Frustration was an emotion familiar to many Penn State students Thursday morning.
The 2007 student season ticket sale sold out 59 minutes after it began at 9 a.m. Thursday -- leaving many students empty-handed.
"I logged on at 9 [a.m.] and put in my student ID number and the verification word, and got to the waiting screen. It said I had fifteen minutes, then counted back down and back up, but never really changed from that screen," said John Urtz (senior- biochemistry and molecular biology).
Urtz said he finally got to the transaction screen at about ten o'clock, but by that time, all the tickets were sold out.
"Obviously, I'm a little upset that I didn't get tickets and did everything I was asked," he said.
Some students reported computer errors and glitches while trying to purchase the tickets.
"I got into the system right at 9 [a.m.], typed in my credit card information, double-checked everything and when I hit submit it said 'there was an error processing your information,'" said Jillian Woolridge (sophomore-engineering science and German).
Woolridge said she immediately went back to the beginning of the queue and tried again.
"When I hit 'purchase' it said 'sorry, we are sold out'. This was at 9:10 or 9:15," she said.
Ticketmaster officials declined to comment. Penn State football team spokesman Guido D'Elia said that there were only "minor" glitches in the processing system, and most of the problems people experienced while buying tickets came from being too far back in the queue.
"At 9:00.00, there were over 25,000 people logged into the Ticketmaster system, and then it just kept adding to that. [The servers] processed it well, but unfortunately, when they're gone, they're gone," he said.
The athletic department office did not get many calls complaining of computer glitches or errors, he said.
"Of the people who didn't get tickets who tried, the stories are mostly the same: I was in line but I just didn't get them," D'Elia said.
D'Elia said he thought the process was fair to students.
"From our end, the process worked. Everyone just didn't get what they wanted," he said.
