StubHub finally pays me after I email an insane letter to 30 people
Instead of blocking my email address, the CEO of StubHub, Eric Baker, should be paying me for a free audit of his defective system.
I was supposed to be paid weeks ago for tickets I had to sell for a rescheduled Portland Hearts of Pine soccer game that I couldn't go to because it was on a school night and I had to help my kiddo with homework.
When the money didn't show up, at first customer service told me to wait for bank processing. When that time passed, I was told to wait more. After waiting more they tell me that the sale was canceled and the tickets weren't transferred in time. When I told them that was wrong, they said they would escalate, but then the "executive customer service rep" just gave the same answer and ignored my followups.
So first I sent a complaint email to a few execs, including the CEO. I didn't hear anything back, and when I followed up, I got notice Eric had blocked my email address!
Oh boy. That does it, I said.
So I went into a business email lookup service and started adding all the top-level execs I could find, along with legal, marketing and PR to a new complaint email. It had over 30 people on it. I gave them a 24-hour ultimatum.
From: Ben Popken <ben@bpopken.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Subject: Fwd: StubHub customer support update Order - XXXXXXXXX
To: [redacted]
"I have an issue with my recent StubHub sale and am hoping you can please help resolve it.
StubHub owes me $XXX from my sales XXXXXXXXX ($XXX) and XXXXXXXXX ($XXX).
When I complained you said the tickets were canceled and not transferred. If you see the below chain, including your very own emails, that is not the case. When I complained, "Joel" from your "Executive Customer Care" team said they "carefully reviewed my case" and, lo and behold, he gave the same answer that your chatbots and chat reps gave me.
Really just seems like people are clicking drop-down menus and moving on to the next issue and hoping us dumb customers will go away. We were planning on this money for gas and groceries and it's really not nice.
I have confirmed with the team (Maine's Hearts of Pine) these tickets were SCANNED and the game was ATTENDED by the purchasers. Attached are screenshots from their ticket system.
I don't know what else you need. I am fed up with talking to your customer service bots and reps (even the "executive" ones) who are obviously just using scripts over and over and getting nowhere.
I apologize to folks I just added to this email chain who are just tuning in...but let me put this in simple terms:
You have 24 hours to fix this before I start a 10-step ladder of escalation on every hour.
Here's my plan:
Rung 1, Friday, Nov 21, 1:30pm: Update my website and socials (https://x.com/bpopken) with your non-action and nonsense.
Rung 2: File BBB complaint
Rung 3: File Maine AG complaint
Rung 4: File FTC complaint
Rung 5: File small claims case in the smallest, furthest, most rural Maine small claims court. I hope your guys like driving for hours through cold, leafless trees if you plan to defend! Good luck getting a good hotel room.
Rung 6: Escalate creative campaign of getting my complaint into the professional and personal email addresses and other communication channels of your leadership, staff and business associates.
Rung 7: Create social media content in variety of mediums and channels to raise awareness about StubHub's terrible customer service and document our fight. Facebook, X, Reddit, TikTok, Snapchat, Google Reviews, Yelp, etc. etc etc. Tag everyone I know and sympathetic performing artists and venues.
Rung 8: Publicize contact information for every StubHub person I've collected across social media. Seems like there's a lot of unhappy customers out there who would like help resolving their issues!
Rung 9: Create a new dedicated website to gather and promote the complaints of fellow jilted StubHub customers!
Rung 10: Forward links to all the above to my large rolodex of media contacts. Keep creating and promoting content across multiple channels.
Take it to 11: Start responding to media interviews and do whatever I can dream up next! Sky's the limit!
Please pay me now what I'm owed.
It's the smart business decision.
Have a nice day!
At 9am this morning I got an email from a person in the PR department apologizing and saying they would investigate.
After 12 they followed up again to say I would get my money and someone from customer service would be reaching out.
At 1:15pm, someone on the executive customer service team called and we had a nice little phone chat. I won't go into the gory details here (you can listen to the audio below) but she admitted they had messed up and would be paying me.
She said 5-8 business days. I said well it's almost 1:30 and I don't have any proof or receipt of that payout so I'm going to have to start my 10-step plan of escalation I promised including filing complaints with multiple regulators. We ended the call and minutes later I have email notices saying a credit is on its way for the monies owed. Hurrah.
This is an example of the "executive email carpet bomb" (EECB) technique we pioneered at Consumerist.com and has been written up the likes of the New York Times in action.
If you're in the right, it never fails, even when a stupid company tries to protect itself from having to think about anything with automated workflows and AI bots.
Have you ever tried sending a complaint letter to a company? How did it go? Let me know at ben@bpopken.com.