When Larry* decided to buy a good mate a ticket to a Melbourne concert featuring legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb, it never occurred to him that he'd ultimately be stuck without a ticket and then summarily denied a refund.  

That's because it had been a while since Larry, a septuagenarian who lives in Ballarat, grappled with the behemoth that is Ticketmaster. 

Ticketmaster was the only option the venue gave for buying tickets, and in this case, you had to download the Ticketmaster app after paying for the ticket online in order to actually access the ticket. 

Given that Webb's fan base would mostly be seniors, who on the whole tend to be less engaged with apps or the technology of the digital age, it seems issues were bound to arise with this manner of transaction for this concert. 

Basically, they have made it clear that there are no printed tickets – and I can't get the phone app to work

Ticketmaster customer 'Larry'

"By the time I got to the end of the purchase, I realised it would have to be a mobile phone ticket," Larry says. "But I was unable to get the Ticketmaster app to work – it actually said, 'not working'. I also was in a quandary because I would have to give my friend my phone for 24 hours if that was the only way to get the ticket I had paid for."

Larry then went back and forth with Ticketmaster in "a series of increasingly frustrating emails".

"Basically, they have made it clear that there are no printed tickets – and I can't get the phone app to work. They would not consider reimbursing me, claiming it was the artist agent's rules. This sounds like a load of baloney to me. No birthday ticket for my friend, and no money back."

From Larry's point of view, Ticketmaster is the business he paid his money to and should therefore be responsible for fixing the problem. 

Ticketmaster app won't work on older phones

CHOICE contacted Ticketmaster Australia for an explanation and were told that the Ticketmaster app works on both iPhone and Android devices, but the kicker is you have to have iOS16 or a later update to get the app on your iPhone. iOS 16 was released in September 2022 and works on iPhone 8 (released in 2017) and above. If you have an older phone and the print-at-home option is not available, you could be out of luck.

Ticketmaster told us that customers don't have to use the app in all cases and that some tickets can be accessed through a browser on your phone and through the Apple and iOS wallets. According to Ticketmaster, it offers the print-at-home option for most of the tickets it sells. But not in the case of the Jimmy Webb concert in Melbourne.

If you have an older phone and the print-at-home option is not available, you could be out of luck

The only other option that was available to Larry was for him or his friend to collect the ticket at the venue's box office shortly before the show using Ticketmaster's 'letter of authority'. This was less than practical for Larry since Ballarat is an hour-and-a-half from Melbourne, and by this point he'd lost trust in Ticketmaster's assurances and didn't want to send his friend to a show that he might not be able to attend. 

Larry wistfully recalls queuing up in Melbourne in the early '70s for tickets to see Jethro Tull, Lou Reed and Cat Stevens.

"Tickets were $14 for each of those shows. You had a stub at the end as a souvenir," he says.

"I just think people like me are being sold a pig in a poke. Digital is one thing, but in this case it only worked for the business that has your money and won't pay it back." 

*Names have been changed.

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.

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