pay premium prices for tickets as well as substantial fees of more than 20 to 30 percent of the ticket price because they offer the “100% buyer guarantee.”

In fact, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, the defendant published a note on its website saying that if a customer purchased tickets to an event that was cancelled, they are entitled to a full refund of the purchase price, including any delivery fees, the plaintiffs argue.

However, “[q]uietly, and without delivering any corresponding communication to all customers, Vivid Seats reversed course from its prior assurances and suddenly discontinued its longstanding 100% Buyer Guarantee,” the Vivid Seats class action lawsuit alleges.

Prospective Class Members include: “All persons residing in the United States or its territories who used Vivid Seats to purchase tickets to any event which was subsequently canceled or constructively canceled at any point from when the company ceased honoring the 100% Buyer Guarantee until the date that notice of this class action is disseminated to the Class, and to whom Defendants have not provided a full refund, including all fees.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Steven D. Liddle and Nicholas A. Coulson of Liddle & Dubin PC.

The Vivid Seats Refund Class Action Lawsuit is Timothy Nellis, et al. v. Vivid Seats, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02486, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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21 thoughts onVivid Seats Class Action Alleges ‘Shameful Response’ To COVID-19

  1. Irma Phillips says:

    I purchased tickets for the Janet Jackson concert that was supposed to be in Cincinnati and never get my money back how do I file a claim

  2. Fred Stallone says:

    I would like to be included in the class action suite. I purchased Kenny Chesney tickets for concert in PHX on Jul 30, 2020 for $373.30. Concert cancelled and never rescheduled and have not been able to get a refund from Vivid.

  3. C R McCubbins says:

    It happened to me BIG LEAGUE!

  4. Daniel l Purvis says:

    I’m in the exact same boat. Could really use legal help.

  5. Michael Hayward-Till says:

    I would like to join this class action as I have also been refused refund of purchase made Jan 31/2020 that has been cancelled however I am in Canada….

  6. Shaundee Garrett says:

    I bought two tickets to Halsey which was recently cancelled and I replied five minutes after I got the email. Did not receive confirmation they received my email nor did I get my refund. They are only making “credit”available.

    1. Marlina Ervin says:

      The credit is a joke. I trusted that process and just bought new tickets to a new event. I was given a price per ticket at check out and proceeded with my order. I asked to use my credit toward said purchase. However, even though no fees were disclosed, and I have proof of such through screenshots at time of purchase, they conveniently charged me “Service Fees” after the fact that equated to my $299.71 previous purchase credit. Ridiculous. I’ve tried every measure to reason with them and they just simply refuse to help. They are nothing more than common thieves.

  7. Kris Bilbrey says:

    Please add me.

  8. Heather Nasarow says:

    Please add me – have 4 tickets for a concert that was recently canceled. I replied to email asking for a full cash refund. That request was conveniently never received. I sent a request the following week (14 days after original email) explaining that I sent a request, never heard anything back and was following up. Strangely that email was received and was told that since I was contacting them outside the 7-day window they were unable to refund me for my purchase. Went back and forth, asked for a supervisor to contact me. Was told supervisors can’t ‘call out’ and there was nothing they were able to offer me. Logged in to their site, did a live chat with another person. Received the same info – my original request for a refund was never received and since I’m contacting them outside of the 7-day window I would not receive a refudn.

  9. Steven Souza says:

    I would like to be added. I purchase two tickets to an event that was cancelled. I responded 20 minutes after the event cancellation was received and asked for a cash refund. I have never received anything, and all email responses say that since the 7 day window has passed, I can no longer get a refund. I still have the email asking for cast 20 minutes after it was cancelled.

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