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Would a general sale ballot work better?


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I think the system used was good and just about as fair as it could have been. 

 

The tiering and priority periods all seemed just about right to me. The one-ticket-per-ID thing perfect for allowing those most deserving in each category to guarantee their tickets first. Well done to the club and partners for arranging all that well.

 

The general sale portion is just a bit of pot-luck bumrush crap though, isn't it? From stories I've heard and from trying to get some tickets this morning myself and experiencing it, it was just pot-luck as to whether you got on to buy.

 

- You had people who were on from before/bang on 9am who didn't get accepted through the refreshing black screen of death for the entire sales period and then some who came on at 9:10, waited 20 minutes, got on and then got their tickets fine.

 

- There were also glitches where even when some people were accepted in and were going through the transaction it kicked them back out to the refreshing black screen of death again.

 

- Some people had multiple computers with 20 windows/tabs open trying to get tickets, some people obviously couldn't. Some people were sat refreshing manually constantly, some were sitting and waiting the full 20 seconds with no kind of indication of whether either way worked at all.

 

- And then a lot of those who tried phoning too got 'This number is not currently in service, this is not a fault' messages.

 

 

General sale is always going to be pot luck and I think everyone realises that - but why not just take away the uncertainty, panic and doubt of this manually trying process and run it like a ballot instead. Works for the big tournaments. Works for the big festivals. Works for things like Wimbledon, etc.

 

Everyone on general sale could apply on a website with their Client IDs, payment details, etc. The system then randomly selects the requisite number of applications to process payment and allocate tickets. If you're successful, you get a confirmation email, if unsuccessful you get a 'sorry' email. If your payment is rejected or doesn't work, then tough luck and it goes to someone else.

 

Saves thousands of people ramming the websites at the same time and going through the pain of trying at least.

 

 

Just a thought, anyway...

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I get your point, but which festivals run it like that?

Glasto is by far the biggest in the UK and it's virtually the same - just with pre-registration instead of an ID. The traffic is so much higher but the issues are consistent

I think by the time you get to this level of sale a free for all is the way to go

The only think I'd maybe like to see is some ability to buy at the ticket office for those not so au fait or able to buy online. Not sure how you police that - but I bet there are people who supported us for 50 years not going because they didn't have the wherewithal to buy online

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General sale was made worse by thousands with higher priority who had forfeited it to try and get tickets together with family and friends.

 

We know that this did happen because in theory it could've been sold out to the 100+ priority category.

 

Yet even this morning there were 5k left.

 

So an extra level of priority before general sale where anyone who has higher priority who has forfeited it to wait for general sale gets to buy 2 (with an extra valid ID) might have worked a bit better.

 

Would also have guaranteed no touts who signed up at 11pm last night with 8 ID's could get lucky whilst so many genuine fans are still trying to buy.

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Should there have been an earlier cut-off for IDs to be eligible for general sale?

 

i.e. you could only buy general sale if you had a registered ID before the end of the play-off semi final.

 

Could add an extra tier later for those who registered after that, I suppose - IF there were any tickets left at that time (doubtful?).

 

I'm a little uncomfortable that someone who registered an ID at midnight last night having never had one before was potentially able to get a ticket before (or at least at the same time as) someone who had an ID several years ago.

 

But again, this is just nitpicking.

Edited by Deejayone
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Should there have been an earlier cut-off for IDs to be eligible for general sale?

 

i.e. you could only buy general sale if you had a registered ID before the end of the play-off semi final.

 

Could add an extra tier later for those who registered after that, I suppose - IF there were any tickets left at that time (doubtful?).

 

I'm a little uncomfortable that someone who registered an ID at midnight last night having never had one before was potentially able to get a ticket before (or at least at the same time as) someone who had an ID several years ago.

 

But again, this is just nitpicking.

 

 

Towards the end then the granularity got quite fine - 50 points, 20 points, 10 points. Which all worked well.

 

Then carnage.

 

If anything, there was no need for the level of granularity earlier on - could've just gone straight to all ST holders.

 

That would've allowed time for some extra categories later.

 

0 points but any purchase history ever could've been used for sure...

Edited by nebneeb
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All worked well.

 

Towards the end then the granularity got quite fine - 50 points, 20 points, 10 points.

 

Then carnage.

 

If anything, there was no need for the level of granularity earlier on - could've just gone straight to all ST holders.

 

That would've allowed tome for some extra categories later.

 

0 points but any purchase history ever could've been used for sure...

 

 

All fair points.

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It's just how it goes when the demand far outstrips the supply of tickets.

 

Those who try for Glastonbury have the same issues, I've experienced that heartache myself. Getting to the queue page, constantly refreshing, opening new tabs/browsers etc.

 

When it gets to the point that GS was at, it really is pot luck.

 

It's sad to see.

 

Maybe a cut-off point for ID registration may have helped. It seemed a lot of people weren't aware that they needed a Client ID for tickets.

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The shock of the new meant complications but only in so far as wanting to sit with friends/needing ID. Won't happen again and apart from that I think the process has been excellent....oh and they need more staff on the phones/more phone lines.

Edited by Freshfish
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Towards the end then the granularity got quite fine - 50 points, 20 points, 10 points. Which all worked well.

 

Then carnage.

.

Agreed.  I was like many - had points but zero on other client ID for lad.  The lesson is to make sure that the points get put on all IDs in future.

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Would like to see Wednesday use SEE Tickets going forward. The site coped with the demand at every priority entry point, it was easy to use, and the booking fees are reasonable.

IF we get to the Premier League, we'll have 30,000 Wednesday fans inside Hillborough every home game, with the demand twice the capacity for some games. Not sure our in-house operation would cope with that.

The Club & SEE Ticket couldn't have done it any better.

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Guest OllieS95

All the points raised here are perfectly fine but I still think sales at the ticket office are fairer IF people aren't arseholes i.e. I was on the website from half 8 this morning counting down the seconds until 9 o'clock to start trying to buy my tickets and got in but kicked out straight away because my dad's ID got declined for some unknown reason, went to the ticket office to try and find out if it was wrong but was given the exact same one whereas I can near enough guarantee people who weren't as prepared as me would have gotten tickets. I believe that, if the sales went through the ticket office, people would have to queue for a while but their would be no bias on position in said queue (if people didn't just push in further up the queue when they saw their mates, refer to previous statements about them being arseholes)

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Nothing wrong with way allocation sold just the way they were split in the first place.

What would you have liked to see different? I thought the priority/ allocation split was spot on.

One thing I would like to see, but not sure if it is possible, is banning the re-distribution of ID's for people to jump the queuing system (despite me almost using an ID to bump me up the queue and giving away an ID to bump someone else up the queue).

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Would like to see Wednesday use SEE Tickets going forward. The site coped with the demand at every priority entry point, it was easy to use, and the booking fees are reasonable.

IF we get to the Premier League, we'll have 30,000 Wednesday fans inside Hillborough every home game, with the demand twice the capacity for some games. Not sure our in-house operation would cope with that.

The Club & SEE Ticket couldn't have done it any better.

 

Wouldn't want to see a booking fee being applied on top of match day costs.

 

With some upgrading of the servers or just paying for some flexible cloud solution it could all be done in house.

 

Step 1 would be doing away with the clunky flash based diagrams that hammer the bandwidth even on medium loads.

 

Also interesting that this morning See actually couldn't cope at all anyway...!

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Agreed.  I was like many - had points but zero on other client ID for lad.  The lesson is to make sure that the points get put on all IDs in future.

 

Yes harsh lesson to learn, my wife is unable to go to most saturday matches due to work commitments so I bought the

midweek ones and occasional Saturday ones through my account and never realised you needed to allocate the points.

 

Got my own last Wednesday but missed out in this mornnings scramble for her. Will get her membership in future.

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Would like to see Wednesday use SEE Tickets going forward. The site coped with the demand at every priority entry point, it was easy to use, and the booking fees are reasonable.

IF we get to the Premier League, we'll have 30,000 Wednesday fans inside Hillborough every home game, with the demand twice the capacity for some games. Not sure our in-house operation would cope with that.

The Club & SEE Ticket couldn't have done it any better.

But fell down at GS.  I like being able to print at home and not worry about tickets getting lost in the post.

 

Agree that the club won't have been geared up to handle the sales like SEE, but hope that the existing system will be resilient enough in the future.  We'll see.

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I don't think a ballot is necessarily the best solution but I do think SeeTickets could've done a better job.  From what I have read they were great until 9am today, when their site went into meltdown.  I know the demand far outstripped the supply, which wasn't their fault, but the lack of a queueing system did add to the chaos and frustration. 

 

I could've coped with a ticking down 'You are number 6359 in the queue, thank you for your patience' screen but staring at the 'We are currently processing the maximum number of orders' black screen of death for over two hours while the website seemingly selected ticket hunters at random until the 'sold out' posts on Owlstalk started appearing was horrible.  I had my ID number and postcode entered and ready to start hitting refresh from 8.30 this morning too.

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Wouldn't want to see a booking fee being applied on top of match day costs.

With some upgrading of the servers or just paying for some flexible cloud solution it could all be done in house.

Step 1 would be doing away with the clunky flash based diagrams that hammer the bandwidth even on medium loads.

Also interesting that this morning See actually couldn't cope at all anyway...!

But, the fee worked out at what, about £4 including standard postage? If you arrange to collect from the TO or print online, the fee is next to nothing - for a great service.

It's paying for crap service I don't like!

If the Club was to invest in the upgrades you mention, the Club might add their own booking fee to pay for the upgrade?

Be interesting to see how we go forward - the current system isn't capable for our Club moving forward, that's for sure!

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