Apparently UA screwed up the ticketing system again this year

[MacadamianNut]

I must be blessed to have received football tickets 4 years in a row.

From all the angry posts I've seen on Facebook or just talking with people, a lot of people were waiting in the queue and got through, only to have the site crash or something repeatedly.

But some people had waited until around 8:30 to start getting tickets, and considering that tickets sold out in less than two hours last year...that's kinda pushing it so it's to be expected. Even I was surprised that the VT tickets were still available and I thought I was pushing my luck when I decided to try to get them around 7:50 a.m.

They seriously need to fix this and I'm surprised that they still haven't yet. I know I would be absolutely livid at anyone and everything if I didn't get my tickets especially when I was up and already at the site at 6:40 a.m.

Anywho, I managed to get the student package along with two tickets for the Bama-VT game. Who else was able or unable to get tickets?

Note: Sorry if this is on the wrong board

 

[theBIGyowski]

Some people learn the hard way that you should load test your site/software before you put it out there. I guess that's why as a Quality Assurance Consultant, I will always have a job.

 

[whitman]

Seems like it's time for UA to go to a system similar to Texas A&M where students have to pull tickets on a weekly basis. Maybe that way the students who actually go to the games can get a ticket.

 

[alextupelo]

No matter what the UA ticket office does, someone out there will complain, the system is fine, not everyone can get tickets, so someone will be unhappy.

 

[Tidewater]

No matter what the UA ticket office does, someone out there will complain, the system is fine, not everyone can get tickets, so someone will be unhappy.

One student I know kept getting kicked out and into the queue, She called friend in Indiana, who logged in using her info and was able to purchase tickets in her name.
I know several students who got nothing, because the system would not let them log in.
You should not have to get someone from Indiana to purchase tickets for you. There are several ways to distribute scarce tickets. The vagaries of computer software are not the way to distribute them.
This system is fundamentally flawed and the SGA should make it a point to work with the Athletic Department to fix it.
There was actually a decent op-ed in the Crimson-White last week about this.
I should think a better system would:

• Designate a student's seat before game day.
• Avoid the current "all-or-nothing" approach to tickets. You either get to buy all of them or none of them (except freshmen, who get to buy some-or-none).
• Punish (ruthlessly) scalpers and no-shows.
• Reward those with seniority
• Reward those with good GPA
• Reward those that attend other sporting events at the Capstone

The current system is scandalously bad.

 

[alextupelo]

One student I know kept getting kicked out and into the queue, She called friend in Indiana, who logged in using her info and was able to purchase tickets in her name.
I know several students who got nothing, because the system would not let them log in.
You should not have to get someone from Indiana to purchase tickets for you. There are several ways to distribute scarce tickets. The vagaries of computer software are not the way to distribute them.
This system is fundamentally flawed and the SGA should make it a point to work with the Athletic Department to fix it.
There was actually a decent op-ed in the Crimson-White last week about this.
I should think a better system would:

• Designate a student's seat before game day.
• Avoid the current "all-or-nothing" approach to tickets. You either get to buy all of them or none of them (except freshmen, who get to buy some-or-none).
• Punish (ruthlessly) scalpers and no-shows.
• Reward those with seniority
• Reward those with good GPA
• Reward those that attend other sporting events at the Capstone

The current system is scandalously bad.

The only thing i think should change is your last bullet point, set up a system like that LSU has, where by going to the minor sports (volleyball, tennis, women's basketball, track and field, swimming and diving) give them a point value and those with the most points get first shot at tickets. You get support for lesser sports and those who truly want to attend sports get the tickets. Its the only one that truly benefits the athletic department and when it comes down to it, thats all the athletic department cares about.

 

[attheUA]

No matter what the UA ticket office does, someone out there will complain, the system is fine, not everyone can get tickets, so someone will be unhappy.

The system is not fine. UA would have us believe that there is some sort of order or queue system to chronologically line up those who log on, when in fact there was no such thing. It didn't matter when you logged on; someone who logged on at 8 could easily get in before some who logged on at 7. I feel sorry for the people that took UA's advice about not refreshing or opening multiple browsers because many of them sat waiting on their turn believing they were "in line" when they were really just in a game of chance that started over every 60 seconds.

If UA is going to insist on selling tickets over the internet, they need to outsource the operation to Ticketmaster or someone else that has the capacity to handle it. That or just make it first come, first served on Saturday. :BigA:

 

[RT3413]

If UA is going to insist on selling tickets over the internet, they need to outsource the operation to Ticketmaster or someone else that has the capacity to handle it. That or just make it first come, first served on Saturday. :BigA:

Check your facts...they use a system called Paciolan which is owned by Ticketmaster.

The ticket office does an amazing job of handling nearly 650,000 tickets throughout a season. Does everyone get into the system without an issue? No. But as someone who works very closely with the systems used by venues the systems used by UA are very, very good and amongst the best in the nation....without charging MANDATORY $13-15 per ticket fees. And, yes, that would include Student Tickets.

 

[uafootball92]

The system is not fine. UA would have us believe that there is some sort of order or queue system to chronologically line up those who log on, when in fact there was no such thing. It didn't matter when you logged on; someone who logged on at 8 could easily get in before some who logged on at 7. I feel sorry for the people that took UA's advice about not refreshing or opening multiple browsers because many of them sat waiting on their turn believing they were "in line" when they were really just in a game of chance that started over every 60 seconds.

I agree with you there. I logged on at 6:45 and was still in the waiting room at 7:15 until i freaked out when my friends got in with no problem. I was able to get tickets because my friend got me on. Some people had no problems whatsoever. Got season tickets and VT tickets, so the system was fine...unless I don't get any next year. Then, the system will be grossly flawed.

 

[CrimsonChuck]

If UA is going to insist on selling tickets over the internet, they need to outsource the operation to Ticketmaster or someone else that has the capacity to handle it. That or just make it first come, first served on Saturday. :BigA:

You don't want to do that. I've seen it where the Ticketmaster processing fee is between 25% to 50% the actual price of the tickets.:eek2: You don't want to involve them if you don't have to. But there are some decent ticket companies out there.

 

[CaliforniaTide]

It isn't a perfect system. I still think that part of the problem is the seemingly significant minority of students that just buy the tickets and sell them at a significantly higher price, IMO. There is now a system in place to combat that, and we'll see during the upcoming football season how effective that is, I hope it does well.

I do want to mention that I, based on what I've heard from other students using the ticket pool last season, thought the ticket pool system did well enough to help student get tickets that couldn't get them last April. It may have not been perfect, but it did help eliminate some of the scalping/high ticket prices that most students were charging that didn't go to any of the games.

I was able to get my tickets, not w/o some help from my girlfriend's roomate's laptop, but I got mine. The total number of actual student tickets is around 15,000 or so, and we have over 20,000 students going to school - someone isn't going to get their tickets. Maybe with the South Endzone expansion the number of total tickets will go up, maybe not. It needs to be fixed, but I also think that no one will be fully satisfied with whatever system we put in place.

 

[im4datide]

Do they set aside tickets for the incoming fall freshman class? My daughter will be attending next fall and I know she wants tickets...she won't miss a game..she's like her Dad...she loves Alabama football!

 

[uaintn]

The athletic ticket office has been the target of complaints for years. I expect it is better than it was, but the SGA and Crimson White have been airing complaints at least since the early 80s, that I know about personally. And it's not just student tix, either. Same old story though, no competition = no pressure on customer service and no incentive to invest/innovate.

 

[ZRossUA]

Do they set aside tickets for the incoming fall freshman class? My daughter will be attending next fall and I know she wants tickets...she won't miss a game..she's like her Dad...she loves Alabama football!

Yeah, they do, but they will only be for 3 or 4 games. Just make sure that she has been accepted and everything, and tell her to keep an eye on things because they will go on sale sometime during the summer and they will sell out really quickly too.

 

[Bama4Ever831]

Yeah, they do, but they will only be for 3 or 4 games. Just make sure that she has been accepted and everything, and tell her to keep an eye on things because they will go on sale sometime during the summer and they will sell out really quickly too.

It may have been a coincidence, but two years ago the tickets became available during the FIRST Bama Bound session. It was June 1st I believe. So it is definitely early summer. They do sell out quickly. For enrolled students it was 71 minutes for 11,000 tickets. I imagine it would have been much faster had everyone been allowed to all purchase at 7 am rather than being put in a waiting room.

Crimson White - Tickets sell out in 71 minutes

I think the problem with the whole ticket system was that it wasn't like a line. At 60 seconds, it just refreshes and if there is a slot open then you would be allowed to continue and if not you would either go back to the waiting room or get a Server Busy error. So essentially the system promoted opening multiple windows. And also once you were able to buy tickets, you could buy tickets for anybody. People were buying ticket packages for all of their friends, which should not have happened. It was all luck and not who was there first and there was an exploit that allowed people to get tickets for their friends without waiting.

But I got tickets so I am all good. :biggrin: