Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to prepare to evacuate more than one million civillians from a war-torn city in Gaza, house valuations are expected to drop, scrub fires continue as further restrictions come into place and Chinese new year begins.
Swifties are gearing up for Taylor Swift’s shows in Australia next week — but one Kiwi who forked out hundreds to see the pop star live says her tickets have gone missing. Now, she’s out of pocket, has inferior tickets and wants answers about the “glitch”.
“I paid for flights specifically to go to Melbourne for this — we are out $400 for tickets and $1000 for flights,” she told the Herald.
“The concert is six days away. We are both university students who saved for this concert and for flights.”
They paid $351.78 for two E Reserve tickets for the Friday, February 16 gig by global chart-topper and regular traveller Swift, along with $17.95 in service and handling fees and a $14.85 ticket reissue fee. But when her sister checked her Ticketek account on Wednesday, February 7, she found that their tickets had disappeared from the website and the mobile app.
The Herald has seen screenshots of the tickets taken before they went missing, along with the original email confirming their ticket purchase.
However, concertgoers can only get into the shows with their tickets in the app - screenshots or printed-out tickets won’t be accepted at the gate.
After sending multiple emails to the ticketing agent and receiving no response, the student says her sister visited Ticketek’s Melbourne office on February 7 and was told that staff “couldn’t see the tickets, didn’t know where they had gone and couldn’t do anything except forward the information on to Ticketek Marketplace”.
A representative at the Melbourne office allegedly said “The only people who have experienced this issue is the girl who went viral in the media and you two”.
The girls were “absolutely desperate for answers” and wanted to resolve the issue with the ticketing agent, but despite being told they would be contacted by Friday morning, they still have no answers.
The Herald approached Ticketek’s head office for comment, with it not responding to a request lodged at 9am Friday.
“We sent multiple emails pleading for someone to contact us to try and fix these issues ... however, we have received zero response,” she explains.
Instead, they’ve been issued tickets for a different night - Saturday February 17 - in F Reserve seats, costing around $40 less than what they paid for the original tickets.
The group will be using those tickets.
“It’s not about the money, all we asked of Ticketek is for an explanation, an apology, and to rectify the situation by providing tickets that are equal to or better than our original seats,” she says.
While grateful that they still have tickets, the sisters want to warn other Kiwi Swifties to double-check their tickets before they fly over to Australia next week.
“We know how many other New Zealanders are flying over to see Taylor in Australia.”
It comes after an Australian Taylor Swift fan revealed she’d been left “heartbroken” after a Ticketek “glitch” led to her VIP ticket being resold without her knowledge.
According to news.com.au, Rebecca Smedley purchased a VIP package on December 3 for $659 (NZ$705) and received confirmation from Ticketek.
But when everyone started to receive their VIP merch packs and Smedley didn’t, she “started to get a little bit worried”.
“So, I checked my Ticketek account and the ticket was gone,” she shared in a TikTok video that’s since gone viral.
Two Kiwi Taylor Swift fans are "desperate" for answers after their tickets disappeared. Photo / AP
After repeatedly ringing Ticketek’s helpline and getting no response, Smedley’s mother went into the office to speak to staff in person.
They told her, “Sorry, this ticket glitched out of your account, it was relisted for sale out of your account and someone else has it, we don’t know who, we can’t check, we can’t track who has your ticket”.
