TicketWeb event ticket sales. Or should I say non-sales?
May 29th, 2006
I was trying buy a ticket for the upcoming Erotica-LA convention in Los Angeles. Tickets for this particular event are only being sold through the TicketWeb website. So I navigated to the correct date/time for this particular event and clicked on the Buy Now button. So far, so good. It took me to the Order Tickets page, just as one would expect it to. I tell ya, they really think of everything! Woo!
Now, herein lies the problem. On the Order Tickets page are 4 sections for the user to fill out (see screenshot). First they ask the user for an optional “Access Code.” OK, I have no idea what that is, but it’s optional. Let’s skip it. Next we have the “Type Of Tickets” area. Umm, this is just an empty area of the screen. Must be optional as well. Skipped this one too. Next up is the “Delivery Type.” Pretty straight forward here, even I can figure this one out. Let’s go with the mail option to save ourselves a buck-twenty-five. We’ll use that to buy a soda at the show. And finally, the classic “Terms and Conditions.” Blah, blah, first born child, blah, blah, blah. Yup looks pretty standard. I agree. Check. Let’s add this bad boy to our cart!
*thunk*
Huh!? Waa happened? Oh an error message, I musta goofed.
Ah ha! I need to select the quantity of tickets I want to purchase me thinks to meself. Let’s see, I must have overlooked that field the first time through. Hmm, scanning. scanning. scanning. Huh!?
*dur*
Nope, no field for quantity. Nothing. I’m stuck. Can’t buy tickets. Crap. OK, time to fire up the trusty ol’ “Contact Us” page and send off an email to the ever so helpful man behind the curtain. I crafted a well documented email explaining the situation and my inability to purchase tickets. Clicked the Send button and now we just sit back and wait….
Surprisingly only an hour or so later I had a response waiting for me in my inbox. And it read:
Thank you for contacting TicketWeb. If it does not allow you to select the number of tickets yo wish to purchase, it means that there are no longer any tickets available. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.
Please go to [URL removed] to let us know whether you would like to accept this resolution.
HECK NO I DON’T ACCEPT! You’re website made me feel like an IDIOT for not being able to figure out what I was doing wrong. Pssht, the fact that it made me even question myself and my ability to figure out a simple e-commerce website is totally unacceptable.
TicketWeb if you are reading this I have an idea for you. Check it. If there are “no longer any tickets available” how about TELLING THE USER that there are “no longer any tickets available”!?
Genius! I should win an award for that idea.
To any other companies that run websites for the sake of making it EASIER for your customers to conduct business with you, just tell us the the truth, and yes we CAN handle the truth Jack.
“Make it easy for me to give you my money.”
