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Previous: Shower signs | Main | Next: Laminate flooring package
November 17, 2005 09:41 PM
Broken: Ticketmaster.com inventory
Two talking frogs point out that Ticketmaster's inventory system isn't what it could be...
Ticketmaster itself is broken. They charged me eleven extra dollars for the "privelege" of ordering tickets through their website and then having them mail them to me in the cheapest way possible (i.e. no expedited shipping, plain white envelope, etc) and THEN, to top it all off, they had the termerity to put a pamphlet about ProActive in the envelope with my ticket.
I wouldn't mind paying a small fee for online ordering -- say, five bucks -- to cover processing and mailing fees (which, since they're a big company, shouldn't be _that_ expensive), but eleven dollars? And I already get waaaay too many ads in various publications, I don't need more, unsolicited crap in with my ticket.
Ticketmaster also prevents you from just buying the tickets without getting the "processing fee." They should just include the processing fee in the cost.
The animation page is broken. When the sound has not yet started to load, the status line says "Sound: NaN Percent Loaded".
Ticketmaster is broken.
ticketmaster is a tool of satan
ticketmaster is a sign of the Apocalypse
ticketmaster sucks
It just shows that paul alen is a greedy spaz
did I mention that ticketmaster sucks and paul alen is a greedy spaz with dorkish overtones?
can anyone explain to me how ticketmaster is not considered a monopoly? how are they not breaking that law?!
Ticketmaster is basically a monopoly and obviously doesn't care about user experience, and is apparently too cheap to spend an hour fixing their interface.
I'm surprised there haven't been more people talking about how broken the frogs are to begin with. They do have a point, however, that ticketmaster should have the decency of saying straight up "hey, this concert is completely sold out. Check back soon to see if we have more tickets come in"
I don't feel like watching frogs, flash, or any kind of animation.
Can someone summarize what's broken for us lazy folk that are not amused by the animation?
Ticketmaster is in fact evil- I'm sure there's quite a bit.
what ever happened to celebrities boycotting ticketmaster because they were monopolizing the performance/concert industry? Its like legal scalping- it sucks what little fun in going to the show is left after paying too much for tickets, too much for processing, too much for parking, drinks, food and shity seats- things have gotten so lame...
ambrocked - "can anyone explain to me how ticketmaster is not considered a monopoly? how are they not breaking that law?!"
Actually I can. Monopolies are not illegal. Only certain kinds of abuse of monopoly power in a market are illegal.
That's not to say that Ticketmaster doesn't suck, because it does. For example, I went to a Ticketmaster outlet and waited half an hour in the rain for it to open up and sell Stones tickets, which "sold out" in 11 minutes, while I was still about five people back in line. But I was able to go home and get tickets online later in the day. Maybe I'll provide an update next week after the show, after I see whether my seats were any good.
OK, it was cute but there is a reason to check back often....especially near the date of the show. Often record companies, radio stations, producers, etc. reserve a block of tickets for a show. Frequently they return tickets they are not going to use. Ticketmaster then puts them up for sale. You don't have a big chance of getting in by checking back often, but there is *some* chance.
But it IS illegal! (I shortened this. You can read the full text at the link below it)
US code title 15, chapter 1 section 2:
Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize... any part of the trade or commerce among the several States... shall be deemed guilty of a felony...
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode15/usc_sec_15_00000002----000-.html
OK, let's think about this monopoly issue for a minute.
I start a business where fat guys mow people's lawns in bikinis for $20/minute. Amazingly, I find a few people in the US who will pay for this, and business is good. (Hey, $20/minute adds up fast.)
Shockingly enough, either no other businesses have chosen to provide this service, or other businesses have tried and failed. So, ten years later, I'm the only bikini-clad-fat-gardner business in the US.
Do I have a monopoly? Yes. But, I've done nothing to squelch legitimate competition, so I do not have an illegal monopoly.
But the act of having a monopoly is squelching legitimate competition.
Because when someone has a monopoly, they control al of the biusiness in that area.
I.E. Standard Oil
Also, Karen. I thing that the fat bikini clad thing would be OK but a monopoly on lawn car would be illegal.
Having a monopoly in the US is in itself not illegal. Attempting to monopolize an interstate trade or service is. Penalizing the entrepreneur for making a product or service good enough so that it is freely preferred over all others, or for naturally being the sole provider of such, would kill innovation and eventually capitalism. So Ticketmaster would only be convicted in antitrust court if it attempted market-limiting activities (e.g. hostile takeovers of tickets.com, ticketweb.com, etc. or setting price controls that precluded these smaller competitors from staying afloat).
I like how they say "check back often....WHY?" when THE VERY NEXT SENTENCE TELLS YOU WHY!
This is called "Reading the instructions."
OK, Eddie. If you search for tickets for U2, for example, you get a link for search for available tickets. You can set criteria, such as price range and date, and number of tickets, but if it's sold out, it won't tell you until you've already requested tickets. And now that I think of it, it is a monopoly. And yes, it IS illegal.
I'm impressed that the designer of this Flash has a screen with a resolution higher than 1024 x 768. But I'd be even more impressed if they'd taken into account the possibility that I might not.
Plus the frogs just sit there silent and motionless once I hit the "play" button, but I can accept that there's probably a problem at my end since no-one else seems to be having trouble.
If you Google some bands one of the first hits is "Find and buy (Band) tickets at Ticketmaster.ca." even if the band has broken up years ago.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Shower signs | Main | Next: Laminate flooring package
So true, someone's probably just lazy in the programming department over there..
But why did someone take the time to make an entire flash animation about it?
Posted by: Second!!!!!! at November 17, 2005 10:21 PM