What I learnt during the ticket sale.

[clarkete]

5 minutes ago, timbrass said:

Edge worked for me

Same, although it worked for me Thursday, but not yesterday.

[idb]

On Thursday’s “trial run”, I had two browsers open on one laptop (Chrome & Firefox)

Chrome wasn’t getting anywhere so I left it to its own devices whilst Firefox consistently had the holding page so I did the regular F5 refresh.

It was only after the tickets had sold out that I checked back on Chrome to find that it had gone through to the booking page on its own devices.

I adopted the same tactics Sunday morning and it got me nowhere.

[Kashkin]

What I learnt in the ticket sale was that your registration numbers can be locked via a failed booking attempt, and contrary to the FAQ that says they may be locked for 'up to 10 minutes', they may remain locked throughout the sale. Effectively our numbers were rendered unusable for the whole sale. This is something I've never encountered before, and will be something to watch out for the in the future.

[billum]

3 hours ago, Brave Sir Robin said:

3. Don't refresh the site too many times the day before while playing around with the refresh limit, multiple browsers etc - Seetickets blocked my IP!

Do you genuinely think they did block your IP, BSR? What symptoms did you have? 

(I'm asking coz I suspect this might've happened to me too on my main PC, which got white screens throughout the sale)

[tigger123]

Firstly, great original post.

I also missed out for the first time since 2010, and safe to say I'm absolutely gutted, more than I thought I would be, as it really is the highlight of my year that I start looking forward to (although naively I have now learnt) as soon as the previous festival finishes.

Half of our groups got tickets the other half didn't.

Since it sold out yesterday, I've been thinking about ways to improve the system, and I think that they need to reduce the load on the servers by not letting so many people through at the same time, given that I have seen multiple experiences (including my own) of people getting chucked off the site once they were through, either on the registration or payment page. I'm in no way technical but this to me seems like server overload causing these issues. If they let fewer people through at a time, this would surely make the site more stable and prevent booking issues like this happening. It would also prolong the time the tickets took to sold out, which I think is a good thing as it means that the most committed actually stood the best chance of getting through. I'm sure given it now sells out in 35 minutes, most who maybe only 50:50 on going would decide not to bother with a 3 hour slog of refreshing (I remember 2013 taking forever to sell out).

I also think that maybe reducing the number of tickets you can buy to maybe one or 2 would also help ensure that those who really wanted to be there were trying for themselves and maybe only one other person. I am sure there are many instances of some people in groups where their friends sort them out a ticket and they don't even bother trying due to maybe not actually being that bothered about going, which to me when there are people like myself trying everything they can to get there and being devastated at not getting through.

Also, the fact that you can newly register before the resale for 2019's festival seems really unfair to me, as these people cannot possibly have even tried for the main sale due to not having a registration, but can jeopardise the chances of those who have tried in the main sale and now have to rely on the resale. I have no problem allowing new people to register from November 1st, but they should only be allowed to register for the festivals happening in 2020 and beyond and not for 2019's festival.

[Superscally]

6 hours ago, Thunderstruck said:

You get through? We tried for some friends and got some. Timer was indeed there again with tickets held. I think it is a good change.

Negative. 30 in our group. Zero success. 

[gizmoman]

25 minutes ago, tigger123 said:

Firstly, great original post.

I also missed out for the first time since 2010, and safe to say I'm absolutely gutted, more than I thought I would be, as it really is the highlight of my year that I start looking forward to (although naively I have now learnt) as soon as the previous festival finishes.

Half of our groups got tickets the other half didn't.

Since it sold out yesterday, I've been thinking about ways to improve the system, and I think that they need to reduce the load on the servers by not letting so many people through at the same time, given that I have seen multiple experiences (including my own) of people getting chucked off the site once they were through, either on the registration or payment page. I'm in no way technical but this to me seems like server overload causing these issues. If they let fewer people through at a time, this would surely make the site more stable and prevent booking issues like this happening. It would also prolong the time the tickets took to sold out, which I think is a good thing as it means that the most committed actually stood the best chance of getting through. I'm sure given it now sells out in 35 minutes, most who maybe only 50:50 on going would decide not to bother with a 3 hour slog of refreshing (I remember 2013 taking forever to sell out).

I also think that maybe reducing the number of tickets you can buy to maybe one or 2 would also help ensure that those who really wanted to be there were trying for themselves and maybe only one other person. I am sure there are many instances of some people in groups where their friends sort them out a ticket and they don't even bother trying due to maybe not actually being that bothered about going, which to me when there are people like myself trying everything they can to get there and being devastated at not getting through.

Also, the fact that you can newly register before the resale for 2019's festival seems really unfair to me, as these people cannot possibly have even tried for the main sale due to not having a registration, but can jeopardise the chances of those who have tried in the main sale and now have to rely on the resale. I have no problem allowing new people to register from November 1st, but they should only be allowed to register for the festivals happening in 2020 and beyond and not for 2019's festival.

All excellent points, can't see them having a 1 or 2 ticket limit, but it should be max 4 IMO.

[MJP]

40 minutes ago, billum said:

Do you genuinely think they did block your IP, BSR? What symptoms did you have? 

(I'm asking coz I suspect this might've happened to me too on my main PC, which got white screens throughout the sale)

That's when the site crashes for a second, a few of my mates got it.

[Dave F.]

... is that I'm the biggest, yet luckiest, idiot around.

My experience/tips for resale:

Type out your registration code, postcode, card number and CVV number (the three digits on the back of the card) into a word document/text file *well* before ticket day. Check they're correct & make sure you know where you've saved it.    

Copy/pasting into the Glasto/See webform is so much better than typing in all the info when you're a combination of exited/nervous & panicked. There are 6 minutes to to do this before you get temporarily blocked.

You don't need to fill in your name/full address. That will be auto filled in if your reg number & postcode are verified

See/Glasto don't accept Amex

I made the mistake of not doing the above. I tried my Amex first, then mistyped my other card, I started to panic slightly. Then I realized I couldn't read my CVV number as it had worn off. I was in full on headless chicken panic mode by now.

Desperately trying to remember my CVV number the timer clock ran out. You can't believe how stupid I felt.

I tried reentering my reg number but the page told me someone (me) was using that number. I then notice there was a reset button near the bottom of the page. I clicked that, thinking I'd be sent to the back of the queue. but I was just asked for my reg again. I'm unsure how, as my brain was mush by then, but I somehow managed to remember my CVV & type the numbers correctly. I am now the proud owner of a conformation email.

Bottom Line:
Be prepared.
Don't panic.

Good Luck

 

 

 

[Time Being]

5 hours ago, Brave Sir Robin said:

1. That I should have used one of those text replacement things people on here were talking about. Copying and pasting with shaky hands is tricky!

2. Plug a mouse into the laptop, the little pad thing was not the best in a rush (or maybe I just need a new laptop...)

3. Don't refresh the site too many times the day before while playing around with the refresh limit, multiple browsers etc - Seetickets blocked my IP!

It's 'only' 135,000 punters tickets, isn't it? Rest are staff/performers etc.

Out of curiosity, how were you made aware that you were blocked from refreshing too many times?

[Thunderstruck]

1 hour ago, Superscally said:

Negative. 30 in our group. Zero success. 

woah! That is pretty scary.

[oasisjojo]

2 hours ago, tigger123 said:

Firstly, great original post.

I also missed out for the first time since 2010, and safe to say I'm absolutely gutted, more than I thought I would be, as it really is the highlight of my year that I start looking forward to (although naively I have now learnt) as soon as the previous festival finishes.

Half of our groups got tickets the other half didn't.

Since it sold out yesterday, I've been thinking about ways to improve the system, and I think that they need to reduce the load on the servers by not letting so many people through at the same time, given that I have seen multiple experiences (including my own) of people getting chucked off the site once they were through, either on the registration or payment page. I'm in no way technical but this to me seems like server overload causing these issues. If they let fewer people through at a time, this would surely make the site more stable and prevent booking issues like this happening. It would also prolong the time the tickets took to sold out, which I think is a good thing as it means that the most committed actually stood the best chance of getting through. I'm sure given it now sells out in 35 minutes, most who maybe only 50:50 on going would decide not to bother with a 3 hour slog of refreshing (I remember 2013 taking forever to sell out).

I also think that maybe reducing the number of tickets you can buy to maybe one or 2 would also help ensure that those who really wanted to be there were trying for themselves and maybe only one other person. I am sure there are many instances of some people in groups where their friends sort them out a ticket and they don't even bother trying due to maybe not actually being that bothered about going, which to me when there are people like myself trying everything they can to get there and being devastated at not getting through.

Also, the fact that you can newly register before the resale for 2019's festival seems really unfair to me, as these people cannot possibly have even tried for the main sale due to not having a registration, but can jeopardise the chances of those who have tried in the main sale and now have to rely on the resale. I have no problem allowing new people to register from November 1st, but they should only be allowed to register for the festivals happening in 2020 and beyond and not for 2019's festival.

Total agree with all your points, first time I’ve missed out in 19 yrs, I think only allow to buy 2 tickets.

[4519dennis]

We had iPads, laptops and 4G phones (Vodaphone and EE) all on the go with 6 people trying using Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers.

Only iPad using Firefox got through to enable 6 tickets to be purchased and that was after 25 minutes - thought we were going to be unlucky as we failed in main sale for last 2 years.

However, resale has worked last two years so cross fingers for others.

[Brave Sir Robin]

42 minutes ago, Time Being said:

Out of curiosity, how were you made aware that you were blocked from refreshing too many times?

I wasn't, I just suddenly stopped being able to open any Seetickets page on any device, even their home page, on my home wifi. I still can't. Whereas it's fine on 4G.

[clarkete]

7 minutes ago, Brave Sir Robin said:

I wasn't, I just suddenly stopped being able to open any Seetickets page on any device, even their home page, on my home wifi. I still can't. Whereas it's fine on 4G.

Having earlier had the holding page I had "site can't be reached" for any of the seetickets url's when trying for others yesterday from two different devices both on alternative IPs.  Didn't get the queue page again until just before the sold out message. 

I wasn't exactly refreshing like a jackhammer, so I'm not convinced that's a deliberate technical block, rather than simply some part of the infrastructure creaking due to heavy load.

[Badlands]

My shaking hands were all over the place when trying to use the touch pad to navigate between screens. I very quickly moved onto just using the keyboard only. It made things so much easier:
Ctrl + C on reg/postcode
Alt+Tab to move from Excel to Chrome
Tab to the right cell on the registration page
Ctrl + V
Alt+Tab back to Excel
Etc etc etc

Not particularly complex , but I reckon it saved me a couple of minutes and a lot of stress.

I should have put a heart monitor on during the sale, would’ve been interesting to see the results.
 

[Brave Sir Robin]

1 hour ago, clarkete said:

I wasn't exactly refreshing like a jackhammer, so I'm not convinced that's a deliberate technical block, rather than simply some part of the infrastructure creaking due to heavy load.

It started for me the afternoon before the sale and is ongoing. And as I say applies to any seetickets.com page, not just the Glastonbury one, on any device. It's pretty clearly an IP block.

[Peroni]

1 hour ago, Badlands said:

 

I should have put a heart monitor on during the sale, would’ve been interesting to see the results.
 

I might go back and check out my fit bit readings... I’m sure they will show my insane panic!!

[Tyonks]

4 hours ago, gizmoman said:

All excellent points, can't see them having a 1 or 2 ticket limit, but it should be max 4 IMO.

 I get where you guys are coming from, but would this not risk even more people going on attempting to get tickets causing more issues?

[Time Being]

2 hours ago, Brave Sir Robin said:

I wasn't, I just suddenly stopped being able to open any Seetickets page on any device, even their home page, on my home wifi. I still can't. Whereas it's fine on 4G.

So frustrating. Wish we knew what exactly the threshold is for getting blocked out

[Superscally]

4 hours ago, Thunderstruck said:

woah! That is pretty scary.

Brutal. We're organised too. 

[Fingerbobs]

I found it's still important to have the reg nos and post codes written down on a scapegoat of paper. When I got through I didn't dare go Ctrl C/V'ing and typed it all in longform from said bit of paper. Still forgot the CVV no. And had the shakiest hands yet.

[FuzzyDunlop]

1 hour ago, Fingerbobs said:

I found it's still important to have the reg nos and post codes written down on a scapegoat of paper. When I got through I didn't dare go Ctrl C/V'ing and typed it all in longform from said bit of paper. Still forgot the CVV no. And had the shakiest hands yet.

Copy and paste job for me as usual.

Im not risking typing them in incorrectly!

[HeyPorter]

The two people who got them for us both did it the old fashioned way reading off a piece of paper/having it read to them as they nervily typed in on their phones. There’s me with all me keycodes prepped and feeling like a Boy Scout. Out of all our group they were least backed to be on it. 

Edited October 8, 2018 by Retro P
Wrong word

[alibear]

13 hours ago, pnw4 said:

That sounds very unsportsmanlike!

Did anyone knowingly exceed the 60 rpm on Sunday and if so was there any visual indication they had done so?

I think I did. I was refreshing the proper URL (with 130000... at the end), which had just the grey screen (no logo). Started getting a bit excited with the cmd+R and it switched to the ...content/busy URL and the logo appeared at the top. Defo think there was something in it. Luckily I had another grey screen autorefreshing so I just concentrated on that page instead,