FURIOUS AFL fans have taken to social media to slam Ticketek over a major website meltdown which left many missing out on finals tickets.

The ticketing provider is selling tickets to three of the four first-week finals - Richmond v Hawthorn, Melbourne v Geelong and Sydney v GWS.

Members of the six clubs were told that tickets would go on sale for their finals at 9am today. However, there was a painful 25-minute spell after the tickets supposedly went on sale when desperate fans were greeted with greeted with error messages.

To deal with the meltdown the ticketing website has told fans not to refresh the queue page.

"Thousands of fans are online to get tickets right now. Hold tight, you're in the queue. Please DO NOT refresh this page," one of the messages read as fans first attempted to purchase tickets.

However, hundreds on social media say they were then shown another message after waiting patiently as the website had instructed them to do.

"Sorry … There was a problem processing your request. Please close your browser and try again," the error message read.

Dismayed at the constant error messages, disgruntled sports fans took aim at the ticket giant on social media.

"Frustrating thing is I've made it to the processing payment screen twice which is where it's failed," one angry customer wrote.

"You're a joke of a league.....ticketek crashing again … same as every year … amateur league," wrote another.

A Ticketek spokesman took to Twitter claiming the issues had been addressed. "Hey guys, thanks for your patience," he said. "Site is up and running. Thousands of fans are transacting right now."

But the AFL revealed sales had been put on hold.

Several of the clubs involved also attempted to ease the concerns of their supporters.