[a rant]
Wellllll.... I have some pretty strong opinions here, and the strongest of which, I think I'll keep to myself.
But frankly, the tickets.com method simply is not fair to the vast majority of people.
Yes, I have season tickets, but I usually get extras for my friends who do not have their own, plus, people are always asking me for tickets.
Demand, obviously, is much higher this year. So many friends got wristbands. Only one was lucky enough to get within 800 of the chosen first number, and even he had to wait about five hours. By then several games were already sold out. Jeff and Howard are still there as of this writing, and they'll get some tickets for themselves and a few for me too.
The problem is with the way tickets.com runs their website and phone banks. There are many tickets.com phone numbers nationally, but if you call one outside of the official Cub number, they won't let you order. Note I say "won't", because with computer technology, they surely could process these orders, but they refuse to do so. If they did, this would make it so much easier to get through on the phone.
Online, they have come up with the much-reviled "Virtual Waiting Room", which is nearly impossible to get out of (reminds me of the old red room on "Twin Peaks", actually), and even if you do, you can only order one game at a time, which means that you have to pay a separate shipping charge for every game. The other national ticket site, Ticketmaster, will let you save your tickets in a "shopping cart", then pay for them when you are done with all games. Or you can print your tickets at home.
Yes, I know the Cubs are trying to be fair to everyone, and no doubt, they will sell more tickets today than they have ever sold on a single day.
But the system sucks.
[end rant]
Wellllll.... I have some pretty strong opinions here, and the strongest of which, I think I'll keep to myself.
But frankly, the tickets.com method simply is not fair to the vast majority of people.
Yes, I have season tickets, but I usually get extras for my friends who do not have their own, plus, people are always asking me for tickets.
Demand, obviously, is much higher this year. So many friends got wristbands. Only one was lucky enough to get within 800 of the chosen first number, and even he had to wait about five hours. By then several games were already sold out. Jeff and Howard are still there as of this writing, and they'll get some tickets for themselves and a few for me too.
The problem is with the way tickets.com runs their website and phone banks. There are many tickets.com phone numbers nationally, but if you call one outside of the official Cub number, they won't let you order. Note I say "won't", because with computer technology, they surely could process these orders, but they refuse to do so. If they did, this would make it so much easier to get through on the phone.
Online, they have come up with the much-reviled "Virtual Waiting Room", which is nearly impossible to get out of (reminds me of the old red room on "Twin Peaks", actually), and even if you do, you can only order one game at a time, which means that you have to pay a separate shipping charge for every game. The other national ticket site, Ticketmaster, will let you save your tickets in a "shopping cart", then pay for them when you are done with all games. Or you can print your tickets at home.
Yes, I know the Cubs are trying to be fair to everyone, and no doubt, they will sell more tickets today than they have ever sold on a single day.
But the system sucks.
[end rant]