Taylor Swift fans in Arizona vent frustration after tour ticket sale fiasco

Fans of Taylor Swift in Phoenix, like some others across the country, are voicing their frustration amid the now-well publicized troubles with ticket sales for Swift's upcoming tour.

"Extremely frustrating, and disappointing too," said Alexandra Lazzara.

Fans, bots overwhelmed site, Ticketmaster officials said

Swift fans trying to access Ticketmaster on Nov. 15 received errors that caused people to lose tickets after they had waited in an online queue.

Officials with the ticketing company said that the site was overwhelmed both by real people and bot attacks, resulting in unprecedented traffic on their site. As a result, only 2 million fans managed to snag seats.

"When I finally got in, the tickets were above face value, and so I was unable to afford anything," said Lazzara.

General ticket sale to the public, originally set for Nov. 18, were called off. Ticketmaster officials cited "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand" as a reason for the decision. Resale tickets are now going for thousands of dollars.

On Nov. 18, Swift responded to the fiasco.

"There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets, and I'm trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward," Swift wrote to her fans on social media. "I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand, and we were assured they could."

"What has happened here with these tickets and the fans that want to go to the show, and it means a lot to them, so absurd and disgusting. I, like, don't understand how Ticketmaster is still in business," said Kelly Keegs.

Justice Department to investigate

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice is opening an antitrust investigation into the owner of Ticketmaster, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is promising a hearing.

"It is not just about Taylor Swift. This has been going on. It's about prices, hidden fees that are way too high. It's about site disruptions," said Sen. Klobuchar.

Taylor Swift, in a photo taken in 2022. (Photo by SASCHA SCHUERMANN/AFP via Getty Images)

Taylor Swift, in a photo taken in 2022. (Photo by SASCHA SCHUERMANN/AFP via Getty Images)