Technical issues with Ticketmaster during sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets raise fans’ ire

SINGAPORE – It was a cruel summer for some Taylor Swift fans who saw red after technical issues plagued their attempts to purchase tickets to the American pop star’s The Eras tour next March when sales opened at noon on Friday.

Staff of at least three Singapore Post (SingPost) outlets had told fans who were queuing that they faced issues with the booking platform, with the first fans in line at the Toa Payoh North branch being delayed.

A staff member attributed the issue to a problem with the Ticketmaster platform, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, at the Pasir Ris branch in Downtown East, a staff member said: “There was a slight delay as some of them are sharing access codes, so we had to make sure the payment was correct, and everything went through.”

Fans looking to snap up tickets at SingPost locations had to pay an additional transaction fee, but this was not added to the original fee for tickets at the counters. This resulted in a delay.

Ms Hoong She Eng, 20, was 27th in line at SingPost’s Serangoon Central branch when the issue occurred.

“I am really nervous, I don’t know when it will get fixed. If they keep delaying, other places might get them first,” said the student, referring to the tickets.

“I queued overnight. If I can’t even get them today after queueing for so long, it is unfair. It is not the first time Ticketmaster has had a system problem.”

She added: “I would feel very angry and frustrated if I can’t get it.”

Only those with an access code could buy tickets on Friday from SingPost. Access codes were sent to selected people who had registered earlier for the general sale.

Fans waiting in line at the affected SingPost outlets looked distressed by news of the technical issue, with some holding hands to comfort each other.

Queues at the postal outlets started forming on Wednesday, after

pre-sale tickets for UOB card members sold out within three hours.

A Ticketmaster spokesman said its systems were operating normally, and the technical issue at the SingPost outlets was an isolated one.

“We apologise for any inconvenience and have teams continuing to monitor closely,” he added.

However, there were more than a hundred angry comments on Ticketmaster Singapore’s Facebook page.

Several fans who tried to buy tickets through the UOB reserved sale on Friday thought they were out of the woods after they got to the ticket selection stage. But they were left in the lurch when the platform stalled on a loading screen which told them to wait as their selection was being secured.

They were eventually kicked out of the site and had to begin again with another queue number.

The reserved sale was for UOB cardmembers and involved a separate link on the bank’s social media pages, although the tickets were also sold on Ticketmaster.

The general sale was not without its own set of problems. On top of receiving error messages, some said they were told their access codes had already been used.

As emotions ran high, there was even an allegation the SingPost branch in Potong Pasir had been hacked, and that tickets had been transferred to another person.

The claim was made on a Telegram chat for people queueing at the various post office outlets, but a SingPost spokesman refuted it.

He said: “Our staff (member) was trying to get tickets for one customer and the first terminal had issues, so they tried it on another terminal to try getting the transaction through.”