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Taylor Swift, now Matt Rife? Comedian's fans latest caught in Ticketmaster's chaotic presale system

Samantha Neely, Fort Myers News-Press
·5 min read

A day after announcing his world tour to social media, TikTok personality, and comedian Matt Rife became the latest victim of Ticketmaster's onerous pre-sale ticket system.

Rife took to social media on Monday to announce his 'ProbleMATTic World Tour,' set to hit over 100 locations throughout North America, Australia, and Europe. The comedian is set to launch an ambitious two-year 115-date world tour starting with a July 20 date in Bend, Oregon.

With just 24 hours to prepare for the pre-sale, fans flooded Ticketmaster's sites to score tickets to his upcoming shows. However, many quickly took to social media to share their frustration and disappointment after experiencing the several flaws of the system.

From long hours spent in the queue to inflated prices, thousands of tweets voiced their experience of trying to purchase tickets, mirroring the complaints shared during other messy Ticketmaster pre-sales in recent months.

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There will be another opportunity to purchase tickets on Friday during the general sale. Rife has not publically spoken about the matter, however, he has announced more tour dates in certain cities due to demand.

Ticketmaster has also not made a comment about the situation.

Giving pre-sale code to everyone

One of the major complaints of presale was that a code was reportedly given to everyone who signed up rather than a select few.

According to Ticketmaster's website, presales give fans the opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public. They also offer a selection of different presales to join, ranging from the usual verified fan presale to various sponsored presales.

However, the codes don’t guarantee tickets.

The codes are always entered before you choose your tickets. Before even entering their codes for their desired venue, fans found themselves in queues with thousands in front of them.

Fans compare experience to Taylor Swift's own Ticketmaster fiasco

The Matt Rife presale is giving Eras Tour, wrote one frustrated user on Twitter.

Back in November, musical artist Taylor Swift put tickets on sale for her highly anticipated new tour through Ticketmaster only for swifties to be put through 'The Great War' for seats. The presale went live only to cause a dayslong frenzy, which saw major delays, errors, and pauses in the queues to purchase tickets.

Watch: Taylor ingests insect on stage

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Ticketmaster would later announce it had canceled a scheduled general public ticket sale for the pop star's tour.

Now, many claim they experienced deja-vu with Rife's presale process, citing similar concerns about high prices and long waits.

Fans of other music stars, such as Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine, Garth Brooks, have long cast a critical eye on the company, voicing their frustrations with the ticket-buying process.

Tickets go from $30 to $300

Making their way towards the end of the queue and the other side, fans were shocked to see prices in the hundreds and thousands for the comedy show. Seats that were originally marketed for roughly $30 have since shot up to $300, if not higher at some venues.

Some blamed the high traffic for raising the prices. A few accused the comedian and the company of instilling dynamic pricing, which is a revenue management pricing strategy in which businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands.

"Matt Rife gave the code to everyone so of course tickets skyrocketed in price," wrote one user. "The demand for them is nuts."

With the sudden spike in seat prices, many said they will just wait until they find cheaper tickets or clips that eventually come out online of the shows.

Waiting in the queue for no tickets available

As more fans flooded the queues, wait times quickly rose and forced those to sit anxiously for over half an hour to grab tickets. Several posts online share timestamps that detail hour-long waits with thousands still in front of them.

Once they're finally across the finish line, zero tickets are left.

A few users mention the website offering a few seats left but once they went to buy them, they were told another had beaten them to it.

Missed the pre-sale? There's still another chance to get tickets for Rife's shows:

General sale for the ProbleMATTic World Tour opens Friday, June 9 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Matt Rife tour Ticketmaster sales process reminds fans of Taylor Swift