Tickets for Vancouver Adele concert cancelled in Ticketmaster crackdown

Adele performing "Skyfall" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Feb. 24, 2013. (AP / Chris Pizzello)

A Surrey couple is fuming after Ticketmaster cancelled two of their tickets for Adele’s July concert in Vancouver. The couple felt lucky to have been able to purchase four tickets for the event, which sold out in about 20 minutes.

However, when Jill Anderson went to print out her tickets, she discovered that only two would print. Ticketmaster had cancelled the remaining two tickets, accusing her of being a bulk buyer.

“We haven’t been to a concert together in probably over nine years so it’s a big deal,” Anderson said.

She and her husband had planned to take another couple with them and they spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get answers from Ticketmaster as to why their tickets were cancelled.

Anderson said Ticketmaster told them their tickets were cancelled because they were purchased from a computer that had a similar IP address to another computer that had apparently been used to buy tickets.

“It took us talking to three different people at Ticketmaster to finally get that reason,” Anderson pointed out.

She told CTV News that she had followed all of Ticketmaster’s requirements. She used only one account, only in her name with her address, using her credit card and purchasing only four tickets – the maximum allowed by Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster confirmed to CTV News that the tickets were cancelled as part of a company crackdown on bulk buyers who ruin the ticket-buying experience for legitimate users. The company said bulk buyers use several tricks to buy up the best seats and gobble up inventory, then resell the tickets at higher prices.

Ticketmaster has long battled against "bots" – computer programs that try to defeat security protocols – and now it appears that the company is employing other techniques to review purchases to catch bulk buyers.

Anderson’s husband purchased their tickets on an office computer. He works for a global company with 20,000 people around the world, so it’s possible the same IP address could have shown up for multiple ticket purchases for the Adele concert.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Anderson said.

After CTV contacted Ticketmaster, the case was reviewed and the couple’s tickets were returned.

“We continue to invest in ways to mitigate this friction in the buy process while balancing the protection against bad operators," Patti-Anne Tarlton, COO for Ticketmaster Canada, told CTV News.

She wouldn’t go into detail about how the mistake was made but assured CTV and fans that it’s a part of ongoing security efforts to ensure that everyone gets a fair shake at buying tickets for popular events.