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ROH Website problems 2018


Sim

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My iPad is fairly ancient, so I do come across interesting behaviour on booking sites from time to time, but whatever they were thinking with this one, it's way too fiddly. The back button slings you right back to the season listing whereas previously it would have taken you to the production page. Though a downwards arrow that looks like it would hide/expand a section on the 'pre-actual-booking' page chucks you over to the production page...

 

If they are going live with it for public booking, they might be in for a bumpy ride.

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8 hours ago, alison said:

I also can't see how you get to a page showing all 3 parts of the Bernstein triple bill from any of the individual production pages any more, let alone find any casting for the 2 new works!  Plus when you click on the 9th April, which apparently has tickets available (presumably at least one at £4 and one at £70, you'd think from the display) no tickets appear to be available anywhere.  Unhelpful.

 

If you use the calendar and select the individual date for each Bernstein performance you will find proper casting details (although the Triple Bill dances are not presented in performance order).  But there doesn't seem to be a link to this helpful information on individual performances when clicking on the Bernstein production under What's On.

 

As regards the Nutcracker pricing map, as far as I can see a number of tickets are not included in any of the price categories - e.g. Orchestral Stalls D1-6, E1-6, J3, L1 and Balcony C24-28.

 

Friends Booking for Autumn starts 29 May so booking arrangements will no doubt have to be up and running by mid May for Patrons.  I wish the ROH well in finalising the website.  

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Well, more importantly at the moment, public booking starts on Wednesday ...

 

And sorry, but if I have to go hunting all over the ROH website just to find casting details for the two new works, I'm not going to bother.  So I guess I probably won't make an effort to go, full stop.

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10 minutes ago, alison said:

Well, more importantly at the moment, public booking starts on Wednesday ...

 

Apologies Alison - I hadn't realised public booking for the Summer was still to open.  

 

I have just checked the website for Swan Lake and it seems to me to be working fine with the only change being the layout of the first page for productions.  Once you've selected the date of interest, everything seems to be familiar, although as flagged up some time back not prices where there are significant changes (largely up but some down) compared with what might be considered the norm. 

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Another flaw is that current productions listed show seat prices which leads you to believe there are seats available, then when you click on it you find it showing SOLD OUT in all areas.  Previously you could see how many seats were left and go straight there.  I also don't find the new site aesthetically pleasing.  Was all this change needed?

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I just discovered that too; must be THE most annoying feature,  grrrrrr! and furthermore when I did find a seat and tried to put it in the basket it seemed to happen, then as I was about to fork out, it disappeared and a message jumped up to say 'There has been an error'

 

You bet there has.

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23 hours ago, alison said:

I see there's no longer any indication of the number of tickets still available: it could be 2, or it could be 200 :(  I don't find that at all helpful.

 

Indeed. That - and the issue mentioned by penelopesimpson of ticket prices appearing for sold out performances - equals an annoying website and a backwards step. 

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19 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Perhaps if anyone from the Box Office ever lurks on here, they might care to take note of all the problems listed and then use them as a snagging list.

 

I'm not sure they do. :(  Could be worth mentioning on Twitter, perhaps.

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This may have been noted before, but the new screen that has the  number of seats still available to book,  in each area, is  giving  unnecessary additional  confusion. It  just  leads to the  old screen that did exactly the same thing - except generally  there are less seats actually available, as shown on the old screen, than indicated on the new. It's pants, frankly ! I will report back if the ROH respond.  

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Yes.  I'm also wondering about people doing late returns on tickets: if tickets aren't actually showing up online despite being advertised as available on the "front page", so to speak, who's going to buy them?  Or have they actually been sold, and it's just that the "front page" hasn't been updated?  I have a feeling the former is more likely.

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Just now, Saodan said:

I am happy to report that my student booking experience has been fine. This is mostly because it appears that they have reverted back to the old layout. I guess someone was listening...

 

Thanks, Saodan.  I wonder whether they've actually "gone live" with the new look for the Summer period or not?  Hopefully not.

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Just tried to look to see if the pricing for the Nutcracker is as jaw dropping as it seemed when I took a quick look yesterday, and it seems the dynamic pricing tool has vanished.

 

"We want to ensure that you have the best possible experience so are just making final checks before going live. We apologize for this temporary inconvenience and will ensure that all customers have access to seat price information well in advance of tickets going on sale."

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Lynette H said:

 

"We want to ensure that you have the best possible experience so are just making final checks before going live."

 

 

Why do people do this?! Why pretend they hadn't gone live already and haven't had to roll back to a previous version?

 

This is what gives comms people a bad name - it's so needless!

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I would guess that the new system was still under construction and that someone pressed the wrong button enabling us to see the "new dynamic price mapping tool" before they'd checked it and made the final adjustments. 

 

I certainly didn't see an announcement telling us that it had gone live.  Was there one?  I only knew it was there because of the comments on this forum. I had to browse through the website and experiment before I found a way of accessing the tool for each performance.

Edited by Bluebird
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19 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

I would guess that the new system was still under construction and that someone pressed the wrong button enabling us to see the "new dynamic price mapping tool" before they'd checked it and made the final adjustments. 

 

I certainly didn't see an announcement telling us that it had gone live.  Was there one?  I only knew it was there because of the comments on this forum. I had to browse through the website and experiment before I found a way of accessing the tool for each performance.

I had an  email in March (as a Friend) saying  "We will ensure that you are notified when the seat price information is visible on the website, which will be well in advance of tickets going on sale".

Anyway  they  seem to have reverted back to the old  layout soon after  I pointed out the problem to them earlier today. Probably a total coincidence,  but I am happy to take the credit... !

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31 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

I would guess that the new system was still under construction and that someone pressed the wrong button enabling us to see the "new dynamic price mapping tool" before they'd checked it and made the final adjustments. 

 

If their processes are any good at all (and it's hard to imagine they're completely devoid of change management) it's very difficult - and it can be career-limiting - to release a new version by mistake.

 

I just think they had a deadline they were under pressure to hit and they decided to go ahead before it had been properly tested. Thankfully common sense seems to have prevailed now.

Edited by Lizbie1
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2 hours ago, Saodan said:

I am happy to report that my student booking experience has been fine. This is mostly because it appears that they have reverted back to the old layout. I guess someone was listening...

 

Oh, that's good.  Daughter failed to get a ticket for the Student performance of Swan Lake, despite logging on at 9.04 am. :(

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1 hour ago, Anna C said:

 

Oh, that's good.  Daughter failed to get a ticket for the Student performance of Swan Lake, despite logging on at 9.04 am. :(

 

That's a shame. I guess something must have gone wrong for her because the tickets didn't seem to go that quickly. More website problems? There are still some tickets available, although only around the top of the amphitheatre. Maybe you could suggest she has another try.

Edited by Saodan
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I managed yesterday to get the seating plan for ballet in the Autumn and check out prices.  Now it seems to have disappeared - if I go on to the Mayerling listing, all is gives me is a 'not on sale' notice opposite each date.  I'm sure it had a link to the seatingplan/pricing before and  I had made a note of the layout and prices for each of the programmes.

 

Margaret

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4 hours ago, Anna C said:

 

Oh, that's good.  Daughter failed to get a ticket for the Student performance of Swan Lake, despite logging on at 9.04 am. :(

 

I saw them replying to another user on Twitter that this performance had accidentally been showing as not available when Student booking first went live.  The person in question later managed to get a ticket.

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19 minutes ago, RuthE said:

 

I saw them replying to another user on Twitter that this performance had accidentally been showing as not available when Student booking first went live.  The person in question later managed to get a ticket.

 

Gosh! Thank you and Saodan; I'll let daughter know!

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1 hour ago, Anna C said:

Would you believe it, she's just got home and now there are only standing tickets left.  She can't stand for that long. :(  How infuriating.

 

If I remember correctly, the last time they ran a whole house student performance (Frankenstein) there were quite a few returns so keep an eye on the date. Your daughter might get lucky.

 

I have found student booking to be temperamental in the past. In a previous booking period the site didn't recognise me as a student. I had to contact the box office to manual reset my status so I could book. Now I make sure to resubmit my student profile a few days before booking opens just to be safe. Makes you wonder why they are creating more problems for themselves with the new 'dynamic' system!

 

I hope general booking goes well for everyone. This was my last booking period as a student, so next season I will join the scrum!

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8 hours ago, Bluebird said:

I would guess that the new system was still under construction and that someone pressed the wrong button enabling us to see the "new dynamic price mapping tool" before they'd checked it and made the final adjustments. 

 

I certainly didn't see an announcement telling us that it had gone live.  Was there one?  I only knew it was there because of the comments on this forum. I had to browse through the website and experiment before I found a way of accessing the tool for each performance.

The new website is a lot of things.  Dynamic is not one of them.

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26 minutes ago, Bruce Wall said:

Public booking back - as suggested - to the site as we had previously come to know it ... and all went smooth.  My only query is if it ain't broke ... why fix it????

Well quite.  Happy to report no problems whatsover this morning - although only the tail feathers left for Swan Lake. 

Wonder why they needed to re-design something that always seemed to work perfectly well?

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Yes, the only problem I has this morning (when booking for the RBS matinee) was that having been on the booking page before 9am and redirected into the queue when I refreshed at 9am, when I was then directed back to the site I landed on an error page and had to refresh.

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8 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Swan Lake seems to have sold fantastically well - not much left for many performances.  Is this a record???????

 

I noticed that.  Impressive given the increased prices! Lovely for the dancers though. 

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