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Home / Entertainment

Mission Estate's Elton John ticket website fail: How did it malfunction so badly?

By Blair Voorend
Hawkes Bay Today·
12 Feb, 2019 09:00 PM4 mins to read

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Fans were left disappointed when the Mission Estate ticket system failed for Elton John's upcoming show.
Fans were left disappointed when the Mission Estate ticket system failed for Elton John's upcoming show.

Fans were left disappointed when the Mission Estate ticket system failed for Elton John's upcoming show.

The Australian promoter of Elton John's upcoming New Zealand tour has addressed the ticketing problems that plagued yesterday's Napier sales and left fans who missed out feeling angry.

Michael 'Chuggi' Chugg dispelled rumours of gremlins in the ticketing system or bugs instead saying that there was just too many people wanting to go to the show.

"I've seen a few complaints about people not being able to get tickets and all that stuff but when you've got a 25,000 capacity venue and there's 60,000 people trying to buy tickets obviously a lot are going to miss out," he said. "And that's what happened."

"From the reports I'm seeing this morning it was basically just too many people."

One particular source of ire for fans was waiting online to buy tickets and then finding themselves being bumped down the queue.

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"When you sell out you need to tell the 15,000 to 20,000 people that are still online that you have sold out, rather than just all of a sudden there's zero tickets," he said. "But you know, everyone keeps learning from this procedure."

"Hey, let's face it, an hour's sell out is pretty unusual and it just shows the incredible strength that Sir Elton's got and what these final shows mean to people."

Chugg also had advice - and a warning - for all those who missed out on the Mission show and for any people who miss out when tickets go onsale for Dunedin and Auckland tomorrow morning at 9am.

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"I'd say to people don't panic and don't go and pay $900 for a $300 ticket. We're a year away and with the size of the show and the production there's always going to be more tickets released," he said. "Your son could decide to get married on the day of the show and you're going to have to sell your tickets. You can officially resell your tickets if you can't go to the concert. So there will be tickets across the year. Don't panic.

"But don't go and buy tickets off Viagogo or any of the other reseller sites. The tickets won't be honoured. Half the time they don't even have the tickets. They're taking the money and speculating that they're going to get tickets."

Mission themselves said none of the tickets on Viagogo at the moment were legitimate.

Fans should avoid purchasing any tickets off Viagogo as they are not even released to concertgoers until July 8, a spokeswoman said.

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In response to the criticism, Viagogo reiterated it was a "marketplace and doesn't buy or sell tickets".

A statement from the company said it was a platform for third party sellers to sell tickets to event goers and did not set ticket prices.

"Sellers set their own prices, which may be above or below the original face value. Where demand is high and tickets are limited, prices increase. All tickets on Viagogo are valid and it is perfectly legal to resell a ticket or give it to someone else if you want to."

"The main concern for me is that people don't get ripped off," he said.

Chugg also hinted that there is a possibility that Elton John may add an extra show or two to the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

"People are asking me if there's going to be other shows but the itineraries very tight. We're basically coming from Australia to New Zealand and then going back to Australia," he said. "But you never know. Elton loves playing and on this final world tour he really wants to make sure he gets to as many of the real music fans, his fans, as he can. So we'll see what happens."

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Mission Estate admitted its ticketing system simply couldn't cope with "overwhelming" demand.

The concert is now officially sold out, with all 25,000 tickets snapped up in less than an hour.

Four per cent of fans in line were pushed to the back of the queue in the first 15 minutes of the sale, because the queuing system was "overrun", Mission Estate spokeswoman Sandra Roberts said.

As the pre-sale site went live at 9am there were over 45,000 people waiting on the website to buy tickets.

"The Queue-it system is used to moderate the amount of people going on to the Mission Estate purchasing site and it was simply overwhelmed," said Roberts.

There was little that Mission could do for those affected by the site malfunction, she said.

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Mission apologised to those who missed out.

Fans were advised to register for the concerts waitlist in the case of any tickets coming available.

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