Proposed Solution to 10c Ticketing, I wanted to get your thoughts.
Veddernarian
Posts: 1,924
As a member of 10c, I saw and experienced what happened with getting tickets for the April Fools Tour. Here is my proposed solution, what do you think about it? Also, Please post adjustments or constructive solutions. Thanks.
Proposed solution:
The 1st part of the solution is to stagger the shows by 1/2 hour. So Vancouver could be at 10AM, Berkeley at 10:30AM, and so on. But this is only part of the solution.
The rest of the solution entails people logging on to 10c, clicking the [BUY] button on the desired show. And that's it. The system would take the timestamp and the 10c member's info based on the login. In other words, people would be clicking the [BUY] button like on a game show. When the number of seats are taken, the show shows as "Sold out" and the buy button disappears. Then, later on (after the [BUY] button process is over for all shows), 10c e-mails the successful applicants with a personalized code. Maybe a 10 digit number or something like that. The 10c member can log in, enter the code, and complete the transaction to verify mailing address, enter credit card info, etc. If a certain amount of time passes, and the member doesn't enter their card to complete the transaction, or if 10c can't validate a member's status for some reason, 10c could send "purchase" e-mails to runner ups until all tickets are actually sold.
The benefits I see:
- Staggered times to apply for shows would limit the number of hits (traffic)
- Only clicking the [BUY] button would limit the duration of one's login thus reducing traffic.
- Even if the system is still crashing due to the limited traffic still being too much, nobody is entering credit card info while it is crashing.
- Later on, when people are entering credit card info, this will be at a time when people are not crashing the system trying to pound on the [buy] button, and there is little liklihood of system crashes during this time.
What do you think?
Proposed solution:
The 1st part of the solution is to stagger the shows by 1/2 hour. So Vancouver could be at 10AM, Berkeley at 10:30AM, and so on. But this is only part of the solution.
The rest of the solution entails people logging on to 10c, clicking the [BUY] button on the desired show. And that's it. The system would take the timestamp and the 10c member's info based on the login. In other words, people would be clicking the [BUY] button like on a game show. When the number of seats are taken, the show shows as "Sold out" and the buy button disappears. Then, later on (after the [BUY] button process is over for all shows), 10c e-mails the successful applicants with a personalized code. Maybe a 10 digit number or something like that. The 10c member can log in, enter the code, and complete the transaction to verify mailing address, enter credit card info, etc. If a certain amount of time passes, and the member doesn't enter their card to complete the transaction, or if 10c can't validate a member's status for some reason, 10c could send "purchase" e-mails to runner ups until all tickets are actually sold.
The benefits I see:
- Staggered times to apply for shows would limit the number of hits (traffic)
- Only clicking the [BUY] button would limit the duration of one's login thus reducing traffic.
- Even if the system is still crashing due to the limited traffic still being too much, nobody is entering credit card info while it is crashing.
- Later on, when people are entering credit card info, this will be at a time when people are not crashing the system trying to pound on the [buy] button, and there is little liklihood of system crashes during this time.
What do you think?
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
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Admin
Social awareness does not equal political activism!
5/23/2011- An utter embarrassment... ticketing failures too many to list.
Definitely true. The question (which I don't have an answer to) is what extent you would need to upgrade to handle these extreme spikes when tickets are offered. And these offers occur so infrequently. I would suppose that at all other times, there is overcapacity, even with the current system. If it isn't too costly to cover the spikes with a server upgrade, then that would be great. If, however, it would be very costly, then alternatives, like modifying the purchase process, would have to be considered.
Maybe it would be possible to group the shows by area per staggered time. Probably wouldn't work everywhere but maybe Vancouver/Seattle/Portland being a group, Boise/Misoula being a group. Santa Barbara, LA, Orange County, San Diego. Phoenix/Vegas. Maybe the Northeast would be an issue with large markets close together. I guess that would require further thought.
Another simple solution to the higher cost of a server.......sell more limited items through the 10C over the course of the year. (Posters, vinyl,shirts/sweaters, books, etc) Simple solution, and I'm sure everyone around here would be happy anyway.
this is a great idea... but not one that the band would embrace by any means... Ticketmaster has the bandwidth and server capacity...but they are a bunch of crooks that Pearl Jam only associates with, because of the lack of choices.
and still jonesing for another show....
"the waiting drove me mad..."
The Ticketing System runs the requests in order, using its processing capabilities to it's fullest. This way, your server works at its capacity, not beyond it. When the process is completed... either pass or fail (failure due to insufficient funds or incorrect Credit Card Information), the user is notified by E-Mail. When all of the tickets are sold for each venue.. a click on the 'BUY' button will return a 'SOLD OUT' message.
...
The downside is... you will not recieve immediate results. The results will have to be E-Mailed to you stating whether your transaction was completed... whether your credit card was rejected.. or whether your request came in after all of the allotment of tickets have been sold.
...
You're still going to get complaints... because some people will complain about anything. But, at least the system would be fair and a little less frustrating.
...
Technical Note: I'm thinking in Oracle terms here. These are similar to things we used to have to run here, before we got our 16 CPU per Node HP SuperDome. We don't need to Queue up anymore because of our massive (and massively expensive, complicated and expensive to maintain) system.
Hail, Hail!!!
you guys know what i'm talikng about when will this end ....
Try Valtrex. It won't make them go away forever, as there is no cure, but it will assist in your dealing with them. Oh Wait!! This isn't the diagnose/cure yourself thread!! Sorry?!? Now what was the question?
"The leads are weak? Fuckin' leads are weak? You're Weak! I've Been in this business 15 years"
"What's your name?"
"FUCK YOU! THAT"S MY NAME!"
I agree, if they would outsource to T/M or somebody like that, the better. My original proposed solution is under the assumption that 10c wouldn't consider outsourcing. I don't know if they would outsource or not.
gotcha
terminix works too Jose, or so Ive heard
TMs terms and conditions are probably not acceptable to PJ me thinks
perhaps live nation is ready to deal
:eek:
are you equating me with a cockroach or fireants?
it's called DISCUSSION boys, sharing opinions. you don't like the discussion or opinions, fair enough. participation isn't mandatory.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
I think I've shown time and again that I'm open to discussing anything and everything whether you want to hear about it or not!!!
"The leads are weak? Fuckin' leads are weak? You're Weak! I've Been in this business 15 years"
"What's your name?"
"FUCK YOU! THAT"S MY NAME!"
termites actually
nah, I was just goofing around, you were not in my thoughts when I posted that
I am enjoying the debates.
Lots of people will do that. I know they think pressing the walk button at a street intersection multiple times speeds up the traffic lights. I thought about that. I was thinking the screen should have a message saying your 1st click is the one that counts. At Amazon.com, if you go to the customer reviews when you are logged in, at the bottom of each review, it asks, "Was this review helpful? [Yes] [No]". Every time you click, it responds, "Thanks for your feedback". But when you look at the tally, 3 out of 5 found your review helpful, it is clearly evident that no matter how many times you vote, even across multiple login sessions, only one vote gets counted. Something like this would have to be programmed into the [Buy] button.
no internet timer will record to the 10,000th of a second....
This three day thing sucks.
Some of us have jobs.
Nuclear fission
I didn't try to buy tickets yesterday so I don't have any first hand experience with what happened. However, I will say that going back to purchasing tickets by postal mail is not the way to go.
Ten Club needs to embrace technology. Online ticketing is definitely the way to go. I think Ten Club just needs to come up with a creative way of dealing with demand (both in terms of tickets and server capacity).
There are so many fan clubs out there with online ticketing. Ten Club should take a look at what they are doing. It might be a good idea for Ten Club to work with a third party like Ticketmaster (gasp).
What I think may work well would be if every Ten Club member received a personalized code to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster per tour/leg. Seniority likely could not be accounted for. Every show would have 2 days worth of Ten Club presale. Day 1 would be for people who pick that show as their first choice. Day 2 would be for anyone else (members) to buy tickets. Members would be allowed to use their code on Day 1 only once per tour/leg, but the code could be used an unlimited amount of times on Day 2. All shows would have a 2 ticket limit, and sales would be subject to availability.
"You need the patience of like a National Geographic photographer sitting underneath the bush in a tent, trying to get a picture of zebras fucking or something for the first time." -Eddie Vedder
Amen.
I didn't/couldn't try for tix this time. Probably the first time in years that I haven't been on the site on a ticket sale day (except Euro shows). Glad I didn't have the brain damage - like the first idea of staggering, etc - and somehow agree that a chat with Ticketmaster wouldn't hurt at all.
I think using T/M or someone like that is good. I would see it like this... Lets say 10c members get individual codes. And lets say an event has 1000 10c seats. T/M could treat it like 10c bought 1000 tickets in a specific location up front and up the sides like in 2006. When 10c people do the presale, with their codes, they use T/M's infrastructure. T/M could give 10c 1000 tickets and a list of 1000 people (the name/email/code). Of course in a data file. Then, 10c can match it against their database to get the 10c number, validate the person is valid, etc., and then allocate the tickets based on seniority. I do a lot of this kind of data matching at work. If I had a file containing the special code and e-mail address(from T/M), and another file containing the 10c membership roster, with an added column being that special code, I could have the tickets allocated in minutes. It's not that hard with the right tools. Your idea isn't bad at all. Not sure what each side is willing to do, and what it would cost. I think my original thread is more of a low cost solution.
1998 : St Louis, Birmingham, Knoxville
2000 : Memphis, Nashville, St Louis
2003 : Irvine 1+2, Vegas, Bridge School 1+2, Santa Barbara
2005 : Missoula, Vancouver, Gorge 2006 : LA 1+2, Vegas
2008 : W Palm Beach, Tampa, Who Rock Honors, EV LA 2
2009 : LA 1, LA 4, EV 1 Nashville 2011 : EV Long Beach
2012: EV Vegas 1+2
2013 LA 1+2 2018 Prague, Wrigley 2
2020 Phoenix, SD
I agree.
Technology can always be manipulated -- people with better resources (computer geek vs. dial-up-diane) will always have the upper-hand during first-come-first-served situations.
The fact that people won't think twice about "sharing" their 'special' code with friends for access to better seats needs to be considered as well.
go back to post cards and mail orders. It would level the playing field for all.
I dated dial-up-Diane once. What she lacked in speed she made up for in price.
"The leads are weak? Fuckin' leads are weak? You're Weak! I've Been in this business 15 years"
"What's your name?"
"FUCK YOU! THAT"S MY NAME!"