Ticket office Mess

[UNIPNTHR]

Re: Ticket office Mess

The ticket office has never had to field this many requests at one time. This is new to them and theyre doing the best they can. Give them a break.

And dodgeball is bad for kids, let's remove it from elementary schools.

Contrary to popular belief the University is a profit-seeking entity. If the customers aren't happy, the management needs to know about it and needs to fix it yesterday.

[joecooll6]

Re: Ticket office Mess

So its a bad thing that for the first time ever, were fielding 20000+ ticket requests for a football game? Theyve never done this before. Its not easy to get it exactly right the first time.

[UNIPNTHR]

Re: Ticket office Mess

So its a bad thing that for the first time ever, were fielding 20000+ ticket requests for a football game? Theyve never done this before. Its not easy to get it exactly right the first time.

Clearly more demand is a good thing. I'm not sure how you got that out my post.

I disagree that UNItix should be waived of responsibility when it comes to the product they are selling. If the systems and processes for handling the transaction were sound, it would not matter if they were selling one ticket or 20,000 tickets. When a firm makes the decision to seek a profit, they also take on the burden of the pursuit of perfection.

[87PantherAlum]

Re: Ticket office Mess

Its called a database. It was invented in the 1960s. You run it on a computer thingy.

OMG... I just about shot beer out my nose from laughing when I read this. LOL... I'm sorry you're having so much trouble, but I have to say that was very funny and VERY TRUE.

I really hope that UNI learns some lessons about how to run a ticket office in the modern day and age from all of this (i.e. computers are our friend... let's put them to a little better use here)

For the record (knocking on wood), I have apparently been lucky so far in getting my tickets. I called right after they announced that they were taking orders for playoff tickets and I reserved tickets for all the playoff games - I just called the ticket office after hours, left a message and someone called me back the next morning and took my order and credit card number. About two days before last Saturday's game, I saw that the tickets for the first game were charged to my card. They were there ready to be picked up at will call when I went about two hours before the game. I'm hoping it will be as easy for the upcoming Delaware game.

[Newsbreaker]

Re: Ticket office Mess

Unbelievable, just unbelievable.

[joecooll6]

Re: Ticket office Mess

Its like if you have a company that normally handles a few hundred orders in a day and now all of a sudden they have thousands and thousands of orders coming in at one time.

I was there today and I saw what was happening, and they are doing the best they can. They have brought in people from all over the athletic department to come in and take orders by phone and to help process them. They are using the computers but the orders are coming in so fast that they cant process them as fast as theyre taking them. This is a good problem to have!

[UNIGrainer]

Re: Ticket office Mess

Imagine running a business set up to deal with hundreds of customers a day and suddenly they get thousands and thousands and have to respond. They are using all lines available and entering as fast as the system allows. This is unprecedented and a great problem to have.

We could be the Iowa football ticket office. Shut down for the year!

[Newsbreaker]

Re: Ticket office Mess

This is simply a matter of poor (or no) organization and not proactively attacking the "problem." Hell, I personally watched the "old" system process 10,000 or so tickets order in less than one morning, but we can't seem to handle 16,000 in two days?!!??!

It's not the fault of the people working, they're doing all they can. It's an organizational problem.

[UNIPNTHR]

Re: Ticket office Mess

Okay, so according to the last two posts [edit: previous to NB's] the bottleneck lies in the manpower to answer the phone and manually enter the orders into the system. Starting with season ticket sales for next year (I would assume that gears up late spring/summer??) can we expect the option to purchase tickets online for all events?

[Newsbreaker]

Re: Ticket office Mess

Okay, so according to the last two posts [edit: previous to NB's] the bottleneck lies in the manpower to answer the phone and manually enter the orders into the system. Starting with season ticket sales for next year (I would assume that gears up late spring/summer??) can we expect the option to purchase tickets online for all events?

My guess, and it is only that, is that there is a compatibility issue. The web portal and the physical machines in the offices don't interface in real time, so blocks of tickets have to be allocated to the web portal almost like sending the physical tickets to a separate storefront.

As I've said before, IMHO, the simple solution is that you take down information for all season ticket holders and charge for all 3 games before the playoffs begin, as is standard operating procedure for professional teams, then refund for any games that don't occur by offering either a cash refund OR a credit towards next year's season tickets.

[joecooll6]

Re: Ticket office Mess

Okay, so according to the last two posts [edit: previous to NB's] the bottleneck lies in the manpower to answer the phone and manually enter the orders into the system. Starting with season ticket sales for next year (I would assume that gears up late spring/summer??) can we expect the option to purchase tickets online for all events?

I think that is where the bottleneck lies. I dont know the answer to your question though.

[FOTY]

Re: Ticket office Mess

My guess, and it is only that, is that there is a compatibility issue. The web portal and the physical machines in the offices don't interface in real time, so blocks of tickets have to be allocated to the web portal almost like sending the physical tickets to a separate storefront.

As I've said before, IMHO, the simple solution is that you take down information for all season ticket holders and charge for all 3 games before the playoffs begin, as is standard operating procedure for professional teams, then refund for any games that don't occur by offering either a cash refund OR a credit towards next year's season tickets.

I don't know much about CC companies. However, I believe that they would charge the athletic department for every reversal of funds thus decreasing our bottom line.

[Newsbreaker]

Re: Ticket office Mess

I don't know much about CC companies. However, I believe that they would charge the athletic department for every reversal of funds thus decreasing our bottom line.

All I can tell you is that this is the way pro teams do it. Last year I had Chicago Bulls Season Tickets, and had to purchase all the way through the NBA Finals, four games per round (in case they were the higher seed) with the unplayed games being refunded afterwards. This year I bought Cubs playoff tickets for a game that never happened, again we paid in advance and were refunded.

[JD720]

Re: Ticket office Mess

All I can tell you is that this is the way pro teams do it. Last year I had Chicago Bulls Season Tickets, and had to purchase all the way through the NBA Finals, four games per round (in case they were the higher seed) with the unplayed games being refunded afterwards. This year I bought Cubs playoff tickets for a game that never happened, again we paid in advance and were refunded.

Were you refunded 100% or was there some sort of handling fee they kept?

[Newsbreaker]

Re: Ticket office Mess

IIRC, we were refunded 100%.