Ticketing Masterplans

I’ve just got back from a lovely (hot) week in Cyprus, the only annoyance being a very frustrating morning trying (AND FAILING!) to secure Oasis tickets. I’m usually a pretty dab hand at securing tickets. I attempt the struggle by seeking out the strongest internet connection (plugging into it directly as opposed to wireless), I log into the ticket website way beforehand, keep refreshing to make sure the login doesn’t expire, arrive there early to get into the waiting room (who knows when the waiting room concept was introduced but it’s never really discussed when there is an announcement to say ‘tickets on sale at 9am’ – erm actually – if you’re not there at 8.40 you might as well not bother – tickets are on sale at that time in reality so that should be what goes on your advert!), and then, as your heart starts beating faster and faster, you have to hold your nerve… be patient, don’t refresh (or should you refresh? Argh!), IT’S CRASHED! ARGH! Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, you get to the point where you are allowed to GET IN to purchase them.  IF you get into purchase the tickets you then have the trauma of trying to get the tickets you actually want… do you stick or twist in the hope of better seats? Those ones are right at the back?! Who knows when this site is going to crash… Urgh .. what to do, what to do?! HOW MUCH?! Yes, everything about ‘in demand’ ticket purchasing always involves multiple friend chats via Facebook Messenger AND Whatsapp, tough calls and major trauma.

When I’m mid purchasing frenzy I also try to have different computers on different IP addresses to spread my chances (one on my phone’s 5G, one on the internet) and increase my opportunities to get through. Sometimes even getting family members involved (this comes with additional stress in many ways, but another window is another window!) But yes, in the past it’s always been something that I’ve been able to achieve (having said goodbye to Glastonbury once and for all in 2005 when trudging back to the car park Scarlet O’Hara style I raised my eyes to the sky and declared “As God is my witness I shall never come here again!” Glastonbury is THE HOLY GRAIL of ticket purchasing nightmares if you weren’t aware!)

So … I wanted in on Oasis … but here I was in Cyprus, completely blindsided and unprepared. They announced the gig whilst I was away and the ticket purchasing window was just a couple of days later (not enough warning Gallaghers!) meaning that I would still be away when the tickets were on sale. Curses. I REALLY didn’t want to use the hotel’s OPEN internet connection as I have learned previously how unscrupulous individuals can just see your card details (nasty transaction surprise in Faro airport as I casually checked how much I had spent on hols) so I was left with only my phone connection to attempt to get them. So, double curses, my mum would have to be involved as well (love you Mum!)

My cousin alerted me to a ‘Pre-Ballot’ which I hastily joined answering questions which were supposed to prove that I was a true Oasis fan.  Pre-sale type activity is essential in these times – if I hadn’t have bought Midnights and got a presale access code then I might never have seen Taylor! So back to Oasis – I didn’t know who their first drummer was, but erm Noel and Liam (and “The Apprentice”) – the internet exists (curious aside … hmm… maybe they could tell that I googled it somehow?!) How many times had I seen them, erm twice, once in Earls Court in 1997 and in Reading in 2000 – does that make me enough of a fan? (I AM a big fan by the way – as frustrating as they are – I just might not have read a book about them ok?!) What was the ‘right’ answer to how many times I have seen them?! That I’d never seen them and therefore it was my first shot to experience the Oasis magic? Or I had seen them 10+ superfan times, or (what I went for) … the truth?

I shared this pre-ballot news with my trusty “Cardiff Gigs” facebook group of friends, many of whom were going to try to get tickets too, but then I had a major panic because one of my friends thought it was a scam in pursuit of personal information!  Panic, panic, PANIC!  Cut to frantic searching on the internet ‘WAS THIS REAL?!’ ‘HAVE I BEEN SCAMMED WHEN ABROAD AGAIN!?!’ PHEW! A post by Oasis’ X account that it was a genuine attempt to give tickets to real fans…

Ok. Relax … wait for a pre-ballot email, refresh, refresh, check SPAM folders, refresh, refresh, NOTHING. Ok, ok, Sigh. No luck.

I’ll have to attempt to get them with everyone else.

Sigh.

So I did. But I didn’t get any. I won’t go on about how I think being on my phone messed me up (app / webpage confusion where I thought I was on the right landing page but at the ‘right’ time the waiting room button didn’t appear so I obviously wasn’t, then I was scared to leave the page in case I couldn’t get back onto the website again).  So, after 4 hours in a queue where Ticketmaster seemed to be selling tickets at a pace which could only be explained by a man in an office chiseling each ticket out on stone tablets, I admitted defeat.

None of my friends in the Cardiff Gigs group were successful either (well Bethan got in but was only able to buy VIP tickets for £500 each! (NO WAY JOSE – someone she knew at work was obviously more of a superfan than any of us and promptly transferred the £2000 (!!!!) to her to secure the tickets).

So yes, I won’t be standing next to my cousin singing ‘you and I are going to live forever!’ – she couldn’t get tickets to Wembley either.

A couple of my Cardiff friends who aren’t in my ‘Cardiff Gigs’ group got tickets, but yes, most people I know didn’t, I suppose just proving how popular and hard to get the tickets were.  What is absolutely heartbreaking however is just how many tickets are now on sale through sites like Viagogo and Twickets – and how much these ‘haveago’ touts are charging for them. Nothing about any of it seems transparent or fair?  These tout tickets even went on sale after the pre-ballot to the supposedly ‘genuine superfans’ as well.

So yes, that was the major holiday low point, the other being on the flight home (I hate flying) where from the very beginning of the flight, there was a lot of commotion, something was going on at the front of the aircraft definitely as lots of air stewards kept running back and forth in the cabin with medical kits and cylinders of gas. This went on for at least an hour until we actually heard the immortal line over the tannoy “Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, but is there a Doctor onboard? If so, please can you make yourself known to the cabin crew, thank you!”

Cue several people walking to the front of the airplane, one remained and three returned (good odds guys – 4 Doctors on a flight from Paphos to Birmingham – who knew?!) to then nothing, nothing, nothing.  I brace, brace, braced myself for the next announcement “Ladies and Gentleman, we were also wondering, is there a Pilot onboard as well?”.

“Argh! What’s happening!” I couldn’t take it anymore, I walked to where some members of the flight crew were congregating at the back of the aircraft and just outright asked.  “Erm, can you tell me what’s going on please? It’s not the pilot is it?!” “Oh no, if it was we would have turned round ages ago”.

Odd reply but ok, some mild relief, not for the person in the middle of the medical emergency obviously.

I longed for more open and honest communication the whole flight. With Oasis, I longed for more open and honest communication. How many tickets were left? What time do you need to join? How close to the Ticketmaster server should I try to locate myself? What were the ‘right’ answers to the stupid ‘how much do you love Oasis’ quiz?

I’ve written often about how one of the key strengths of the best services is giving your customers excellent ‘visibility’ – let them know what is happening at each stage, where they are, what they can expect next, and in clear, simple, easy to understand terms.  It’s one of the best ways to deliver a positive service experience for your customers and yes, save your organisation a hell of a lot of work.  I’ve also written about David Rock’s SCARF model (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness) and how it’s so important for people to feel these things in order to be content…. so much of ticket purchasing feels quite the opposite – so uncertain and yeah, so unfair.  How are there so many people who seem to know the ‘system’ so they can profit from it for their own ends? (BOO!) That morning felt like a truly terrible service experience. Even if I had been successful I’m sure that I would have also have felt fleeced!

With luck, one day a disruptor will come along that will provide ticket purchasing transparency somehow, something that feels fair and just, even if you don’t succeed, where it won’t be that the people with the most powerful computers and internet speeds that win, and yes, maybe something that would mean all their true fans would be able to attend (SNIFF!)

p.s. fully appreciate my ticket purchasing luck thus far and that I need to get over my one failure.

It will take time.

Exciting update: Mum got an invitation to try to join the ballot for the two extra Wembley shows. We were successful in the ballot, we got a code to join a ticket sale and now me and my cousin Jo are now going to Oasis. ❤️