Give seetickets a break

[tommyds]

Am I the only one who thinks a much bigger factor here is the size of groups people manage to get together?

Me and my girlfriend were after tickets this year and managed to join up with a group of six friends who were all trying, plus another couple.

Of the ten of us trying, only two people even saw the form where you put your registration numbers in (thankfully they were able to sort tickets for all of us).

While I know See Tickets take flack every year, I can't help thinking the system is pretty weighted against people buying tickets either as individuals, or as a couple

It's a fine balance as I know people want to go with all their friends, but I'd be interested to know what proportion of people who weren't successful also weren't part of a large group.

[Keef]

Am I the only one who thinks a much bigger factor here is the size of groups people manage to get together?

...I'd be interested to know what proportion of people who weren't successful also weren't part of a large group.

[efcfanwirral]

We had our usual setup: 21 people wanting tickets spread across 10 locations. Only one person got 'in' and secured one group of 5 tickets. That kind of agrees with the rough stats of 1m people going for 120k tickets - about a 1 in 10 chance (admittedly v rough maths here). In previous years that would have been sufficient as we would have then done the back, back, back thing to get the next group but alas See have fixed that particular loop hole it seems.

There are so many factors at play and us punters have control over so few of them that it really does come down to luck/coincidence/fate, depending on your outlook.

I too have thought about this - we use AWS where I work when we have a similar event to T-day every year, it's actually a very affordable solution for a one-off, one day event. But I wouldn't want them to use it for Glasto, as others have suggested, I would prefer an hour or so of trying rather than a blink-and-you-miss-it sale.

[dingbat2]

I hope seetickets don't change a great deal. The thought of everything selling out in 15 minutes makes me shudder. Much prefer it take 4 hours+ if I'm honest to give the truly 'desparate to go' a better chance than those who give up after an hour

[frostypaw]

I hope seetickets don't change a great deal. The thought of everything selling out in 15 minutes makes me shudder. Much prefer it take 4 hours+ if I'm honest to give the truly 'desparate to go' a better chance than those who give up after an hour

[UEF]

Seetickets is like a violent dog that keeps biting people. At some point, after another year of their antics, you have to say "enough is enough" and put the whole process out to tender with another supplier.

The idea that the same issues we get year after year can't be dealt with in this day and age, with scalable servers and rentable cloud processing, is laughable.

[Smash1984]

I read loads of different stories this year about having lots of tabs open or using a few different programs (chrome, firefox, IE etc). In the end I went with 1 tab per computer (was running between 4 desktops at work) and I got through. Still think it was just blind luck but saying that the computers did seem to slow down when I was trying to open other web pages etc so part of me thinks having loads of tabs open makes it worse for you.

[dingbat2]

Seetickets is like a violent dog that keeps biting people. At some point, after another year of their antics, you have to say "enough is enough" and put the whole process out to tender with another supplier.

The idea that the same issues we get year after year can't be dealt with in this day and age, with scalable servers and rentable cloud processing, is laughable.

[fluff164]

Regardless of whether they processed so many in x amount of time or not, many people got through to booking pages that froze, timed out etc and ended up with no tickets. The emphasis keeps being put onto record times, but the reality is there are many people out there that now dont have a ticket due to crashes.

To then tweet how they didnt realise there were so many IT consultants following them was a total kick in the nuts to all that sat there for ages.

[efcfanwirral]

But do you really want them to sort their systems out? I am sure it would reduce our (i.e. us forum folk who desperately want to go to the fesitval each year) chances of getting tickets even more. More tickets will go to people who probably aren't that fussed but thought they would try for 15 minutes and then give up. Do you really want the tickets to sell out in 15 minutes? I dont. No matter how crap their system is, everyone still has the same chance of getting a ticket, The longer the tickets take to sell out, the better chance the 'desperate to go' folk have of getting tickets, and thats how I prefer things to be

[The Nal]

Out of our party of 12-13 people, only one got onto the payment page - 15-16 times! And only managed one successful transaction out of those 15 odd attempts. Meaning half of us didn't get tickets. Even though the card details were entered multiple, multiple, multiple times. Just kept crashing.

Thats poor. End of. Unnacceptable.

Amazon's cloud infrastructure can handle 1 million transactions per second. If Seetickets set up isn't up to scratch, which clearly is the case - they need to outsource it to someone who can handle it (eg Amazon). Failing that, Glasto HQ needs to have a serious rethink. The current setup is amateur night all round.

Edited October 7, 2013 by The Nal

[Smash1984]

Out of our party of 12-13 people, only one got onto the payment page - 15-16 times! And only managed one successful transaction out of those 15 odd attempts. Meaning half of us didn't get tickets. Even though the card details were entered multiple, multiple, multiple times. Just kept crashing.

Thats poor. End of. Unnacceptable.

[mrtourette]

Glasto using Amazon...dear God...although they booked the Stones and U2 so can't be that worried about tax dodging.

[pjadnoo]

Out of our party of 12-13 people, only one got onto the payment page - 15-16 times! And only managed one successful transaction out of those 15 odd attempts. Meaning half of us didn't get tickets. Even though the card details were entered multiple, multiple, multiple times. Just kept crashing.

Thats poor. End of. Unnacceptable.

[The Nal]

Just a question, but what would be the 'acceptable'?

[marketsqhero]

Amazon's cloud infrastructure can handle 1 million transactions per second. If Seetickets set up isn't up to scratch, which clearly is the case - they need to outsource it to someone who can handle it (eg Amazon). Failing that, Glasto HQ needs to have a serious rethink. The current setup is amateur night all round.

[The Nal]

1 million transactions a second eh. Site goes live at 9, sold out by 9:01. Useful...not

[mrtourette]

All I'm saying is that whatever Seetickets current setup is, its shite. I'm really only talking about the payment part. Which is a mess. Getting through 15 times and only processing 1 of those transactions?!

For the best festival in the world? Nah.

[JBarbour]

Don't seetickets handle Glastonbury ticket sales at a loss or break-even?

So if they 'outsource' it to a larger company the ticket prices go up?

[pjadnoo]

It's annoying to lose out so close to the finish line, but unacceptable seems a little harsh. If you simply never made it to the payment page, would it be better than getting to the payment page and then getting cut out?

[mrtourette]

I think it's unacceptable to get to a page to enter some details and then be unable to get to the next page. I don't know the cost of making it possible, but it should be once you're in, you're in, and those tickets are reserved for you for a period of time to allow you to complete the order without timing out between pages. Sort of like what Ticketmaster say they do (but actually don't), but with See's user-friendly interface.

Of course people are going to fail to get through and have to keep trying, that's part and parcel of it, but to get through and then be kicked out again is wrong.

Edited October 7, 2013 by mrtourette

[HoTWire]

1 million transactions a second eh. Site goes live at 9, sold out by 9:01. Useful...not

Edited October 7, 2013 by HoTWire

[The Nal]

I don't think See/Ticketmastrer/whoever give a shit about whwther it's 'the best' or not. You're right it's unacceptable, but it's the same for any festival/gig that sees high demand.

Edited October 7, 2013 by The Nal

[MadCampingNut]

I personnally feel (after not getting tickets) that the SeeTickets system has issues every year. The system clearly doesn't work, every year there's people that lose out due to a glitch on the servers, or last year people getting in through a back door URL, whatever it is its always the same. The shame of it is, theres always people that get a ticket or lose out. I don't think it doesn't really matter how many people are trying if the system works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't.

I don't know how the situation could be resolved but it definiently needs more work. Bad as it be to others who were desperate to go this year, me and the girlfriend were within two mind as to wether to go or not. We tryed our luck but did'nt get through I really feel for people who were desperate and didn't get through. I think as time goes on people will just move on and look elsewhere other than Glastonbury, as it must get very tiresome consistently trying and failing. I feel very proud to have gone the two time that I have.

I will still proberley try in April for the resales.

[DTichborne]

I don't think they do THAT bad with Glastonbury sales, considering the demand. I've had many issues with them over the years that I can't be bothered to recount yet again, but this isn't really one of them.