Area concert fans have become accustomed to some of the pitfalls of buying tickets on the internet.

Anyone who's tried to buy tickets for Wolf Trap's summer season on its first day of sale has seen their share of time in Tickets.com's virtual waiting room. But, on February 28, 2009 Billy Joel and Elton John fans got a bit more than that.

Tickets.com crashed during the sale of tickets for the Elton John and Billy Joel July 11, 2009 concert at Nationals Park. For more than half an hour, when fans clicked on "Buy Tickets," error messages appeared. They either read, "webpage not found," or while Tickets.com worked on the problem, fans got a message that the site was down for routine maintenance. Tickets couldn't be purchased for any other Tickets.com event during this time.

Fans have very few options available to them during Tickets.com sales. Apart from venues, the only area Tickets.com retail outlets are at five CD Game Exchange locations in DC and Maryland.

Back to Headlines