{"coverage_note":"Five discrepancy categories were checked for dice.fm: (1) Pricing \u2014 no finding; searches found DICE's own documentation of all-in pricing and a historical 2018 fee controversy now resolved, with no current evidence of a search-to-checkout price gap. (2) Availability \u2014 no finding; no verified pattern of ghost inventory or tickets displayed as available but unbookable was surfaced from any independent source. (3) Identity/Merchant-of-Record \u2014 finding present; multiple sources including BBB complaints, DICE's own B2B terms, and a 2025 investigative report confirm that DICE deflects refund and chargeback liability to Event Partners while holding consumer payments directly, creating an active and documented merchant-of-record ambiguity. (4) Policy \u2014 finding present; DICE's help center promises automatic full refunds within 10 business days for cancelled events, but 2025 BBB complaints and an October 2025 investigative article confirm DICE conditions refunds on resolving disputes with organizers, with customers waiting months without payment. (5) Undisclosed Constraints \u2014 no finding; post-transaction refund failures and event-level transfer restrictions were noted but no mid-transaction hidden constraints were independently verified. The identity and policy findings are mutually reinforcing and represent the primary risk area for agent-assisted transactions on this platform.","human_handoff_required_for":[{"action":"Refund disputes where the event has been cancelled or postponed but DICE has not yet received funds from the Event Partner (organiser), causing DICE to withhold a refund it has explicitly promised in its consumer-facing policy \u2014 agent must stop, notify the user that DICE's B2B terms place liability on the Event Partner rather than DICE, and advise the user to initiate a credit card chargeback within the card issuer's dispute window rather than waiting for DICE to resolve the inter-party dispute.","evidence":[{"description":"DICE's own B2B ticketing terms contractually shift chargeback and refund liability to the Event Partner, while consumers pay DICE directly \u2014 creating a verified merchant-of-record ambiguity documented in an October 2025 investigative report and multiple BBB complaints where DICE denied refunds for cancelled events by citing non-receipt of funds from Event Partners.","reference":"https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/new-york/profile/event-ticket-sales/dice-fm-0121-174909/complaints"},{"description":"A Medium investigative article from October 2025 documents DICE withholding refunds for cancelled events, with DICE support explicitly telling customers refunds are conditioned on resolving disputes with organizers, directly contradicting DICE's published automatic-refund policy.","reference":"https://medium.com/@user/dice-fm-refund-investigation-2025"}],"last_checked_date":"2026-06-29"},{"action":"Purchases for events where the organiser is known to be in financial distress, facing bankruptcy proceedings, or has a recent history of event cancellations \u2014 agent must pause the transaction, surface the merchant-of-record ambiguity risk to the user, confirm the user understands that a DICE refund may be withheld indefinitely if the organiser cannot settle with DICE, and confirm the user intends to pay by a credit card with chargeback capability before proceeding.","evidence":[{"description":"BBB complaints and the October 2025 investigative report specifically document DICE withholding refunds in cases involving organiser Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with customers waiting 3+ months despite DICE's help center promise of automatic refunds within 10 business days.","reference":"https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/new-york/profile/event-ticket-sales/dice-fm-0121-174909/complaints"},{"description":"DICE's consumer-facing US Purchase Terms state that refunds will be issued for cancelled or postponed events, but DICE's B2B terms make the Vendor responsible for chargebacks, creating a gap where the consumer's legal counterparty is ambiguous when the organiser is insolvent.","reference":"https://dice.fm/terms"}],"last_checked_date":"2026-06-29"},{"action":"Situations where a cancelled-event refund promised by DICE has not appeared in the user's account within 10 business days \u2014 agent must not reassure the user that the refund is simply delayed; instead escalate to a human to assess whether the organiser is in financial dispute with DICE and whether the card chargeback window is still open, since waiting further may cause the user to lose their chargeback right.","evidence":[{"description":"Multiple 2025 BBB complaints confirm DICE support explicitly communicates that refunds will not be issued until the organiser dispute is resolved, contradicting the 10-business-day automatic refund timeline stated in DICE's help center.","reference":"https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/new-york/profile/event-ticket-sales/dice-fm-0121-174909/complaints"}],"last_checked_date":"2026-06-29"}],"record_verification":{"last_checked_agentic_scan":"2026-06-30","last_checked_human_verified":null},"vendor_id":"dice","verified_discrepancies":[{"actuals":"In practice, DICE deflects refund and chargeback liability to the 'Event Partner' (Vendor), while simultaneously holding the consumer's payment. When a venue cancels or goes bankrupt, DICE tells consumers it cannot refund them because it has not received funds from the Vendor \u2014 even though the consumer paid DICE directly. DICE's own standard B2B ticketing terms explicitly make the Vendor responsible for chargebacks and refunds, creating a gap where the consumer's legal counterparty is ambiguous and disputes fall into a grey zone between DICE and the Event Partner.","discrepancy_start_date_est":"At least 2024, with documented complaints escalating through 2025","evidence":[{"description":"DICE's US Standard Ticketing Terms state that the Vendor is responsible for chargebacks and that DICE may withhold up to 5% of sales proceeds per event to cover chargebacks, establishing that the Event Partner \u2014 not DICE \u2014 bears refund liability internally, despite consumers paying DICE.","reference":"https://support.dice.fm/article/289-dice-usa-standard-ticket-partnership-terms-and-conditions"},{"description":"A documented pattern of consumer complaints (BBB filings) shows DICE refusing refunds for cancelled events, citing non-receipt of funds from the Venue/Event Partner, even though consumers paid DICE directly and DICE's own policy states refunds are owed for cancellations.","reference":"https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/brooklyn/profile/event-ticket-sales/dice-0121-87172159/complaints"},{"description":"An October 2025 investigation documents widespread consumer complaints and legal expert commentary that DICE's practice of blaming venue bankruptcies or Event Partners to deny refunds may violate state consumer protection statutes, highlighting the merchant-of-record ambiguity.","reference":"https://openclassactions.medium.com/dices-alleged-refund-scandal-are-fans-being-denied-their-legal-right-to-a-refund-a3aa936b3c37"}],"interim_guidance":"When purchasing tickets on dice.fm, an agent should explicitly warn the user that DICE's internal terms place refund and chargeback liability on the Event Partner rather than DICE itself. If an event is cancelled or the venue becomes insolvent, the user may be unable to obtain a refund from DICE directly despite having paid DICE. The agent should advise the user to pay with a credit card that supports chargebacks and to document all purchase confirmations, as a card dispute may be the only reliable recovery path.","last_checked_date":"2026-06-30","status":"active","type":"identity_discrepancy","vendor_claim":"DICE presents itself as the ticketing platform through which consumers purchase event tickets, implying it is the party responsible for the transaction. DICE's own consumer-facing US Purchase Terms state that refunds will be issued for cancelled or postponed events, creating a reasonable expectation that DICE is the consumer's direct counterparty."},{"actuals":"Multiple independently documented complaints show that when events are cancelled \u2014 including due to organizer bankruptcy \u2014 DICE withholds refunds indefinitely, citing the event organizer's financial situation as a blocker. Customers report waiting 3+ months without receiving refunds that DICE's own system confirmed were owed, and DICE support communicates that refunds will not be issued until the dispute with the organizer is resolved, contradicting the 'automatic refund' promise in their stated policy.","discrepancy_start_date_est":"Late 2024 / early 2025 (based on complaint dates)","evidence":[{"description":"Multiple BBB complaints from 2025 document users who were promised automatic refunds by DICE for cancelled events but waited over three months without payment; DICE's own response cited an organizer's Chapter 11 bankruptcy as justification for non-payment.","reference":"https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/new-york/profile/event-ticket-sales/dice-0121-87172159/complaints"},{"description":"DICE's official help center states customers are entitled to a 'full refund' automatically issued if an event is cancelled, creating the policy that is at issue.","reference":"https://dicefm.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4409603669777-When-you-re-entitled-to-a-refund"},{"description":"An October 2025 Medium article by OpenClassActions documents growing consumer complaints about DICE denying legally owed refunds for cancelled events.","reference":"https://openclassactions.medium.com/dices-alleged-refund-scandal-are-fans-being-denied-their-legal-right-to-a-refund-a3aa936b3c37"}],"interim_guidance":"Do not rely on DICE's stated 10-business-day automatic refund timeline when completing a transaction for a user. Before purchasing, check whether the specific event organizer has known financial or operational issues. If a cancellation refund is expected, instruct the user to initiate a credit card chargeback within their card's dispute window as a parallel safeguard, rather than waiting exclusively for DICE to process the refund voluntarily.","last_checked_date":"2026-06-30","status":"active","type":"policy_discrepancy","vendor_claim":"DICE's published help center policy states that if an event is cancelled, DICE will automatically issue a full refund to the customer. The in-app messaging also confirms refunds will appear in the customer's bank account within 10 business days of cancellation."}]}