An American father who spent £18,000 travelling to Warsaw to see Taylor Swift with his daughter and her friends was told to ‘try and sneak into the venue’ by StubHub after he asked if his tickets were legitimate.
Rob Volmer, from Washington DC, is currently in Warsaw with his 15-year-old daughter Jane and six of her friends.
The father, who works in political campaigns and is the chair of the Children’s museum of DC, purchased eight tickets to see the megastar on Saturday through resale platform StubHub.
StubHub is not an official resale site but has customer guarantee meaning it will refund any buyers who are not allowed into the venue.
When buying the tickets, Rob was told they would need to be personalised, meaning his name would have to go on them and he would have to show ID to get into the venue.
However the seller failed to put the tickets in his name and he was assured by StubHub this wouldn’t be an issue.
When staff at the PGE Narodowy in Warsaw said he wouldn’t be allowed in with tickets not in his name, StubHub advised him to find a ‘busy entrance gate’ and try to ‘sneak in without ID’.
FEMAIL has contacted StubHub for comment.
He now fears that he won’t get into the venue – which will leave his Swiftie daughter and her friends heartbroken.
‘What do you tell these little kids?,’ he told Femail.
‘I’ve been talking to other people in this situation, whose kids are breaking down and crying because they’re not being let in’.
The 14-time Grammy winner kicked off the first of three nights in the Polish capital last night as part of her record-breaking billion dollar tour.
Thousands of Americans like Rob travelled to the Europe to catch the singer, with the resale value of her tickets significantly less expensive than in the US.
Speaking about his nightmare journey to FEMAIL, Rob, who regularly travels to Poland to do charity work with Ukrainian refugees, explained: ‘I spoke to the venue ten days ago and they said we have to have our tickets personalised or we won’t be let in.
‘In total, I’ve spent 37 hours and 42 minutes speaking to StubHub, it’s a different stories from every person, it’s crazy,’.
‘When I first spoke to them, they said they will give the sellers until a week before the gig. When that didn’t happen they said until Monday.
‘When that didn’t happen they said we had until a day before, and I was told if we didn’t get in they would arrange alternative tickets.
‘We’ve got tickets right at the front, we don’t want alternatives’.
‘They say personalisation isn’t necessary. In fact, speaking on the phone they said we got one personalised.
‘When I looked, it was the wrong font- they had photoshopped an image. I thought that was crazy but I’ve spoken to other people that’s also happened to.’
Rob explained that he StubHub were hoping that venues would be the same as ‘Munich or London’ where fans got in without ID despite being told they need it, but Poland has stricter laws.
‘There are literally thousands of us in Warsaw right now who have bought tickets through the resellers and now cannot enter the stadium for the show,’ he explained.
‘StubHub’s app even has a pop up about this before you can buy tickets to this show and during checkout process you have to enter the name(s) you want to appear on the ticket.
‘The lack of consistency in messaging is alarming. Some agents say they will contact the seller about making the name change. Others say there is no need as they have information from the venue that ticket personalisation will not be enforced.
While Rob explained that he will get the £7700 he spent on tickets back if he doesn’t get into the venue, he spent an additional £10,300 on travel with his daughter and her friends travelling from Washington DC, another friend travelling from Wisconsin and others coming from Amsterdam and Poland.
Rob added that he’s used StubHub for years – including going to several concerts in Poland – and the gigs have always required personalisation.
‘I’ve emailed to the COO directly and they looked me up on LinkedIn but never replied.
‘I’ve spent $70,000 on StubHub in total, going to concerts, college football and the World Series.
‘Tickets for Taylor Swift were $6,000 in Miami, but so much cheaper in Europe. We could have a whole trip for the same price.
‘I think a lot of people are reselling resold tickets so aren’t able to change the name’.
‘It’s different when it’s in your own back yard. We’re a long way home, this is a big deal.
‘The venue staff who are dealing with the tickets don’t speak the best English, it’s not their native tongue, you expect that, there is a language barrier.
‘This is the way they do things in Poland, they don’t understand why this is an issue’.
Rob’s is the latest in a string of people who have had issues with tickets at the tour.
Katrina Hutchinson O’Neill, from Brechin, Scotland, slammed ticketing companies after forking out £1,320 for two tickets to see Taylor Swift with her 15-year-old daughter, only for her view to be obstructed by a VIP tent and portaloo.
She took her daughter Addison, 15, to the show, for which she paid £662 per ticket after opting for the It’s Been A Long Time Coming Package. The tickets, which were billed as part of the VIP-style package, was set to include a merchandise bundle and promised an ‘unforgettable seat’.
But on arrival at the 73,000-capacity Murrayfield Stadium Katrina discovered her seat was blocked by the ‘V-VIP’ tent – where celebrities and guests of the artist stand during the show.
Other Swifites took to social media to complain of the same issue.
While the show has been given five-star reviews across the board, some fans say they could hardly see the star, despite forking out for the most expensive tickets.
Taking to TikTok, many have said the seats were ‘behind a tent’ or ‘to the side’ meaning they struggled to see the Anti-Hero singer.
Last year, when the tickets first went on sale, Ticketmaster came under fire after early bird fans paid up to £662 for pricey VIP tickets, which come with exclusive merchandise alongside one of the best seats in the house.
But some of these same seats have now appeared without the VIP extras, and have been listed for the face value price of around £184.
Fans hoping to secure tickets revealed they were shocked by the price drop, which appears to be random, with some VIP packages still remaining on the site.
Some fans have revealed they have now bagged tickets for just 27 per cent of the original price, while others have been left fuming and saying they effectively paid nearly £500 for ‘a few posters’.
Ticketmaster has come under fire for repeatedly changing policies ahead of the highly-anticipated tour.
In the US, Swift herself said she was ‘p***** off’ at the website after bots bought up the majority of tickets.
In the UK, Cardiff MP Kevin Brennan said that he was ‘appalled’ to see tickets being advertised on reselling sites within an hour of them going on sale.
‘As a father of a Swiftie, and I know that my honourable friend, the deputy shadow leader of the house, is also the mother of a Swiftie, I was appalled to see that within an hour of tickets going on sale for the Taylor Swift Concert at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, a ticket was on sale in the lower tier for £3,352,’ he said during business questions in the commons.
Fans have been left fuming at the changes, as at the time of the pre-sale Ticketmaster did not list the tour as a ‘lead booker’ event.
Tickets to Taylor’s UK shows appeared on platforms like Stubhub and viagogo within minutes of the general sale release, with one lower bowl seat to Blank Space singer’s concert at Wembley Stadium in London next year listed for more than £9,800.
Fans, pointed out how tickets with a face value of £170 were being sold for nearly £3,000, slammed the scalpers and so-called ‘vile’ fans for buying additional tickets and ‘selling them on for profit’.