Vivid Seats is an expensive ticket website but then it offers lots of advantages to justify that. Aside from fast and secure delivery of tickets you also have guarantees for money back and rewards for regular buyers. All that has it up there with the best concert ticket sites and best sport ticket sites.
There was a lack of transparency on fees, which were in some cases as much as the ticket itself. But if you're buying tickets regularly you may find that the reward scheme gets you some savings in the longer term.
From sports events like NFL games, to concerts and theatre shows, there's a wide range of tickets on offer from Vivid Seats.
Vivid Seats review: Usability
Vivid Seats’ secure website and mobile app make buying and selling tickets pretty easy in general and we quite liked the design and general experience of the website. The homepage is fairly limited but features everything you need, and buyer guarantee and reward scheme are proudly displayed front and centre. It’s partnered with big names from ESPN to Rolling Stone, which gives it a level of credibility lacking from sites such as Ticket Liquidator. There's definitely a clear emphasis on sports from the website alone, but it also sells theater and concert tickets.
The homepage greets you with trending events, events near you and a breakdown of the top events it's got listed for sport, concert and theater. You can pick a location which is great if you’re looking for tickets while away from home. A good all-rounder website, although not as shiny as StubHub.
Vivid Seats review: Customer guarantee
Vivid Seats’ 100 percent buyer guarantee makes the site appealing. It guarantees your tickets will be valid and arrive in time for the event. Your transaction is secure, and you also get a full refund for canceled events. Like most websites, you don't get money back for rescheduled games, but you can use your original ticket at the event, whenever it takes place. If you do have any mishaps, there’s an emergency line you can call from 7am to midnight. There’s also a form if you want to email with a less urgent enquiry.
Vivid Seats review: Buying tickets
Unlike Ticketmaster, Vivid Seats acts as an intermediary between ticket sellers and buyers, meaning all the tickets on its site are set independently by the ticket resellers based on the tickets’ current “market value,” which is determined by a range of factors such as supply and demand for the specific event and/or seat locations. For this reason, the listed ticket prices are subject to change at any time, and may be higher or lower than the price displayed on the tickets themselves, which is known as the “face value.”
Vivid Seats, like other sites, lets you refine your search by value for money, location or price, and there’s a picture of the view from the seat in question when you look at tickets which is a nice touch to help buyers make decisions.
Vivid Seats had a good selection of tickets to all the events we looked for in our testing process. The ticket prices weren’t unreasonable, but that is also variable because the reseller chooses the listing price. Its service fees were some of the highest of the services we reviewed, including Ticketmaster, but we noticed they vary based on the venue and artist. For a $10 sports ticket it charged an additional $12.25 in fees, essentially doubling the price. We also didn’t like that these fees weren’t displayed upfront, unlike sites such as SeatGeek, meaning we had to enter our payment information before even finding out if we could stomach the ticket fees. Spoiler alert: we couldn’t.
On a positive note, Vivid Seats has the best rewards program of all the services we reviewed. You can get up to 8% credit on tickets depending on how much you spend and if you’re a ‘Hall of Famer’ (meaning you spend over $2000 annually) this credit won’t expire. If you haven’t got the budget to splash $2000 annually on tickets don’t worry, your credit will last a full year. You’ll need the app to do this, but we think it’s pretty user-friendly anyway.
Vivid Seats review: Selling tickets
Vivid Seats won’t charge you to sell tickets with them. You’ll need to set up an account with payment information and contact details and once you’re done, simply set your own price and quantity, and change them at any time. Whether you have extra tickets, can no longer attend the event, or want to sell your season tickets, the Vivid Seats marketplace gives you control over who you sell your tickets to and lets you accept or reject offers when they’re made. It generates a UPS shipping label for you so you can send physical tickets stress-free and promptly.
Vivid Seats review: Fees and refunds
Vivid Seats won't charge you to sell tickets but you will pay a fee for buying. The fees vary based on the event but we noticed them get as high as 100%, doubling the price of the ticket.
You do have a guarantee on tickets for events that are cancelled, where you will get all your money back for the ticket price. The company uses UPS secure delivery to make sure you're guaranteed to get tickets before the event, even if ordered last minute.
Should you try Vivid Seats?
We liked Vivid Seats’ rewards program and were impressed by their app, but the prices we saw in our comparison tests didn’t impress. We didn’t appreciate the lack of transparency over additional fees and the need to input your payment information before accessing this information. It's not a bad option if you’re looking to sell tickets, though, as it won’t charge you for this and will even generate your shipping label for you. Overall not a bad choice, but definitely not our favorite.
