For those people trying to buy tickets this weekend, I wanted to give you a piece of advice. This past summer I was trying to purchase tickets to another show via the Ticketmaster website. I have had an account with them for years and purchased many tickets this way. For this particular show, I started refreshing my browser over and over at about 5 minutes until the tickets were supposed to be released. Well, apparently Ticketmaster has implemented some sort of blocking mechanism for automated programs, and it thought that I was one of those.
Here's the exact text that I got in response to a customer service request (2 days after the sale began).
We're sorry you were temporarily blocked while trying to buy tickets on Ticketmaster.com. Blame the bots!
You see, automated programs (or "bots") constantly hit Refresh when some onsales start, which ties up our system and blocks you (the real live fan) from getting tickets. When that happens, we block them.
Unfortunately, we can't tell bots from human beings so sometimes fans who refresh too frequently get blocked - for about 24 hours.
In the future, please wait 2-3 seconds between each refresh when trying to buy tickets. That way only the bots get blocked.
If you need anything else, we're always here for you - just hit reply and ask us or visit Ticketmaster.com.
Thanks for being a fan!
Sincerely,
Ticketmaster Fan Support
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