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.)

If IT Made the Rules

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 02:55 PM

What to do in case of User Error…

(If you’ve never worked in a tech support position you probably won’t find this funny.)

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!

Efficient Hydrogen Technology

Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 09:49 AM

It’s amazing that the auto companies have been (supposedly) working on this for years, and claim that it’s not efficient enough to be feasible, but this guy just decides to go ahead and do it on his own. I’m glad there’s still room for innovation from individuals in this country, because the large corporations just aren’t able to anymore. (Or, more likely, are happy with the status-quo, and are unwilling to innovate.)

Unfortunately, the oil companies will put every effort imaginable into suppressing this.  (I envision some laws in place by the end of Bush’s term in office that will make implementing this technology highly restrictive.  Call me cynical.)

American Beer

Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 09:12 AM

Thanks to the growth in micro-breweries and craft brewing, the rest of the world is starting to notice that American beer doesn’t suck anymore.  Okay, those beers still suck, but there’s now more to American beer than those beers.

Is American Beer Any Good?

On a side note:  It’s mentioned in passing, but I’m glad that I’m not the only one who’s not into the recent trend of “super hoppy” beers:

But the super-hoppy beer trend has its detractors, even among some American brewers. “Can you imagine a chef saying, ‘This is the saltiest stew you’ve ever tried, and you’re not a real man if you don’t like it?’ That’s what some of these breweries are doing,” says Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery in New York.

Don’t get me wrong, I like hoppy beers.  But too much is too much.  It seems in the past few years there’s been a race to the bottom to see who can make the hoppiest beer.

Some speculate that the recent hop shortage will put an end to this trend as brewers find other ways to experiment with their recipes.  One can only hope.