BOSTON — UMass Amherst freshmen and roommates Maddie Glynn and Lily Thompson are crazy for Harry Styles. Fans of the British crooner and heartthrob since his days in the wildly popular band One Direction, the 18- and 19-year-old friends have decked out their dorm room in Harry gear.
When Maddie’s mom bought a pair of Harry Styles concert tickets for the girls for Christmas in 2019, the teens, then-juniors at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School, were thrilled to see their favorite singer at the July 2020 event. But like most big events at that time, the concert was postponed due to the pandemic.
“We were so excited,” Maddie said. “We were all prepared to go, and then COVID happened. It was pretty devastating.”
The tickets were purchased through www.ticketoffices.com and looked official, with QR codes and seat numbers. Each time there was a rescheduling update, Maddie’s mother was notified via email by the company.
Finally, the night of the concert arrived – a nearly two-year wait. The girls dressed up, got a two-hour ride to Boston and headed to the entrance of TD Garden. But when they showed their tickets at the door, they were turned away.
“We go up and we show the scanner person, and he said that they were invalid. And so, he said that we needed to go to the box office,” Maddie said. “We showed the lady there the tickets. And she said that we needed to call the company because they were screenshots of tickets and have them resend us the [actual] tickets.”
But after a long wait on the phone, the company did not provide new tickets or a refund, the teens said. The tickets, purchased for $237, were fraudulent, and the seats listed on the fake tickets were occupied. The link in the email to view the tickets was no longer working.
“It was really sad,” Maddie said. “There were some tears. There was some handholding to get us through it. It was pretty sad.”
“We were finally there. So close to seeing him,” Lily added. “Probably 50 feet away from the entrance to go to the balcony seats.”
Boston 25 News reached out to TicketOffices by phone, email and live web chat Tuesday to inquire about the apparent scam but did not receive an answer.
The website states, “all tickets are valid and 100% authentic,” and, if customers are denied admission to an event, “we will investigate the incident and will refund the full cost of the tickets and shipping and service fees if we find that the tickets were invalid.”
Maddie and Lily tried to make the most of their trip to Boston. The pair bought some Harry Styles t-shirts at the Garden and took the long ride home.
But they weren’t the only ones turned away. They say they encountered dozens of other girls near the entrance who had also been scammed. It’s unclear what vendor the other concert hopefuls had used to buy their tickets.
“Everybody was just devastated who couldn’t get in,” Maddie said.
The teens are now warning other fans to use well-known, reliable vendors to buy tickets and double-check their authenticity with the venue before purchasing.
“I wouldn’t wish this on another fan, having waited and been excited, to be let down,” Lily said.