See tickets

[eFestivals]

It was just the claims I have seen of people getting theirs at 8.30am etc. I assumed they must have been exaggerating as I have never been able to get tickets bought that far in advance.

Those claims are defo wrong. It was after 8:50 when the system went live. I can't be sure of exactly when it did, but it was defo after 8:50.

I was refreshing the page more than once a minute. Once the page went 'live' I entered all the details as quickly as I could, and when I'd finished I checked the time and it was 8:59. It took slightly longer than it might have done as I got a blank page twice during the process, tho I simply pressed F5 to refresh and got the page properly - and with doing that refresh when getting blank pages I didn't get any errors either.

[djkf]

That would be a daft idea, with all of the same problems.

Everyone would want to try to be one of the first entering their details, because if they weren't then they'd be at the end of the queue and so be the ones to not get tickets.

[DiscoDolly]

I managed to access the ticket page at around 8.58, entered the details and it went straight through.

The easiest year by far for us, its always taken me hours

[worthyraver]

I had no trouble getting a couple of tickets, tried before 09.00am no luck tried for maybe an hour no luck had a break came back at 11.00am, stopped using the ip addresses and switched to the full URLs went straight though and brought a couple of tickets.

No problem, piece of cake.

My issue with Seetickets is thus: I checked my registration was still valid before the sale, as did one of my friends, others did not. Out of eight registrations 4 did not work, two of these wanted tickets this year, of those two one was registered in 2008 with the save my details for three years box checked, he bought tickets for 2009 no problem and other had registered the week before and had the confirmation email saying all was fine.

Therefore two of my crew are in the re-sale melee though not fault of their own, the fault obviously lies with Seetickets, who can not keep a simple piece of data safe, what a bunch of k runts.

I work with similar systems all day everyday, and this loss of data is utterly unacceptable, with even the most simple backup solution this would easily be avoided, surely this is running on a cluster and a SAN in any case. In database terms this is very small potatoes, and to screw this up is incompetence of the highest order.

What really gets me is people that did not even make the effort on 04 October will be buying tickets in the re-sale that should already be in the hands or more dedicated, organised and lets to honest deserving people.

I am so annoyed with them, despite having secure a ticket for myself with no problems.

[GlastoEls]

Ticket buying was quite easy.

I'd done my homework (can't people didn't do this), and checked (and re-checked!) the registration numbers and postcodes of all six of my party a week or so before.

Up at 830, on the page with a coffee by 845 - and as eFestivals says there it went live about 853/4/5.

Was shaking as I copied and pasted all six numbers/postcodes in - and then my experience was fast / easy (no refreshing) until I clicked "Submit" on the payment page - and faced a blank page. One refresh and I had the on screen confirmation. Then did the old trick of trying to buy another with the same number and got that glorious, genius, "You have already placed a deposit on that number" message. Confirmation email came at 950. Happy days!

Then, later that day, called through to See to pay off the deposit on one ticket to buy a campervan, to be told that functionality would be ready in "about a week". It was live on the site the next day!

[maninkilt]

So far it seems that any one who got tickets had a fairly smooth time, lots of people didn't get tickets though.

Problems so far seem to be;

Tickets being sold before 9, got mine at 8:50

Pages going blank or having to refresh

No confirmation page, instead page saying that registration has been used

Reg numbers being lost.

Not sure how frequent any of these actualy were though.

What would be better?

[rischbrit]

up at 0530 and went to work. However no access to phones or computers at work so PANIC!!!!!!

However left details of reg numbers etc with hubby who managed to get them booked all by 0908 so thanks!!!! E mail through about lunchtime

Didn't find out until I got home around 1600 that it was successful... talk about stress

[Langdale Wolf]

Woke up at 8.53. Ticket ordered by 9.04 after making a cup of tea, ensuring all my party were on Spazzbook chat, checking reg numbers, taking tea up to wife (who was still zzzzz'ing), changing the baby's nappy and booking tickets.

I've had early morning dumps last longer than that.

Easy peasy.

[eFestivals]

So far it seems that any one who got tickets had a fairly smooth time, lots of people didn't get tickets though.

That's how it works out whatever system is in place.

Think about it: those who get tickets will be essentially happy with the system; those that don't get tickets won't be happy with the system.

When there's more people trying to buy tickets than there are tickets, those that miss out will always be unhappy about missing out, and many of those will look to blame anything other than themselves.

I'm not necessarily saying that it's the fault of those that didn't get tickets for them not getting tickets - I'm sure many of them tried as hard as they possibly could have done; but there's also likely to be many who didn't actually try that hard and who expected the system to work for them rather than for them to work the system.

I know it's frustrating that the system don't just work for all buyers at all times, and while its possible (impractical, but possible) to build a system that was perfect, in circumstances such as Sunday that would still lead to no tickets for some and they'd be just as unhappy.

And while the likes of Amazon can just keep on ramping up their systems to cope with whatever their max demand is, they have the advantage of being able to sell essentially unlimited items - if an item goes out of stock for them they just restock (and the money made from the new stock helps pay for their system upgrades). The ticketing world can never be like this, as there's always a finite number of tickets and so a finite amount a ticketing company can make from those tickets.

And added to that is the fact that the biggest general gripe about ticket agencies is their transaction fees - which is the only way they have of generating money for things such as better systems. So if they charge more so they're able to upgrade their systems they get just as many moans as they do by having lower spec systems and lower fees! It's a no-win situation for them.

[MilkyJoe]

Yep it definately went live just after 8:50, I logged on at 8:45 and at 8:50 I started refreshing every minute or so and after 2 or 3 refreshes I was at the buying screen. I got the same page crashes as most people but instead of going back and resubmitting I just kept refreshing and found the next page loaded up after 3 or 4 attempts. Had secured my 2 tickets by 9:05 and got the email a couple of hours later.

Apart from the fact SEE have taken two lots of deposits out which is currently being resolved, I found the whole experience very painless but can genuinely feel for the unlucky ones having been one of them in the past.

Oh and one last point I have learned that it's much easier doing this sort of thing online than queueing on the phone, I had a mate who didn't even get through on the phone, unfortunately he was nowhere near a computer so was one of the unlucky ones.

[ollyh]

Still can't believe how ridiculously easy ticket day was for me considering it was a sell out and a nightmare day for thousands, went on at 8.30am and as soon as they went on sale at about 8.55am, I was in, no 'you have been placed in a queue' or anything. Typed in the details and while I got a "Service Unavailable' message after I clicked order, it took a few refreshes and I had the confirmation page at about 9am.

The previous 2 years, I had hours and hours of service is busy and getting kicked out half way through the order form and they didn't sell out for months!

[maninkilt]

That's how it works out whatever system is in place.

Think about it: those who get tickets will be essentially happy with the system; those that don't get tickets won't be happy with the system.

When there's more people trying to buy tickets than there are tickets, those that miss out will always be unhappy about missing out, and many of those will look to blame anything other than themselves.

I'm not necessarily saying that it's the fault of those that didn't get tickets for them not getting tickets - I'm sure many of them tried as hard as they possibly could have done; but there's also likely to be many who didn't actually try that hard and who expected the system to work for them rather than for them to work the system.

I know it's frustrating that the system don't just work for all buyers at all times, and while its possible (impractical, but possible) to build a system that was perfect, in circumstances such as Sunday that would still lead to no tickets for some and they'd be just as unhappy.

And while the likes of Amazon can just keep on ramping up their systems to cope with whatever their max demand is, they have the advantage of being able to sell essentially unlimited items - if an item goes out of stock for them they just restock (and the money made from the new stock helps pay for their system upgrades). The ticketing world can never be like this, as there's always a finite number of tickets and so a finite amount a ticketing company can make from those tickets.

And added to that is the fact that the biggest general gripe about ticket agencies is their transaction fees - which is the only way they have of generating money for things such as better systems. So if they charge more so they're able to upgrade their systems they get just as many moans as they do by having lower spec systems and lower fees! It's a no-win situation for them.

[airwaves]

Wife got up about 8.15, switched on computer and logged on and made my breakfast.

My son phoned about 8.50 at which stage my wife woke me up.

Logged on around dead on 9.00. Refreshed several times at each stage but finally got all the way through at around 9.15.

Got the dreaded 'these regn numbers have been used' screen, but took that as a successful sign.

Got confirmation e-mail around 12.30.

Compared to previous years, easy-peasy.

[rostalof]

Ticket buying was quite easy.

I'd done my homework (can't people didn't do this), and checked (and re-checked!) the registration numbers and postcodes of all six of my party a week or so before.

Up at 830, on the page with a coffee by 845 - and as eFestivals says there it went live about 853/4/5.

Was shaking as I copied and pasted all six numbers/postcodes in - and then my experience was fast / easy (no refreshing) until I clicked "Submit" on the payment page - and faced a blank page. One refresh and I had the on screen confirmation. Then did the old trick of trying to buy another with the same number and got that glorious, genius, "You have already placed a deposit on that number" message. Confirmation email came at 950. Happy days!

Then, later that day, called through to See to pay off the deposit on one ticket to buy a campervan, to be told that functionality would be ready in "about a week". It was live on the site the next day!

[MrZigster]

Do you work for See? I had 'done my homework' too. I checked and re-checked all the registration numbers we were using the week before also. Then on Sunday morning one didn't exist anymore and subsequently one of our group has no ticket. I don't know how much experience you have had with SeeTickets but this is the third year out of four they have cocked up something, whether thats transport, ticketing or booking.

2007 - Coach travel fiasco - Left standing in the rain for 4 and a half hours with a constantly growing crowd who swarmed the few coaches that eventually arrived.

2008 - See didn't bother to post us our tickets, we were informed a few days before we left Ireland that we could pick them up on site. Of course they weren't there, we were given blank tickets with our names written on them and told to carry our passports/driving licences with us instead of the photo on the ticket (which we submitted after we checked and re-checked or original registration. Apparently a lot of people do this when they submit forms or make payments online!)

2009 - Dream year, despite their best efforts, we escaped the incompetence of SeeTickets. We even sidestepped the crazy traffic jam!

2010 - See lose people's registration details. Yes that's right they lost their details! Denying them the opportunity to purchase tickets. Yesterday I received an email saying that they couldn't take a payment from my credit card despite there being ample funds available. I resubmitted my details and am now hoping for the best, despite past experiences!

[smudger]

See lost two out of four of our tickets. I registered them both first thing Monday only to have one thrown back. Don't know why, it was the same photo I used last year! Now of course registration is closed. I now have one ticket for me and one for one half of a couple who says its not fair to go without his partner so either I go alone or my other mate who didn't get a ticket tries to pass himself off as the guy who did!

Yes i know I should have double check last week and am kicking myself for not doing so but why should I have to? Because See can't store data? I wouldn't mind but I spoke to them on Sunday afternoon and they reassured me not to worry there was 'plenty' left, and to ring back Monday when their system was working probably and they would sort it.....

Rang them again today, explained the situation and the girl said 'hang on I'll check. Yes we do have tickets, give me your details' Great, I thought, right up to the point when she took my card details and then said 'that's just going through now.....oh no it looks like there isn't any after all. Sorry, try again next year'

Bugger.

Edited October 8, 2009 by smudger

[tilt]

Yes i know I should have double check last week and am kicking myself for not doing so but why should I have to? Because See can't store data?

[smudger]

In essence, yes.

It took a matter of seconds to check reg numbers were valid, not that much of a hardship really!

[tilt]

Yes smart arse I know that now! Still doesn't change the fact it shouldn't be necessary does it? Are you going to 'check' your tickets between now and the festival? I mean just because they say they have your details doesn't mean you should trust them............

Edited October 8, 2009 by tilt

[Blanco]

I had issues with See Tickets. This was scheduled to be my first year, I registered back in July but they lost my details and I didn't know anything about checking registrations. Just assumed that given that I had registered I would be fine.

[smudger]

I had issues with See Tickets. This was scheduled to be my first year, I registered back in July but they lost my details and I didn't know anything about checking registrations. Just assumed that given that I had registered I would be fine.

[bubbsio]

Been every year since the registration has been in place and have got tickets every year, 2007 was the hardest, got in with 15 minutes to spare.

This year was a piece of cake, and whilst I can understand some people being upset, thats no different to pre registration years when the demand always outstripped the amount of tickets available.

As for this year, two weeks ago I checked mine and the wife's registration from last year (wasnt sure whether I'd ticked the box or not), and we werent on the system. Re-checked it the next day with the postcode in caps and we suddenly appeared. At the same time I checked my mum and dads who's regestration we had done at the same time as ours; mums was on there, dads wasnt. Odd, but I re-did his registration and away we went.

In summary, the system seemed to have some bugs this year but from my own experience and from reading other threads in here, those who checked their registrations pre-t-day were all okay?

[cally77]

I checked my reg details quite a few times before T-day... ya know, just to make sure.

And a bit of OCD to boot...

But i was determined nowt was gonna spoil my T-day. So a bit of OCD pays off sometimes...

[bubbsio]

I checked my reg details quite a few times before T-day... ya know, just to make sure.

And a bit of OCD to boot...

But i was determined nowt was gonna spoil my T-day. So a bit of OCD pays off sometimes...

[rostalof]

Been every year since the registration has been in place and have got tickets every year, 2007 was the hardest, got in with 15 minutes to spare.

This year was a piece of cake, and whilst I can understand some people being upset, thats no different to pre registration years when the demand always outstripped the amount of tickets available.

As for this year, two weeks ago I checked mine and the wife's registration from last year (wasnt sure whether I'd ticked the box or not), and we werent on the system. Re-checked it the next day with the postcode in caps and we suddenly appeared. At the same time I checked my mum and dads who's regestration we had done at the same time as ours; mums was on there, dads wasnt. Odd, but I re-did his registration and away we went.

In summary, the system seemed to have some bugs this year but from my own experience and from reading other threads in here, those who checked their registrations pre-t-day were all okay?

Edited October 9, 2009 by rostalof