STEP Didn't Sell?

[demeter]

I've seen multiple posts from people whose tickets listed in STEP never sold.

As both of my cousins are registered in STEP and were never offered a ticket (and yes, checked their email daily and spam folders), this surprises me.

Did any of you register to buy in STEP and not get offered a ticket?
Did any of you register to sell in STEP and not get matched with a buyer?





(for any of you reading this whose tickets did not sell, we'd be happy to buy them!)

[Eric]

I know of multiple people who are/were registered in STEP and were never offered tickets: because each person who gets offered one has 72 hours to accept, anyone waiting until the last minute to say "no" pushes back the time that ticket is available. If it happens multiple times a tickets can be out there for a week or more before being accepted. For any tickets entered into STEP in the last week or so, that could very easily push it past the time STEP closed, making it a no-sell, as strange as that is (just two people would have to dither saying "no", or just let the offer automatically expire without bothering to pass the ticket on for it to sit out there for 6 days).

We also have no idea how many people where actually in STEP, but since the Org put something like 2,000+ tickets into it in the last few weeks on top of the participant tickets, and there are still plenty who never got an offer, you can assume it was most likely a "shit-ton" of people.

[FossaFerox]

I feel like tickets that didn't sell could be reclaimed and offered in the omg sale pretty easily if the org out the necessary framework in place. Just sends silly under the circumstances, especially with how terrifying scammers are with the stakes being what they are...

[GreyCoyote]

I feel like tickets that didn't sell could be reclaimed and offered in the omg sale pretty easily if the org out the necessary framework in place. Just sends silly under the circumstances, especially with how terrifying scammers are with the stakes being what they are...

Yup. This.

[delle]

the Org put something like 2,000+ tickets into it in the last few weeks on top of the participant tickets

How does that work, exactly, if people's tickets aren't being sold?

Just doesn't seem right to me to relinquish your ability to sell your own ticket, only to be given it back a few weeks before the event with a "sorry, no sale - Good Luck" note attached. Adding the words "- but Hey! look at the bright side! We sold 2,000 extras instead" just makes the system seem even more faulty and in need of a revamp.

Presuming those 2,000 would have been part of the OMG sale, Fossa's suggestion makes all that much more sense.

[Eric]

the Org put something like 2,000+ tickets into it in the last few weeks on top of the participant tickets

How does that work, exactly, if people's tickets aren't being sold?

From what I've gathered by reading Trilo's other posts on this, the owner of the ticket contacts ticketing to make sure the ticket is still valid & under their control, then they can sell it in the third-party market (where it will be easy to get face value - just look at all the ticket pleas)

Just doesn't seem right to me to relinquish your ability to sell your own ticket, only to be given it back a few weeks before the event with a "sorry, no sale - Good Luck" note attached. Adding the words "- but Hey! look at the bright side! We sold 2,000 extras instead" just makes the system seem even more faulty and in need of a revamp.

Presuming those 2,000 would have been part of the OMG sale, Fossa's suggestion makes all that much more sense.

The only posts I've seen having the issue were people who released their tickets in the last few weeks of STEP, and when you wait until the last minute for anything there are no guarantees. While I agree the system could use fine-tuning, I don't agree on favoring the OMG over the STEP people. The people in STEP have been waiting for months & did everything right, why shouldn't a chunk of them be rewarded? It's not like another 2,000 didn't get added to the OMG (they did, it's 3,000 total now) - and can you image the outcry from the STEPchildren if they were just told "suck it up & enter the OMG, better luck next year"? The BMorg is basically going to make someone unhappy no matter what they do - tickets are scarce, people want the system to work in the way it's going to benefit them (or their friends) better. I think the Org is doing a good job of splitting the difference.

[delle]

First of all, wtf are you doing in here answering my bitching on your BIRTHDAY???? Surely you have many more interesting things to do.

I'm terminally lost when it comes to this one...

While I agree the system could use fine-tuning, I don't agree on favoring the OMG over the STEP people. The people in STEP have been waiting for months & did everything right, why shouldn't a chunk of them be rewarded?

Is this even possible? Reading above and elsewhere, I was under the impression that it was over for STEP and unsold tickets were being returned to their previous owners.



Please drink for me. I am beyond hope at this point.

[theCryptofishist]

First of all, wtf are you doing in here answering my bitching on your BIRTHDAY???? Surely you have many more interesting things to do.

I'm terminally lost when it comes to this one...

While I agree the system could use fine-tuning, I don't agree on favoring the OMG over the STEP people. The people in STEP have been waiting for months & did everything right, why shouldn't a chunk of them be rewarded?

Is this even possible? Reading above and elsewhere, I was under the impression that it was over for STEP and unsold tickets were being returned to their previous owners.



Please drink for me. I am beyond hope at this point.

I think they added the 2000 to STEP a while ago. The extra for the OMG were more recently announced. It is over for STEP.

[trilobyte]

Those who waited too long to contribute their tickets learned the hard way that contributing a ticket is no guarantee of a sale.

The way STEP worked when it was open was that a person would contribute a ticket (or tickets), and then it would get offered to the next person in the queue. The person receiving the offer had 72 hours to respond and purchase tickets. If the person didn't respond and the offer expired, the tickets were then offered to the next person in the queue, rinse and repeat as necessary until the tickets sold. STEP shutting down meant exactly that, the program shuts down. You can't sign up for tickets, you can't contribute tickets, and no new ticket offers are made.

[BoyScoutGirl]

So the ownership of those very few tickets that entered last minute but weren't sold is reverted back to the original purchasers and what? They're held at Will Call?

[andy]

So let me understand something about STEP. Since all tickets are the same at this time (whether you got them for $650 or $380) why does anyone need 72 hours to confirm that they want a particular ticket? There are no issues of "better seats" or "trusted sellers", so you should be signing up with a CC which is charged instantly the moment your place in the queue comes up and the deal is done. If you change your mind before you get a ticket, you could simply withdraw. If you change your mind after you get a ticket, you could simply re-offer it with STEP. Why is there a response window on a particular ticket?

[Savannah]

You might have to write the Org directly to find that out, but I'm guessing the 72-hour window is to give people the chance to:

* borrow cash / get paid / raise funds
* buy a pre-paid card, for those who don't own CCs
* get back from a short trip out of town / off-grid ('tis the season)
* get an answer out of a potential campmate ("are you coming or not? I need to know, NOW.")

. . . possibly, among other things.

[BBadger]

andy: It does seem kind of ridiculous that STEP isn't set up that way. It might be so that if STEP tickets are being pooled among multiple people, those people can coordinate and cancel STEP orders in time once one their collective group have enough. Accounting for credit cards that get declined might be another reason. Or maybe it conjures up bad memories of the auto-charge system for the lottery.

I'd probably go with the auto-charge system though.

[theCryptofishist]

I don't think they are permitted to keep the credit card information that long. Identity theft. I could be wrong.