I HAAAAAAAAAAATE THE NEW TELECHARGE!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:04am

Does anyone else despise this?? I can't click anything with my entire computer freezing up (I get the gay pride pinwheel for at least 2 minutes) until it eventually just crashes. If it doesn't crash, it's so frustrating to try to navigate I really just give up after a minute or two.

I thought they were going to make something great like the Ticketmaster site where you could just chose your seats EASILY but instead they made it really really awful.

[justafan2]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:10am

I agree 100% !!!!

[Marianne2]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:14am

They actually switched over to the new system now? It is bad. You can choose your own seats, but it looks bad. Looks confusing too.

[Patash]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:14am

Do you by any chance have Mozilla Firefox? When I try Telecharge on Internet Explorer I have the problems you mention, but Firefox works fine. I realize that's strange as usually it works the other way around.

[theatreguy]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:14am

It doesn't freeze or crash for me (I'm using Chrome). I am supposed the look doesn't seem to have changed much, if at all, from the beta version though. Ticketmaster is definitely overall easier to use now.

Updated On: 8/8/12 at 11:14 AM

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:15am

I think they went overboard with the graphics on the seating chart. It doesn't need to be in 3D. The 2D aerial view that Roundabout and Ticketmaster utilize is more than sufficient for the select your own seat option.

Also, I don't like that the new version doesn't have the rush ticket and standing room information that the last version had under the "getting tickets" section.

[loliveve]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:17am

I think it's because the new Telecharge runs with flash... and Macs don't like that (just guessing you have a Mac based on your pride pinwheel comment!) Not sure if it will help, but I had *much* less difficulty navigating the website when I used the google Chrome browser than with Safari.

Updated On: 8/8/12 at 11:17 AM

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:20am

I hate it too. Painful to use.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 11:29am

I hate the new Telecharge. There is too much going on all over the page.

Even though you could not select specific seats then, I preferred the old Telecharge because it allowed you to select next best available if you were not happy with what you got.

Ticketmaster makes it easy to select the exact seats you want, even for some large concert venues with thousands of seats. Even though the option is not always available for all events, it is more user friendly.

I can't believe I am saying that for once, I like Ticketmaster better. They listened to their audience and made some useful improvements. Telecharge tried to fix something that wasn't really broken to begin with.

[My Oh My]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 12:16pm

I got spooked for a second there because it appeared I had been scourged with the Blue Screen of Death, but that's just what the site looks like.

I didn't find it too difficult to navigate and my 'puter didn't crash, but the graphics took me back circa 1999. I agree about the 3D uselessness and something along the lines of Ticketmaster or Center Theatre Group's (Music Center of L.A. County) very well designed and operated ticketing systems is much more preferable.

The true horror was seeing "premium" ticket prices for Jersey Boys at the August Wilson. Good God, I may never be able to afford my usual front and center seating locations for shows again. *shakes fist*

Updated On: 8/8/12 at 12:16 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/8/12 at 4:09pm

I hated the old one so this is a moot point to me.

[justafan2]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 12:09pm

Did they return to the original format? I clicked on it yesterday and the new (un)improved, garish version appeared and I just clicked on it today---and it appears to be back to the original???

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 1:15pm

It appears that they keep switching back and forth from the new format to the old format. Hopefully they are reading all the comments on this board to try and perfect the new version before it goes live permanently.

[egnarotsew]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 2:44pm

I hate it on mac and pc. It freezes all the time and it takes a few attempts to get to the pick your own seat, page and it's even longer to switch from orchestra to mezzanine.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 2:46pm

And you can't pick your own seats on most shows, it seems.

[Simon4]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 2:47pm

I'm looking at the 2D seating chart because I don't have the latest Silverlight installed ... but it doesn't look like you can select your seat like on Ticketmaster? I get a couple options (and you can ask for more options, like on the old Telecharge site), but I don't see all the available seats. And it's annoying that I get fewer/worse options when buying 1 ticket rather than 2, like on the old site (not a problem on Ticketmaster).

[tphiliboy152]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 2:49pm

I tried to do it for Book of Mormon and it wouldn't let me pick my own seat which I found to be stupid.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 6:58pm

You'd think with the beta test version going out almost a year ago, something would have changed. But it looks and acts basically the same. And I can't imagine any layperson wants to scroll through two dozen sets of prices anyway. Huge backfire.

[Luv2goToShows]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 7:44pm

I hate it as well, find the layout annoying, as well as the purchasing process. I got fed up and wound up calling to order tickets.

[theatreguy]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 8:04pm

I can see the pick-your-own-seats feature for all the Broadway shows except those at Jujamcyn theaters.

[macnyc]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 10:22pm

I read somewhere (can't remember where, unfortunately) that it's up to the theater owners whether we get to see all the seats, sold and unsold, or if we just see a couple at a time.

I had trouble with the new Telecharge today, using Safari. I didn't install Silverlight.

[morosco]

Posted: 8/9/12 at 10:55pm

Their new website is a huge fail. A most unpleasant user experience.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/10/12 at 12:03am

tried "looking around" at the new site and it keep freezing up & shutting down. telecharge has some work to do.

[jaxandmci]

Posted: 8/10/12 at 12:01pm

I have always cringed when I go to buy tickets for a show and see that they are being sold through Telecharge instead of Ticketmaster. The new site just takes the frustration to a whole new level. Telecharge needs to recruit their programmers from Ticketmaster and they completely need to do away with their "we'll choose your seats for you" philosophy because they do a really poor job of it.

[TC Web Feedback]

Posted: 8/10/12 at 1:33pm

Thanks for all of the comments on the new website. I'll attempt to provide some answers and additional information regarding all of the topics which have come up in this thread.

1. The site freezes
We're aware that this has been happening when you view the results of your ticket search on the seating chart. We're looking into the cause(s), whether they are browser-related, or database-related or somewhere in between. This is an aspect of the site which we are constantly trying to improve, through various fixes and refinements.

2. Rush tickets and standing room information aren't on the new site
You can find this information by going to the event you are interested in, and clicking on the Offers tab (it's just to the right of the Event Overview tab). If you don't see this tab, then the show hasn't provided us with any information about rush tickets or standing room.

3. Viewing the next set of seats
If you are allowing the system to choose seats for you (rather than picking from the chart), you still have the option to look at alternate seat locations at the same performance. There is a button on the upper right, just above the seating chart, which says "Check the next seats on this date." This works the same way as on the old site.

4. Too many sets of prices on Schedule & Pricing
We're very aware of this problem, and have a number of fixes in mind to resolve it. Some of these are already being worked on, and others will be added to the site down the road. Please bear with us, as this is a very complicated page, and fixing it (and testing those fixes) can take a lot more time than you'd think.

5. The site's need for a plugin
The site uses Silverlight, not Flash as one person mentioned. It works with Silverlight 4 and 5. Silverlight can be used on both Macs and PCs, on all major browsers (including Safari). If you don't install Silverlight, you won't be able to choose your seats from the seating chart. The 2-D (non-Silverlight) version of the seating chart doesn't allow you to pick from the chart. If you use 2-D, the back-end system will pick the best available seats for you.

6. Some shows don't allow you to pick seats from the chart
As one poster mentioned, we turn this feature on based on the wishes of the theatre owner. If it's not turned on for an event, that is because the theatre owner has requested we turn it off. You should find it is available for most Broadway shows right now.

7. Switching back and forth between the two sites
Right now we're sending some customers to the old site and some to the new site. So on any given day, you might get the old site, or you might get the new. We'll continue doing this until we're ready to retire the old site in a few more months. We have another set of improvements we want to add to the new site before we retire the old site. They will be mostly under-the-hood improvements, not necessarily visible when you are buying tickets.

I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to ask more questions, or make more suggestions on how we can make the site better. If there are things you like about the new site, we'd love to know that as well--we don't want to remove a feature that people are finding useful.
Telecharge.com