OFFICIAL Ticket Launch Day thread

[JayBobBoy]

On the day of the fiasco I went to the burning man ticket questions page and sent them an e-mail relating my disgust. Believe it or not...here's their reply:

"Hello, and thank you for contacting us.

We respect and value you as a part of the Burning Man community. We at In Ticketing are not just a ticketing company; we are also longtime Burning Man participants that are deeply rooted in the Black Rock community.

In the course of our longstanding working relationship with Burning Man, we have shared many successes along the way, and occasionally a little turbulence. We know that the Burning Man experience is much more than just a ticket launch and you are much more than just a ticket holder. We consider you all friends and family. Our goal is always to make the ticketing process smooth and enjoyable for everyone and that did not happen this year.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. The number of people on the site at the time of tickets initially going on sale was significantly greater than ever before. Although we took many additional steps to prepare for the increased demand, there was an overwhelming interest in tickets this year. This caused an unexpected delay in the queue, which had to be reset to continue processing orders. We are aware of the frustration and impact that this had on many of you and are very sorry for this experience.

As a result of sharing information in real time while troubleshooting was still happening, some information given during the course of the day may have been incorrect. The intent was to keep you informed, and not to mislead, cause confusion or create stress during the process. We are working diligently to correct this issue and we plan to keep you in the loop of any further developments.

We appreciate what makes this community special and wish the day would have gone smoother for everyone. We are continuing to address these issues and keep you posted.

Regards,

The In Ticketing Team"


Let me sum it up for everyone...
We got our money, your still fucked, now go away...

[smartcookie]

....

[smartcookie]

Burning Man is a bit different. Most people going to the event will come to the website to get all the details about it (survival guide, tips, etc). So posting a statement on the site should help prevent people from buying from scalpers (who use SEO/SEM to promote themselves in search engines).

Using bots is like thousands of people hitting up the server for tickets at once within seconds. Actual people in front of their computers can't compete.

TicketsNow is a competitor of StubHub. Ticketmaster bought them back in the day to compete on the secondary market, but Ticketmaster's primary market itself doesn't really have anything to do with what TicketsNow decides to buy and resell. They function as separate companies. Also, Ticketmaster is now owned by Live Nation anyway and I think they're trying to load off TicketsNow anyway because they ruin their image as a trusted seller.

The statement just went out. As mentioned above, there are no solutions offered. They're blaming it on the huge demand this year and don't mention the fact that a large portion of that "demand" are bots, which are computers and not real people going to the event.

[i]"Hello, and thank you for contacting us.

We respect and value you as a part of the Burning Man community. We at In Ticketing are not just a ticketing company; we are also longtime Burning Man participants that are deeply rooted in the Black Rock community.

In the course of our longstanding working relationship with Burning Man, we have shared many successes along the way, and occasionally a little turbulence. We know that the Burning Man experience is much more than just a ticket launch and you are much more than just a ticket holder. We consider you all friends and family. Our goal is always to make the ticketing process smooth and enjoyable for everyone and that did not happen this year.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. The number of people on the site at the time of tickets initially going on sale was significantly greater than ever before. Although we took many additional steps to prepare for the increased demand, there was an overwhelming interest in tickets this year. This caused an unexpected delay in the queue, which had to be reset to continue processing orders. We are aware of the frustration and impact that this had on many of you and are very sorry for this experience.

As a result of sharing information in real time while troubleshooting was still happening, some information given during the course of the day may have been incorrect. The intent was to keep you informed, and not to mislead, cause confusion or create stress during the process. We are working diligently to correct this issue and we plan to keep you in the loop of any further developments.

We appreciate what makes this community special and wish the day would have gone smoother for everyone. We are continuing to address these issues and keep you posted.

Regards,

The In Ticketing Team"[/i]

[smartcookie]

A better "statement" would have been one that promised to cancel any suspicious transactions using the same credit card or mailing address (2 tickets was the limit, right?).

[Roberto Dobbisano]

"Hello, and fuck you for contacting us.

We respect and value you as a part of the Burning Man community. We at In Ticketing are not just a ticketing company; we are also longtime Burning Man participants that are deeply rooted in the Black Rock community.

In the course of our longstanding incestuous relationship with Burning Man, we have shared many successes along the way, and occasionally a little unwanted child. We know that the Burning Man experience is much more than just a free-for-all sex & drug orgy and you are much more than just an open hole. We consider you all friends and fuck buddies. Our goal is always to make the fucking process smooth and enjoyable for everyone and that did not happen this year, some people never came.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. The number of dumb ass hippies on the site at the time of tickets initially going on sale was significantly greater than ever before. Although we took many additional steps to confuse them due to increased demand, there was an overwhelming interest in tickets this year because somebody spilled the beans on the whole free booze thing. This caused an unexpected delay in the queue, which had to be reset to continue processing orders. We are aware of the frustration and impact that this had on many of you and are very sorry for this experience.

As a result of sharing body fluids in real time while troubleshooting was still happening, some information given during the intercourse of the day may have been incorrect. The intent was to keep you sedated, and not to mislead, cause confusion or create stress during the process. We are working diligently to correct this issue and we plan to pretend keep you in the loop so you'll stop whining.

We appreciate what makes this community special and wish the day would have gone smoother for everyone. We are continuing to address these issues and will get more lube next year.

here, have some kool-aid, and shut the fuck up.

The In Ticketing Team"[/i]

[Rice]

The official BMORG explanation : http://www.burningman.com/news/110121_ticketlaunch.html

[JayBobBoy]

Oh my, Roberto. That was fantastic.

Again the creativity of the BM family is wonderful.

Thanks for the laugh!

[derby]

1. There's no excuse for inticketing not to use cloud computing, like softlayer or EC2.

<snip>

Will inticketing (which I know, is run by a burner I won't name and there's a longstanding relationship....) leverage cloud infrastructure? There's no better poster child for cloud computing than ticket sales. If not, then please at least shop around for another ticket sales service provider.

at least some portion of the queue/ticketing process was run in the EC2 cloud.

[test4echo_2112]

At least the "Fuck you - we got your money - blame it on In-Ticketing" excuse was posted ... a day late. There is still no assumption of responsibility nor willingness to help those affected.

How's THAT for community?

Same as it always was, same as it will be next year.

[Roberto Dobbisano]

i think someone just needs a reach-around...

[Skye2kx]

The "personal note" from InTicketing is anything but.

I understand they're decent people who did their best. I understand they were overwhelmed. I even understand how bots could be to blame. This isn't personal.

Nevertheless.

Theirs is a SERVICE business. InTicketing provides and is paid for a service to BMorg and, by extension, to us ticket buyers. And I personally know people who will likely not attend Burning Man this year because they got screwed in the queue and really can't afford to spend $320 on a ticket.

So the notion that there will be no recompense for the total failure of InTicketing's core function in our market-driven economy is unconscionable. Right? Wrong.

"Moving forward we will be collaborating with In Ticketing to ensure the queue won't crash again in the future."

Excellent. I'll believe it when I see it. And that doesn't help THIS year. Seriously, what kind of business model is that? "We do a really good job most of the time and definitely next year."

Talk about a sweetheart deal. So, please, quit with the platitudes. Show us you mean it. F-ing DO something substantive.

At the very least, refund the "service" charge to everyone who purchased an online ticket on the 19th. It's not much, but it's something.

Because it was NOT, most assuredly, service worth paying for.

[ygmir]

has no one figured out, yet "Inticketing" is working on a "sweetheart" deal, from "the hat" other highly placed person, and, gets the contract, regardless.
and, that, no matter how much we bitch, they will still get the contract, and if it blows up?
so what?
they will still get the contract.

so,

quit yer bitchin'........
no one cares.
nor a refund........
it's not there
Buy the ticket,
drink the kool-aid
"skinned your knee"?
here's a band aid.

lets play.............

[capjbadger]

The official BMORG explanation : http://www.burningman.com/news/110121_ticketlaunch.html

No promise to make things right. No plan to fix things. No detailed exaplaination of what "broke".

FUCK YOU InTicket
Your pathetic "I'm sorry" is valued about as much as the one from Tiger Woods. What a joke.

-Badger

[1durphul]

I'd _REALLY_ like to stop bitching. I really really would. But, after completing the purchase process I haven't received a confirmation email.

Which means I don't know if I've got a ticket. I don't know if I'm going to get the $240 ticket I thought I paid for, or have to buy a $310 ticket. And of course this is after I was 1556 in the original 10am queue. I spent 8 hours of my day, thought I'd finally finished the gauntlet...

[jkisha]

The official BMORG explanation : http://www.burningman.com/news/110121_ticketlaunch.html

Rings pretty hollow to me. Where's the remedy? Frankly, I don' care that they are long time burners, I want compensation.

JK

[JStep]

The official BMORG explanation : http://www.burningman.com/news/110121_ticketlaunch.html

Rings pretty hollow to me. Where's the remedy? Frankly, I don' care that they are long time burners, I want compensation.

JK

It's a form letter. They're sending it to everyone that sends an email (complaint).

As I said on the BM facebook page the day of the launch "It's not anger speaking, just business, when I say the ticketing vendor needs to be fired. They screwed up the Xmas presales, have no customer service - they actually hang up on people, and now this. Nothing personal, if I couldn't do my job I'd be fired too."

When a business fails to honor an agreement, they owe a remedy to the customers they unfairly treated, usually honoring the agreement or rectifying the difference in some way. I know this won't happen, and I'm over it. Doesn't mean I have to be happy about the basic unfairness of the way they handled this situation. I can think of a couple ways they could have "made it right" (as they said they would) but I know they won't do this.

All the feel good PR about how they're burners too and this is family is BS. I'm sure if the porta potty company screwed up and failed to deliver on their commitments there would be a change in vendors. This should be no different. The fact that in the end the vendors and the ORG get their money either way, a few thousand hurt customers not withstanding, is why this wont change.

C'est la vie. Look forward to bitching about it with folks in person.

[SnowBlind]

at least some portion of the queue/ticketing process was run in the EC2 cloud.

Are you refering to the amazonaws links that would show up on your browser while the page was loading (or not loading, more to the point)?

That wasn't EC2, those were S3 links that were serving some of the static images on the page. Didn't look like they were running any processing on EC2.

[SnowBlind]

Here is what sounds like BS from the inticket statement:

In the course of our longstanding working relationship with Burning Man, we have shared many successes along the way, and occasionally a little turbulence.

Seriously? A little turbulence? Cause I remember three or four years in a row of ticket day disasters. It was only the last two years that the queue was reasonably stable.

As a result of sharing information in real time while troubleshooting was still happening, some information given during the course of the day may have been incorrect.

May have been incorrect? There is no *may* about it. When they said "There are not 20,000 people in front of you", that was wrong. Plain and simple wrong.

[drutter]

The promise, essentially, was "we're going to make this right for everyone affected".

The official BMORG explanation : http://www.burningman.com/news/110121_ticketlaunch.html

Summarizing this, it's "Sorry for what happened. You're all our close family and you'd be invited for holiday dinners if you lived closer. Again, sorry."

Nothing was made right. In fact, nothing at all was done. Sure, I believe they're sorry. But sorry doesn't put the delicious Triscuit crackers in my stomach now, does it? Something should be DONE, not just SAID. They even told us that something would be DONE. Nothing is going to be done. Not only that, they minimized the problems and made all of us who experienced them feel as though we overreacted. If anything, we UNDERreacted.

Stupidest part is that it'll happen again next year, just like it almost always does.

Bring on the "they're doing their best" bullshit, if you like. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But if this really is their best, it's not all that great. The event itself will be incredible and life-changing, as it always is and hopefully always will be. But that's because WE make it that way. The people harvesting the money at the top can and should be held accountable for doing a shitty job.

[The Bruce]

Goosfrabaa

[jkisha]

Another thing they said in their letter is that they didn't expect problems because everything went so well last year so they just left things as it was. However, hoe could they not anticipate at least some level of increase in demand at the same time they are negotiating a 10,000 attendee increase in the BLM event permit?

When we design systems we make sure they are stress tested WELL above the expected volume.

JK

[1durphul]

But sorry doesn't put the delicious Triscuit crackers in my stomach now, does it?

Triscuits really are delicious.

[haloablaze]

The promise, essentially, was "we're going to make this right for everyone affected".

The official BMORG explanation : http://www.burningman.com/news/110121_ticketlaunch.html

Summarizing this, it's "Sorry for what happened. You're all our close family and you'd be invited for holiday dinners if you lived closer. Again, sorry."

Nothing was made right. In fact, nothing at all was done. Sure, I believe they're sorry. But sorry doesn't put the delicious Triscuit crackers in my stomach now, does it? Something should be DONE, not just SAID. They even told us that something would be DONE. Nothing is going to be done. Not only that, they minimized the problems and made all of us who experienced them feel as though we overreacted. If anything, we UNDERreacted.

Stupidest part is that it'll happen again next year, just like it almost always does.

Bring on the "they're doing their best" bullshit, if you like. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But if this really is their best, it's not all that great. The event itself will be incredible and life-changing, as it always is and hopefully always will be. But that's because WE make it that way. The people harvesting the money at the top can and should be held accountable for doing a shitty job.

Yeah, I waited and waited for a confirmation after purchasing tickets at tier 2 (though I think I'd have gotten tier 1 had I not been bumped from 4800 to 26000 in queue, but whatever). So, while waiting for a real confirmation, the tier 2 and tier 3 tickets sold out. My housemate (also a burner in the exactly the same situation, 5000 on the queue, bumped to 26000 then bought tix, got weird "Credit Card services are slow..." message, and still has not received confirmation email) called InTicket the next morning regarding both our orders. They showed no record of our transactions. None. Poof.

So, how is BMORG and/or InTicket going to rectify our situation? They said they would make things right. So let's see it. What's the plan?

[DoctorIknow]

Both the InTicketing and Burning Man response (who is this "Burning Man" who signed the Jackrabbitspeaks email?) read like they've been written by lawyers.

Perhaps that foot long "agreement" we all "accepted" to buy our tickets didn't cover this situation.

To give anything back in renumeration would be to admit guilt, and that could be a lawsuit.

Can you imagine the good will that would be generated if this "Burning Man" said to us: "What happened was unacceptable, and we will be seeking a new ticketing agent for next year."

Instead, they say "they're our friends, and fellow Burners".... clearly it's not business like at all to be all warm and fuzzy and reeking of nepotism, and selling $6.6 million (at least) worth of tickets in one day sure sounds like business, and not friendship, to me.

It's like that great quote of Nick Nolte in North Dallas Forty:

"Every time I call it a game, you call it a business. And every time I call it a business, you call it a game."

[Jesus]

1. There's no excuse for inticketing not to use cloud computing, like softlayer or EC2.

<snip>

Will inticketing (which I know, is run by a burner I won't name and there's a longstanding relationship....) leverage cloud infrastructure? There's no better poster child for cloud computing than ticket sales. If not, then please at least shop around for another ticket sales service provider.

at least some portion of the queue/ticketing process was run in the EC2 cloud.

ORLY? Amazon's S3 was used, as I noted. S3 is not EC2.

This is not EC2: http://s3.amazonaws.com/instatic/ticket ... k-new2.jpg

Roberto:

We will continue to monitor our public resources for your feedback on this recent frustrating experience.

Hope the office folks saw my last post.

[pinemom]

I have a Idea...a valid one even (I think), To make the ticket process smoother.....

Here:
We should have them just start the frequent flyers program.
We register for.
Every year they send us the postcard right?
They already know who we are!!! (holds tin hat down tighter)
Just assign us a password to pay our yearly DUE!
Ticket will be sent after payment is made.
Every January you opt in by keeping your registration open. (Are you still playing? Your taking this year off)
The first time you fail to buy a ticket for the event after saying you are, say by June 1st? You are then dropped into the General population of ticket purchasing.
Ticket tiering could be 250.00 for Registered burners.
280.00 for General population.
Going up to 300.00 on June 1st.
July-Gate 320.00

Just thinking...It would work and BM would have some projected numbers that arnt inflated by Scalping Scam Bots that Im sure is who 15000 of those tickets were sold too this year!

[Simon of the Playa]

STANDARDS!

we need STANDARDS!


it's so fucking simple...Lets go to the Bar-Code Tattoo on the Fore-head like the rest of the Global Economy...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ83grg154E[/youtube]




"oh my gosh, you should totally do it...."

[The Bruce]

Goosfrabaa

[theCryptofishist]

Both the InTicketing and Burning Man response (who is this "Burning Man" who signed the Jackrabbitspeaks email?) read like they've been written by lawyers.

And this surprizes you why?

[dragonpilot]

At least with tickets at the $320 and higher levels we'll be getting a better class of people this year...the lower classes were really getting disturbing...

the 18,000 or so buying in at the lower tiers will just get absorbed...nature's way...