I have several friends who are die-hard fans of the Tragically Hip and were extremely disgruntled after pre-sale tickets were sold out in a matter of seconds.

Ticketmaster has since tried to appease fans -- those left in the dust just days ago -- with a 'Tips' page which lists a series of recommendations on how to purchase tickets successfully.

The only helpful tip was to choose the “Best Available” option while searching for seats. Rather than being slowed down by specific seat selection the “Best Available” option will allow your search to be more efficient, ultimately promising to spare the purchaser a mere 10 seconds of time, a precious 10 seconds that can potentially beating out thousands of others.

The tip was accompanied by a strict warning to not refresh your page -- a common mistake made by a panicked fan desperate to move at a quicker pace.

I read, understood and intended to implement all the recommendations.

As a true fan of the Canadian band, I was hopeful that I would be one of the lucky ones who would soon be in possession of two tickets to their final tour.

At 10:00 a.m. I attempted to buy tickets for the any of the three Toronto shows scheduled for the Man Machine Poem Tour.

Within seconds of the open sales I was already stalled by an unfortunate and lengthy questionnaire to prove 'I was not a robot.'

It was similar to playing a never ending game of whack-a-mole. The pop-up window would not let me advance until I clicked on nearly 40 photos of different kinds of food.

I was already extremely frustrated and I hadn’t even made it past the first obstacle.

A long 45 seconds later I completed the roadblock, but it was already too late.

By 10:01 a.m. I had requested 2 tickets without preference of section, seat or price.

I was instantly notified that I was among a long list of people requesting tickets.

By 10:02 a.m., the page said that there were no seats available. After a mere two minutes, not even a single balcony seating option was available to me.

A pop up then appeared on the page and offered me the final remaining tickets -- three platinum floor seats at $875.00 each.

I started to back track and began the entire process on the two other Toronto dates offered.

At the August 10 ticket page, I was again notified that the only available space was at the floor level. The August 10 price tag sat at $1,150.00 each.

The process left me empty-handed and with no chance of purchasing affordable tickets on the Ticketmaster site.

Immediately after trying my odds with Ticketmaster, I made my way to Stubhub.

Stubhub, at that time, had nearly 4,000 tickets across the three August dates still available for purchase.

Balcony tickets located in the furthest position from the stage were starting from US$165.00, with the vast majority of the prices in those undesirable sections averaging around US$200.

As a fan of the Tragically Hip, I was infuriated that the true supporters of the band were being muscled out of the ticket purchasing process before it even opened.

We (fans across Ontario) never even stood a chance.

And I'm not the only one, many fans across the country are seeing similar results.

Few were lucky enough to get their own.

Meanwhile, others say true fans will buck up and pay the price.