Complaints regarding the Ticketmaster’s website glitches and high-ticket prices & fees are not unfamiliar to concertgoers, but never have they been so loud and so relevant as they were today during the “Verified Fan” Ticket Presale for Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras tour.

As fans joined the waiting room this morning at 9:30 AM EST for presale tickets, they immediately saw site crashes that would continue throughout the rest of the day. Ticketmaster failed to acknowledge the for more than three hours after the official beginning of the presale until 1:05 PM EST. When Ticketmaster finally addressed fans on Twitter, they failed to take ownership of the issue. Despite having absolute control over the exact number of presale codes distributed, they attempted to deflect the blame and list the “historically unprecedented demand” as the main reason for site issues.

Glitches were not limited to just a halted queue line. Twitter was trending today with horror stories of fans selecting tickets and making it to the check out page only to be booted off at the last minute. Many fans, myself included, were kicked out due to an alleged error with the payment method. Many queue lines began to see a lot of movement around 2 PM EST, which was previously the scheduled presale time for all Capital One Card Holders. I do have my suspicions that this may be the leading cause for check-out glitches with the most damning piece of evidence being the “Important Event Info” section on the ticket selection screen as it displays information for the Capital One Cardholder Presale instead of the Verified Fan Presale (it had already been rescheduled for 10/16).

Given this mistake, it is not unreasonable for fans to allege that they could have potentially lost their tickets because they simply did not possess Capital One credit card. And if this were true, the whole system would have been skewed and unfair, whether intentional or not, and most non-Capital One Cardholders never stood a chance.

While a majority of fans waited in queue lines for hours only to miss out, resell tickets began popping up on other sites, like Stub Hub, almost immediately, indicating that many of the “verified fans” at the front of the line were scalpers. Some resell tickets are being listed for as much as 10 x the original ticket price, and most unlucky fans still hoping to score tickets will likely need to shell out thousands of dollars if they want to be anywhere close to the stage.

However, these inflated prices are not exclusive to resell tickets. For those fans lucky enough to snatch one of these coveted tickets, they were required to pay an additional service fee, facility charge, & order processing fee that increases some ticket prices up to $150 more than the original price. With total control over ticket sales for the entirety of the tour, desperate fans are forced to pay ridiculously high fees that do not reflect the level of service that Ticketmaster provided. It is clear Ticketmaster cares far more about making a hefty profit than creating a fair purchasing process for all fans, and this seems to be the only thing they made sure not to fail at. 

Swifties, we must come together and call on Ticketmaster to take ownership of these issues and the necessary steps to correct the situation.  

While Ticketmaster has historically gotten away with these issues, one should never underestimate the power of the Swifties. I doubt that Ticketmaster will step up to do the right thing, but I hope that we can still unite and grab the attention of someone else who can help. Perhaps even Taylor herself will step in if we garner enough attention as we all know how much she cares for her fans.