If you’ve ever tried to buy tickets on Ticketmaster, you may have noticed your order gets stuck in the “in progress” stage for a while before the tickets are secured. There are a few common reasons why your Ticketmaster ticket order may stay pending before completion:
High Demand for the Event
The most common reason your Ticketmaster order gets held up in the “in progress” status is that there is high demand and competition for the event tickets you’re trying to buy. When a particularly popular concert, show, or game goes on sale, thousands or even millions of other fans may be trying to purchase tickets at the same exact time. This creates a bottleneck where Ticketmaster has to process an abnormally high volume of orders simultaneously through their system. That can lead to delays in finalizing ticket orders.
During high demand onsales, Ticketmaster puts a queuing system in place and will advance your place in line as capacity opens up. So even though your order says “in progress,” you’re still moving forward. It just takes longer to fully process the purchase when their servers are slammed with traffic all at once. As long as your order doesn’t eventually time out or get canceled, your place is still preserved to get those coveted tickets.
Verification Steps
Ticketmaster purposefully puts a hold on some orders to perform extra verification and screening. This is done to help prevent unfair ticket buying practices like scalping bots or repeatedly exceeded purchase limits. The “in progress” state gives their system more time to confirm the validity and integrity of your order before tickets are officially issued. This doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong with your purchase attempt. More likely, it’s just being held temporarily during enhanced scanning as a precaution before fulfillment.
Payment Processing Issues
In some cases, a purchase may get stuck pending if there is a problem processing your payment. Perhaps your credit card issuer initially declined the transaction. Or there’s an authorization hold on your account preventing the charge from going through fully. The order cannot complete until payment is settled. You may need to check with your bank or card provider to allow the charge and remove any blocks if you want your in-progress order to be finalized.
Technology Problems
With millions of visitors flooding Ticketmaster at the same time during busy onsales, site performance can become bogged down leading to timeouts and frozen pages. Their servers may be overloaded and unable to display updates on your order status. Network connectivity problems on your end could also prevent information from syncing properly. Tech hiccups like these can trap an order in the intermediate “in progress” phase rather than advancing it. Usually these issues are temporary and resolved relatively quickly once traffic dies down or any outages are addressed.
Manual Review
For various reasons, Ticketmaster may flag certain orders for additional manual review before fulfillment. This allows their Risk Operations team to take a closer look at the purchase and check for suspicious activity or violations of terms. If selected for review, your order will stay in progress until fully vetted by their staff – this may take a few hours or days depending on volume. As long as your order is legitimate, it should eventually be approved and pushed through. The “in progress” status just means it is pending that final verification.
Queue Position
To help allocate scarce high-demand tickets fairly, Ticketmaster may assign queue positions to orders as they come in to determine fulfillment priority. Even if your transaction started processing right away, it may have been placed further back in the waiting line. You’ll have to wait for orders ahead of yours to be completed first before your turn. The “in progress” status indicates your order is in the queue but not at the front yet. As long as your position holds, your transaction should still go through in due time.
Troubleshooting Your Order
If your Ticketmaster order has been stuck in progress for an unusually long time, take the following troubleshooting steps:
- Refresh your browser – this may update the displayed status
- Check your email spam folder for any messages from Ticketmaster about your order
- Contact Ticketmaster Fan Support to check if they can expedite your order
- Verify your payment information is correct if processing issues are suspected
- Cancel and re-attempt the order if it’s gotten severely stuck
Preventing Issues in the Future
You can avoid or minimize Ticketmaster order delays in the future by:
- Logging into your Ticketmaster account ahead of the onsale time
- Entering your payment details into your account wallet beforehand for faster checkout
- Using mobile apps instead of the desktop site which tend to run smoother
- Getting to the virtual “waiting room” at least 1 hour prior to the presale time
- Refreshing constantly if you lose connection to maintain your place in line
- Being flexible about number of tickets if it helps you get confirmed faster
Is My Order Guaranteed?
No order is 100% guaranteed until ticket delivery is confirmed. Even if your purchase goes through, there are cases where Ticketmaster may have to later cancel and refund orders that get flagged for review. Some common reasons they could revoke a completed order include:
- Suspected bots or bulk buying schemes
- Personal ticket limits were exceeded
- Duplicate orders or multiple accounts used
- Fake names or information entered
- Errors in ticket quantities, prices, or selections
That said, the large majority of orders do successfully finalize if given enough time to process properly. The “in progress” status is usually just a waiting phase and your order should still likely go through. But until you receive ticket delivery confirmation, there is still a risk of cancellation.
How Long Does “In Progress” Last?
There is no definitive timeframe for how long orders may be stuck in the “in progress” status as it depends on many variables:
Factor | Impact on Order Processing Speed |
---|---|
Initial demand and traffic volume | Higher demand = Slower order processing |
Queue position assigned | Further back in queue = Longer wait |
Payment verification requirements | Extra verification = Increased delay |
Technical problems | Errors and timeouts = Order stuck longer |
Manual fraud review needed | Review required = Hours to days delay |
During extremely high-volume onsales, it’s not uncommon for orders to remain “in progress” for multiple hours. Less popular events may only be a few minutes. There’s no guarantee either way until your order is finalized.
What Should I Do While My Order Processes?
While you wait for your Ticketmaster purchase to finish processing, here are some tips on what to do in the meantime:
- Keep your device active and connected: Don’t let your computer or phone go idle or lose connection, as this could reset your transaction if a timeout occurs.
- Avoid refreshing excessively: Refreshing your browser often could lose your place in line or restart your order.
- Check for status updates periodically: Do refresh periodically to check for any status changes, but avoid doing so constantly.
- Don’t start a new order: Beginning a new transaction could overwrite your pending order or get you sent to the back of the queue again.
- Contact support with order number ready: If it has been an excessive hold time, reach out to Ticketmaster to investigate.
- Stay patient but have backup plans: The process may just take time. But also look at secondary ticket sources in case your order falls through.
Remaining vigilant yet patient is key – you want to sustain your place in line but also not obsessively panic. With any luck your “in progress” order will finalize within a reasonable waiting period.
Next Steps If Your Order is Cancelled
If after prolonged “in progress” status your Ticketmaster order gets cancelled, don’t lose hope yet. You have options:
- Contact customer support: Check if they can reinstate your order or offer any compensation for the cancellation.
- Restart the process: Begin a brand new order again if inventory is still available.
- Find alternate sellers: Check secondary ticket marketplaces like StubHub for seats.
- Get waitlisted: Join the waitlist on Ticketmaster to get notified if new batches of tickets are released.
- Consider other dates/venues: Expand your search for tickets to other tour dates or locations.
- Become informed on presales: Research tips and tricks for presale access opportunities to buy before general public.
With persistence and flexibility, there are usually other paths to get tickets even if your initial Ticketmaster order falls through after being “in progress” for a long time.
Conclusion
To summarize key points:
- The “in progress” order status on Ticketmaster means your transaction is pending and has not finalized yet
- High demand, queue positions, payment issues, technical problems, and fraud reviews can delay order processing
- No definitive time frame exists for how long “in progress” will last before completion
- Have patience but keep your device active and connected while monitoring periodically
- If canceled after a long wait, contact support and pursue backup ticket options
Ultimately, expect delays when buying hot tickets but don’t lose hope even if stuck “in progress” for a while. With persistence your order should eventually process in most cases.