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The Daily Tar Heel

Duke basketball ticket seekers receive glitch email

Students looking to score tickets to the Feb. 8 UNC-Duke basketball game rode an emotional roller coaster Wednesday night.

Due to a technical glitch with the online ticket lottery notification system, all students who entered the lottery, including those who won tickets, received an email saying they would not receive tickets, said Caitlin Goforth, president of the Carolina Athletic Association.

Senior Allison Stewart said she first felt confusion, not anger, after she got an email saying she did not win tickets.

Just 10 minutes earlier, Stewart had received a lottery-winning email, containing tickets to the game with her name on it.

“I was like, well, did I get it, did I not?” she said. “Should I even have this ticket?”

But Goforth said everyone received the second email, and that those who received both emails still have valid tickets.

“So basically the ‘no’ emails that everyone was discussing as far as getting two emails were sent to everyone,” she said. “For students who did receive the ‘yes’ emails also, they do have a ticket.”

After Goforth received complaints via Twitter and email, she said a third correction email was sent out to students who received both emails for clarification.

“We told them if they received a ticket, they’re fine,” she said.

Senior Martin Reed said he knew he couldn’t have won tickets to the game just to have them taken away minutes later.

“We put two and two together, figured it was a mess-up with the system, and that we got tickets.”

But the contradictory emails weren’t the only problem Goforth addressed. She received a separate complaint from a few seniors who didn’t receive tickets at all.

Goforth said those seniors probably did not realize that they might have qualified for their one-time “senior status” priority for the Duke lottery last year because of credit hours, and forgot to change it with the registrar.

Travis Hairfield, a junior who qualified for senior status by credit hours this year, said he didn’t know he used his status last year.

“In the email, it said, ‘Our records show you used senior-status for priority last year.’”

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.

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