ticketek
Ticketek would have to have this country’s worst commercial website. It is unbelievably frustrating.
I was trying to do something simple: Bella is developing an obsession with Ballet (fuelled in part by modelling herself on Lulu from Bananas in Pyjamas) and I was trying to investigate prices and seats for Peter Pan.
After waiting interminably for the site to load (the full nine yards: images, frames, java applets, GO buttons that don’t work in Safari), and then dutifully logging in, I tried using the obvious search term of "ballet". A few minutes later the page returned with about five results, none of which were Peter Pan. I clicked for the second page of results, which arrived eventually, but still no Peter Pan…
What’s the point of writing any more on this subject? The bastards have a monopoly. And their site has not changed or improved for over two years. I give up.
Murray
2 November 2003, 10:31 #
Simplicity is so under-rated in a website. I found this site a while back for the nz film festivals. I you can get past that colour scheme it still sucks!
Murray
2 November 2003, 10:32 #
whoops... the link didn't work... heres the address I was talking about. http://www.nelson.nzff.co.nz
Alan
2 November 2003, 23:27 #
Sorry Murray - I've turned HTML off for the comments. Just being paranoid. Hmmm, I didn't think the nzff site was *that* bad. But then, I haven't been to any Film Festival films for years (one of the side-effects of children) so I've not had cause to actually use it.
Gryfon
4 November 2003, 11:16 #
I was waiting to book for Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings symphonic piece at Michael Fowler Centre on the 29th of November and found the Ticketek search engine just execrable. I entered 'Shore', 'Howard', and 'Howard Shore' and got three results - none of which had anything at all to do with the event I wanted. Finally entering 'Lord of the Rings' did the trick, but it looks to me as if the search engine is only looking in the event title field. And - if so - how hard would it be for Ticketek to state that?
Alan
4 November 2003, 23:22 #
Yeah, that was more or less my experience looking for Peter Pan. Perhaps I should have searched by title then. But I just can't bring myself to go to that site again just at the moment. It's slow on dialup as well.
Paul
15 February 2004, 00:21 #
Yep I'd have to agree I Can't even get the damn site to work !!!!!
I HATE TICKETEK
22 June 2004, 12:51 #
It is bloody disgraceful that Ticketek cannot run a decent website. Where else can you get tickets on the web? Nowhere. Good luck trying to call as well to speak to a phone drone. They need to get an idea yesterday on how to run a website or hire a company that can. The only time the site works is when there are no tickets on sale. Ticketek are bloody useless company.
Alan
22 June 2004, 13:06 #
Ticketek: obviously still shite then.
Alan
4 August 2004, 23:25 #
And a warm welcome to our recent visitors to this page from Ticketek corporate - auck.ticketek.co.nz and euryale.ticketek.com.au (I see you've been searching for "I hate Ticketek" on Google)! Monopolies like yours really do breed complacency, don't they. I hope you do something about your dreadful website soon - or we'll all be wishing Red Tickets eats your lunch.
Simone
11 August 2004, 16:28 #
I have to disagree with u all i stumbled onto this website by mistake and i cant belive all the rubbish im reading ticketek is a great web site and service who have continued to give me great service over the years there is always somethinh for people like you to moan about so get a life!!!
Alan
11 August 2004, 18:07 #
Well of course you would say that, Simone - seeing as you work at Ticketek. Everytime a comment is made on this site the IP address of the commenter is logged. Yours is 210.54.93.30, which by an uncanny co-incidence belongs to auck.ticketek.co.nz. Funnily enough it looks like you came to this site through "accidentally" entering "I hate Ticketek" into Google, the same search that has been used by you and your Australian counterparts to find this page several times in the past month. Your ignorance in these matters is amusing and sad and unfortunately appears par for the course with your company. Your rather ill-advised comment further reinforces the lack of respect I have Ticketek and further demonstrates why your website - and your business - should be avoided as much as possible. Have a nice day.
Miles Thompson
12 August 2004, 11:47 #
Ha ha. Busted! Thats priceless. Well done Alan.
Chris Auld
14 August 2004, 15:29 #
Another place for Tickets on the Net http://www.ticketdirect.co.nz/ (Disclosure: I built their Web Interface...)
Berend de Boer
14 August 2004, 15:58 #
Hai Chris! And you probably build it with M$ tools, so it by definition must suck (ducking hehehe). Just a joke guys, Chris is quite capable.
z1on0101
18 August 2004, 17:53 #
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/08/16/ticketeks_pr_blunder.html You got boingboinged! That's scary that you can log my ip and see who it belongs to. How do you do that?
jc
18 August 2004, 19:08 #
Bwaha, well done :D Take that Tikitek
daen
18 August 2004, 21:43 #
> That's scary that you can log my ip and see who it belongs to. How do you do that? z1on0101, you're being sarcastic, right? _Please_ say you are ...?
jim
19 August 2004, 03:11 #
Another perfect example of 'sticking it to the man...' 10/10
euicho
19 August 2004, 04:08 #
EVERYONE can see your IP Address, muahahahaha! But seriously, touche Alan.
lucyGeneric
19 August 2004, 17:16 #
Owned! Ha ha ha ha ha
Ben
21 August 2004, 10:51 #
Ticketek, say hello to the New Zealand Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3585462 I love it. Who woulda thunk that little old New Zealand would get its own blogosphere scandal!?
Marcus
21 August 2004, 14:22 #
Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! LMAO! wonder what happened to Simone :D
Roger
15 September 2004, 16:10 #
Oh christ yes! those Ticketek idiots have got right up me. All I wanted to do was have my tickets delivered, albiet without having to wait by the door for the courier to turn up. Turns out once they've got your money they consider you bent over and just waiting for it.. Keep up the good work.
Terrence
20 September 2004, 10:25 #
Just a small comment - not to defend Ticketek - but Safari browser, while having some nice features, makes programming a reliable website damn near impossible! It actually sends out false identification information - or no identification at all!!! So how is one to ensure any javascript will work for the browser? What is it about mac owners that makes then want to support a browser that purposely sets out to upset them in their usage of otherwise quality websites? Why not try Mozilla or something that is actually designed to make website development easy?
Alan
20 September 2004, 12:49 #
Currently, the version of Safari I have says this: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/85.8.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/85.8 What's ambiguous about that (or should I say, how is that any more ambiguous than any other browser ID string)? There's plenty of information there. I think since I wrote this post last year Ticketek has improved the way it presents in Safari (or alternately, Safari has improved its Javascript implementation - who is to know which). But the site is still too slow, and the search is still crap. And those faults are the same in any browser.
zeenie
13 March 2005, 14:45 #
You go dude! I tried to find a concert on the website and go the old ringaround for about 3 clicks before finally getting what i wanted.
jenni
14 March 2005, 13:24 #
I only caught the tailend of the Ticketek story on Frontseat last night, but found it totally hilarious. I have emailed Ticketek with my “comments” and “feedback” on the crapness of their website on numerous occasions, and have been thanked heartily for taking the time to respond!!! But any improvements? I think NOT. The site is slow, and not terribly intuitive. One of the things which pisses me off the most (apart from the ridiculous booking fee) is the inability to pick your own seats on the website. You have to have the “best seats” allocated by their dumb computer. Even the evil Village cinemas can get their shit together to enable you to choose your own seats if you don’t like the ones the computer chooses. Oh, how sad for Ticketek… they have been shown up by other shite-evil monopoly Village. Tut, tut. Anyway, great blog, and great to see some pressure being put on Ticketek…
kani24
14 March 2005, 14:18 #
Hey guys, I too watched the Ticketek story on Frontseat last night and was impressed with this site and your wit ;)
The Ticketek site (and service, and superflous charges etc &)has miles to go before becoming even half decent!
I applaud your efforts, congratulations and keep up the good work!
Alan
14 March 2005, 14:40 #
Thanks for your kind comments. But did you notice the date when I originally posted this item? Yes – about 18 months ago.
Time moves exceedingly slowly in the world of Ticketek.
vanessa
9 August 2005, 17:29 #
it was kinda funny when i found your blog when looking for an alternative to the stupid ticketek site (well I probably shouldn’t call it stupid i don’t know that for sure IT WONT LOAD). Really not that funny anymore when i see how old all these comments are and they still can’t get their shit together. Boo Hiss ticktek!!
Alan
9 August 2005, 22:42 #
It’s a pity that they haven’t upped their game. But now that Ticketmaster is here maybe there’ll be some competition…
Sascha
20 February 2006, 19:22 #
I have to agree with the majority-Ticketek website is GOD AWFUL. Slower than a wet week in June, continually drops out and so not ticket buyer friendly.
David Farrar
11 September 2006, 03:02 #
Alan – you may be amused to know that I am using this story as a case study at a media and public relations conference today :-)
Alan
11 September 2006, 09:04 #
It is a good local example of What Not To Do, isn’t it.
Along with Telecom’s ham-handed promotion of the Ferrit site recently…
David Farrar
12 September 2006, 14:41 #
Yes the story went down well. Esp as I got to the Boing Boing part. And also mentioned Ferrit yes
Alan
12 September 2006, 15:40 #
Good stuff. My fifteen microseconds of net.fame extended!
Amisha
19 December 2006, 22:56 #
I’m glad to have come across this blog! I’ve also had troubles with Ticketek’s website and have resigned to the fact that they will never be able to produce a user-friendly website. It is just as slow as it was a couple of years ago, the search engine still sucks, you still can’t choose your seats, you have to become a member… Alan, good on ya for trying to make a difference, but with half-pies running the show…nothing will ever change.
Aaron
15 February 2007, 09:05 #
Hi i used the site yesterday for the first time (pm) (to book for the cricket yah :) and under time pressure found it the most excruciating exercise in patience i’ve had to undergo since waiting as a kid on xmas morning for mum and dad to wake up! I was cursing my lack of broadband as the problem, but did note that there was no obvious delays with trademe, which I was using simultaneously. Thus today I decided to revist the site with more “time up my sleeve” to experiment and found your posts when using google. I agree with most of the comments made & it was lesson in frustration. I shuddered to think what using the site during a “peak period” or “Rush” for sought after tickets would be like. I definitely suspect random pockets of internet rage would evolve. Takecare & browse with caution.
Ross
15 February 2007, 21:31 #
hey there
tried to book tickets for rugby in chch last week but according to this “great” site rugby is not played in canterbury
damm hopeless ticketek.
Blue
27 August 2007, 22:49 #
You think that’s bad? Heard about the fiasco with Wellington Phoenix this weekend? Hundreds of season pass holders had their seats sold to punters at the gate, people’s passes never arrived and they didn’t get in till after kick-off, not enough booths open for sales meant hundreds of people queuing for hours outside the stadium – what the hell are they playing at?!