WACONIA, Minn. (KMSP) -
Imagine thinking you have great tickets to a sold out show and then finding out you may have been duped. That's exactly what happened to several girls in Waconia who had their hearts set on seeing Justin Bieber live in concert.
Back in May, it was announced that Bieber was coming to Target Center on Oct. 20, and Stacie Schuler and Jill Ohlsen knew their daughters' Bieber fever would be contagious.
That's when they turned to Google and found ticketsintime.com, and they ordered 9 tickets at $150 apiece for a grand total of $1,350.
"As I am ordering them, they're sending me confirmations I keep see on my e-mails," Schuler said. "So, I thought, 'Yeah, this is really legit.'"
Yet, four months and a dozen calls later, not a single ticket has arrived.
"What if they don't show up until the 20th -- or if they don't even show up? He said, 'We don't live in the 'what if' world," recalled Ohlsen. "I said, 'Where are you from?'"
It turns out that Omaha, Neb., is where Tickets in Time is located -- and according to the Better Business Bureau, their tickets are often not on time.
So far, the BBB has received more than 65 complaints of tickets not arriving, of counterfeit tickets, and jacked up prices. FOX 9 News tried to get answers from the company over the past two weeks, but never got a returned call.
The BBB has tips to help consumers avoid all this:
- Be skeptical: If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Don't wire money: Pay only with credit card or PayPal
- Do your research: Check the company's history and learn how they resolve dispute
- Avoid scalpers
As for the Minnesota moms, they are now being told their tickets will arrive by midnight on Oct. 20 -- which is the day of the concert.
"If I don't have my tickets on Oct. 20, I'm going to have kids crying, hysterical," Ohlsen said. "It's not like I can buy tickets at that point."
Target Center representatives told FOX 9 News they can't do anything for the moms in Waconia because they have no control over third-party brokers.
