Metro Detroit Ticketmaster customers say tickets vanish from accounts, sold to other buyers

FOX 2 - A set of Lions tickets and tickets for two Red Wings games – vanish from Carrie Jankowski’s Ticketmaster account – alerted by email, earlier this month.

"Someone was able to hack right in to the account and instantly take 3 events from me withing 4 minutes," said Carrie Jankowski. "(Like) 'Hey your tickets are being transferred. Hey your tickets are transferred. Hey your tickets are gone.'"

They were transferred to someone she doesn’t know – while Ticketmaster keeps their cut.

"Eighteen-hundred, we are talking for the three different games," Jankowski said.

FOX 2: "Is that money been returned?

"No it has not ," she said.

FOX 2: "And you don’t have tickets?"

"I have no tickets," she said.

So Jankowski next went to Ticketmaster customer service.

"I have sat on the telephone 40 minutes, 50 minutes," she said. "And I finally get someone and they are like, 'There is nothing we can do. We will escalate to the next department, they will get back to you.'

"No one gets back to you and it’s been almost 2 weeks."

FOX 2 asked Ticketmaster specifically about Carrie’s case – they sent a generic response, explaining that this doesn’t mean Ticketmaster was hacked, and suggested she change her passwords.

"I have changed passwords numerous times on Ticketmaster and my email, and everything else, and I’m constantly doing it," Jankowski said.

It turns out – her story is a common one.

"I got a text message on my phone and it said your tickets have been transferred to JJ," said Alicia Key.

Key bought concert tickets back in March for a show at LCA scheduled for this month. Then poof, gone.

"My seats were back on the website for more (money), immediately after," she said.

Stolen to sell on the same site. And she says there was no help from customer service either.

"They were like robots on the phone, they all had the same response," Key said.

Her friend was flying in from Florida for the show, cancelled the trip, and then -

"The day of the concert at about 2 o’clock I got an email saying your tickets have been reinstated with new bar codes. The concert was at 7:30," she said.

Key thinks she got them back only because she reached out to the Better Business Bureau. Jankowski followed suit, and is hoping for a football sunday miracle on those Lions tickets.

"You have to go down there, sit in a parking lot, hope you have wi-fi, and hope that all of the sudden your tickets appear," she said.

Ticketmaster said they can restore almost all tickets in these siutuations and claims that it is easier to replace than the old paper ticket system.

UKRAINE - 2024/09/03: In this photo illustration, a Ticketmaster Entertainment logo is seen on a smartphone and in the background. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)