I spent 5 hours trying to get Oasis tickets only for Ticketmaster to accuse me of being a bot and kick me out

I found myself in a familiar position on Saturday morning; perched in front of my computer and counting down the seconds until concert tickets went on sale.

Typically when buying concert tickets, I do so on my phone in all of its password-saving, card-remembering glory.

But when preparing for a mega event battle like Oasis, I call in reinforcements and set myself up in front of my PC for the best possible chance of getting a hold of tickets. You don’t want to disrupt your place in the queue by checking social media, after all.

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I was unable to buy Oasis Edinburgh tickets on Saturday.

Trying (and trying again) to escape error messages

8.30am. I woke up and parked myself in front of my computer ready to join the queue for Oasis on Ticketmaster.

Except, by the time I logged in it was apparently too late to be able to join a queue and too early for tickets to be on sale.

Ticketmaster was broken, returning error after error. Even when it wasn’t giving me an error message it was forcing me into a queue to even access the standard website – not just the Oasis ticket sale.

I couldn’t log in to my account as that would also give me an error message.

The queue screen that has failed to properly load for many frustrated Oasis fans | Contributed

I tried See Tickets and Gigs and Tours, both of which were also seemingly out of commission, but gave up on them since I didn’t have an account and figured that would work against me.

Frantically, I tried to get Ticketmaster up on my phone but, again, error message.

8.58am. I had two minutes to figure something out.

I’m a long-time subscriber to Gigs In Scotland and their website was working. As soon as it hit 9am they had direct links to the sale, so that’s where I pinned my frantic hopes.

Yet, they didn’t work because Ticketmaster was still responding only in error messages.

I had been through this before. I stayed patient. Sometimes you just need to wait it out and you get lucky.

Joining the queue for Oasis tickets was a victory in itself

9.16am. I joined the queue.

I was relieved. Ticketmaster was working, I was finally in the running to buy tickets for Oasis’ Saturday gig. But so were the 90,037 people ahead of me.

With that in mind, I also joined the Tuesday queue.

If I had been buying the tickets for myself, I likely would have given up. But these tickets were supposed to be my dad’s 60th birthday present, so I stuck it out.

I took this photo at 9.16am on Saturday, while trying to get tickets for Oasis in Edinburgh. | The Scotsman

10.15am. An hour passed and there were still more than 72,000 people ahead of me. During Taylor Swift’s Murrayfield concerts, the capacity of the venue was 73,000. I was losing hope.

It was at this point that I parked myself on my couch with one eye on my book and the other on my monitor screen, which loomed in the corner of the room.

11.50am. More than 49,000 people are still ahead of me in the queue. I was halfway through my housework at this point.

12.30pm. Around 22,000 people in the queue. At this point I had made lunch, put a wash on – which had since finished – and cleaned my bedroom.

Still no Oasis tickets. Though the queue numbers were dropping more quickly now. I stayed optimistic despite the little Ticketmaster update box now taunting me that only limited ticket prices were available.

1.15pm. Only 100 people ahead of me now.

And then, disaster struck.

Ticketmaster had decided I was a bot and kicked me out of the Saturday ticket queue.

Don’t look back in anger? I will if I want to

I could only blink at the screen in complete disbelief. I checked the other tab I had open. The queue for the Tuesday show was now ticking down rapidly - something which filled me more with dread than hope.

And again: Ticketmaster booted me from the queue for bot-like behaviour.

I was furious. I returned to the Gigs In Scotland referral link and managed to get through to try and buy tickets for at least one of the dates – but not until I had jumped through several more hoops of Ticketmaster saying I was a bot.

By then the only tickets left were ridiculously expensive or seated and every time I tried to select one they disappeared and I was told they were no longer available.

1.30pm. I apologised to my dad and let him know that I wasn’t able to get tickets.

I’m sure I would have been able to find at least one, but I didn’t fancy having to sell my kidney for the privilege.

I’ve never had so many issues with trying to buy concert tickets

I tried – and failed – to get Taylor Swift tickets, but this was something else entirely. At least with the Eras Tour I wasn’t battling technical issues on top of hundreds of thousands of eager fans vying for tickets.

Trying for Oasis tickets was just a mess in general. I already had misgivings about the entire situation because I can’t help but feel that organising three massive concerts in Edinburgh during festival month is unwise.

Oasis tour: Liam Gallagher (left) and Noel Gallagher

I can’t imagine how horrific it’s going to be for fans attempting to find accommodation for the shows either. I’ve already heard of some people who were planning to stake out nightclubs for as long as they could then catch the next bus home.

Buying normal concert tickets can be a challenge, but I’ve never had quite the amount of trouble that I experienced on Saturday.

Back in July, I bought Sabrina Carpenter tickets through Ticketmaster. I had a presale access code and was logged into my account, though when I went to pay the site decided to throw a hissy fit and I had to start the process again.

But guess what?

I was still able to get tickets, and less than half an hour after the presale had started. Even if I hadn’t managed then, I could have tried my luck during the general sale.

Was ‘dynamic pricing’ the only thing Oasis ticket sites prepared for?

I understand that is a much smaller venue and that there wasn’t the same volume of traffic, however it does raise the question of why weren’t these ticket sites better prepared? Surely after Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and the massive amounts of demand then, they should have been able to anticipate some of these issues?

What did they do to help out the real people attempting to buy tickets other than ask a silly question about Oasis’ original drummer?

Perhaps it was simply that their preparation only went as far as ensuring they could roll out “dynamic pricing” to milk as much money out of desperate fans as possible. Preying on those who had waited for hours in ticket queues with a countdown timer pressuring them to put a price on their love of Oasis in under three minutes.

Instead of the ticket prices which were advertised in advance, some fans ended up paying double or triple the face value prices previously shared due to “demand”.

And that’s without mentioning the likely exorbitant ticket fees.

On Friday I decided to buy a last minute ticket for Niall Horan in Aberdeen through resale on Ticketmaster. The standing ticket cost me £54.33; a slight mark up on the face value price of £45, though it was one I was willing to pay.

It wasn’t until afterwards that I realised that I had paid £11.39 in fees, one of which was a “handling fee”, which felt ironic for a digital ticket.

Niall Horan made sure to shout out those in the audience for paying to see him. | The Scotsman

Regardless, I ended up seeing Niall Horan on Saturday, just hours after I failed to get Oasis tickets. People in the crowd around me were chatting about the tickets while we waited for the show to begin.

When it did, the former One Direction band member spent plenty of time shouting out the crew who helped him pull the show together as well as everyone in the audience.

He thanked the crowd for spending their money on tickets to see him – the students and parents with multiple children, in particular – as well as acknowledging the unfortunate reality that price was a barrier to people seeing live music.

It seemed so easy to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth like that, and while I’m sure there’s money to be made from a big act like Niall Horan it was still refreshing to hear some appreciation for the fans who put these artists where they are today.

And with calls for those impacted by pricing surges on ticket sites to contact Trading Standards, maybe something will change. We’ll see.