Ticketek said that "it will refund the service and handling fee" to all Australian Football League, Adelaide and Sydney members from Tuesday's sale of tickets for this weekend's finals, according to Ronny Lerner of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. The website of the AFL's ticketing partner, Ticketek, "crashed after being unable to cope with demand on Tuesday morning." Tickets for both the Hawthorn-Bulldogs and Sydney-Adelaide semifinals "were supposed to go on sale to AFL, Swans and Crows members from 9am on Tuesday." However, prospective customers "were unable to secure their tickets online for a significant period of time." A Ticketek spokesperson said that an issue with payment services caused the problems but that the website did not "cease to function." AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said that Ticketek "had agreed to refund Tuesday's service and handling fee to all AFL, Adelaide Crows and Sydney Swans members." He said, "The AFL was extremely disappointed for our fans today, and made this clear to Ticketek." It is "the second time this finals series that fans have been forced to put up with frustrating waits." The Ticketek website "also crashed when tickets for week one of the finals went on sale." Ticketek "has come under fire from AFL fans in the past." Earlier this year, the company's mobile website crashed, causing up to 2,000 fans "to miss part, or all of, the season opener between Richmond and Carlton." And the system "crashed twice in early March, when tickets for the opening round of the season first went on sale." This time around, the situation on the Ticketek website "led many customers to vent their frustration on Twitter" (SMH, 9/13).
