Wilco

I got tix this morning. Fortunate…

It's a problem that's great to bitch about but it would be better if someone had a solution on how to actually get tix at 10am for a show. [/QB]

solution: improve ticket.com's ability to deal with a 10:00 AM surge - more servers, more bandwidth, more reliable back-end software, etc. not much we can do. until that happens, be prepared to read "We're sorry, we were unable to process your request due to high transaction volumes. Please try to submit your request again." and don't say it can't be done - ticketmaster can handle much higher spikes, effectively.

Congrats to BoomBoom!

You win the award for "D-Bag Crybaby of the Month!"

Oh, and no one here honestly believes that you'll be on the guest list, so just stop…

By the way, with three seperate sales, everyone I know with half a brain who wanted tickets got them.

Good work, jackass.

FYI those message are tickets.com way of handling high volumes… If you are seeing that message it mostly likely means that the show is already sold out. Remember it only takes a few hundred orders to be place before the show sells out. If tickets.com continued to let people attempt to order what isn't available there would be problems with lost orders etc..

Hey, at least DCist didn't spill the pre-sale password.

kosmo, i'd be cool with that if it wasn't for the fact that people (including myself) have managed to get tickets after getting that message. this tells me that the system can't handle the volume, and lets new people buy once capacity is available again…

if the message i quoted was their way of saying it's sold out - why not just say "sold out"?

Not true. When you get this message, it means you need to hit the back button and try again..and you'll get tickets :) That's from experience.

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
FYI those message are tickets.com way of handling high volumes… If you are seeing that message it mostly likely means that the show is already sold out. Remember it only takes a few hundred orders to be place before the show sells out. If tickets.com continued to let people attempt to order what isn't available there would be problems with lost orders etc..

maybe what i'm thinking about is the virtual waiting room that gets created once in awhile… part of the problem is sure tickets.com could put in all the server power and bandwidth is order to facilitate the smooth instant sellout of a show, but it would be costly to do so and result in ticket fees going up, especially if it's sittting there unused 95% of the time.

Originally posted by JohnnyBaconbitz:
Congrats to BoomBoom!

You win the award for "D-Bag Crybaby of the Month!"

Oh, and no one here honestly believes that you'll be on the guest list, so just stop…

By the way, with three seperate sales, everyone I know with half a brain who wanted tickets got them.

Good work, jackass.

Anyone with a half a brain….Well, you're living proof of that. Like I said, I will be at the show. Even if I'd got a ticket this morning, I'd still be disgusted about the lousy pre-sale/sale system.

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
When half or more of the tickets are gone before a show is even "officially" announced, that plum sucks.

"Half or more" of the tickets were gone?

From where did you get that information?

That's the problem, isn't it? Nobody knows how many tickets they sell in advance. Could be 90% for all you or I know.

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
Nobody knows how many tickets they sell in advance. Could be 90% for all you or I know.

Or 1% for all you know.

Originally posted by sweetcell:
solution: improve ticket.com's ability to deal with a 10:00 AM surge - more servers, more bandwidth, more reliable back-end software, etc. not much we can do. until that happens, be prepared to read "We're sorry, we were unable to process your request due to high transaction volumes. Please try to submit your request again." and don't say it can't be done - ticketmaster can handle much higher spikes, effectively.

But this really just translates to "There are already 1000 or so people in line already. Come back later." If you're getting this messsage, there are already a lot of people successfully connected and buying tickets. For a venue the size of 9:30, that pretty much means it's already sold out.

Even if the servers worked perfectly, you'd probably just get the "There are no tickets available" message instead.

UPDATE: or wait - are you saying you already put in your order and it got rejected after the fact? That's bad - there's no excuse for that.

I think there's only one possible solution:

Each band should call everyone in a particular area prior to tickets going on sale, using some complicated series of tests and equations to determine, ordered by how dedicated the fan is, what place you get in the online waiting room.

That way, we won't have people like sweetcell crying about bandwidth and servers, like BoomBoom crying that he didn't know about the three potentials sales that were available, or like everyone else complaining that "real fans" don't get tickets. It's the only way.

Or just put the tickets in random cereal boxes.

If you all are such big fans, just get tix to see them in Morgantown on the 18th..as far as I know they are still available and it's not too far of a drive.

the best solution to this problem. if tix sell out in seconds a bigger venue should be used.

the best solution to this problem. if tix sell out in seconds a bigger venue should be used.

…or charge $100 per ticket. You should be thankful that 9:30 Club/Wilco doesn't sell the tickets for more. They were well aware this show would sell out immediately for $35 a piece and clearly could have demanded more.

Did anyone else read BooBoo's thread from last year in which he lamented having to pay a $1.00 service charge and $2.70 for a metrocard in order to buy tickets from the box office?

i don't understand the people who frequent the 930 club.

every single time a big show comes through, regardless of whether its super hyped before the sale or a secret show, people bitch and moan when they don't get tickets.

here's the deal, people.

it's not fucking 1984 anymore. with a few exceptions, you don't stand in line for hours at the venue hoping to get your hands on tickets. you don't find out about shows 2 weeks ahead of time through local radio DJ. its the age of the internet. underground music like wilco is much more accessible to the average fan than it was 10 or even 5 years ago; so therefore, all these underground bands have a lot bigger fanbanse, and more people want to see them live.

because of that, you need to stay on top of the game. you can call it being a nerd, a dork, an idiot, whatever you want, but the bottom line comes down to this:

if spending an hour a day reading music news, the 930 club message board, and tickets.com makes me a nerd, but puts me through the doors on show night and leaves you out in the cold, that's a name i'll wear with pride.

you can bitch and complain about "pre-sales suck", "tickets.com blows," "i hate brokers," but really, the only person you have to blame is yourself. this argument comes up every SINGLE time a big name comes through, and the people who don't get tickets always find somebody else to blame.

stop blaming everybody else. we're sick of hearing about it.

i'd say 75% of this message board successfully got tickets. this is because they knew when (BOTH!!) pre-sales occured, and they knew that if you get on tickets.com at 10:04 and expect to get tickets, well, you're probably riding the shorter bus home from work today.

my best advice, if you keep up with sales and when things are happening, and still didn't get tickets, is become more familiar with tickets.com. there are a lot of tips, tricks, and other things that help you gain even a second's advantage over somebody else, which could be the difference between buying tickets on eay or buying them for face value. learn the ins and outs of tickets.com.

here's one: just because the system says "there are no tickets available to fit your request" at 10:01, doesn't mean tickets are sold out. it means all the tickets are being held by potential buyers…which probably 1 out of every 10 will be thrown back into the system, either due to changing their mind, time running out, falty credit card, etc. every single time a huge show has gone on sale for 930 and "sold out in seconds," i've pushed my way through and pulled tickets several minutes, sometimes even as late as 20 minutes later. be persistent.

but above all, quit bitching. quit blaming the club, quit blaming the band for "not caring about their fans because its not will call only," quit blaming tickets.com. and quit saying that if a show sells out in seconds, that means the venue is too big. no, it doesn't. because wilco couldn't fill half of merriweather. and i'd rather play a sold out show in an intimate atmosphere than play a bigger venue and have the place half full.

sorry. i'm rambling. but my point..just stop bitching. my ears are bleeding.

UPDATE: or wait - are you saying you already put in your order and it got rejected after the fact? That's bad - there's no excuse for that.

while that has happened to me (foo fighters - got to address & credit card page, hit "submit order", got a "too busy" page & lost my order), i was talking about getting the "too busy" message once - which someone thought actually meant "sold out" - then later being able to get a ticket. not complaining here, just clarifying the question.

That way, we won't have people like sweetcell crying about bandwidth and servers

certaily not crying about it. sorry if i sounded whiny, i was in fact trying to make a constructive suggestion. guess we're not used to that around here… :)

k, i've had enough of this. no more from me. sorry.