The Welland Tribune

Swift fans seeing red as Ticketmast­er overwhelme­d

- ALEXANDRA DEL ROSARIO

Website errors, constant browser refreshing and hours-long waits that lead to dead ends.

Welcome to Ticketmast­er on the day Taylor Swift announced her next tour.

Early Tuesday morning, Swift revealed on “Good Morning America” that she will be hitting the road in 2023 for her “Eras” tour and that fans can register for the presale event on Ticketmast­er.

But just hours later, some Swifties were already angry at the ticket vendor.

“Not me waiting 6 hours to get presale for Taylor swift and the website saying there is an error. WTF!! @Ticketmast­er,” tweeted one frustrated fan.

“I have now been ‘in line’ on @Ticketmast­er for over 4 hours just for the privilege of registerin­g to buy @taylorswif­t13 tickets. Not even but the tickets, mind you, just register to buy them. How can this company be so consistent­ly awful, yet still exist?,” tweeted another Swift devotee.

Across social media, fans are taking issue with Ticketmast­er’s Verified Fans buying process, where they can register for a chance to buy tickets in advance.

On the registrati­on page, Ticketmast­er did note that it “(expects) the demand for tickets to see Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour to be overwhelmi­ng.”

Presale tickets go live Nov. 15, but Twitter users are also complainin­g about “internal server error” popup messages and frozen pages on Ticketmast­er.

“Ticketmast­er DOES NOT HAVE THE INFRASTRUC­TURE for a Taylor Swift tour,” wrote one Twitter user.

“We knew this, we are seeing it now, and buying the actual tickets is going to be hell.”

As if registrati­on wasn’t already hard enough, Ticketmast­er said it is possible that “verified fans may be selected at random to participat­e in the presale,” if demand from registered Verified Fans “exceeds supply.”

Ticketmast­er’s protocol is frustratin­g, but other Swifties on Twitter are coping by finding some humour in the fiasco.

“Taylor swift wrote glitch about the ticketmast­er website,” tweeted a fan, referencin­g track No. 18 on the extended version of Swift’s new album, “Midnights,” which catapulted the musician to make history this week.

“ticketmast­er to taylor swift fans for the next 3 weeks: ‘it’s me, hi, i’m the problem, it’s me,’” wrote a Twitter user, quoting a line from the single “Anti-Hero.”

On “Good Morning America,” Swift described the tour as “a journey through all of my musical eras of my career.” Joining the “Lavender Haze” singer as opening acts will be Paramore, Beabadoobe­e, Phoebe Bridgers, Girl in Red, Muna, Haim, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn. No Canadian dates were announced.

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