So sad

[oleg8888]

You know, I try to stay open minded.
I am always the one who gives the benefit of the doubt.
When the word 'Lottery' was launched I assumed there were good reasons behind it and I trusted the good folks at BMORG have thought it thru.
Boy was I wrong...
I am not going to repeat everything that was discussed here already, but I do have one thing to add, which I am sure hasn't been discussed yet.
I'll be short:
_________________________
My friend and a 6 years burner has registered for tickets in time, just like everyone else.
Then his credit card get's hacked. Whether it happened b/c of registration related transaction - is a different conversation.
Once he discovered the credit card problem it had to be cancelled.
He contacted the tickets team and that's the reply he gets:
From: marilyn
Replied on: Wed Jan 25, 2012 (4:28 PM)
Subject: Re: My credit card used for lottery was canceled today
Message: Dear Burner,

Unfortunately, we are unable to make adjustments of any kind to registrations since the deadline has passed.

The Main Sale is has ended, however, 10,000 tickets will be held aside for the open sale, plus any unclaimed tickets from the Main Sale. This will happen MARCH 2012. Please visit tickets.burningman.com for full details and/or important links.

Hope to see you on the playa!

Best regards.

I am not gona cry, he will get his tickets one way or another.
I am just afraid there will be so many things that will go wrong and cause unnecessary pain and stress.

[A Jester]

Bummer!

that really sucks.

I do have hope that your friend will be able to make it happen. I've heard a lot of tales of people buying more tickets than they need, so there should be a healthy resale market.

I don't in any way want to not be sympathetic to how this has got to feel. However, I don't think that it's fair to blame the lottery system for this. maybe they make it a little harder to buy because you have to stay un-hacked for a month or whatever, but the real issue is that your friend got their card hacked.

Best of luck, and I hope you don't need to much of it.

[lemur]

it was probably hacked by larry harvey and his minions!!!



you heard it here first.

[oleg8888]

Sympathy accepted...
I work as a Quality Assurance engineer for an IT company and you know what would happen if I don't think of a scenario which might brake my system and as a result will not test it?
I will lose my job
There are so many things that could go wrong with a CC:
- Get hacked
- Get cancelled by the bank b/c they think it was hacked (happened to me)
- Get lost
- Get stolen
- Run out of funds
I am 100% sure they have thought about this but made a decision not to address - that's what scaring me.
What else have they let slide?

Bummer!

that really sucks.

I do have hope that your friend will be able to make it happen. I've heard a lot of tales of people buying more tickets than they need, so there should be a healthy resale market.

I don't in any way want to not be sympathetic to how this has got to feel. However, I don't think that it's fair to blame the lottery system for this. maybe they make it a little harder to buy because you have to stay un-hacked for a month or whatever, but the real issue is that your friend got their card hacked.

Best of luck, and I hope you don't need to much of it.

[trilobyte]

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's credit card. However, the handling of CC data for the main sale registration is being done in compliance with PCI (payment card industry) data security standards.

[remi]

That's a pretty extenuating circumstance.. and for those other reasons you mentioned (lost, stolen, ran out of funds,) that's just someone who needs to practice being radically self reliant... or just some terrible luck.

Some different 'bad luck' things could have happened to someone last year to prevent them from purchasing tickets. Computer brakes down, internet goes down, lose job, get abducted by pirates... all things that are out of BMOrg's hands.

Shitty what happened to your friend, but what did you expect the ticketing team to do at that point?

[Ed Phunk]

Ack, that sucks. But yeah PCI compliance is a big thing with the credit card processors. There is little BM can do about the rules.

[BBadger]

You know, I try to stay open minded.
I am always the one who gives the benefit of the doubt.
When the word 'Lottery' was launched I assumed there were good reasons behind it and I trusted the good folks at BMORG have thought it thru.
Boy was I wrong...

My sympathies for your friend's situation, but let's get back to reality here.

No system cannot account for every last corner-case problem that may occur for 50,000+ people vying for the same product. Where does it end, and to what extend does it get abused?

It's like waiting for every last tardy student to arrive before starting the test. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses.

I work as a Quality Assurance engineer for an IT company and you know what would happen if I don't think of a scenario which might brake my system and as a result will not test it?

They did test it. They tested it with the pre-sale, for quantities and amounts that are far beyond what is possible to spend through the lottery. Only one person I've read here had his/her credit card denied out of some 3000 sold.

I'm also sure you understand (or at least should) that a QA engineer cannot test for all cases that will lead to a problem. If you did, the product would never ship! So you account for the most likely cases to cause a problem, and concentrate on the most problematic cases that will affect large subsets of people.

In the case of your friend, having your CC account hacked in the 2-week window prior to the drawing is a very exceptional case, and probably not one that is not worth stalling the entire system for.

There are so many things that could go wrong with a CC:
- Get hacked
- Get cancelled by the bank b/c they think it was hacked (happened to me)
- Get lost
- Get stolen
- Run out of funds
I am 100% sure they have thought about this but made a decision not to address - that's what scaring me.
What else have they let slide?

What about all the people who get struck by lightning while entering in their CC number? The people suffering from spontaneous combustion? The people with dogs that ate their wallet? The people who were too caught up with Chinese New Year? The people stuck in mines during cave-ins during the sign-up week?

There comes a point when you just have to cut your losses and accept that extraordinary circumstances are just that: extraordinary, and therefore will not have a high level of harm in ignoring.

Also, you do realize that the vast super-majority of tickets last year were sold via credit cards? That roughly the same amount of tickets were sold by the remaining-10,000 tickets date this year? The problem is not credit card system, it's simply the individual circumstances of people.