StubHub System Update Jams Transactions for Partners, Customers
BaseballIndustryMLBSportsTop Story
June 17, 2022
Dave Clark 0
A StubHub systems update has led to numerous issues for clients, partners, and consumers dating back more than a week, the ticket resale marketplace confirmed Friday. Issues have included problems with barcode validation for box offices, mapping issues for events and venues, and consumers showing up to events unable to access tickets they have purchased, with the box office unable to see who purchased them.
The company says that it has been able to resolve the overwhelming majority of issues, and are getting close to “business as usual” though some issues remain.
“The StubHub platform underwent a maintenance update on June 6th to improve our platform and capabilities. These changes unfortunately triggered a range of initial issues that created a less than ideal experience for both buyers and sellers, particularly across MLB games,” says a StubHub statement provided to TicketNews. “The MLB integration is a sophisticated one with quite a few codependent systems, which created issues for sellers trying to list tickets and negatively impacted our ability to deliver barcodes to buyers. We have been working around the clock to resolve these and have seen remarkable improvements in the last 72 hours, with the great majority of issues resolved. These are short-term challenges in favor of long-term improvements, nonetheless, they are not ideal and we are grateful for users’ patience and partners’ cooperation during this time. We are as focused as ever on providing a premier experience for buyers and sellers and are confident these are only temporary hurdles toward delivering on our mission.”
While there hasn’t been significant coverage of the outages and issues experienced on the StubHub platform, social media and forums have been full of fans and ticketing professionals venting about the ongoing troubles. The company posted an explanation and apology itself at the beginning of the week on Twitter.
“Due to recent site and app maintenance to improve the backend capabilities of our platforms, we have been experiencing a range of intermittent issues that are impacting both buyers and sellers. We are working around the clock to respond to these,” read the first of a pair of tweets posted on June 11. “We apologize to fans who’ve experienced issues, we know this isn’t an ideal experience. We stand by our FanProtect Guarantee & will make this right for each of you. We’re working tirelessly to restore & enhance capabilities you’re familiar with to provide you a premier experience”
That the issues have significantly impacted Major League Baseball transactions is particularly troubling for StubHub, as the resale marketplace has long served as an official and preferred partner of the league, validating transactions and having consumers able to pull up tickets to games directly in the StubHub app rather than needing to transferred through the primary marketplace for the teams.
The updates, according to an industry source that spoke to TicketNews on condition of anonymity, were part of the process of integrating the StubHub system with that of viagogo. That company, run by StubHub co-founder Eric Baker, completed its purchase of StubHub just prior to the pandemic, though the merger was subsequently held up by competition inquiries put forth by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority before finally clearing that hurdle earlier late last year.
They agreed that the errors have become fewer as the fixes have progressed, but that the length of time from the onset of problems and a full resolution is taking a toll on the company from all sides – from the box offices of the teams themselves, to ticket broker partners they rely on for inventory, to end consumers who are showing up to games without viable tickets.
“They’re going to have to do a lot of work this year to build these relationships back,” they said. “This is irreparable damage. You don’t get consumers back to your site if you can’t deliver.”
Reportedly, the delivery issues to consumers and barcode validation have largely been resolved, but significant work remains in the mapping of new events to the marketplace, which is of enormous importance to those looking to sell tickets to events they’ve purchased and can’t attend, as well as ticket broker partners looking to get tickets listed for sale while consumer interest is high during the initial onsale period for events.
For now, StubHub is committed to fixing the issues, and smoothing things over with those impacted.
“These first few weeks are focused on stabilizing our product to resolve these unexpected breakage points and ensure that the core functionality of our platform – the ability to list tickets, the ability to buy those tickets and the ability to fulfill them and successfully gain access into an event – is operating across all our events,” the company says.
Last Updated on June 17, 2022 by Dave Clark
https://www.ticketnews.com/2022/06/stubhub-system-update-jams-transactions-partners-customers/