These Fans Paid a Ton to Meet Their Idols — and Now They Want Their Money Back

Justin Bieber

Back in 2016, the "Sorry" singer wasn't very sorry when he canceled his VIP meet-and-greets, explaining on his Instagram that taking pics with fans had left him feeling "mentally and emotionally exhausted to the point of depression." So what did his fans get instead since they couldn't meet the 24-year-old star? A cardboard cut-out. That's not a joke — fans who paid $900 to $2,000 to meet the star had to settle for a paper version of him instead. Needless to say, they weren't happy.

Demi Lovato

In 2015, a fan wrote an open letter to the pop singer describing his disappointing meet-and-greet experience. "Thanks for taking the time to meet me and my friend Carissa in Seattle," he wrote. "Thanks for not looking us in the eye, asking our names, or saying two words to us." He then described his meet-and-greet encounters with Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears as examples of pop stars who treat their fans well.

“As I walked out of the room,” he continued, “I saw you slam your head back against the wall in relief – we were your last picture. Meeting your fans was over. You didn’t run out – you stood there.”

Demi Lovato…again

In 2015, a fan wrote a long reddit post describing his less than stellar encounter with Demi. He said the pop star never said "hi" to him, nor did she even bother looking at him. But things got even more awkward when he decided to make a personal confession to her.

"Then I real quick turn to Demi," he wrote, "and I'm like 'hi im bipolar and anorexic and you've saved my life twice tysm you're my idol and inspiration,' (she's still just smiling towards the camera, btw, intently focused on keeping the same face so all the pictures come out good and identical). Then she turns her head for a second, looks me in the eyes (still with the same smile), and gives me the shittiest "…ok" ever, then turns back to the camera. I walk away like 'ummm wtf just happened.'"

The fan also paid $500 for the photo, which he thought was a rip-off. "For $500, you could have a 20 second conversation with your fans at the very least," he continued. "You barely acknowledged any of them. At least look at us."

Ariana Grande

Back in 2014, the father of a meet-and-greet fan wrote an epic blog post about an encounter with the "Side to Side" singer. In it, he claimed his daughter, who won a contest to meet the singer, only spent 30 seconds with Ariana who barely spoke to them. To make matters worse, when the fan took one too many pictures of Ariana, the pop star coldly demanded for the photos to be deleted.

"Ariana turned to her security and ordered, 'Make sure she deleted those,'" he wrote. "Then, Ariana Grande walked away from her prize-winning fans without even saying goodbye. That was it. That was HANG WITH ARIANA GRANDE, as the contest ads had screamed. The MTV reps on scene seemed startled, but at a loss for what to do. 'Sometimes celebrities are like that,' was all they could muster."

Ariana later defended her behavior by saying she rushed out of the event because she got overly emotional.

John Mayer

Several years back while attending his tour, a fan had an unpleasant run-in with the star when she got to meet him after the show. "I was young (13, maybe?)," they wrote. "Stuck around after the concert to meet him. He went down the line and hugged all these pretty girls around my age then came to me, gave me a look of disgust, shook his head no and moved on. I was devastated. Don't worry guys, I turned out pretty good looking."

Drew Carey

The host of The Price Is Right doesn't seem like someone who'd be rude to fans, but that was one man's experience when he got to meet the comedian after winning a radio contest. The fan, who wrote about his experience on Quora, described an awkward encounter when he presented Drew with a gift during an after-party event.

"My introduction and comments were literally less than 30 seconds and I turned to walk away toward the bar," he wrote. "I began to hear and notice things as I turned. I noticed Drew was with what appeared to be 4 prostitutes, there are things on the table that I recognized from my fraternity house and I hear some of the staff saying 'he Didn't talk to Drew!!' Behind me .. was his entire persona bullcrap? I look back and see Drew throwing the paperweight and yelling to his mussel [sic] guys 'That one!!' That was it, 3 minutes into my Vegas night of free drinks and trying to hook up with C list celebrities, I was thrown out on my a–. he even had the people that talked to me thrown out for good measure! What a d–k."

Keyshia Cole

Back in 2013, the singer left her fans waiting for two and a half hours in the rain for a meet-and-greet event. The reason for making her adoring fans wait so long? Reportedly, it was because the venue didn't have a specific kind of water she wanted. To make matters worse, during the actual show, fans found her behavior rude when she ordered concertgoers to leave for not enjoying her performance.

Bill Murray

Last year during a special VIP experience offered to fans for $150 a ticket, the iconic actor rubbed people the wrong way with his behavior. According to Sean Kennedy, who was in attendance at the event, Bill had a strange outburst when a fan asked for a solo picture with the actor instead of with a group. "[Murray] yells at her, 'We don't want your sour puss in our group picture. Get out of here. Get out of here,'" Sean told The Chicago Tribune. "Everybody was like, is he just trying to be funny or is he for real right now? It was pretty uncomfortable to watch."

Sean continued, "[Murray is] a good entertainer, he's very good at what he does, apparently doesn't think enough of his fans to not be a jerk for an hour and a half."