A fan of the rock band Sleep Token, who got in Ticketmaster's presale line to buy tickets to its May 7 show in Atlanta, is distressed to find the tickets have been canceled without her consent.
TikTok creator Sarah E. Baus (@sarahebaus), recording a video posted Friday, declared, "I'm currently making this video in a state of panic, OK? This is a state of panic video." Upon announcing that she got an email notification that her tickets were canceled, she says she contacted Ticketmaster, the band, and the venue (Coca-Cola Roxy) in the hopes that the situation would be reconciled.
"They were like, 'So, you're gonna get your refund,'" she reports. "I was like, 'I don't want the refund. I want the tickets.' I've talked about this concert at least four times just today. I'm so excited for the concert.'"
The only clue she got as to what might have happened came from the band's Instagram account, noting, as she puts it, "We are going through for bots and scalpers and canceling those tickets to distribute them to real fans."
Distressed over the developments, she noted, "This is my PSA that I'm currently not doing well."
Commenters added their observations to the video, which had more than 670,000 views as of Wednesday morning.
"I love that they're trying to get rid of bots and scalpers. but this seems like the wrong way to go about it if they're going to cancel real tickets," one observed.
Another concurred, "I've said this. The panic I had trying to buy tickets, I kept getting queue booted and then locked out of my account because they thought I was a bot."
One opportunistic commenter said, "I'm sorry this happened to you but maybe I can get tickets now."
Baum's not the only person who's encountered a Ticketmaster issue and then shared her horror story with TikTok. One woman who claimed her Ticketmaster account was hacked and lost $2,000 worth of tickets several months ago asserted that the experience "ruined Christmas" for her. Another customer experienced summertime sadness when he tried to buy Lana del Rey tickets from Ticketmaster in August and was accused of being a bot. He eventually went the resale route.
Baum's story finished more happily. On Tuesday, two update videos later, Ticketmaster saved the day, noting that her account was indeed flagged as a bot because of her IP address.
She reports that now that she gets to go, she will be "buying all the merch."
The Daily Dot has reached out to both the creator and Ticketmaster via email.
