What happens if you can’t deliver tickets after a sale
Vivid Seats can charge at least 200% of the listing price for tickets not delivered. What a failed sale costs, and how to cancel before it gets that far.
A sale is a promise. When you can’t keep it, the marketplace has to find the buyer other tickets or refund them, and it sends you the bill.
What it can cost
Vivid Seats spells it out in its seller terms: it may recover “a minimum amount equal to two hundred percent (200%) of the listing price for any Tickets that are not delivered.” On a $150 listing, that is at least $300, on top of the sale you lose.
Every marketplace writes its own penalty into its seller policy. Read it before your first listing there, not after the problem.
The usual causes
- The tickets sold twice. You listed the same seats on two sites and both sold. See listing on more than one site.
- Transfer never opened. You promised a delivery date the issuer didn’t meet. See in-hand dates.
- You listed tickets you didn’t own yet. Vivid Seats forbids that outright: “you may not list or sell Tickets before you own them.”
If you see it coming
- Pull the listing the moment you know, before it sells.
- If it already sold, contact the marketplace at once. Early beats late.
- Sell on Ticketmaster resale where you can. Ticketmaster sends the tickets itself, so there is no handoff to miss.