My Letter to LiveNation

I'm shocked at how bad my ordering experience was this morning.

At 9:59 a.m. EST, my computer let me click on the "Buy Tickets" button for the CLT Buffett show. I was at first pleasantly surprised when I made it through the word verification screen, and saw the screen ticker telling me that you were finding my tickets. "Success!" I thought. "Wow, this is even easier than Ticketmaster was in the past. This is awesome!"

Yet, your site returned an error page. "Return to event," said the button, giving me hope that this was a one-time glich. Little did I know this would be a 45-minute glich.

Your site returned an error message, after having to re-select the tickets and try to read the word verification screen 37 TIMES.

One of the error screens that I saw in my horrible ticket buying experience with LiveNation.

There were more than three times where the site didn't return me to the event page, as the button told me it would. It returned me to the temporary home page that told me what was ON SALE this morning. (Am I supposed to feel sympathy for the fact that you don't have the systems to handle this amount of traffic?) Those times I had to click back through to get to my event, adding even more time and stress to an already time-constrained and stressful situation.

THEN, your site told me that the CLT show was SOLD OUT. "Sorry, this show is sold out." So I began to try the Raleigh show.

Again, with the error screens. 7 more here, but I finally got through. Here's the issue though: Raleigh isn't going to work for us, so when calmer times returned, I decided to "Release the Tickets" (as the button said) to check CLT ONE MORE TIME.

Click "Release" and move on. Nothing should be in my cart, right? Any sane person would think that would be the case.

So, I go to check the CLT site on the off-chance that your system truly does suck as much as it's proving to, and that you might have royally screwed up.

Lo and behold: I'm proven right. LiveNation does suck, becuase NOW the CLT show IS NOT SOLD OUT. But it was a mere, oh, 5 minutes ago. WHY?

SO, I decide to try to get tickets again. It's a show I really, really want to see.

Again, with the error messages. Only four this time; you must have improved a bit.

Finally get to the page where I'm supposed to have 10 minutes to finalize my order, and yet, I only have 6 minutes and thirty seconds. Where did my other three minutes and thirty seconds go, hmmm?

But is that it? Does your ridiculous ordering process get any easier? OH NO!

The Raleigh tickets I'd "Released"? Yep, still in my cart. So, I use some of my precious 6:30 trying to AGAIN GET THEM OUT OF MY CART.

Finally, something goes right when it's supposed to and the tickets come out.

Filling out the final steps, I find I have to create an account. WHY CAN'T I JUST BUY TICKETS AS A GUEST? And why, oh why, couldn't you tell me BEFORE I tried to get my tickets? My precious 6:30 is now down to 4:30 and you don't even have my billing information yet.

Entering my information for billing, I find that you HAVEN'T followed STANDARD WEB FORM PRACTICES and you refuse to mark which fields are required. (BTW, you may be the only company in the world who thinks that the SALUTATION is a required field for a WEB FORM.)

I enter my information, typing as fast as I possibly can, trying to make sure I get everything right, watching the seconds tick away out of the corner of my eye. After trying to get these precious tickets through PHONE (which never even rang once) and WEB for more than 40 minutes, I can't lose them now.

Now, I don't know whether your forms will take dashes or hyphens, but some forms don't, so I don't even attempt the dash for Winston-Salem. I bypass it completely, thinking your system certainly couldn't be good enough for that if it's performed the way it has so far.

Happily, I uncheck the box giving you permission to send me more email than you already do. After such horrible service, I want nothing to do with a company like yours.

The paying part is perhaps the easiest--until I find out that you can't put any spaces between your credit card number. (Why isn't there a note beside the field? Have you just decided that web form standards SHOULDN'T apply to you?)

As my time nears 2:30, I finally get to click the button to purchase, hoping that your system doesn't decide to give me YET ANOTHER ERROR MESSAGE and I can finally buy my tickets. I think that after 45 minutes, this is the worst ticket buying experience I have ever had. And it is.

I even ponder printing my own tickets, because I have serious, serious doubts of your ability to actually print the correct tickets and send them to me before April 21.

As all smart consumers do, I print my confirmation page which wastes 4 extra pages of paper, because you won't let my computer print what it shows on my web browser, instead opting for some ugly, lengthy list-like printout.

Now, I'm going to log into my email, to print that confirmation as well, BECAUSE I HAVE SERIOUS DOUBTS IN LIVENATION'S ABILITY TO ACTUALLY PROVIDE THE SERVICE IT CLAIMS TO.

If I can avoid buying tickets through your service again, be assured that I will.

Also, rest assured that the 6 people I've told has already turned into hundreds, if not thousands, thanks to the fabulous world of social media.

I hope you have a nice day. At least a nicer day than I have had already because of your utter and complete lack of providing a half-way sufficient ticket buying platform.

Sincerely,
Your very, very upset customer,
Elizabeth