- The video shows screenshots of Brian Eckleberry's conversations with SeatGeek.
- Eckleberry, an Omaha area man, bought tickets on SeatGeek to a Husker football game and was guaranteed the seats were not obstructed, but was disappointed to see they were in fact obstructed when he got to the game.
- David Weber, a law professor at Creighton University gave insight on situations like this.
- SeatGeek ultimately issued a full refund when KMTV reached out about the situation.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It was a sea of red for the Husker game against Northwestern, and despite a Husker win, one fan's view of the field didn’t give him much to look at.
“There’s columns in between us and the 50-yard line, and they are big columns, not only columns, those columns hold up the overhang, so it squashes your view to like this,” said Brian Eckleberry who bought tickets on SeatGeek.
What was supposed to be an exciting experience for Eckleberry’s 17-year-old daughter’s first Husker game was quickly met with disappointment.
Eckleberry was not familiar with the stadium, so he searched for tickets in his price range on SeatGeek and was amazed by what he found.
“From the picture it looked like they were 20, 30 rows back from the field. I was like wow, this is a good deal,” Eckleberry said.
He noticed the tickets said 'possible obstruction' but thought, “oh, it must be maybe tv crews coming back and forth because there is nothing in that picture between us and the field.”
So, he bought 3 tickets to the game in section 22 row 46. But there was still a little feeling of what if that took him back to SeatGeek to chat with a representative, questioning the possibility of an obstruction.
He even confirmed he would get a refund if the information he was provided was incorrect.
In Eckleberry’s words, the SeatGeek agent said, “yes we guarantee that these are not obstructed seats, have a great time.”
He got to the game and what he saw was not the blocking he expected.
“Daughters know when their dad is not happy. And I knew that she knew that I was not happy with the seats,” Eckleberry said.
Crouching down to see what he could of the field, he thought back to his conversation with SeatGeek.
Creighton law professor David Weber said it’s messages like those that can help the consumer.
“If you have that an they’ve made that commitment to you, that should actually prevail over their fine print, because they have made that promise to you as the consumer,” Weber said.
But he said this about these types of transactions: “if your ticket says something like may be obstructed, partially obstructed or obstructed and you purchase any way well then it’s buyer beware, you just kind of need to know going in that you have taken that risk.”
Despite the saved messages Brian was told he could not be refunded because of SeatGeek policy.
He continued to push and continued to be denied, in fact it wasn’t until 3 News Now Reporter Molly Hudson reached out to SeatGeek, that he was given a full refund for his tickets.
Both Weber and Eckleberry agree it’s best to do your research ahead of time and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Download our apps today for all of our latest coverage.
Get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox.
