Taylor Swift performing. Source: Sarah Yenesel / EPA
Ticketing giant Ticketek has confirmed there was no digital queue for pre-sale passes to Taylor Swift’s upcoming Australian shows, after ardent fans complained they were unable to purchase tickets despite waiting for hours in a virtual lobby.
Pre-sale tickets to Swift’s Eras Tour dates in Sydney and Melbourne went live on Wednesday, with Ticketek claiming more than four million people attempted to secure a ticket over the course of the day.
The platform advised fans to visit the webpage 15 minutes before the sale kicked off, but many Swifties, believing getting in earlier would help them secure a pass, visited the site far earlier.
Some 800,000 fans were already in the Ticketek virtual lounge when tickets for the Sydney dates went on sale at 10am, a spokesperson said, marking a record for the company.
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Pre-sale tickets for all four dates sold out, leading some fans, who claimed to have been online waiting to purchase tickets for hours, to ask why they were skipped over.
I am upset and stressed because I’ve spent the whole day at work waiting for my chance to buy a ticket. It’s UNFAIR as no one know where exactly they are in the queue!
— tRym (@runlevel__5) June 28, 2023
how were the same people and same accounts getting through the queue multiple times and buying tickets multiple times when some of us waited for hours for both presales and did not get let in once,
— bek 🥀 (@heartbekweather) June 28, 2023
See how does this make sense??? I had four people trying on six devices, in queue for 4 hours and never got through https://t.co/JGT53sRcsz
— jemima✨ (@jemimaskelley) June 28, 2023
Ticketek has now confirmed the pre-sale did not utilise a formal queuing process, saying fans were allowed to purchase tickets irrespective of when they entered the waiting lounge.
“Everyone in the Ticketek lounge has an equal opportunity to get into the site regardless of when they have arrived,” a spokesperson told SmartCompany.
The order fans were allowed to purchase tickets was random, they added.
“The randomisation starts once the on-sale commences, so there is no advantage for fans to jump on hours before.”
“Once in the lounge and the on-sale has started, the system continuously checks whether there is an available spot for fans to be let in to purchase tickets to the event,” they continued.
It was necessary to implement the system to ward off a tidal wave of ‘bots’, or computer programs used by scalpers to automatically buy tickets before real fans had a chance to do so.
More than 500 million bot attempts were successfully repelled by the virtual lounge system, the spokesperson added.
General sale tickets for the Melbourne and Sydney events, including a just-announced additional concert in both cities, will go on sale Friday, giving fans one more chance to see their idol.
Lawmakers issue warning to platforms over resale risks
As Swift fans fume over what they see as miscommunication over Ticketek’s practices, lawmakers are increasingly concerned about some buyers who did secure pre-sale passes.
In a Wednesday statement, the NSW government revealed Fair Trading has written to eBay, Ticketek, and Gumtree, urging the platforms to crack down on scalpers and resellers offering Taylor Swift passes for massively inflated prices.
Maximum penalties for breaching ticket resale laws extend to $110,000 for a corporation or $22,000 for an individual.
Minister for Fair Trading and Better Regulation Anoulack Chanthivong said, “Consumers shouldn’t be forced to shake it off when they’re being ripped off.
“The days of buying tickets for major events with the plan of on-selling to consumers at exorbitant profits is over.”
“NSW Fair Trading is watching platforms to identify any tickets being sold above the 110% cap,” he added.
Similar warnings have been issued in Victoria, where the state government has declared Swift’s concerts a ‘major state event’.
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