[Groop] ComicCon Registration Fiasco!

[Gary Grossmann]

Hi Folks!
 
Well, for the first time in a number of years I wanted to buy tickets to the San Diego Con because we were planning a nice family gathering down there that incorporated the Con.  So I wanted to get tickets for my three (grown) kids and my son's girl friend.  We did everything reasonable that people could do.  I was on the computer a little before 9:00, as one of my son's.  We figured which ever one of us got through first would make the purchase.  
 
It never happenned.  
 
It took almost an hour to get past the firsdt hurdle and actually order 4 four day passes, then another 10 minutes before I was told they couldn't fill my order because the 4 day passes were gone.  At that point I ordered 4 sets of one day passes for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and that was not rejected, so there was the second hurdle.  It is not until this point that you actually put in name, address, e-mail, and credit card information, and I was thinking I was on my way to actually getting the passes after having clicked "refresh" about 3,000 times.  And heck, it was only 10:15, but alas...
 
I never got passed that third hurdle.  I clicked the button to confirm my order and got the "over capacity" page again and again and again.  Finally it looked like the darn thing was processing, but all it did was take me back to the order confirmation page.  So I refreshhed a bunch of times more and every once in awhile it would process me back to the order confirmation page, but the order was never actually processed.  I finally gave up a little before 1:00.  
 
In the mean time my son checked out some websites and according to them some folks were able to get 4 day passes at least through 11:00, almost an hour after the computer told me they were all gone.  Apparently the way it worked was that if the folks who ordered tickets didn't actually get them within in 15 minutes, they were cycled back into the system.  But if it was the system's fault that the order wasn't processed in 15 minutes, it means there were multiple levels of randomness that determined who was actually able to buy the damned things. 
 
Maybe I was just incredibly unlucky or maybe I was caught in some evil computer cycle and should have tried to start over again at some point.  But I did exactly what I was instructed to do and ended up with absolutely nothing.  
 
I just read on Mark's blog that the Comic Con guys are a sharp bunch who know what they are doing.  I'm sure that is true in most cases and I usually agree with Mark when he is trying to inject some rational thinking into a discussion that has turned into a bitch session.  But in this case I cannot agree.  There has to be a better way to do this.  There has to be a way for there not to be these multiple levels of randomness where when you logged on and tried to buy a ticket has virtually nothing to do with whether you are successful.  It was like you had to pick a two or three winners in a row on a roulette wheel where the number you bet on was replaced by when you happen to click refresh.  
 
Anywho, that's the way I see it.  -Gary G. (Frustrated Con Pass Buyer)  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  		 	   		  
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