Is Vivid Seats Legit&Reliable? My Honest Vivid Seats Review 2024
Vivid Seats was tested and reviewed by Marianne Buie. Updated on 09.23.2023.
After testing and reviewing a bunch of the ticket providers, I found Seatgeek as the best! And here is why..
Vivid Seats Review: Is Vivid Seats Legit and Reliable?
I love concerts!
There’s something about hearing live music loud, clear, and in my face that excites me. But as you know, tickets are crazy expensive, which is why when I see cheap concert tickets, I do not hesitate to put my grabby hands on them.
This time, I had the chance to see JVKE! The voice behind the song Golden Hour, which has been on repeat for hours on my phone.
Lucky for me, I found a concert ticket from Vivid Seats that’s just right for my budget.
The reviews for Vivid Seats vary from praising them to criticizing them. But a sigh of relief for me, because I was able to get my JVKE tickets without any problems.
I really liked their website. You can easily see the available events and concerts as well as the price range for the tickets. Although I was quite surprised and a bit disappointed when I saw the final ticket price, as it was higher than expected.
You’ll know all the details about my experience buying tickets from Vivid Seats to give you an idea of whether you want to buy your tickets from them or not.
In this review, I’ll include some information about Vivid Seats, the ticket resale process, their ticket prices, and overall feedback on their customer support.
Before getting into the details, I’d like to give you my rating for Vivid Seats, which is 4.3 out of 5 stars.
What are the Pros and Cons of Vivid Seats?
PROS
Good website and app with easy and simple search navigation
Has a wide range of selections for events across the US
Independently operated
Very good rewards program for loyal buyers
100% Buyer Guarantee
CONS
Ticket prices are unpredictable, and can fluctuate
Hidden fees increase the final price
Mixed customer service reputation
What is Vivid Seats?
To give you an idea, Vivid Seats is an American ticket exchange and resale company that was founded in 2001. It is independently owned, which some people find good.
They are a peer-to-peer online marketplace connecting fans who want to buy or resell their tickets.
They have a wide selection of tickets for events like concerts, sports games, and theater as well. It’s good to note that they also show the general seat section for the ticket that you like on their website, which I find convenient.
Vivid Seats is not a scam. They are legitimate and have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
However, they are not as popular, with only 37% brand awareness in the United States. Out of the 37% of US respondents who are familiar with Vividseats, 22% said that they liked the brand.
What is Vivid Seat’s ticket resale and buying process?
In this part of my review, I included Vivid Seat’s ticket resale process for both sellers and buyers.
How do you sell tickets on Vivid Seats?
Vivid Seat’s ticket resale process for sellers is easy and convenient.
Here’s a short summary of how you can list and sell your ticket on Vivid Seat’s platform for interested people to buy:
Create an Account
To become a seller, you need to create an account with Vivid Seats.
Here, you need to provide your name, address, contact details, a valid email address, and payment channels (valid credit or debit card, or Paypal account).
After your registration, you are now ready to post your tickets for sale on the Vivid Seat Marketplace.
Listing your Ticket/s
Sellers can list their tickets for free on the Vivid Seats Marketplace. But before they ask for your ticket details, you need to warrant that your tickets are valid and approved by Vivid Seats.
Provide Ticket Information
Sellers need to provide the ticket details, and specify the following:
Name, date, and venue of the event
Section, row, and seat number
Any and all qualifying and restricting information about the seat (limited or obstructed view, wheelchair access, access to restricted areas, etc)
Set a Price
Sellers have the flexibility to adjust the price and quantity of their tickets at any time.
Confirm Ticket Possession
The seller must confirm that you have physical possession of the ticket you listed or the expected time when you will have it.
Take note that speculative selling is not allowed. Meaning you are not allowed to list or sell tickets before owning them.
Designate Ticket Delivery
Sellers need to choose a delivery date and method. You can either choose instant download, email, or shipping through UPS.
Wait for the Approval
Once approved, Vivid Seats will show your listed tickets on their Marketplace.
Take note, however, that Vivid Seats does not guarantee that the tickets will be listed on the site within a specific timeframe, nor does it guarantee that your tickets will sell.
Get Notified
Vivid Seats will send you a notification through email to let you know when your ticket sells.
Ticket Delivery
The seller is responsible for delivering the exact ticket/s listed for sale to the buyer before the delivery date.
For convenience, Vivid Seats provides a pre-addressed UPS shipping label for sellers to ship the tickets to the buyer.
Payment
Get paid!
Sellers will receive their payment via PayPal. Typically, you need to wait 7 days after the buyer has received their tickets.
If you want to know more about what kinds of tickets you can sell, you can check out their article, What types of tickets can I sell? What types can’t I sell?
You can also read their Seller Terms and Conditions for the complete process and details on selling your tickets.
How do you buy tickets on Vivid Seats?
Buying my ticket from Vivid Seats was easy. I was able to see all the tickets available and their prices. You’ll also know where your seat assignment is at first glance and how many tickets are available for sale.
Here is the process for buying tickets on Vivid Seats:
Visit the Vivid Seats website or download their app
Buyers can easily go to their website or download their Vivid Seat app on their mobile phones
Search for the event you want to attend
Looking for your event should be easy, just type in the name of the artist or the event you like.
For me, I just typed JVKE, and the search result took me to a page where I could see all the dates available. I chose the closest venue available to me, which is the Fox Theater in Oakland, on August 7, 2023.
Select the event date and choose your seats
After selecting the date, you can already see all the tickets available for the said concert. The prices are arranged from cheapest to most expensive.
In the results section, you can see a blue icon beside the seat assignment. This indicates that this ticket is coming from a Super Seller. It is given to professional resellers that Vivid Seats considers longstanding partners.
You also have the option to choose instant delivery for your tickets.
Unfortunately for me, there’s no instant delivery for the ticket that I wanted to buy.
Buy the ticket
Once you are already set on the ticket you want to buy, you can proceed to checkout and purchase the ticket using a credit card or PayPal.
Ticket Delivery
After paying, Vivid Seats will send the buyer an email confirmation with the order details.
The seller is now responsible for the delivery of the tickets that they listed on the platform on or before the delivery date and by the delivery method specified in the listing.
If you find that your tickets are different from what you ordered, contact Vivid Seats’ Customer Service right away. You can read more about it here.
Receive your ticket
Now that you have in your hands the ticket to two hours of happiness, it’s time for you to get ready for your event!
Attend and enjoy the event.
The buyer can now attend the event and use the purchased tickets for entry.
Enjoy the night away!
It is important to note that if the tickets are not available, the buyer will receive a full refund.
If you encounter any problems with your tickets, here are some of their contact details:
Email address:
Customer Services Numbers:
US Toll-Free Numbers:
International: (952) 206-3066
Are Vivid Seat’s Pricing and Fees Reasonable?
As I mentioned earlier when I was looking for tickets, I thought that I’d be able to save a bit more, but I was a bit surprised by the final fees.
All things considered, I was able to get a good seat, and my ticket came earlier than expected. Thank you, seller!
I might not be able to give you the exact breakdown of fees, but I’ll try to give you an idea of the pricing structure for sellers and buyers.
What are Vivid Seat’s fees for sellers?
When selling your tickets, Vivid Seats gives the seller the freedom to set their own price.
Although you can set your ticket price as high or as low as you like, just know that Vivid Seats will get a 10% cut on the total price of your ticket for sale as a seller commission fee.
So keep that in mind when setting a price for your ticket/s.
What are Vivid Seat’s fees for buyers?
While others are having a too-good-to-be-true moment with the cheap tickets that they got from Vivid Seats. And they do offer ticket prices that are on average lower than other ticket marketplaces.
This is because they invest in technology that keeps their costs low.
However, when I searched for reviews about Vivid Seats, their high fees were one of the main concerns of most customers, and I understand them.
On top of the price that is reflected on the website when you search for tickets, Vivid Seats adds some additional fees to the final ticket price upon checkout.
Based on Vivid Seat’s Customer Support FAQ’s service charges and delivery charges are applied to every order that you make.
Some sites mentioned that service charges range from 20% - 40% of the original ticket price, while shipping costs can cost $7 to $25 or more.
On the other hand, business is business, and they need funds to get their operations running smoothly and securely.
Is Vivid Seats Legit and Secure?
Because Vivid Seats, or any secondary ticket marketplace, is a peer-to-peer ticket exchange platform, there is a risk that you’ll be scammed.
I have also read quite a mix of reviews out there that made me hesitate at first. Though, when I saw that they offer a 100% buyer guarantee, I thought to myself, “Why not?”
Vivid Seats also promised that your transactions would be safe and secure.
Personally, my transaction went smoothly, and I got my ticket early. I also had my tickets verified before the event, just to be sure. So I can confirm the validity of the ticket, and I had a blast at the concert!
But not everyone is as fortunate with their experience with Vivid Seats.
Below are some testimonials from others who bought tickets from Vivid Seats:
Is Vivid Seat legit? How do they prevent scams?
You’d agree with me when I say no one likes to be scammed, and scammers nowadays are getting better and better at their tactics to fool people.
So with that, I’m really careful about buying tickets online. I want to get cheap tickets, but at the same time, I have to be careful lest I end up losing money instead.
In a way, Vivid Seats’ 100% buyer guarantee made me feel better about pushing through with buying the tickets. Aside from that, they also gave assurance that their tickets were valid and authentic.
I suggest that if you encounter any problems with your ticket, you contact their customer service right away.
They will either give you a replacement ticket for the said event or give you a refund for canceled events with no rescheduled date.
As an extra security step, try to select tickets with a Super Seller Icon. Super Sellers are the preferred ticket resellers that have a longstanding partnership with Vivid Seats.
Is Vivid Seats legit and reliable when it comes to refunds and transfers?
Based on Vivid Seat’s website, they will issue you compensation if the event is officially canceled but not when it is rescheduled. You can either get a refund or store credit, which includes the price of the ticket and delivery fees.
For rescheduled dates, Vivid Seats will help you with any ticket reissue concerns.
Vivid Seats Ticket Selection and Availability
I was actually happy with their selection of tickets to various sports, concerts, and theater events worldwide.
I saw some tickets for international artists who are well-known and artists with a smaller but dedicated fan base.
The reason for their wide selection of tickets is that they are a full-service marketplace that also prides itself on having superior relationships with trusted sellers.
Is Vivid Seats legit? Customer Satisfaction and Buyer Experience
In my experience, when someone contacts customer support, there are issues that need to be addressed. So it is important that customer service is willing to help and focused on resolving the problem.
I don’t need to contact Vivid Seat’s customer service this time because my transaction went smoothly.
I also applied to their rewards program called Vividseats Rewards for their loyal buyers. Buyers can earn and accumulate reward credits for every ticket they buy.
You can use these credits in exchange for perks and discounts—even free event tickets! You just need to enroll through their Vivid Seats app.
The Vivid Seat app also has ChatGPT plugin, to help fans look for live events and answer questions about it too.
While I was lucky with my experience with Vivid Seats, a survey from Comparably reflects that Vivid Seats’ customers expect better service from the company.
Here’s an assortment of reviews that I saw online:
Is Vivid Seats Legit? Final thoughts and recommendations
Vivid Seats has been in business for 20 years already and has provided tickets to a lot of fans worldwide.
And while they don’t always have the cheapest tickets, they are still very competitive when it comes to pricing. With the right timing, you’ll get the tickets you want at a lower price.
Some of their strengths include their user-friendly website and app. They also have a wide variety of events for you to choose from.
I did not have any issues buying tickets from them. It was an easy and straightforward process. On the seller’s side, there’s a lot of verification needed, which is fair to ensure the authenticity of the tickets.
They also offer a 100% buyer guarantee for canceled events and a rewards program for their loyal customers. Which I think is a good incentive for people to buy from them.
Despite all of those, I still think that their additional fees are expensive, and I was not prepared for the price of the ticket that I got.
There were also some negative reviews of their customer service. Definitely, something that needs more improvement.
Overall, I am satisfied with Vivid Seats and will give them a 4.3-star rating.
What are some Vivid Seats Alternative?
If you are looking for an online ticketing platform, here are some of the sites that I usually check aside from Vivid Seats:
Just like Vivid Seats, StubHub is one of the sites that I visit to buy and sell tickets for concerts and events.
They’ve been in the ticketing industry for two decades and have catered to millions of fans worldwide.
One of the reasons I tried StubHub before was because of their A- rating from the Better Business Bureau, a resource for checking a company’s performance and trustworthiness.
They also have a relatively huge ticket inventory and are not limited to concerts, but also sporting events, theater shows, and others.
As an extra layer of assurance, they have a 100% fan protection guarantee for premium tickets and major events and shows happening in the United States.
Another website that I’ve used before is Viagogo. Viagogo, a company started in London by Eric Baker, the co-founder of StubHub (US), in 2006.
While they are known as a secondary marketplace, they also have official partnerships. These partnerships are usually with different sporting teams and music festivals.
They allow professional resellers to advertise on their platform, which has earned them some negative attention. It is also because of this that some of their tickets tend to have a higher price.
Even though some people are not happy with this, Viagogo is still a choice for many because of its wide ticket availability, especially for in-demand events.
This ticketing platform is often one of the top choices for fans and concert-goers like me. This is because they have been doing business since 1976, which is a long time already.
They have a wide reach and also offer ticket sales in both primary and secondary markets.
Their services are reliable and secure. However, some fans have negative views of Ticketmaster because of their monopoly in the industry.
But still, if your ticket was bought from Ticketmaster, you can be confident that it is legit. Just be ready because their prices are quite high and additional fees add up. I also saw some negative customer service reviews.
Generally, if reliability and security are your top priorities, then Ticketmaster is the way to go.
Last on my list is SeatGeek, a company that started in 2009. They eventually expanded their reach to both primary and secondary ticketing, including sports teams and live event venues.
They have a user-friendly platform where you can easily search, compare, and buy tickets for the event that you like in the US. Their selling and buying processes are also easy, with multiple and easy ticketing options.
Some downsides to SeatGeek are that they do not have a wide range of events and that their prices are hit or miss, depending on the seller.
Even though they are not as popular, they are among the ticketing companies that are legit and offer good services to their buyers.