TWO friends’ dreams were crushed when they lost out on One Direction tickets — after a ticket agency pulled out of the deal.

Friends Elli-Jayne Gleave, aged 14, and Melissa Richards, aged 10, could not believe their luck when their mums bought them tickets to celebrate their birthdays, which both fall in February.

Mothers Madelaine Richards and Dawn Hall, a payroll manager, bought the tickets for the concert at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium on Saturday, May 31.

But they were then told the tickets — bought from the GET ME IN! website — were no longer available.

The company allows people to sell on tickets that they no longer need or want.

Mrs Richards, aged 41, from Harwood, said they paid £108 per ticket — a fee higher than the cost on other sites — as it was a birthday present for their daughters.

They were later told they could buy tickets for an extra £85 each for seats in a higher tier — something the pair refused to do.

Mrs Richards said: “We bought the tickets in May last year as a special present for Melissa and Elli-Jayne.

“We were going to make a day of it and go for dinner and stay in a hotel. I told Melissa when she got back from school and she burst into tears and she has been upset since.”

After The Bolton News contacted the company, the friends were offered tickets for Friday, May 30, but they declined the offer due to feeling let down by the firm.

Miss Hall, Elli-Jayne’s mother, from Little Lever, said: “I don’t know what we will do to celebrate their birthdays now. We are trying to get our heads together to do something to match it.”

A spokesman for GET ME IN! said: “We provide a safe and secure platform for individuals to buy and sell unwanted tickets.

“GET ME IN! is a reselling marketplace for people to buy tickets to live events from third party ticket sellers.

“As such, all tickets are priced, listed and dispatched by the sellers of those tickets.

“We are extremely sorry for Dawn’s experience in this instance.

"Dawn chose not to accept alternative tickets that we offered for the same date on the tour so we activated our 100 per cent refund guarantee, meaning she has received a full refund of the initial purchase.”