CBS 2 Chicago (02/10/20) Zekman, Pam

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has rescinded its "A-plus" rating for Chicago ticket broker Vivid Seats due to more than 900 complaints submitted over the past three years, including for non-receipt of electronic tickets and denied refunds. The revocation was prompted by a CBS 2 investigation. "We have currently put [the company] on 'No Rating' while they investigate the complaints and Vivid Seats response to them," said the BBB's Steve Bernas. "We're making certain that there are no types of patterns of complaints or issues that we're aware of." A Vivid Seats spokesperson defended the company, claiming that the hundreds of grievances filed with the BBB are a small portion of the millions of tickets the company sells every year. The BBB recommends that consumers buying event tickets should purchase directly from the box office whenever possible, and warns that secondary brokers may mislead consumers into believing they are the venue or are directly linked to the venue. Bernas also urged consumers to be aware that ticket prices on the secondary market are often much higher than at the box office because of service fees and other add-ons. "A lot of times with these ticket brokers is that the big print giveth and the little print taketh away, and consumers are not reading fully what they're getting themselves into," he said.

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