I try not to complain about the numerous imperfections of ticketing services because nothing is perfect and the imperfections are generally just minor annoyances. However, I think Tickets.com has passed over the line into total suckitude.
1. Somehow, my account has disappeared. I can't sign in, and when I go to the "Forgot your password" section, it says I don't have an account. Not to mention that the "Forgot your password" section is based on user name and zip code, which seems a little stupid to me. What's wrong with "E-mail Address"?
2. Number 1 is not a big problem, right? I mean, I can still buy tickets without signing-in, right? Well, apparently not. It says: "New users click 'continue' and you will have a chance to register after your transaction is completed." Apparently, I won't have a chance to register because each time I hit "continue" It just reloads the same page telling me to sign-in or hit "continue." At least it does that until my 4 minutes and 45 seconds ran out, at which time, my transaction was cancelled. Why did it do this? Is it because I tried to sign-in? And if my sign-in was incorrect, how come it never told me that? It just sent me back to the same page with the same options but with less time on the countdown clock at the top of the page. And if the sign-in was wrong, how come I can't continue as a new user?
3. So, I have to start the transaction over -- an annoyance, but not a big deal. I go back to the homepage and instead of searching for "9:30" I search for "bloc party". The results come up and I select the show at the 9:30, choose 2 tickets and move along -- except, I no longer have an option to add tickets to any other shows I wanted to buy tickets for. Let's hope they don't sellout before I get downtown sometime this week.
4. So what the hell happened to my account? How about the credit card information tickets.com was storing for me (and I don't recall ever electing to store my credit card information, I think they just did it automatically) did they "lose" that as well?
I was all for doing something to help diversify away from ticketmaster's dominance on ticket sales, but the alternative keeps getting worse. I'd prefer a functional monopoly to an incompetent competitor.
