Main Sale Ticket Success?!

[unkulunkulu]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

91E21422-F7F4-463A-AEC0-54B088B8022E.jpeg (76.26 KiB) Viewed 6106 times

[Tenderfoot]

It’s the same nonsense with tickets every year when those who know “the secrets” get tickets. Secrets such as don’t use the email link, clear your browser cache, login from the user profile, don’t stay in line for 2 hours with the message that your place in line is being kept.
Why not doing something fair as a random number generator for everyone who signs up during the registration period. That way no one misses work, those with knowledge of the secrets don’t have an unfair advantage, a fit would be fair for all.

[jdixon]

My debit card was charged for 2 tickets and a vehicle pass but the page timed out prior to seeing a confirmation page. Additionally, I never received a confirmation email. Did I get tickets or not?!?!?!?!

[Krokodyle]

LOL - and they want to add 20000 more to this scenario?! Might want to get a grip on the current situation before expanding even further, IMHO

My thoughts exactly...not a fan of BMorg's increased population plan, personally, but that's a whole separate thread.

I logged in at 12:01pm and waited in line, online for nearly two hours on my desktop...spinning, waiting, etc...then decided to use my phone instead and was able to purchase tix & VP *immediately*, including confirmation email and a verified cc charge. Guessing that maybe my place in the original queue at 12:01pm 'reserved' my ticket allotment at the time I got in line but something got borked with the browser session, preventing access that way. Once I changed that, I was able to get in. But, this is purely a guess on my part. I'm just crossing fingers that the BMorg doesn't reverse the sale, but I can't see why they would...

[Jackass]

My debit card was charged for 2 tickets and a vehicle pass but the page timed out prior to seeing a confirmation page. Additionally, I never received a confirmation email. Did I get tickets or not?!?!?!?!

Sure sounds like it

[spacetime]

It’s the same nonsense with tickets every year when those who know “the secrets” get tickets. Secrets such as don’t use the email link, clear your browser cache, login from the user profile, don’t stay in line for 2 hours with the message that your place in line is being kept.
Why not doing something fair as a random number generator for everyone who signs up during the registration period. That way no one misses work, those with knowledge of the secrets don’t have an unfair advantage, a fit would be fair for all.

Exactly. Why is there an on-sale moment except to build hype around an event that does not need any more hype at all? This is not an on-sale day for the new Fall Out Boy tour.

I fail to see how being at a computer at a Pacific Time Zone centered time ready to click and watch for two hours is demonstrative of some kind of self-reliance, other Burning Man principal or otherwise reasonably convenient way to try for tickets on an event at this scale and demand. So I have to ask, why does the main sale continue to happen this way? Particularly in light of the analysis done on ticketing this past year?

LOL - and they want to add 20000 more to this scenario?! Might want to get a grip on the current situation before expanding even further, IMHO

I logged in at 12:01pm and waited in line, online for nearly two hours on my desktop...spinning, waiting, etc...then decided to use my phone instead and was able to purchase tix & VP *immediately*, including confirmation email and a verified cc charge. Guessing that maybe my place in the original queue at 12:01pm 'reserved' my ticket allotment at the time I got in line but something got borked with the browser session, preventing access that way. Once I changed that, I was able to get in. But, this is purely a guess on my part. I'm just crossing fingers that the BMorg doesn't reverse the sale, but I can't see why they would...

I've read this a bunch and if it was widespread, I'd say that this process was simply not fair. Because eventually, tickets for people who got in line at the correct time but never cleared their session probably lost their spot.

The crucial information was that watching the animated arrows gif without taking new action was something akin to forgetting to move your laundry. If this was the case, at best the process indicated to get tickets in the main sale could be described as misleading.

For all of the minimizations of this, "it's burning man," yes shit goes wrong all the time out there. But I don't normally expect to be deceived into a mis-step on playa. And we aren't out there.

[fireheadwhale]

The White Wall of Death!

I'm usually disappointed on Main Sale Day. This year I got some solace by being pissed off instead.

[Grumpy Otter]

I agree that the process was excruciating, but our small camp (around 18 people) was more successful than than last two years. Last count was 14 tickets. However, we had to ride out over 2 hours before we connected on at least half of those. I was amazed that we were connecting after that much lapsed time. That said, I was still waiting at close to 3 hours when the screen went to “Too early”

[spacetime]

Check out this account:

I was working at noon, and had pretty much figured that by the time i was on lunch there would be no possible way to get a ticket, 1:30 rolls around, eat my lunch, decided to see if tickets are sold out or not, i go to my profile page, log in, tap the lost my link button, got in, looks like I'm at a sales page, i choose two tickets and a vehicle pass, but there's no check out button... so i tap the blank space above where the cancel button is and it has an outline of a button and boom, check out.

i was in and out with two tickets in less then 3 minutes. an hour and a half after the sale started. I thought it was a joke, but i got a confirmation message in my e-mail at 1:39. weirdest shit ever.

my coworker who had been waiting in the queue freaked out because she'd been in queue since noon, and got no where, so she tried the link from her profiles page and got right in, i told another friend about it, and she logged in on her phone and got right in.

Thanks for trying!

[Krokodyle]

Check out this account:

I was working at noon, and had pretty much figured...

Thanks for trying!

We'll see how the next few days play out, I suppose...if indeed some (for lack of a better term) 'grey area' sales that managed to process, I wonder if the BMorg would really invalidate those tickets. Those people didn't game the system at all--including myself--so I hope people don't get punished after spending two hours of their lives dealing with something like this.

[spacetime]

We'll see how the next few days play out, I suppose...if indeed some (for lack of a better term) 'grey area' sales that managed to process, I wonder if the BMorg would really invalidate those tickets. Those people didn't game the system at all--including myself--so I hope people don't get punished after spending two hours of their lives dealing with something like this.

I very much doubt tickets would be invalidated unless some type of cheating can be demonstrated. (I'm not talking about refreshing the page here)

But it would be reasonable if the main sale was halted due to an excessive number of invalidated positions in the queue.

What would have been smart would have been to see how many people who clicked the link at the right time were having their ticket purchase opportunity expire. It should have been obvious from the live data that there was a major issue. OR there is data showing we're just hearing from a vocal minority.

If there was early data showing legitimately queued buyers were not progressing, the allocation should have been trimmed immediately. Then the org acknowledges a failure, and offers either another BS main sale that requires a right-time-right-place attempt or just do the right thing and offer a lottery on the remaining main sale tickets.

[Jackass]

I was on the page to buy tickets at around 12:35 or so. I picked out two tickets and one pass, but then there was this access code it was asking for. Without an access code there was nothing more I could do. I emailed ticket support in the middle of all this and got a case number confirmation back... They emailed me a generic response around 4:30 basically telling me tough shit, we have the step and more sales coming up. I haven't been able to get to the ticket buying screen for the previous 3 years, this year I finally got in and got sacked by this shitty new system with no friggin access code... BS

[JayBobBoy]

I'll preface this by saying I logged in to the sale through my profile and got tickets without issue. I had no knowledge in advance. I just chose wisely...or luckily!

To those of you who are experiencing the pain of ticket day for the first time, I'm sorry you're going through this! I went to BM with my camp in 2009, 2012, 2013, & 2014. Since then I've tried to get tickets in the main sale each year without luck.

The emotional roller coaster is incredible. I always start the day with such hope and optimism, but then my dreams are crushed by some stupid emoji man walking across the screen or spinning arrows that never end. It takes me days to get over it. I feel your pain!

No amount of whining about the process is going to change things. As far as BM ticketing screw ups go, this seems par for the course. There's something like this every damn year.
What can you do now?

If you're like me, the expensive tickets are out of the question. Also, half the fun of BM is planning and building in the months leading up to the event. Planning outfits, decorating and lighting your bikes, etc. Over the last four years, I've learned that it's best for me to move on to other plans once the main sale passes and I missed out.

Not going to BM can be a good thing too. Besides, it was way better last year!

[unkulunkulu]

Out of my camp three people got to the checkout stage and were unsuccessful in going further, the first one got constant 500 errors and then the expiration screen, other two were unsuccessful in finding the invisible button for the access code. Eternal spinning in my case.

Is the main sale always so trick based? I can see some genuine point in that but still wondering. I cannot believe that they could not test the checkout page prior to the sale considering that two sales have already been conducted.

[rudbyrd]

I got tickets at 1:42

[AddamsonFlint]

My debit card was charged for 2 tickets and a vehicle pass but the page timed out prior to seeing a confirmation page. Additionally, I never received a confirmation email. Did I get tickets or not?!?!?!?!

Please let me know if you find out an answer to this- I'm in the same boat!!

[Philtopia]

I was able to reach the ticket purchase page, enter all the required info, and purchase 2 tix and a VP, and then got to the "Your reservation was successful!" page, which states that I have tickets, and gives me a confirmation ID on my phone in a browser window. It also shows event details correctly and receipt details. My credit card was charged the correct amount.

BUT, the print receipt button does not work to print the receipt, and I never received any email confirmation. Also, when I click the share button to email the receipt to myself, I get the email with a link, but when I open the link, it gives me a "403: bad request" error message.

Has anyone else had this experience? Is anyone getting a confirmation email? And, or, are your tix showing up in your account on the BM website? What can I do to confirm that I will indeed get the tickets mailed to me?

[BBadger]

You could contact ticketing. Also check if your online credit card statement has reserved or charged you for your tickets.

[nuketsheddar]

Same issue here.

Did you find something out?