Ticketek says it will refund the service and handling fee to all AFL, Adelaide and Sydney members from Tuesday's sale of tickets for this weekend's finals.
The website of the AFL's ticketing partner, Ticketek, crashed after being unable to cope with demand on Tuesday morning.
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Tickets for both the Hawthorn-Bulldogs and Sydney-Adelaide semi-finals 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".
"The AFL finals pre-sale window for club and AFL members opened normally at 9am, but an issue with payment services affected the speed of transactions between 9.09am and 9.18am," the spokesperson said.
"This slowed traffic and created a backlog given the big demand, but at no time did the website cease to function. This issue was quickly resolved and the website was soon transacting as normal again, but the backlog caused some delays.
"Ticketek thanks club and AFL members for their patience and apologises for any inconvenience caused."
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said Ticketek had agreed to refund Tuesday's service and handling fee to all AFL, Adelaide Crows and Sydney Swans members.
"The AFL was extremely disappointed for our fans today, and made this clear to Ticketek," he said.
"I personally spoke to Ticketek, the SCG and the MCG to express the frustration of our fans.
The refund would be processed in coming days into the account used in the transaction, Mr McLachlan said.
It's 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 2000 fans to miss part, or all of, the season opener between Richmond and Carlton.
The crash meant that those with mobile tickets were unable to load or scan their tickets properly.
And the system crashed twice in early March, when tickets for the opening round of the season first went on sale.
Last year, Mr McLachlan lashed out at the ticketing company after its website crashed twice in one week.
"While we are thrilled with the high demand for tickets, the number of AFL members who were either denied or delayed by errors in the Ticketek system is unacceptable," McLachlan said at the time.
"The AFL and the MCG cannot tolerate having our fans impacted this way. I will be working closely with the MCC as the ticketing system must be greatly improved."
This time around, the situation on the Ticketek website led many customers to vent their frustration on Twitter.
Thank you to AFL Members for your patience this morning. We share in your frustration & are seeking answers from Ticketek.
— AFL Membership (@AFLMembership) September 13, 2016
According to @Ticketek_AU online I can't even book 2 tickets on any level. No way @AFLMembership area is sold out in 30 minutes!
— cragglerock (@cragglerock70) September 12, 2016
Well f*ck you @Ticketek_AU. Amazingly got tickets allocated, at the checkout, click "purchase" & I get a timed out message. All gone now.
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) September 12, 2016
So my Dad and I spent an hour on ticketek trying to get finals tickets and let me just tell you it was an ordeal
— Kaitlyn (@katfishd) September 13, 2016
So Ticketek has stuffed up again this morning. No shock there. The #AFL really should just sell its own tickets
— Matt (@Mattys123) September 13, 2016
No excuses @Ticketek_AU . Buy a bigger server.
— Henry de Cure (@hcdc93) September 13, 2016
The purpose of the @Ticketek_AU site is to allow people the ability to purchase tickets. The fact it fails at this is an embarrassment.
— Henry de Cure (@hcdc93) September 13, 2016
@AFLMembership ticketek is completely stuffed!! 1.5 hours for tickets!!
— Lauren (@Lozzahh12) September 13, 2016
@3AW693 My Dad got stuck at the payment section and it crashed..now my Barcode says it's already in use! @Ticketek_AU
— Stephen Simpson (@Simdogga) September 13, 2016
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