Fanpass Review
Founded in 2015, Fanpass is a secondary ticketing platform that focuses primarily on football tickets. In this detailed review, we put Fanpass to the test to see what it was like to actually buy tickets from Fanpass and go to an event.
- Busy marketplace with many active buyers and sellers
- 100% money back guarantee
- Easy to use website
- UK based with postal address
- Seating together available
- Clear stadium plans
- No PayPal
- No telephone number or live customer support
- Fees are not clearly indicated
- Heavily focused on Europe
- Minimal concert, rugby and tennis tickets
Fanpass is a secondary ticketing platform that focuses primarily on football, also offering tickets for music concerts. At Ticket Compare, we don’t currently partner with Fanpass, although we have in the past. We know from experience that the site generally offers a good service, and has many happy customers.
Nonetheless, we decided to put Fanpass to the test, trying out the purchase experience from start to finish, to see what the site is really like from a user perspective.
On 13 February 2024, we went ahead and ordered tickets for the Newcastle vs Bournemouth fixture on 17 February 2024 at St James Park. Read on for our full review of the Fanpass experience.
The buying experience with Fanpass
The overall buying experience with using the Fanpass site, identifying suitable tickets, and completing the transaction was smooth. Here’s what happened.
Availability of tickets
Fanpass had a nice range of tickets available for the Newcastle fixture I wanted to attend. There were a range of seating categories and prices available, and because I didn’t mind too much about my location, I generally looked at the cheaper tickets. Like most reputable sites, Fanpass provided a full seating plan, showing clearly where I would be seated.
Price of tickets
Tickets ranging from £112 to over £300 were available, and I bagged a good seat for £112, which was not a bad price.
However, I did do some shopping around, and discovered that some other sites were cheaper than Fanpass, for a similar (not identical) ticket. I did a search on Ticket Compare, and I saw that there were cheaper tickets available.
As you can see below, I found a ticket for the same fixture for £94 (including fees) at LiveFootballTickets.
I also found a ticket available for 88 EUR (including estimated fees) – around £75 – at StubHub.
It should be note that the seating locations that I was looking at with FootballTicketPad and StubHub are not exactly the same as the one I got with Fanpass – I’m not comparing like for like. However, it is true that cheaper tickets were available on these other two platforms.
Sitting together in groups
As it happened, I was only looking for one ticket for the Newcastle vs Bournemouth match. However, it was very easy to shop for multiple tickets in groups on Fanpass, and there were several options available.
Payment
To make payment, I wanted to use my debit card. Fanpass accepts Visa, Mastercard, and Amex, but it does not accept Paypal, which will be disappointing to some users.
Initially, my payment was declined. I was contacted by my bank, who wanted to check, as they thought the purchase was suspicious!
I clarified with my bank that this was a legitimate purchase, and eventually was able to go ahead and buy the tickets.
Inside the website, I liked being able to see an update on the status of my order, which showed ‘confirmation pending,’ ‘upload pending,’ and ‘delivered,’ to keep track of where my order was at in the process.
Delivery
Fanpass state on their website that e-tickets will be delivered ‘immediately,’ and paper tickets within one week.
I ordered my tickets at 11:33, and received an email about my e-ticket 2 minutes later – at 11:35. I was impressed to have the ticket land in my inbox so quickly.
I opted for an e-ticket (Newcastle United exclusively use e-tickets and do not offer paper tickets), and it was extremely easy to add it to my wallet on my phone.
Support and customer service
My purchasing experience with Fanpass was smooth from start to finish, so I did not need to use their support or customer service at all.
From my perspective, this was definitely a good thing! However, in order to check how responsive and helpful Fanpass are, I sent them an email a few days after the game to see how they responded.
In my email, I asked them about the ‘T’ symbol that appears alongside tickets, along with the claim ‘Your seller is a trusted seller highly rated certified by Fanpass.’ I pointed out that all tickets seemed to have this symbol next to them, which made me wonder exactly what the symbol meant, and if the symbol really meant anything.
I emailed at around 09:00 in the morning, receiving a response in just over three hours.
The response came quickly enough (since it was not urgent), but to be honest, it did not answer my question, nor put my mind at ease. The support agent simply told me that the symbol was given to sellers who had been working with Fanpass ‘for a certain amount of time,’ which really tells me nothing at all. A ‘certain amount of time’ could mean one week, or even one day!
I would have considered a good response to have told me specifically what criteria a seller must meet in order to get the stamp of approval. For example, would the seller have to complete a certain number of successful sales in order to be seen as ‘trusted’? It might also have been reassuring to see some general information on how Fanpass verifies sellers. Unfortunately, based on the information I received, it would appear that no specific procedure is in place.
Match-day experience
My match-day experience with Fanpass was completely smooth, and I enjoyed a dramatic game, from a great seating position. I gained access easily through the turnstile.
The first half was tightly contested, with Bournemouth creating the better chances but being denied by Newcastle’s goalkeeper, Martin Dubravka. Below, you can see the view from my seat.
The second half was a different story. In the 51st minute, Martin Dubravka slipped on the wet pitch, allowing Dominic Solanke to score with a simple tap-in. Newcastle responded by increasing their attacking pressure, earning a dangerous free kick in the opposition’s half.
Fabian Schar managed to evade his marker and was fouled, resulting in a penalty after a lengthy VAR review of 4 minutes that frustrated the home fans. After what felt like an eternity for the Geordies’, Anthony Gordon successfully converted the penalty, levelling the score.
The excitement continued in the second half, as Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo raced down the right flank and scored to give his team a 2-1 lead. With Newcastle struggling to get an equaliser they resorted to the bench, bringing on the likes of Jacob Murphy and Matt Ritchie. It was written in fate Matt Richie would score against his former team in the 92nd minute to earn his team a draw.
Terms and conditions
I am not a legal expert, but I did have a look at the terms and conditions on Fanpass’ site, and I was reassured by what I saw. First and foremost, the Fanpass guarantee stated that if a seller pulled out, they would find a similar replacement ticket, or refund me. Obviously, a replacement would almost always be preferable to a refund, but I understand that in some cases, it might simply not be possible to replace a ticket – that’s the reality of the secondary market!
Overall, I was happy enough with what I saw in Fanpass’ terms and conditions.
It was also good to see the below notification just as I was making payment, reminding me of the 100% guarantee.
Fanpass reviews from other sites
I was impressed to see that Fanpass have amassed over 6,000 reviews on Trustpilot, which is a substantial number. Not only that, but at the time of writing, they maintain an ‘Excellent’ rating, which is no small feat.
The vast majority (71%) of Fanpass’ reviews are 5-star, with positive reviews citing a flawless purchasing and match-day experience. Another 11% of Fanpass’ reviews are 4-star, which also bodes well.
Fanpass are clearly proactive in gaining Trustpilot reviews. However, after the match-day, when I received the following email, which asked “how was the game?” it did arouse some suspicions. Asking how the game was is not exactly the same as asking how my experience with Fanpass was!
This made me all the more curious to delve into the reviews from other customers. Looking into these reviews, unfortunately, a bit of a pattern emerged. I got that feeling that perhaps I had been one of the “lucky ones,” while a few too many customers had been badly let down.
I noticed one significant theme when reading Fanpass’ negative reviews – some individual sellers on the platform cause big problems, and Fanpass probably needs to do more to protect its customers from these unscrupulous sellers. The negative reviews include mentions of customers who received children’s tickets, duplicate tickets, or fake tickets. In these cases, fans arrive at the turnstile to find themselves in an unpleasant situation, where they cannot get into the ground.
In some of these cases, customers not only miss the game, but find themselves forced into an uncomfortable conversation with staff on the premises.
Diving a little deeper, I found that other review sites painted an overall negative picture of Fanpass. Over at Complaintsboard.com, Fanpass have not engaged with several angry customers, who report a wide range of issues with sellers. Complaints include unresponsive sellers who cause customers to miss matches, and duplicate tickets. In one example, a customer bought tickets, and then claimed that they saw the same tickets relisted on the site when they came back later. Moreover, some customers who missed games due to unresponsive sellers claim that Fanpass did not refund them when they missed the match.
Analysing these reviews, I got the impression that, although I had a good experience, I could just as easily have been one of the unfortunate customers who was let down. I’m relieved that my experience was good, but the negative reviews I read certainly gave me pause for thought.
It’s important to remember that buying tickets on the secondary market does always involve a small amount of risk. The reason for this is that, in some cases, as a buyer, you may be reliant on an individual seller, who is not affiliated with the platform. Platforms like Fanpass earnestly do their best to ensure that all sellers are legitimate. Unfortunately, it seems like Fanpass fall foul to unscrupulous sellers a little too often.
Verdict
Our experience using Fanpass was overall positive - everything went smoothly, except for the issue with the bank initially declining the payment. The platform offered a good variety of tickets, and I was able to find one at a decent price (although not the cheapest on the web). I didn’t encounter any major issues using the site, and I had no need to contact customer service, which is obviously a good thing. However, it should be noted that while most customers have a good experience with Fanpass, a few untrustworthy sellers do seem to slip through the cracks, resulting in unhappy fans more often than we would like to see.
VISIT Fanpass- Ticket price
- 3
- Ease to Use
- 3
- Match Day Experience
- 3
- Quality of Support
- 3
