Random thoughts on Life, Music, and Beer.

How to Purchase Concert Tickets On-Line

Friday, May 30, 2008 - 10:51 AM

Wherein George describes the “convenience” of ordering the WXRT sponsored pre-sale tickets for the The Allman Brothers Band/Ratdog concert through Live Nation’s website.

Buying tickets:

1. Log into radio station website’s “VIP area” to get link to pre-sale site, click link to go to pre-sale site.
2. Find/click link to purchase pre-sale tickets.
3. Link opens new window which redirects back to the same exact page.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 several times.
5. Give up out of frustration.
6. Try steps 2-3 again five minutes later, successfully enter ticket purchase page.  Woohoo!
7. Select 2 tickets at price range desired, fill out captcha, click to find tickets.
8. Look up where seats are located on venue map, decide to release tickets and try again to see if different seats come up (big mistake right there).
9. Select 2 tickets at price range desired, fill out captcha, click to find tickets.
10. “Sorry, there are not enough adjacent seats available to fill you request.  Try a different seat option or try again later.”
11. Go back, select 2 tickets at “best available” instead of desired price range.
12. “Sorry, there are not enough adjacent seats available to fill you request.  Try a different seat option or try again later.”
13. Repeat previous steps selecting different options, all with same results.
14. Wait five minutes and try again.  Same results.
15. Call venue to see if show is already sold out (highly unlikely), told that they can’t check that at the moment, but they could send an email to see if something’s wrong with the system.  They suggest I try again later.
16. Wait five minutes and try again.
17. This time, it works - shows same tickets I passed on last time!
18. Decide those seats are good enough, and continue with transaction.
19. Balk at parking fee, convenience fee & transaction fee, which in total amount to almost another ticket (if I had chosen the lowest ticket price option, the fees would actually total more than the price of another ticket).
20. Decide “Screw it, I can’t get to the box office tomorrow, and even if I could tickets might actually be sold out by then.”
21. Fill out credit card, address, etc.
22. Click to finalize purchase, get error “Sorry, we are having technical difficulties with our billing system.  Please try again later.”
23. ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
24. Wait about 5 minutes and try to finalize purchase - FINALLY goes through.

I really want to know how they justify an $11.75 (per ticket) convenience fee for this.  It goes without saying (but I’ll do it anyway) that this really wasn’t all that convenient.  (And even if it were, and the website worked like it was supposed to, it’s still really not worth $11.75!)

(Note: the quotes on this page aren’t exact quotes of the errors I received.  They’re paraphrased to the best of my recollection and only serve to give an idea of what I experienced.)

Nice Freeze Frame

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 08:34 PM

This post is inspired by a game invented by Scott Meyer called “Nice Freeze Frame”.  (And, btw, if you haven’t checked out Scott’s comic, Basic Instructions, I highly recommend it!)

Carrie happened to pause the TV at this precise moment:

Now that’s a funny freeze frame!

It’s Officially Over

Saturday, April 05, 2008 - 10:51 AM

Well, it’s officially over.  Call it Karma is no more.

Laura, Paul and I met the other night to determine the fate of the group.  If you haven’t been paying attention, I’ll bring you up to speed.  First, our original vocalist (Erin) left last year.  After some auditions, we replaced her with Laura.  Then, earlier this year, Jeremy took a job out in California.  So, now we needed to replace him.

During the time it took to try to schedule something to work out a possible percussionist/drummer replacement, Dan took a job in Toronto, so he’ll be leaving soon, too.

Well, that just left Paul, Laura and myself.  With only two of those people being original members of the group, we decided to call it quits.

We’re going to put together a new group.  That’ll take some time.  Not only do we have to find a new bassist and drummer/percussionist, but we plan on expanding the lineup with a pianist/keyboardist.

I’ll update our progress as it happens here, so keep an eye out.  In the mean time, if you haven’t already, make sure to stop by CDbaby.com to pick up copy of our CD or EP.  Once they’re all sold, that’s it!  This may be your last chance to own this little piece of music history.

Oh, and we haven’t decided on a new name yet.  However, Laura and I spent a good portion of the past two days exchanging Ghostbusters quotes via email.  (If you haven’t figured it out, or didn’t already know, “Call it Karma” was a reference to Ghostbusters, and not a reference to a bad song by some crappy Emo band.)

UPS vs FedEx

Friday, February 29, 2008 - 02:59 PM

Like many of you, I live in the modern world.  That means that, on occasion, I have to either receive something via home delivery, or ship something to someone else.  Given the choice (and I don’t always have a choice) I always choose UPS for either shipping or receiving.  The following is a list of just some of the reasons why.

Reasons UPS is better than FedEx:

1. UPS is cheaper - this in and of itself would not be that big of a reason if FedEx provided better service than UPS.  But, as the following points illustrate, that is not the case.
2. We live in a multi-unit building (condo) with a secure foyer.  If we’re not home at the time of delivery, the UPS driver will ring one of the neighbors to sign for the package and leave it in the foyer.  The FedEx driver won’t, they always leave that stupid slip, wasting our time and theirs.
3. You don’t need an account with UPS just to schedule a pickup.  BOO!!! FedEx for forcing people to create an account just to schedule a pickup!  BOO!!!
4. When shipping UPS ground it’s supposed to get there within 3-5 days.  If UPS is able to deliver it sooner, they do.  Packages shipped UPS ground usually get there NEXT DAY.  FedEx will make no effort to deliver your package sooner than when they guarantee it, so their 3-5 day delivery will not get there any sooner than three days, but usually doesn’t get there until the fifth day.  If you use the online tracking service you can actually see it sit on hold at their hub for several days.  (That is, if their online tracking system gives you any info at all - see the next point).
5. FedEx’s online tracking sucks (as does their entire website, for that matter).  Often times the tracking info won’t be available until after the package is already delivered.

Why do I bring these points up?  I had to deal with FedEx this week, and it just reminded me how much I hate them.

Why are you here?

Monday, February 18, 2008 - 01:31 PM

I really don’t understand some people.  Why on earth would you spend money to buy tickets to a go to a concert, get in your car and drive to the concert, find parking and walk to the venue, and then deal with the lines/security to get into the concert, only to talk through the entire concert?

And why do we always end up sitting by these annoying people?

Seriously, why did you come?  It’s not possible to listen, particularly to music, while you’re talking.  So, if you were just going to talk the entire time, why did you bother to come?