ROH "Spring" booking - problems and experiences

[Lizbie1]

Is anyone else struggling with booking this morning?

[Lizbie1]

All done - but I had to fall back on my mobile phone. When I used my laptop it got stuck waiting for the page offering a choice of booking systems to load (it's still there).

 

Added thought: I don't think the choice of booking systems has been rolled out to mobile users, hence it not being a problem there.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Lizbie1

[Mary]

I was given upgraded membership as a (lovely) gift. I have hardly used it but really looked forward to today:  sadly, the experience was the worst I have ever had,  with multiple crashing and freezings just as I was on the verge of checking out, then seeing the seats slip through my fingers- most aggravating and bad for the BP.

ROH please do sort this out, I have supported  you through thick and thin and paid out handsomely while  unable to go to anything for ages..so please..do make the website work....

 

[serenade]

40 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

Is anyone else struggling with booking this morning?

Yes, it was stressful as I really love A month in the country and wanted a good seat. I was using Chrome…it asked me if I wanted to use the new booking system and I said yes but I just got a blank loading screen. I went back and selected the old booking option and got straight in for the first date I wanted for Ashton and had no problem adding to basket. Went back for the second night I wanted but didn’t get the option to select what booking option i wanted and it just automatically started to use the new one which again was just a blank screen. Tried refreshing a few times which did nothing so I went back in with  Microsoft Edge which (for once) worked great. I got the seats I wanted for the Ashtons and the other triple bill so I’m really happy but I think I just got lucky. 
 

So I’d definitely advise anyone booking to have a backup browser at the ready. 

[serenade]

20 minutes ago, Mary said:

I was given upgraded membership as a (lovely) gift. I have hardly used it but really looked forward to today:  sadly, the experience was the worst I have ever had,  with multiple crashing and freezings just as I was on the verge of checking out, then seeing the seats slip through my fingers- most aggravating and bad for the BP.

ROH please do sort this out, I have supported  you through thick and thin and paid out handsomely while  unable to go to anything for ages..so please..do make the website work....

 

I totally agree, I’m sorry you didn’t get the seats you wanted 😟

[Lizbie1]

21 minutes ago, serenade said:

Tried refreshing a few times which did nothing so I went back in with  Microsoft Edge which (for once) worked great.

 

Just to add to the fun, it was Edge that I was failing with.

 

My advice is to have more than one browser and perhaps a smartphone to hand.

[serenade]

10 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Just to add to the fun, it was Edge that I was failing with.

 

My advice is to have more than one browser and perhaps a smartphone to hand.

Nightmare! Yes agreed, and be also logged into them all as my password is saved on chrome and not on Edge and that slowed me down as couldn’t remember it straight away!

[Rob S]

Looks like there are server issues as I can't view my e-tickets at the moment

[Lizbie1]

They've put a banner up, saying "12noon (GMT): Due to a high demand for tickets, purchases via our website may be disrupted. We apologize for any inconvenience."

 

Who could have foreseen that this would happen on one of the major booking days?

[alison]

They've been having problems with various parts of the website over the last few days.

[Lizbie1]

I'm trying to remember how long the website redevelopment has been going on. 4 years?  More?  And the end doesn't appear to be in sight - though we should make allowances for any pauses caused by the pandemic.

 

I've had long periods of feeling sympathetic because I know just how complicated a project this must be, but this is getting silly now.

[Mary]

16 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

They've put a banner up, saying "12noon (GMT): Due to a high demand for tickets, purchases via our website may be disrupted. We apologize for any inconvenience."

 

Who could have foreseen that this would happen on one of the major booking days?

Perhaps it's a huge rush on tickets for the Ashton programme, in which case I am quite pleased at the message that sends!

But still unhappy that the website is not 'fit for purpose'- not good enough.

[Lizbie1]

It feels as if they couldn't afford load testing (where they "stress test" a website by simulating many users accessing it at once) so thought to themselves, "I know, we'll just get the job done for free by Friends!"

Edited February 3, 2022 by Lizbie1

[MJW]

3 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

All done - but I had to fall back on my mobile phone. When I used my laptop it got stuck waiting for the page offering a choice of booking systems to load (it's still there).

 

Added thought: I don't think the choice of booking systems has been rolled out to mobile users, hence it not being a problem there.

I had the same problem but thought it might be something to do with my connection at work. It the end I restarted and used the old version. 
 

Two trips to see the Ashton triple and one to see the Solo Echo triple

 

[Beryl H]

My ROH website was badly corrupted last Friends Booking Day, it was only after an E-mail to their Technical Advice and their help that got it sorted out, I'll be very cautious this time!

 

[art_enthusiast]

Not sure what's worse - it's a mix of website booking failures and being on hold for the box office for what seems like hours on end!
It really seems as if the phone is never answered. Ditto emails.

[JNC]

Any friends managed to checkout yet? I was successful in adding some tickets to basket but now is completely stuck and just showing three grey dots refusing me to checkout. I have tried on other browsers and get a technical error. 

[J_New]

I was thrown back on the 'Error 404 page not found' several times, but managed to check out in the end. I used the old system.

[JNC]

I managed to checkout on the old system too finally! Less of a debacle than the Winter booking but still frustrating. 

[JNC]

Now I may just be panicking but I haven't received email confirmation of my purchase and I can't see them in my events area...let's hope they have actually gone through.

[ninamargaret]

Used new system, no problems with Ashton triple on 30 April although stalls circle seats a bit limited. Then decided I should have booked for the other triple, went back, selected ticket and inadvertently entered wrong CV code so got a message telling me an error had occurred and to contact the box office! So I reentered correct code and all was well. I do find the seat map  difficult to see, and that is using my desk top pc.

[art_enthusiast]

My sister is a Young Friend and their booking was supposed to open today at 9am, but she can't see anything available on the website. It does seem absurd.

[bridiem]

That was farcical. I cleared the cache on Chrome and then tried different variations of Chrome/old system/new system/sign out and in/incognito browsing/phone/Edge - all either didn't let me book at all or gave an error message when I tried to book another ticket. My final effort using Edge, having cleared cookies, and selecting the 'continue shopping' option rather than going back to the name of the bill, finally allowed me to book more tickets. By which time most of the seats I wanted had gone, but I did at least get the dates I wanted. Ridiculous.

[Bruce Wall]

Is anyone else FINDING THIS IMPOSSIBLE .... I put tickets in the basket ... and THEN THEY DISAPPEAR???????    It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Poor Show, ROH - AGAIN!

[cackles]

I had my tickets in the basket but it won't let me pay. It keeps teling me incorrectly that I have more than one basket open. Now it's timed out.

[Lynette H]

If it offers you a choice, do NOT choose the new checkout service. That is, if you do get offered a choice - I got randomly assigned to the new booking service at some attempts and then the screen freezes. 

 

Better to check out each ticket individually rather than risking the entire basket becoming inaccessible. Painful. 

[bridiem]

I've posted about this on the casting/booking thread. I managed to book and check out on about the 15th attempt of different combinations of strategies on different browsers and on my phone, all of which had until then produced error messages. Unacceptable.

[Timmie]

It's not going well, and I only wanted three tickets. Using two different browsers, a phone and a tablet is helping a bit 😁.

[Lizbie1]

I gather from all this that either:

1. They didn't think that the new booking system (or presenting a choice of booking systems) was causing problems, so didn't roll back to the old one
2. They realised that it was a problem but couldn't roll back to the old one
3. They realised that it was a problem but decided to press on regardless

I don't know which is worse.

[Lynette H]

As an aside, I'm assumed to see that a couple of the tickets I did manage to purchase are showing on the events page as wheelchair spaces (they aren't - there are no wheelchair spaces in that row).  But it is confusing.....

[jmhopton]

Well, I eventually managed to get the 4 Ashton tickets I wanted after trial and several (500) errors. I did  select the old system and got through to the website incredibly quickly which was great. Started off at the first Ashton 12.30 performance only to find just 4 stalls circle seats available, all of them with restricted camera views. Selected one of them but when (emboldened by how easy it had been!!) pressed continue to select more seats I got the error 500 message. Tried signing out and logging back in again by which time my ticket had vanished from my basket. Selected it again and went straight to pay and achieved this. Then went back to ordering. Selected a seat for the 23rd evening (fortunately a lot more availability) and the got error 500 again. Fortunately this time managed to get round it without losing my ticket and went on to purchase the 2 Monday 2nd May tickets I wanted where again availability wasn't too bad though at one stage, after purchasing one ticket it redirected me to the new system which involved a lot of egg timing and little action and had to be logged out of and logged in again. This happened another time when the new system actually worked. The one thing I like about the new system is the drop down date menu so if you're booking several tickets for the same programme you don't have to keep pressing the back button which can sometimes be disastrous. This time, when paying, remembered my credit vouchers and paid with them so it didn't actually cost me anything apart from the first ticket. Am relieved but exhausted and it's only 10.30am!

[San Perregrino]

severe disappointment. once again, a world class organisation is once again a laughing stock.

[DanJL]

Sorry to hear of problems. My experience was smoother than I feared. I hit an error on one occasion (after having already added two of of my three tickets to the basket) but went back to home page and back through to the ticket page with no problem.

 

This was all done on my phone, which I always use for booking tickets. I think / assume old version of the site (or is there a specific mobile site?). I was booking in familiar areas anyway so didn't require seat view. My only surprise was that I found tickets for the Ashton triple easier to get in orchestra stalls than for the modern triple.