There has to be a better way to allocate tickets

[sadimmock]

It really does seem as if the large buying groups and syndicates are the key now; which is logical if not ideal. It seems as everyone I know who got a ticket was part of a larger organised group whereas no one who was just trying for a couple or smaller group was successful. Interesting times. 

[Crazyfool01]

Annecdotal I know but this year it seems like a generally higher success rate maybe that’s because I talk mostly to they very commited … it’ll be number 16 almost in a row for me … I missed one because I was out the country in 09 … but didn’t attempt tickets that year 

[AAlex]

Got tickets fairly easily for 2017 and 2019, but 2020 and 2023 I didn't even get past the 'refresh' window, none of my group of six did.

As frustrating as it is, and I will be making every effort to go even if I have to work it, whatever format they use the people with tickets will consider it a success and the ones who miss out will call it a shambles.

An hour long, frantic queue seems about right to me, if anything I'd say the stress and fear of missing out on tickets makes everyone there all the more grateful to be there and adds to the atmosphere. If you replace that with people who saw an hour on the BBC last year, thought it looked like a nice idea and got a few in a ballot, it would take something away from it for me.

[sadimmock]

5 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Annecdotal I know but this year it seems like a generally higher success rate maybe that’s because I talk mostly to they very commited … it’ll be number 16 almost in a row for me … I missed one because I was out the country in 09 … but didn’t attempt tickets that year 

Just because someone isn’t in a buying syndicate doesn’t mean that they aren’t committed. 

[Ayrshire Chris]

3 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Annecdotal I know but this year it seems like a generally higher success rate maybe that’s because I talk mostly to they very commited … it’ll be number 16 almost in a row for me … I missed one because I was out the country in 09 … but didn’t attempt tickets that year 

I’d agree with that, as I previously said I just kept hammering away like a doctor trying to revive a corpse! What also really inspired and helped was having another device logged on to this site and I saw many posts after 10am saying to ignore the sold out message and keep trying as they were getting tickets. 

[mpdow2]

My suggestions:

1. Obviously fix the problems when people get in it freezes times out / banking issues. Once you are in you should be able to get your ticket

2. Reducer server capacity. This makes it into a 5 hour sale. Only the people who really want to go with press F5 for 5 hours. I can imagine the casual observer giving up after 1 hour. 

I know people have responsibilities and 5 hours is a long time but equally it is once a year. Could start sale at 7am so it is done by Midday. 

[gfa]

11 hours ago, DeanoL said:

Yup. And a queue system basically means you get one shot: is your internet fast enough to connect before enough people at spot on 9am when the server opens.

At least with this system it's just if your request happens to hit the server when there's free capacity. You get many goes at it every minute. Surely it'd far more frustrating if your wifi conked out for ten seconds at spot on 9am and that's why you didn't get tickets.

By having what's essentially 1000s of smaller lotteries every second, any small variances in internet speed and connection stability average themselves out. 

We shouldn't be calling it a queue system. It'd be a "race" system.

Ticketmaster and most other queues (all i think) have a waiting room before 9am and then it randomises everyone who was waiting before 9am to form a queue. Anyone who joins after 9am gets sent to the back. Its not about connection speed - just about the number of devices you have which is basically the same as what we have now just less complicated.

---

Anyone who thinks they are going to start selling tickets in person in 2022 needs their head checked. Not a chance.

[t0paz]

6 minutes ago, mpdow2 said:

1. Obviously fix the problems when people get in it freezes times out / banking issues. Once you are in you should be able to get your ticket

How can they realistically test having 100k bank transactions attempted within half an hour? I know See have some regular big sales but I’m sure this is the biggest event of the year for them by far. The new card auth seems to have caused issues but it seems they’ve still reacted quickly enough that it sold out when it did. Testing for something on this scale is nigh on impossible without spending an absolute fortune on it. 

[timeforheroes]

25 minutes ago, sadimmock said:

It really does seem as if the large buying groups and syndicates are the key now; which is logical if not ideal. It seems as everyone I know who got a ticket was part of a larger organised group whereas no one who was just trying for a couple or smaller group was successful. Interesting times. 

It just makes sense - someone with 1 lottery ticket can still win the jackpot. But they're statistically less likely than someone with 100. Who still might not win, but their odds increase by the number of attempts. And to extend the metaphor further, having more tickets doesn't mean you *want* it more, but you're in a position to have more tickets.

 

[sadimmock]

56 minutes ago, timeforheroes said:

It just makes sense - someone with 1 lottery ticket can still win the jackpot. But they're statistically less likely than someone with 100. Who still might not win, but their odds increase by the number of attempts. And to extend the metaphor further, having more tickets doesn't mean you *want* it more, but you're in a position to have more tickets.

 

Oh absolutely agree with this. It just seems now that those 100 lottery tickets are essential now. You may have had a chance buying 1 before but because everyone else is buying a 100  then you are out on your ear. 
 

i am aware that this is an exaggeration and that lots of people will have been successful buying for themselves; not everyone is a forum or fb group obsessive. I just don’t know any of them! 

[DeanoL]

1 hour ago, gfa said:

Ticketmaster and most other queues (all i think) have a waiting room before 9am and then it randomises everyone who was waiting before 9am to form a queue. Anyone who joins after 9am gets sent to the back. Its not about connection speed - just about the number of devices you have which is basically the same as what we have now just less complicated.

 

Didn't know that, but that essentially rules out the queue system as you'd just get the same issues - essentially whenever the queue opened you'd have to try and get in, before the system couldn't handle any more people connecting. You'd end up on a holding screen for the queue! 

[muffled oars]

1 hour ago, sadimmock said:

It really does seem as if the large buying groups and syndicates are the key now; which is logical if not ideal. It seems as everyone I know who got a ticket was part of a larger organised group whereas no one who was just trying for a couple or smaller group was successful. Interesting times. 

This appears to be the case on this forum but when you get to the festival and see the families, couples and others wandering around, particularly talking with people in the Kids Field or around the site, many of these people just logged in and were lucky enough to get a booking page that stuck.

We were 4 people going for tickets for a group of 5, another two trying to book for a group of 4. I would think that is a fairly typical situation for “semi-organised” people, and we got lucky. On Thursday for coaches we didn’t get a sniff. Swings and roundabouts? 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Are any regulars not currently planning to try in the resale and make other plans?

[gfa]

19 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Didn't know that, but that essentially rules out the queue system as you'd just get the same issues - essentially whenever the queue opened you'd have to try and get in, before the system couldn't handle any more people connecting. You'd end up on a holding screen for the queue! 

I think the TM queue can handle any amount of people really - it manages to handle stadium tours in the US without an issue which are probably more demand across like 20+ dates than glasto is.

Bigger issue is people will just get stupid amounts of devices to game the system

Edited November 8, 2022 by gfa

[Crazyfool01]

1 hour ago, sadimmock said:

Just because someone isn’t in a buying syndicate doesn’t mean that they aren’t committed. 

Crumbs no … meant I hang around talking in here a fair bit  with the ultras 

[Ayrshire Chris]

No matter how they are allocated there will always be, 

Reaper cushions 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Ayrshire Chris

[angel_with_a_pint_glass]

My first Glastonbury was 2005 and I’ve not missed one since. But I didn’t have any luck on Sunday and neither did the other 4 in my group, 3 of whom were trying from totally different locations. Personally I had 2 devices on the go, hammering F5 as always, and I got as far as entering registration details for the 5 of us 4 times…only for the page to die each time. My partner, who was sat next to me never got a sniff on either of her 2 devices, and neither did our other 3. So frustrating! I’d also tried in the Thursday coach sale and no luck there either.

But I’ve had to rely on resale tickets twice before (once by coach from Taunton, literally nowhere near where I lived at the time!)…so fingers crossed it will all come together again as frankly I can’t bring myself to consider the alternative. It’s going to be a tense wait however…

Aside from See sorting out the tech issues though (such as my duff registration pages on Sunday), I can’t think of a better way to do it. A ballot system would be awful and I’ve always felt that, for the most part anyway, if you really want to be there you’ll be there. I guess it‘ll be time to (re-)test the theory in the resale!

Congrats to all with tickets so far.

 

 

 

[Penrhos]

There's 6 of us in our group split over 3 separate locations and ISP's

With laptops and phones we probably had a dozen devices hitting the site. If even 50% of the people after tickets were like us there's no way the site would cope.

 

We got to the booking page 3 times and to the payments page once (for the session to time out on card authorisation) 

For the resale there will only be four of us as two won't be able to get holiday authorised in April for June and I suspect a lot if people on sunday will be on the same boat, will attend other festivals or go on holiday instead as they need months to plan/save up for it.

 

If they switch to ticketmaster then the buying process would be worse. More fees, the queuing system or worse still dynamic ticket prices (see blink 182 rip off prices). 

 

They just need to make the back end servers & payment process more stable. So once you press "PAY" you actually pay and get tickets. 

 

 

 

[Gregcharlie]

What a queue currently looks like..

Think this would be agony, sat for an hour or so to be basically told whether you’re going or not based off quick maths

[clarkete]

In our group at a rough count I think there were 34 people who wanted tickets Thursday, plus 25 helpers - many were battle hardened and had spent some time ensuring they were prepared. Only 5 buyers succeeded. 

On Sunday 112 wanted tickets, plus 19 additional helpers.  18 successful transactions, some buyers a couple of times whilst others got nothing, or others were folks who also succeeded Thursday and Sunday. 

 

[sadimmock]

29 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Crumbs no … meant I hang around talking in here a fair bit  with the ultras 

Sorry I didn’t mean to be rude! I think that I misunderstood you.  I’m just a bit sensitive about tickets at the moment. 

[Ayrshire Chris]

6 minutes ago, Gregcharlie said:

What a queue currently looks like..

Think this would be agony, sat for an hour or so to be basically told whether you’re going or not based off quick maths

Man U, I take they are on the acoustic stage as their days on the main stage have passed😊

joking!!!!!! I support Rangers, we’d be lucky to get on the bandstand at the moment. 

[Crazyfool01]

7 minutes ago, sadimmock said:

Sorry I didn’t mean to be rude! I think that I misunderstood you.  I’m just a bit sensitive about tickets at the moment. 

I get that 🙂 … fingers crossed … should be a bumper resale 

[Gregcharlie]

2 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Man U, I take they are on the acoustic stage as their days on the main stage have passed😊

joking!!!!!! I support Rangers, we’d be lucky to get on the bandstand at the moment. 

Hahaha no worries, very much agree!
just waiting for someone to start a football clubs as Glasto lineup topic now

[angel_with_a_pint_glass]

It’s mad how it works sometimes. Going back, I always managed to sort tickets myself, then there were a few years where another of our group always got there first…whilst 2 of our group have genuinely been trying for years and never so much as seen a booking page!!
It will be interesting to see just what demand is like in the resale. Personally, my partner and I will be just as invested as always, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some, if not all, of our other 3 make other plans between now and then.