So I hear on the radio of this show called “Elmo grows up” at one of the local venues. Now, my kids are between 8-12, so I am wondering if the show is tailored towards kids that age or what. So.. I go to the venue’s website.

Three minutes is spent going around in a website loop. There is not even a description of the event, any sales lingo, external link, nothing. You can e-mail them for information, but you have to supply 8 pieces of personal information before e-mailing them. Whose the customer here?

I finally find two telephone numbers on the site. Now, the first number listed on the site just hangs up on me each time I call (three times). So, I call the 2nd administration number. That one yields a recording. Now from the recording on that number I learn that the first number only works 1 hour before an event.

So, I am now traversing through the second number, going from option to option, then back again. I do not get transferred to anyone. It keeps hanging up on me, after about five transfers. I call back, and I get the option to choose a directory for extensions. I try to pick real common names- Bill, John, Lisa, etc. and get connected to a couple of people. NOTE: I don’t have a clue what department or area they are in; I just want to talk to some human. Unfortunately, none of them are at their desk.

I remember several times the website referring to Ticketmaster for information. So I call them. Of course, none of the numbers were toll-free. This too becomes an eternal loop. Each time, I have to choose to have my conversation in English or Spanish. So, I press Zero to speak with an operator. It then yields a series of messages. I press zero three times to get to that operator. It hangs up on me. This is Friday at 2:00pm.

Now, in a way this reads like a comedy of errors. But here are some of my thoughts. I would like to know yours.

Point 1: Incredibly poor website design, in that you cannot have a paragraph or two of information for your upcoming show.

Point 2: Have a decent phone system, and some method to talk to a human (use an answering service or something). In the age of technology, can you not route calls to someone’s pager or cell phone?

Point 3: I’m sure somewhere in this organization there is an upper manager wondering how to increase attendance to the shows. They are missing so many opportunities to improve their customer service, but don’t take any advantage of them. To me, that reads that they don’t care.

An old acquaintance of mine, Vince Flanders, runs a website you might enjoy browsing if you are passionate on the topic of bad web pages, especially as a "quality" item.
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

Friends,

Concerns about Ticket Master (http://www.trashcity.org/ARTICLES/TICKET.HTM)?

Includes links and an address to complain.

Stijloor.

But a moment's Googling resulted in: http://www.sesamestreetlive.com/storylines.asp

An old acquaintance of mine, Vince Flanders, runs a website you might enjoy browsing if you are passionate on the topic of bad web pages, especially as a "quality" item.
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

Excellent. I'll check it out. Now.. I am not a tech snob or anything. It didn't have to be fancy. I realize there is an art to good web design. But am I too unrealistic in thinking that it would be better to have simplicity and adequate information, than have your links in an endless loop?


Friends,

Concerns about Ticket Master (http://www.trashcity.org/ARTICLES/TICKET.HTM)?

Includes links and an address to complain.

Stijloor.
I'll probably take you up on that one.:yes:

Now... I have my own set of gripes about Ticket Master. But in this case, it was no big deal to buy the tickets. Is it Ticket Master's job to provide customer service for the venue??

But a moment's Googling resulted in: http://www.sesamestreetlive.com/storylines.asp


Thank you. Precisely my point. Would it have been that difficult to provide this link on their site?

They had a link to a Sesame Street website, but it was the generic site, and nothing obvious about this specialty event.

There were several components to the service encounter, here. Finding out the appropriate nature, price, when is the show, parking, blah, blah. But those don't strike me as unique factors for the venue. It should be a requirement to have those basic facts in one place.

There were several components to the service encounter, here. Finding out the appropriate nature, price, when is the show, parking, blah, blah. But those don't strike me as unique factors for the venue. It should be a requirement to have those basic facts in one place.
You're in Texas, right? As a result of the link I provided earlier, in a few seconds and a few mouse clicks I had information on locations, ticket and parking prices and show times. I don't mean to be unkind, and no one dislikes poorly designed websites more than me, but if you look in the wrong places and don't find what you're looking for, it's not the fault of the website or its designer.

Not to sling mud at ANY medium of communication, but sometimes you just have to wonder and ask the question we asked for forty years about Lois Lane when she was unable to recognize Clark Kent as Superman just because he had horn-rimmed glasses:
"Just how dumb was she?"
Last week, I came across a display ad in the local weekly newspaper which serves about ten small towns north of Chicago. The 1/4 page ad touted a new store grand opening. It was eye-catching and had photos of some of the products which were to be sold AND a photograph of the new storefront. Nowhere, though, did this display ad list the street address or even the town where the new store was located nor a phone number to reach them. Of course, the store was so new, it didn't have a phone listing available through directory information. I wonder how the grand opening went.

Whatever happened to the five W's?
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?

In fairness to the benighted souls who were in charge of the local venue in Texas for the Elmo show, I am also aware some national touring productions of shows are not booked by the management of the local theater venue, but the national company RENTS the theater from the owner of the real estate (often not the same as the local organization that mounts shows there) and then the national company does its own publicity and ticket selling, often not using the local box office until the day of the performance.

There are some theater buildings in the Chicago area which have as many as five different theater companies which rent space on a performance basis ranging from small black box rooms which seat 50 people to a main proscenium stage and auditorium which seats 500. Each theater company is responsible for its own publicity and ticket sales, using its own personnel to staff the box office on performance dates. (sometimes they merely set up a card table outside the door of the space where the performance will take place to collect money.)

So the moral is: "Just because it is a national touring production putting on a performance does not mean the local people are in the loop from day one."

In fairness to the national company - would you trust lighting, audio, and stagehand work to local folks who had never even SEEN your show before the night of the first performance? It's all about the "roadies," man!

You're in Texas, right? As a result of the link I provided earlier, in a few seconds and a few mouse clicks I had information on locations, ticket and parking prices and show times. I don't mean to be unkind, and no one dislikes poorly designed websites more than me, but if you look in the wrong places and don't find what you're looking for, it's not the fault of the website or its designer.

Jim, yes. Google is the friend of the consumer and friend. The ability/inability of me being able to find the information from nothing is not my issue. If my need was strong enough, I would have found it. I gave up, because I chose I was not going to buy their product.

These people are trying to sell a service-plain and simple. By not being able to provide basic information (or an appropriate link), coupled with no ability to monitor telephone calls in the middle of the day, couple with no easy way to communicate with them, coupled with an inept phone loop system, etc. is the entire issue with me.

...Last week, I came across a display ad in the local weekly newspaper which serves about ten small towns north of Chicago. The 1/4 page ad touted a new store grand opening. It was eye-catching and had photos of some of the products which were to be sold AND a photograph of the new storefront. Nowhere, though, did this display ad list the street address or even the town where the new store was located nor a phone number to reach them. Of course, the store was so new, it didn't have a phone listing available through directory information. I wonder how the grand opening went.

Whatever happened to the five W's?
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?

....

Ah, the beauty of desktop publishing. It used to be you had to hire an ad agency to screw up an advert. Now, anyone can screw it up! :cool:

These people are trying to sell a service-plain and simple. By not being able to provide basic information (or an appropriate link), coupled with no ability to monitor telephone calls in the middle of the day, couple with no easy way to communicate with them, coupled with an inept phone loop system, etc. is the entire issue with me.

I agree, they lose your business and they deserve to.

I still get flustered when an actual person answers the ASQ phone on the first ring. I am not prepared to speak after all these decades of being trained to expect recorded options.

I spent 6 months dealing with Bell Canada about an Internet problem. Every customer horror story possible.

Recently I made one call to an out of province phone company about a billing issue for a cottage phone, got a nice person, who said she fixed the issue. I asked for a trouble ticket number and she just laughed. She told me to relax she had fixed it. And it was.

Jim, yes. Google is the friend of the consumer and friend. The ability/inability of me being able to find the information from nothing is not my issue. If my need was strong enough, I would have found it. I gave up, because I chose I was not going to buy their product.

These people are trying to sell a service-plain and simple. By not being able to provide basic information (or an appropriate link), coupled with no ability to monitor telephone calls in the middle of the day, couple with no easy way to communicate with them, coupled with an inept phone loop system, etc. is the entire issue with me.

When you say "these people" I don't know what people you're referring to. The producers of the show provided ample, easy-to-access information. Ticketron, I'm sure, would have been glad to sell you tickets if you knew what you wanted. The local venue is a building--a container for the thing you were interested in, and not the thing itself-- and shouldn't be expected to provide much information.

Look at it this way--if you had started your search in the right place, you would have found what you wanted almost immediately and presumably would have been a happy camper. Simple root cause analysis, no?

Ah, the beauty of desktop publishing. It used to be you had to hire an ad agency to screw up an advert. Now, anyone can screw it up! :cool:

We are in th mist of deciding which college my middle son will attend. He has already been accepted to Illinois State University. We received the housing information the other day - with some MAJOR issues in the brochure sent.

On 2 pages - all of the capital Vs, the number 7, and the capital Js were missing out of the text. And we had double pages/missing pages.

Aaahhh - technology at work!