The ticket purchase process nightmare after entering the details is by the festival's choice

[noam c]

I see discussions about getting through to the stage of entering the details, but I believe the real issue starts after reaching this point. Now, I actually have something in writing from the festival to support this.

 

I've always thought that the frustrating process after getting through to the registration details entry was down to See Tickets.  This part of the process feels completely - lets just call it uncompassionate, and I struggled to believe that the festival itself could be behind such a thing.

 

That changed during the last ticket sale in April. After going back and forth with See Tickets with no helpful answers, I decided to reach out to Glastonbury directly. This is the response I received from the festival.

 

 

 

It seems that when demand is high, fairness and compassion fall by the wayside.  If you don’t get everything perfect on your end, you’re quickly dropped for the next person in line. It makes sense now why Glastonbury has stuck with See Tickets for this long.

 

While you’ll hear a lot about compassion being a core part of the festival’s values, seems like it doesn’t extend to the ticketing experience. 

Make sure you have everything exactly right.

 

[incident]

This isn't the smoking gun you seem to think it is.

 

Yes, registrations become locked for 10 minutes when you get a certain stage though the process. Tickets are "held" against those registrations for the duration of that 10 minutes as well.

 

This is by design, and it's intended to prevent previously encountered problems - ensuring tickets are available at the point payment is made, and preventing duplicate purchases (which was especially problematic when you had inconsistent group membership). Yes as you've encountered it does cause a problem if the transaction can't be completed, but on balance it's still the better way of doing things.

 

Yes, they say that they can't retroactively allocate tickets to people where the purchase failed at the payment stage. What else do you expect? Even if the tickets hadn't already been reallocated and sold, I'm not even certain they have a reliable way of identifying all of the people who got that far - and obviously they can't take peoples word for it.

[noam c]

32 minutes ago, incident said:

This isn't the smoking gun you seem to think it is.

 

Yes, registrations become locked for 10 minutes when you get a certain stage though the process. Tickets are "held" against those registrations for the duration of that 10 minutes as well.

 

This is by design, and it's intended to prevent previously encountered problems - ensuring tickets are available at the point payment is made, and preventing duplicate purchases (which was especially problematic when you had inconsistent group membership). Yes as you've encountered it does cause a problem if the transaction can't be completed, but on balance it's still the better way of doing things.

 

Yes, they say that they can't retroactively allocate tickets to people where the purchase failed at the payment stage. What else do you expect? Even if the tickets hadn't already been reallocated and sold, I'm not even certain they have a reliable way of identifying all of the people who got that far - and obviously they can't take peoples word for it.

 

My transaction failed due to a mismatched address in my registration info that didn’t match the card’s address. After an unsuccessful payment, why wouldn’t you release the locked registrations?

 

I would expect to be able to update the card information or try a different card—not to be banned from the sale

 

Locking up registrations for 10-15 minutes means you lose your current session as it times out, likely after the sale has already ended. Tickets are certainly not being "held" for you.

 

So, even if another person on your team gets through, the registrations are still stuck. You lose your turn, and your whole team is blocked, all because of a minor issue like a wrong address?

 

In a stressful situation like this, mistakes happen. Instead of offering a chance to correct the info or update the card, you’re essentially banned because there are plenty of others waiting.

 

And regarding the statement in the email: "many more people get through to entering their details than will ultimately secure tickets".  Why? If you won the raffle why are you being prevented from getting your ticket?

How is that not a smoking gun?

 

Edited Saturday at 11:52 PM by noam c

[foolee]

28 minutes ago, noam c said:

 

My transaction failed due to a mismatched address in my registration info that didn’t match the card’s address. After an unsuccessful payment, why wouldn’t you release the locked registrations?

 

I would expect to be able to update the card information or try a different card—not to be banned from the sale

 

Locking up registrations for 10-15 minutes means you lose your current session as it times out, likely after the sale has already ended. Tickets are certainly not being "held" for you.

 

So, even if another person on your team gets through, the registrations are still stuck. You lose your turn, and your whole team is blocked, all because of a minor issue like a wrong address?

 

In a stressful situation like this, mistakes happen. Instead of offering a chance to correct the info or update the card, you’re essentially banned because there are plenty of others waiting.

 

And regarding the statement in the email: "many more people get through to entering their details than will ultimately secure tickets".  Why? If you won the raffle why are you being prevented from getting your ticket?

How is that not a smoking gun?

 

Just check and double check all your details pre sale so they’re correct. Simple solution really. If you put the details in wrong its tough really. You’ve not won tickets to the raffle, you’ve picked a winning ticket and dropped it back into the pile at that point. 

[noam c]

1 hour ago, foolee said:

Just check and double check all your details pre sale so they’re correct. Simple solution really. If you put the details in wrong its tough really. You’ve not won tickets to the raffle, you’ve picked a winning ticket and dropped it back into the pile at that point. 

I didn't drop my winning ticket back into the pile.  The festival took my winning ticket and threw it back because they have the demand. The system kicked me back into the registration numbers entry and locked my registrations.

 

Why not allow another payment attempt?  I have several cards, why couldn't I use a different one?

 

Checking and double checking the details will not always solve the issue.  All of my information was actually correct.  What was incorrect was my old address for the card which I forgot to change through the card issuer.

 

Bottom line you go through a stressful moment and you are a human, you can make mistakes.  The festival is intolerant to mistakes and that is strange for a festival that claims to actually care. 

[incident]

1 hour ago, noam c said:

My transaction failed due to a mismatched address in my registration info that didn’t match the card’s address.

 

There isn't any requirement for any of the registrations to match the card used for payment. Many people on here will be able to give first hand confirmation of this.

 

As long as the Card Number, CCV, Expiry Date, and Postcard inputted on the payment page are all valid (within themselves), and the SCA check passes, then the card doesn't have to be linked to (and isn't checked against) any of the registrations on the order. So the error would have been somewhere self contained within that.

 

1 hour ago, noam c said:

After an unsuccessful payment, why wouldn’t you release the locked registrations?

 

I would expect to be able to update the card information or try a different card—not to be banned from the sale

 

Locking up registrations for 10-15 minutes means you lose your current session as it times out, likely after the sale has already ended. Tickets are certainly not being "held" for you.

 

So, even if another person on your team gets through, the registrations are still stuck. You lose your turn, and your whole team is blocked, all because of a minor issue like a wrong address?

 

In a stressful situation like this, mistakes happen. Instead of offering a chance to correct the info or update the card, you’re essentially banned because there are plenty of others waiting.

 

Yes, you should be able to update the information and try again - that's how the system is intended to work and is precisely why the registrations remain locked for the remainder of the 10 minute window you're given to complete the transaction. Obviously I can't speak to why that didn't happen in this case, but it certainly doesn't equate to being "banned from the sale".

 

It's not great that for whatever reason you weren't able to try again in this instance, but I think it does work as intended most of the time - so on balance keeping the order open (and therefore the registrations locked) so that people can try updated details is fairer than releasing the registrations (and therefore kicking people out) immediately.

 

2 hours ago, noam c said:

And regarding the statement in the email: "many more people get through to entering their details than will ultimately secure tickets".  Why? If you won the raffle why are you being prevented from getting your ticket?

How is that not a smoking gun?

 

You're reading far more into that statement than I would.

[noam c]

5 minutes ago, incident said:

 

There isn't any requirement for any of the registrations to match the card used for payment. Many people on here will be able to give first hand confirmation of this.

 

You're reading far more into that statement than I would.

 

The festival is clearly telling you in the email that they know many more people get through than ultimately securing tickets.  

I've been buying tickets since 2008 and I can attest that this is true. My group has managed to get through almost every year.  But actually landing a ticket happens at a rate of 1 in 3 attempts more or less.

 

Specifically my particular transaction was declined by my card issuer due to suspicious activity on their part, not any requirement by See Tickets.  The reason for the problem is not material.  Many different problems can arise and they do.

 

The festival is now improving the queuing process and phasing out the F5.  Great.  I think it is far more important to fix the post registration entry, the part for those who actually won the lottery. 

 

I have no problem losing in the lottery, I have a real problem winning the lottery and then having the winning ticket taken from me.

 

 

 

 

 

[MilkyJoe]

It's unfortunate that this happened to you and you're right it should allow you to complete the transaction using a different card, but I'm afraid it is what it is. I don't really think it's the fault of the festival and they certainly didn't design the process like that. It's a SeeTickets issue and no way around it unless your tickets were actually held and guaranteed for the entire 10mins. Due to the scale of the ticket sale and sheer numbers trying to get tickets there is always going to be people getting through at exactly the same time especially when the remaining ticket numbers get low and they are always going to sell out whilst people are still inputting details.

 

Chalk it down to bad luck. You are not alone.