Ticket reseller blames pandemic for 15-month holdup on payment for resold BottleRock passes

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) -- It's been a difficult year for the event business. What happened to this Napa woman can be blamed once again on the pandemic. After she sold her tickets to BottleRock via a third-party site, she still hadn't received her money from the sale a year later.

Marta Collings stands proudly in front of her latest creation. The Napa Valley artist draws her inspiration from the environment around her.

Even attending BottleRock each year and seeing the colors people wear influences her art.

"Oh, that looks nice. I can use that in my paintings," Collings revealed she often finds herself saying to herself. "My paintings are more impressionist. I exaggerate the colors a bit."

Collings has attended every BottleRock since it began in 2013. The concert held this past Labor Day weekend was the first she missed.

She had bought VIP tickets for the three-day festival more than a year ago for the Memorial Day weekend of last year.

When COVID forced the organizers to cancel, she decided to sell her tickets.

"So I sold my tickets back to the Lyte Ticket Exchange, which I was told to do by BottleRock," Collings said.

Lyte's policy states payments are processed "one business day after the event has taken place... to ensure that scalpers, fraudsters, ticket brokers and other bad actors are not incentivized."

Little did Collings know that the concert would be rescheduled multiple times.

It did not actually occur until Labor Day weekend -- more than 15 months later.

Each of her two VIP tickets was bought for $799.

She anxiously waited for a deposit into her Paypal account of nearly $1,600 dollars.

"Checked my account. Nothing was there. I said, OK, maybe they're a bit shorthanded. They're busy. I'll give them a little time," Collings said.

Days later, she still had not heard anything.

So she gave them another week.

That's when she contacted 7 On Your Side. We contacted Lyte.

It blamed a technical glitch and a multitude of events on Labor Day weekend for the delay. It said her refund had been processed.

"Found out the money had magically appeared in my PayPal account," she happily said.

Lyte has offered to give Marta two complimentary VIP tickets for BottleRock 2022. She says she had not been expecting that and is very appreciative of Lyte's gesture.

Take a look at more stories and videos by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.

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