U2 Fans Rattled & Huffed

Something apparently went wrong with the U2 tour presale. Fans of the band have been lobbing thousands of complaints on Web sites in the U.S. and abroad, saying that, despite paying $40 for first dibs on tickets, the system crashed.

Fan club members received a six-digit code to be used at www.u2.com when tix went on sale. According to various reports, the code could only be logged in once, but when the Web site got hit with an overwhelming response the morning of January 25th, many users said they experienced server errors.

Sources told the U.K.’s Register that 15,000 overseas fans got hit by the glitch. Many U.S. fans logged similar complaints on bulletin boards, but no overall figures of those affected were available. The U.K. onsale began at 10 a.m., prior to the U.S. equivalent.

Ticketmaster UK issued an apology to the ticket buyers, saying the time out occurred because of “an incredibly high level of demand. This resulted in the Web site, ticketmaster.co.uk, offering a slower than normal service.”

The company was reportedly contacting U2.com European members to explain how they could still buy tickets within the presale window.