The ROH booking website - what can we do?

[Dawnstar]

Is anyone else getting a lot of technical errors at the moment? While I've occasionally had that error in recent weeks, it seems to have got more frequent in the last few days & tonight I'm getting nothing but technical errors. I've tried to look at ticket availability for a number of different performances, so it's not performance specific, but just keep getting this page https://www.roh.org.uk/error/500

 

[JohnS]

Yes - I’ve been trying to look for tickets for 29 April but just get the error message. I’ll try tomorrow. 

[alison]

Yes, I've been getting a lot recently, too.

[Dawnstar]

I suppose I should be glad it's not just me! I hope it sorts itself out, or at least improves, soon as I want to try to get a rush ticket this coming Friday & at this rate it's not looking promising.

[Dawnstar]

I've just tried to buy a ticket for tomorrow evening's Swan Lake, due to the cast change. Selected ticket, added to basket, removed £3 donation & went to pay, only to get an error message about the total being incorrect. It was £3 more than the ticket so presumably something to do with the £3 donation. I tried refreshing, to no avail, then tried signing out & back in, only to then find the ticket had then gone from my basket. No other tickets available in the stalls circle. Not exactly happy.

[alison]

There'll probably be some more once the news filters though, I should think.  Don't give up.

[Dawnstar]

I keep refreshing, but given there are only about 40 seats for SL that are both near enough for me to see & within my budget, I'm not too hopeful that any more of them will come up!

[bridiem]

29 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

I keep refreshing, but given there are only about 40 seats for SL that are both near enough for me to see & within my budget, I'm not too hopeful that any more of them will come up!

 

Maybe it would be worth trying for that ticket again soon - perhaps it got stuck in the system and hasn't necessarily been bought by someone else? (Though I've just checked and still nothing in the Stalls Circle showing at the moment.)

Edited March 21, 2022 by bridiem
Added sentence

[Dawnstar]

I've been checking frequently for the last hour & there's been no sign of it. I can only assume someone else bought it the instant the website started playing me up. The only tickets that have shown up in the stalls circle since have been two at over £130, which is well beyond my budget.

[CatherineTheMediocre]

I've just experienced the phantom £3 that prevents successful payment while trying to buy a ticket for the Swan Lake Ukraine fundraiser.  I had deleted the optional £3 donation and on the payment page the total due was £112, but the transaction kept being declined because the system was trying to process payment for £115 instead.  I checked the basket to see if the £3 donation was showing but it wasn't, just the ticket.  After a few attempts I deleted the ticket from my basket and then the £3 donation appeared in the basket, which I also deleted (it hadn't been visible when I'd looked before).  Fortunately I was able to purchase another (better) ticket after refreshing the booking page a number of times and that payment went through first time.

 

Is the phantom £3 a common problem?  Has it been reported to the box office? 

[Dawnstar]

Last night was the first time I've had that particular issue. I've had the 500 error several times recently but that's been earlier in the process, when trying to get onto the seating map. While still annoying, I find that less annoying than having a ticket only to lose it! I didn't contact the box office about the £3 error because by the time I experienced it last night they were closed for the day.

[Sebastian]

While trying to buy tickets for the May 5 gala yesterday, the website was again playing up. This time it had a new (to me) trick: when I wanted to pay for what I had managed to haul into my basket, the screen froze and then put up a message saying the event was sold out but returns may become available.

 

Given how many tickets were still on sale just before that message I didn’t give up. But despite refreshing, same message.

 

Then I tried on another computer: same Sold Out message. After 5 minutes or so this cleared by itself, so then it was possible to buy tickets again. Not Sold Out at all (at that point). 
 

Anyone else have this problem? In any case it was another ridiculous failure to get the “new” ROH website working for those times when more than a couple of people are trying to buy tickets at the same time. 

[capybara]

I thought I'd mention that, when one goes to the website and looks for the RB's Insight on the 19th April, there is no opportunity to book tickets - only to press to watch a trailer or to get more information. Yet there are now tickets available for this event in the Linbury, which must surely be focused on the Ashton Triple.

 

A very kind member of the Forum sent me a link, which she had saved, which does enable one to access tickets for this event. So, in case anyone else is looking, this should get you to the necessary page:

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/events/51124/tickets

 

[JNC]

Has anyone successfully managed to use the “new” system (with the old seat view function)?

 

it seems whenever I try to book tickets now it has defaulted me to the “old” system which works but doesn’t provide seat view. Is there a way I can get the new seat view system, or has this been withdrawn (again) due to ongoing issues? 

[alison]

I've been wondering that, too.

[Scheherezade]

Another shout out for the wonderful box office staff. 
When my online bookings froze in my basket without knowing whether payment had gone through the other day, they identified the seats, said they would keep an eye on them to prevent anyone else picking them up and additionally held separate, similar seats in case the originals slipped through the net, then emailed and called me back to confirm the position the bookings and payment later in the day. 
This is what customer service should always be like. 

[bridiem]

14 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

Another shout out for the wonderful box office staff. 
When my online bookings froze in my basket without knowing whether payment had gone through the other day, they identified the seats, said they would keep an eye on them to prevent anyone else picking them up and additionally held separate, similar seats in case the originals slipped through the net, then emailed and called me back to confirm the position the bookings and payment later in the day. 
This is what customer service should always be like. 

 

That's excellent - good for them. But it would of course be better if the poor box office staff (and punters) didn't have to struggle with such an inadequate system.

[Geoff]

In the unlikely event that there are people who haven't noticed the other thread, sadly the ROH technical problems are continuing (and there now seem to be some truly awful new issues), see for example this post and the discussion which followed:

 

 

 

 

 

[Bluebird]

Here is the November calendar on the ROH website:

https://www.roh.org.uk/calendar?date=2022-11

 

Here is the Royal Ballet casting for the Autumn:

https://media.wordfly.com/roh/ballet-bp1-casting-2223-enews-27-may.pdf?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2022_May_Friends_Enews_27May&utm_content=version_A&emailsource=59087

 

You will notice that, according to the Royal Ballet casting sheet, there are Mayerling performances November 22 at 7.30pm and November 26 at 1pm.  However, according to the November calendar, the opera Alcina is on at those times.  In addition, the calendar has Mayerling performances on November 21 and 24.  These dates do not appear on the Royal Ballet casting sheet.

 

I wrote to the Box Office almost a week ago to ask for clarification.  I've not yet had a reply.  I also wrote to the Friends' Office.  They say they've queried it with the Royal Ballet and will get back to me.  They've not yet done so.

 

Having checked with a Patron, it seems that the error appears to be with the website rather than with the Royal Ballet.  If that is the case, I'm amazed that it's not yet been corrected since Premium 2 Friends will be booking early next week and opera goers will have no idea that those Alcina dates might well be incorrect.

 

IMPORTANT EDIT

While I was writing the above post, a message from the Box Office appeared in my Inbox.  It seems I was being unfair to the ROH website.  The error was, after all, with the Royal Ballet.  They've just sent me the revised casting.  I've been unable to copy the pdf link they gave me so have pasted in the new information below and highlighted the new dates:

 

Saturday 12November at 12.30pm Monday 21 November at 7.30pm Ryoichi Hirano, Melissa Hamilton, Itziar Mendizabal, tba, Yuhui Choe, Claire Calvert, Paul Kay, Christopher Saunders, Gary Avis

 

Thursday 24 November, Wednesday 30 November at 7.30pm Marcelino Sambé*, Francesca Hayward*, Sarah Lamb, Annette Buvoli*, Isabella Gasparini*, Mayara Magri, Taisuke Nakao*, Gary Avis, Nicol Edmonds*

Edited June 6, 2022 by Bluebird

[Lizbie1]

I'm not sure I could lay my hand on it but there was a letter or email at the same time as the Friends Autumn magazine mailing that made various corrections about these dates. My recollection is that the online calendar dates are the correct ones according to the letter/email. (The bit I specifically recall is the "new" Alcina matinee, swapped with a performance of Mayerling.)

[bridiem]

4 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

I'm not sure I could lay my hand on it but there was a letter or email at the same time as the Friends Autumn magazine mailing that made various corrections about these dates. My recollection is that the online calendar dates are the correct ones according to the letter/email. (The bit I specifically recall is the "new" Alcina matinee, swapped with a performance of Mayerling.)

 

I'm pretty sure I've received no email about this. (I'm a 'regular' Friend.)

[Bluebird]

7 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

I'm not sure I could lay my hand on it but there was a letter or email at the same time as the Friends Autumn magazine mailing that made various corrections about these dates. My recollection is that the online calendar dates are the correct ones according to the letter/email. (The bit I specifically recall is the "new" Alcina matinee, swapped with a performance of Mayerling.)

 

If that's the case, it's a pity the message didn't get through to the Royal Ballet before they issued the casting for the Autumn.

[Bluebird]

36 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

 

If that's the case, it's a pity the message didn't get through to the Royal Ballet before they issued the casting for the Autumn.

 

It's just occurred to me that, if the Friends' Office sent the corrections you mention, Lisbie1, it's very odd that they weren't able to explain the date confusion when I wrote to them last Tuesday.

[Silke H]

Does anyone else experience Error 500 right now when trying to access the cast sheet page?  I get this error message on Chrome as well as Microsoft Edge.

[zxDaveM]

5 minutes ago, Silke H said:

Does anyone else experience Error 500 right now when trying to access the cast sheet page?  I get this error message on Chrome as well as Microsoft Edge.

 

yes, on Firefox (and Safari)

 

[Bluebird]

Casting now up on Like Water For Chocolate thread

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/36/like-water-for-chocolate-by-christopher-wheeldon/cast-list/49229

edited to add link to cast sheet

Edited June 6, 2022 by Bluebird

[Scheherezade]

On 06/06/2022 at 13:21, Lizbie1 said:

I'm not sure I could lay my hand on it but there was a letter or email at the same time as the Friends Autumn magazine mailing that made various corrections about these dates. My recollection is that the online calendar dates are the correct ones according to the letter/email. (The bit I specifically recall is the "new" Alcina matinee, swapped with a performance of Mayerling.)

I seem to remember getting something too, although I can’t recall whether the amended dates were the same as those posted by Bluebird. 

[Suffolkgal]

Not really booking just generally the website- it’s really not acceptable that the dancers list is so out of date. It’s not hard to update websites - I do it all the time!

[Rob S]

15 minutes ago, Suffolkgal said:

Not really booking just generally the website- it’s really not acceptable that the dancers list is so out of date. It’s not hard to update websites - I do it all the time!

 

It's far better than it was....all the Aud Jebsen dancers are now listed, with brief biographies (a pic to help identify them would be nice).

I assume Bracewell and Clarke are still First Soloists until the start of the new season so that's not changed yet.

[Suffolkgal]

Oh that’s a good point...

[Henry]

Has anyone noticed problems with the "What's on" calendar display?  Some events, e.g. the "Next Generation" events, are not listed (e.g. 13th, 14th, 17th 18th).  Additionally a spurious "Next Generation" event is shown for today, 15th June, with a ridiculous time that changes every time that you look at it. 

 

 

 

 

[Josette]

My problem with the website is that I cannot sign in, despite my being a supporter.  And when I request to change the password, I do not get an email allowing me to make the change.  All I can do is email the ROH and three to five days later, I get an email from them which is too late. 

[zxDaveM]

18 hours ago, Josette said:

My problem with the website is that I cannot sign in, despite my being a supporter.  And when I request to change the password, I do not get an email allowing me to make the change.  All I can do is email the ROH and three to five days later, I get an email from them which is too late. 

 

empty your cache and cookies of anything with "roh.org" (depending on which browser you have, it will be in the settings/security/history sections). Then restart the browser. See if that works. Or use a different browser to see if that helps