StubHub cancelled Scotland ticket after $750 purchase

StubHub cancelled – Katherine Howe spent $750 on a StubHub ticket to Scotland vs. Morocco for the World Cup, only to receive an email on Monday saying the ticket was no longer available. With less than a day before the match, StubHub told her to “hold tight” until an hour before

When Katherine Howe opened her email on Monday, the message was short and brutal: her Scotland vs. Morocco World Cup ticket was no longer available.

She had bought it after years of building toward the moment, and the price—$750—already felt painful. The confirmation email from StubHub had made it real. Then, suddenly, it wasn’t.

Howe says she found out only after the ticket disappeared from her account, and the timing matters. The game she targeted was on June 19 in Boston. and Howe had already planned around it—ordering a tartan skirt with pockets for her phone. She had been looking forward to the trip as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The World Cup, Howe said, has always had a way of pulling people together across borders. She first saw it in 1994 while living in Brazil. watching her first-ever World Cup match on a small TV in a rural town where local Brazilians gathered to watch. When Brazil won the tournament that year, the town went wild, and for years afterward the excitement stayed with her.

Four years later, in Paris, she remembered streets flooded with people in kilts during the World Cup there. That last year, Scotland qualified for the tournament before 2026. Howe said she couldn’t afford to attend matches, but she still felt the togetherness from afar.

This year, she says, the United States hosting the World Cup had not been on her radar until much later. She also didn’t think to look for tickets—she didn’t realize the matches would be in Boston, just about an hour from her home in Massachusetts.

Then last weekend, on Saturday, it happened in the most literal way. Howe was at the Boston train station when she saw men in kilts and realized Scotland was playing Haiti in Boston later that day. That realization snapped her back toward memories of Paris decades earlier—Scottish accents. tartan everywhere—and she immediately started searching for where Scotland would play next and how she could get a ticket.

Her next opportunity was June 19 in Boston, and she decided to act quickly. She searched for “tickets for Scotland versus Morocco,” and the first site that came up was StubHub. She bought the cheapest option she could find for $750. and received an email confirmation that she would be going to see Scotland in the World Cup.

But Monday changed everything.

In the email she received, Howe was offered the option to choose another ticket. She says she tried to follow the instructions, clicking a link that was meant to take her to a website where she could pick a comparable ticket. When she arrived, she could only choose the refund option.

Howe also reached customer service through chat. She says she “calmly pleaded” her case with a representative. and was eventually told to “hold tight” until one hour before the game. when tickets might be released. To Howe. that wasn’t a solution because she would need to buy a special train ticket to get to the match—and she says that requires a game ticket in hand.

She hasn’t accepted the refund yet. She is still hoping she can be given the ticket she already paid for, because she believes the moment she arranged—the whole plan for a Scotland game in Boston—has been disrupted too late to simply switch to something else.

Howe’s explanation for how this might have happened is rooted in how StubHub works. She says she didn’t know before. but StubHub is a marketplace: it doesn’t own the tickets. it allows sellers to list them. Her guess is that the ticket she bought was initially pledged for sale. but then the seller removed it from StubHub—incurring a fine—after Scotland won its first game. either to resell for more or to use it themselves.

StubHub responded when reached out for comment. The company said. “We understand that attending the World Cup represents a significant investment in time and money. and we take our responsibility to every fan who books through our platform seriously.” It added that many issues fans face trace back to the event organizer’s technology infrastructure. newly announced transfer restrictions. and a new app launched just a month earlier ahead of such a major event. The company said that when sellers do not deliver tickets on time. it investigates and takes swift action under its terms and conditions. including permanent bans and financial penalties. StubHub also said every order is backed by its FanProtect Guarantee, which provides alternative tickets or a full refund.

For Howe, the dispute is now measured in hours rather than weeks. She says she will be watching either way—yet the version of the day she built for has been shaken. As she put it. she’s still hoping for a fix. but she’s bracing for the possibility that her $750 purchase won’t translate into a seat at the match.

World Cup StubHub Scotland vs Morocco ticket cancellation FanProtect Guarantee marketplace tickets customer service travel plans Katherine Howe sports ticketing