Ticketmaster versus Telecharge

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 11:26am

I've opened this thread with the hope that the people over at Ticketmaster will read our comments. Although their recent addition of "Choose Your Own Seats" is a great idea, it's implementation is dreadful. I have often tried to purchase seats using this feature only to find that the seats aren't truly available. I've gotten a warning that I wasn't quick enough in my purchase and that the seats were now gone only to try again hours - even days - later and find the seats are still showing. It is way too buggy to be of any use at this point - beta or no beta.

In addition, Telecharge's ability to search multiple dates in it's many different formats is an extremely helpful feature. I realize that Ticketmaster is more concerned with concerts or events that may not have the duration of a Broadway show, but just having a clearly labeled button that allowed us to go back to the dates page would make a world of difference.

In my opinion Telecharge is an infinitely superior purchasing experience. I would love to see the, "Choose Your Own Seat" option added to Telecharge in a way that it actually works.

Ticketmaster just needs to get it's act together. Currently, they just offer a poor user experience to the Broadway patron.
Updated On: 1/11/11 at 11:26 AM

[Justin D]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 11:55am

I don't know, I guess everyone will have different esperiences. But I just booked tickets for both Wicked and Lion King on TM and had no problems at all and LOVE the choose your own seat feature (otherwise I would not have spotted those cheaper side seats for Wicked)

In the past I have booked through telecharge and always found that the seats that were "given" to me were always in the side sections, no matter how far in advance I booked them.

Yes it is annoying that there is a little clock ticking away, but once you are a TM member there is plenty of time to book and I would assume that if you take too long, your seats are 'lost' but not instantly and probably are somewhat 'frozen' in the system so when you go back they appear to be 'gone'. but this is only speculation

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 12:01pm

No... it's a bug in their system. I've spoken to them about this and they own the problem.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 12:18pm

Before TM implimented their "choose your seat" feature I used to call for tickets and tell them that I had a discount code after they offered me good seats (telecharge doesn't do that. They'll take the better seats away). The downside to that was you couldn't earn Audience Rewards points if you booked through the phone.

I find that telecharge has wonderful customer service. There have been many times when I've called about some sort of issue and have gotten into a very nice conversation with the rep. At the end of the day it's customer service that puts a company over the top.

[Sylar2]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 11:12pm

The Telecharge site needs a major overhaul. its SOOOOOOOOOO out of date and isnt very user friendly....and ticketmaster just rapes your wallet without any apologies (or lube)

[dragonlp86]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 11:17pm

I've bought from both sites, but prefer Telecharge. I've ALWAYS gotten my tickets in the mail just a few days after ordering. With Ticketmaster, I've waited MUCH longer. And in one case, I never actually got my tickets in the mail. I had to email them multiple times to get them to be certain I'd be able to pick them up at the box office at the theatre.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 11:36pm

I love the new Ticketmaster choose your own seats option, however their fees are still insane-it adds 1015 dollars to the ticket price. Prior to choose your own seat you had to fight with a phone rep to offer you different sets of seats and they were so rude. Getting offered different seats online was damn near impossible.

Telecharge customer service is unsurpassed. They are just the most friendly, down to earth and knowledgeable people I have ever spoken to on the phone. Once I was lost and couldn't find a theatre and the rep stayed on the phone with me giving directions until I got there.

On another occasion when I was deathly sick with pneumonia and had questions about refunds and post dating tickets, the rep was so conversational with me and sweet and asked about my health. I couldn't believe it.

On a lighter note, when I was buying tickets for HAIR, the rep said, if I put you second row on the aisle, you're gonna get a fanny in your face, are you ok with that? I said, "oh yes" and she laughed and said, " I was too."

Telecharge staff are impeccable.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 9:19am

To the OP: WHY would you expect the folks from EITHER ticketmaster OR telecharge to see your comment here?

ANYTIME you have something to say to a company -- contact THEM. Sometimes it actually makes a difference.

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 9:32am

I have contacted them. And, it is my intentions to send them our thoughts. However, having typed that, it was my initial intentions to send them feedback specifically to their web purchasing software. This thread seems more about customer service. Which is okay...

[Eris0303]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 12:17pm

And, it is my intentions to send them our thoughts.

No where in your original post did you make any mention of compiling our posts in order to send them to ticketmaster/telecharge. If you had planned on doing that you should have said so from the get go.

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 12:37pm

I'm sorry if you feel I've been dishonest or not forthcoming...

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 12:56pm

Although I appreciate Ticketmaster's addition of the Choose Your Own Seat feature, I still like Telecharge a lot better.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 1:17pm

I used to despise Ticketmaster. However, they have added two new features to their site that's greatly improved them- choose your own seats, and immediately displaying the total cost of the ticket, with fees added. I've never had a problem with the choose your own seat option- it's worked wonderfully each time. I love the ability to see exactly what seats are available. The old ticketmaster interface was set up to offer you the closest seats to the stage as the "best available" even if they were on an extreme side, and you couldn't look for the next set of available seats.

However, as betty said, the phone reps at telecharge remain infinitely more helpful and more knowledgable than ticketmaster's.

[sally1112]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 1:34pm

I have dealt with both this week as I have been booking my Spring Break trip
I found TM purchasing your own seat process to work just fine, but when I got my tickets to Priscilla I called and it was all automated and I did not like that

I have dealt with "live" people at Telecharge twice in the past two months, and both times they were overly nice about searching multiple dates and times until I got the seats I wanted! I thanked them both for putting up with me, and I could not have been more pleased with their service

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 3:39pm

I think it is totally abhorrent a individual gets charged a booking fee to book a theatre ticket online, this should be free, after all you don't pay a airline a booking fee to book a seat online.

As a person has no choice but to pay a booking fee, excellent customer service should be provided.

[theatreguy]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 5:32pm

Telecharge and Ticketmaster have to make money some how. If not through a booking fee, how would you suggest they get paid for the service they provide?

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 5:42pm

You go to the theatre website or theatre group (i.e Shubert or Nederlander), you do not need intermediate companies, so therefore no booking fee).

You even get ripped to print off your ticket.

[theatreguy]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 5:58pm

But if there were no intermediate company every show would have to come up with their own box office software and have it installed at their theater, train the staff, rent office space for a call center and then hire more staff to handle the phone and internet orders. It's cheaper for everyone to let Telecharge or Ticketmaster handle that.

[tt25]

Posted: 1/14/11 at 3:05pm

Interesting topic... I actually caved and signed up for this site just to participate :)

I agree with everyone on the customer service piece... I haven't necessarily had problems when calling into Ticketmaster, but they can't compete with Telecharge's level of service and expertise (guess it's no surprise given Telecharge focuses on Broadway while Ticketmaster sells tickets for sports, concerts, etc.)

With regards to the choose seats feature, I absolutely LOVE it. I'll admit, I was one of those people who used to trash Ticketmaster for falling behind other ticketing sites with not having this feature. But now that they have it, I'm realizing that Ticketmaster seems to be one of the only ticketing site out there that has this... granted, I've seen other seating charts, but none as fully functional as Ticketmaster's (where you can apply discount codes, etc).

That said, of the dozen or so times I've used it, I have run into one issue and that was similar to the OP's. I did report it and they did address it in a few days (even notified me about it, though I had already bought tickets at that point). Just curious... which show were you seeing the problems on?

[cliffarico]

Posted: 1/15/11 at 4:21pm

I LOVE that you can pick your own seats. I wish that they would all do it. I had no problems picking my seats, it was wonderful!

[threetwoone]

Posted: 4/23/11 at 8:01pm

Just wanted to chime in with a ticketmaster story of my own.

I was looking for front side orchestra seats for Phantom in Vegas (Go ahead and judge me, I know) and all that was coming up was the front few rows and to the very side. I called Ticketmaster to see if there were any seats farther back and more centred and it turned out that pretty well the entire section was empty, but the discount code I have ($155 down to $74!) is online only so there is nothing she could do. She told me to keep searching for new seats to show up though.

As we all know when you re-search, the SAME seats continue coming up. I got smart and decided to use different browsers on different computers to block out the front side orchestra seats so the ones farther back would come up. After a few tries, the website blocked me. Not just on my computer but on every computer in my house! I called and was told there's nothing I could do and it was my fault for searching in multiple browsers on multiple computers. It should be lifted in 24 hours.

I called back and after going through 4 people (Canadian sales rep -> Canadian supervisor -> American Sales rep -> American Customer Service agent) I finally convinced them that it was wrong for them to not allow me to use a discount code over the phone but lock me out of the website for trying to find the seats I want because their website doesn't show the seats I wanted. And also blocking me from the entire website preventing me from getting the other Vegas tix I wanted. They ended up allowing me to use the discount code over the phone, after almost 2 hours of my time and talking to 7 different people. Ugh.

EDIT: And I STILL have to wait 24 hours to buy my other tickets since she claimed the discount code wasn't working, even though it did a mere 2 hours before. There was a great seat on the asile in the front row I wanted too. Hope it's still there otherwise they should expect an angry letter. Am I in the right or the wrong to be mad?
Updated On: 4/23/11 at 08:01 PM