Tri-Cities mom, daughter had great seats for Taylor Swift, ‘til the seller took them back

When Taylor Swift takes the stage at Lumen Field in Seattle this weekend, Michelle Dorsh and her teen daughter will be seated high in the stadium, behind the stage.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way, said Dorsh, a West Richland resident. She locked down two seats in front of the stage through reseller ticketsonsale.com last fall.

Dorsh bought the lesser tickets after the originals were snatched back by the reseller a week ahead of the concert.

The singer’s Eras tour has inspired complaints about tickets and even a lawsuit.

The Dorshes became unhappy members of the growing club when they had to spend additional money to secure tickets just days before Eras landed in Seattle. Dorsh called it a scam and said it was a difficult lesson for her disappointed daughter.

The saga began last fall, when Michelle Dorsh paid $900 each for the original seats. The $1,844 charge went through on her credit card, which was supposed to cement her ownership.

Under the ticket platform’s terms, her payment secured two seats in Section 122, Row QQ, in front of the stage, though at a distance. The reseller would send the actual tickets about two weeks in advance. Instead, Dorsh said, the platform informed her the seller had canceled the transaction.

“I was livid,” she said.

She complained. Loudly. to the media. To the Better Business Bureau, to the Washington Attorney General and even to an attorney connection. The Better Business Bureau reports gives ticketsonsale.com an “F” rating and cautions it is not accredited.

Herald could not reach ticketsonsale.com about the problem and received an autoreply intended for ticket buyers..

Dorsh said she was able to speak with a representative by calling the phone number that appeared with the charge on her credit card. The platform offered a refund or credit.

Tellingly, it offered two tickets in the original section and row, but for the new price of $4,400 each. She suspects the seller just wanted to get more money for tickets they’d already sold

“The seller is scalping the tickets I bought,” she said. “Somebody should stop these people from doing this. Scalping is illegal.”

Complaints may flag issues for followup, but they don’t secure seats to an event that is so buzzy the King County Council declared July 18-25 “Taylor Swift Week” in Seattle. (Lest that seem extreme, Santa Clara, Calif. temporarily renamed itself Swiftie Clara and named Swift its honorary mayor.)

So Dorsh agreed to buy the tickets behind the stage for about $1,000 apiece to ensure her daughter was able to attend the show. Their new location: Section 342, Row H, is behind the stage, to the side, well above the field.

‘Biggest fan ever’

Dorsh was a reluctant participant in Taylor Swift mania but she understands her daughter’s love of the singer. She listened to Swift while pregnant.

Her daughter, now 15, has always been hooked and is the singer’s “biggest fan ever.”

She learned to play guitar on a Taylor Swift-branded guitar and loved the singer’s ability to tell stories through music.

At the start of Eras, the teen registered for a fan program that was supposed to provide access to Ticketmaster, the official ticket seller. She planned to purchase tickets directly from the original seller.

When the site opened in November, she couldn’t get in.

So Dorsh turned to a third-party reseller, which links ticket holders with buyers. Dorsh expected to pay a premium, but the prices shocked her. Swift, she notes, caters to a younger crowd.

“I’m looking at these prices and thinking, are you kidding me?”

She was “highly reluctant” to pay so much money.

She did anyway. Her husband makes a decent living as an engineer, the family has lived in the same house for 15 years and cuts their own grass. In short, they aren’t extravagant and the concert promised to be a meaningful experience for her daughter.

“I will go through hell and high water to get her her birthday present,” she said.

TTickets seemingly booked, dorsh incurred additional expenses, like a nonrefundable Airbnb in downtown Seattle.

As she prepared for the big outing, she remains perplexed by the astounding prices being charged for Eras seats and acknowledged she’s fortunate to be able to participate in the tour when so many can’t.

“Everyone is capitalizing on the fact this girl is singing to teen-aged girls,” she said.

She once paid $250 to see Paul McCartney. “It was outrageous,” she said.

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