Tickets for Billy Joel's comeback show at Nassau Coliseum are officially sold out in less than four minutes Friday.
The tickets went on sale at 10 a.m., and many Long Islanders say they didn't even have a chance to attend.
"We're just regular people from Long Island, and I know Billy Joel would love for us to be there," says Karen Baerenklau, of Holbrook. She wanted to get tickets to surprise her sons.
All she had to do was go online and order them.
She tried to buy the tickets during a special presale on Thursday, and then again Friday morning -- but no luck.
"At 10:00, it was saying no tickets available," Baerenklau says. "Not even 10:01 or 10:02."
The News 12 Long Island Facebook page was flooded with comments from angry Billy Joel fans who missed out on their chance to see the Piano Man live on Long Island.
The Nassau Coliseum's new management company was quick to tout the speed at which its grand reopening sold out.
"Tickets for Billy Joel in the first show at the new Coliseum on April 5, 2017 sold out in less than four minutes, generating one of the quickest selling concerts ever at the Coliseum," it said in a statement.
So who bought all of those tickets? Baerenklau has a theory.
"I really think it's these third-party companies making the money, and I don't know how they do it," she says.
The issue of purchasers using so-called bots -- or automated computer programs that scoop up scores of tickets for resale -- is one that artists and vendors like Ticketmaster have routinely spoken out against. Yet the problem persists.
Sen. Charles Schumer has introduced legislation designed to tackle the problem.
"They'd be penalized with a hefty fine for each ticket they sold from a bot," Schumer says. "$16,000."
The Piano Man is set to reopen the revamped Coliseum on April 5. It will be Billy Joel's 33rd show at the Coliseum.
In the meantime, on the ticket selling website StubHub, some tickets for the concert are listed for as much as $4,500.
Baerenklau says it makes her sick.
"Have you looked at some of those prices on those websites?" she asks. "They're horrifying. I can't even look."