How NOT to sell tickets.
Today was supposed to be exciting. I had applied for tickets to the World Cup when the first lottery was opened up but failed to be drawn for tickets. Now that qualifying has finished, FIFA has released tickets to the soccer federations of the nations that are officially in. That means, more tickets have been released to the US Soccer Federation. So how do they handle it?
At first everything seemed ok. I mean, they organized a pre-sale to official Soccer Federation members and closed off ticket requests to everyone else. This agrees with me since I’m a member and screw you if you’re not – I want my tickets before you. So they send out a special invitation via email with instructions saying the forms can ONLY be sent via post or fax. If you live five feet from the Federation building in Chicago, you cannot just walk up and deliver your application, you can’t fill in an online form and you can’t even email back your completed form. Still doesn’t sound too bad though, right? This is where everything broke down.
I realize that there aren’t too many hardcore soccer fans in the US but the demand was still going to be reasonably high. That is to say, the US Soccer Federation should have had more than ONE FUCKING FAX MACHINE TO TAKE ORDERS. You read that right, one machine. One machine. They assured fans that they had taken steps to accommodate a high rate of request. One fax machine does not cut it.
Then things got worse. After hours of futile fax attempts, internet rumors start circulating that the ONE MACHINE has broken and is down. The FAX MACHINE BROKE!! If that wasn’t bad enough, the US Soccer Federation made no announcement about this either via email or on the website. No word of it at all. So, being the skeptic, I decide to investigate this rumor. I called the Soccer Federation’s office because, seriously, who’s going to just take internet gossip for gospel fact? I called and spoke to a nice lady who did confirm that the fax was down. That means I now have to next day air mail the application because it’s a first come, first serve basis. Jumping Jiminy. I’m still in shock about the whole thing. How on earth can you set up a system that dictates the best option will have ONE MACHINE dedicated to it and then have no backup when it goes down? Grrr.
At first everything seemed ok. I mean, they organized a pre-sale to official Soccer Federation members and closed off ticket requests to everyone else. This agrees with me since I’m a member and screw you if you’re not – I want my tickets before you. So they send out a special invitation via email with instructions saying the forms can ONLY be sent via post or fax. If you live five feet from the Federation building in Chicago, you cannot just walk up and deliver your application, you can’t fill in an online form and you can’t even email back your completed form. Still doesn’t sound too bad though, right? This is where everything broke down.
I realize that there aren’t too many hardcore soccer fans in the US but the demand was still going to be reasonably high. That is to say, the US Soccer Federation should have had more than ONE FUCKING FAX MACHINE TO TAKE ORDERS. You read that right, one machine. One machine. They assured fans that they had taken steps to accommodate a high rate of request. One fax machine does not cut it.
Then things got worse. After hours of futile fax attempts, internet rumors start circulating that the ONE MACHINE has broken and is down. The FAX MACHINE BROKE!! If that wasn’t bad enough, the US Soccer Federation made no announcement about this either via email or on the website. No word of it at all. So, being the skeptic, I decide to investigate this rumor. I called the Soccer Federation’s office because, seriously, who’s going to just take internet gossip for gospel fact? I called and spoke to a nice lady who did confirm that the fax was down. That means I now have to next day air mail the application because it’s a first come, first serve basis. Jumping Jiminy. I’m still in shock about the whole thing. How on earth can you set up a system that dictates the best option will have ONE MACHINE dedicated to it and then have no backup when it goes down? Grrr.
posted by Sivlitz at 9:11 PM
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