Presale experiences: Fan Club vs. Citi vs. Facebook

[dsaddler78]

I had some issues Saturday morning with the fan club presale but finally got through for the DC show!  Was on Firefox browser trying multiple windows and reloading a bunch of times and nothing!!  Same thing for all other dates.  It just said "SEARCHING...SIT TIGHT" over and over again.  I realize tickets can come up later if they are not paid for by someone but this was hard to believe.  Around 10:45am I switched to Google Chrome and right away tickets were showing up for sale.  First time I pulled row 16 in the front and then Row 11.  The third time it said GA PIT which I bought a pair immediately for $290 each.
Wish I could buy another pair of tickets through Nightrain.  Just one more pair!!! hahaa Can't afford any more Pit tickets but seats I want for Philly are not near the front but still have a good view.  There are still a bunch of Nightrain only tickets on the maps.  You have to buy the Nightrain membership on the Ticketmaster site and it's added onto the ticket cost.  It comes out to $250 for the pair I want but I can't buy them because of the 2 ticket per year fan club limit.  Hoping my friend can buy them very soon( edit: OK he just bought them now!!).  It is good they are requiring Nightrain membership for a lot of tickets.  This will help cut down on scalpers and cancel their orders.  

same exact thing happened to me....was on right away at 10 on firefox. switched to chrome at 10:45 and got GA right away for Pittsburgh

[D-GenerationX]

I guess this sort of explains why our experiences were different.

I wouldn't want GA if you comped them.

[AnnieUK]

I've never had a ticket pre sale that has worked smoothly. There's always some BS or they have bad tickets. And I feel bad for all of you had bad experiences but if you come from my generation you have to appreciate online services like Ticketmaster or fan clubs. For my first GNR concert in 1991 we had to call on the phone and the line would be busy for 10 minutes straight and when it finally rang and you got through you'd sit on hold. Then you'd finally talk to a human and he'd say, if you were lucky, there were a couple tickets left behind the stage in the obstructed view section. lol. So I'm pretty happy with my tickets despite the fact that I had the spinning wheel of death and had to try the computer, my phone and then eventually my App to get my tickets.

Do you remember in the old days the only way to get a ticket was to queue outside the venue?

[D-GenerationX]

Do you remember in the old days the only way to get a ticket was to queue outside the venue?

And don't they keep some of the better seats for people that do just that?

[schnoogans37]

I guess this sort of explains why our experiences were different.

I wouldn't want GA if you comped them.

Yeah, After several tries - I did pull up pretty good seats through Nightrain (16th row on the floor), GA has been next to impossible though. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to have a fan club where the primary benefit is presale access to concert tickets - of which you can only buy two for any given tour - you should be making the GA section by the stage and best seats in the arena available to your fans.  I only mention Pearl Jam because they do this - so it isn't like it is impossible.  I realize they are the gold standard in treatment of their fans, but there is no reason GNR shouldn't be aspiring to be that too.

[MNGS717]

I guess this sort of explains why our experiences were different.

I wouldn't want GA if you comped them.

Yeah, After several tries - I did pull up pretty good seats through Nightrain (16th row on the floor), GA has been next to impossible though. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to have a fan club where the primary benefit is presale access to concert tickets - of which you can only buy two for any given tour - you should be making the GA section by the stage and best seats in the arena available to your fans.  I only mention Pearl Jam because they do this - so it isn't like it is impossible.  I realize they are the gold standard in treatment of their fans, but there is no reason GNR shouldn't be aspiring to be that too.

GA Pit is such a small section we may not wait in line too early and still be very close.  It will be crazy but not like there will thousands of people trying to push from behind!

[Ja5oN]

even if you are at the back of GA pit.....you are ahead of 95% of the people though!

[Continental_Drift]

My experience met my expectations. I have two confirmed seats at face value + parking to the stadium show (Orlando) of my choice. Yes- they're 200's- but frankly I just wanted early assurance that I would be in the building for the Iconic Lineup in the city where I wanted to see them. So I'm good. Take an entirely different approach to something like UCAP though (got VIP seats, etc.)...   

[allwaystired]

I guess this sort of explains why our experiences were different.

I wouldn't want GA if you comped them.

How come? Ga would be 100 per cent what I wanted, personally

[BFD]

 I only mention Pearl Jam because they do this - so it isn't like it is impossible.  I realize they are the gold standard in treatment of their fans, but there is no reason GNR shouldn't be aspiring to be that too.

My sister is a Pearl Jam Ten Club member and she was unable to get any tickets through the fan club pre-sale, her friend managed to get 2 in the upper bowl in Toronto.

I am happy with my pre-sale.  I spent $10 on a Nightrain membership in December and I got two floor tickets 17 rows back.

[chilly]

Totally gutted with whole affair. Was there on the dot..got offered tickets up on the roof numerous times, I honestly thought the fan club membership would offer us the GA admission. This was hopefully gonna be the trip of a lifetime for me. I'm in the uk and have seen the band, in all forms, every time they've visited the uk. The dream has always been New York, had the flights and hotel all priced up and ready to go. But, watching them from a mile away soon put play to that . Really disappointed.

[coolranchdressing]

here in canada only had the option w/ NT (we cant use city presale) and that is bogus as the Toronto show is selling out the most. Anyways, I managed to get good section A floor seats (but wanted GA) but am too dissapointed for only being allowed 2 tix! I wanted to get like 10 for me and my friends...now I am going to have to choose sitting beside my gf or my husband. wtf? and my poor sister is somewhere off in the distance?!?

[crthiel]

Yeah, I've been reading the forums on peoples experience all over the place and this is what I've gathered. I'm fairly certain this is accurate.

1) People using a web browser to buy tickets got screwed overall.
2) People logging in at 10am on the dot got screwed.
3) People that waited (whether intentional or just refused to settle for anything less than GA) got the tickets they wanted after 30-45 minutes.  
4) People that used the livenation app seemed to do well overall.

It seems like the ticketmaster servers can't handle the initial rush and just kind of shit the bed and either give people no seats or bad seats or bounces them completely (i.e. "Please try again later.")  For example on the nighttrain presale, I couldn't get anything but lower bowl. No floor.  No GA.  Occasionally it would even tell me lower bowl wasn't available and would try and give me nosebleeds.  I am assuming this is what happened to most that are complaining.  Very few got lucky and got GA.  Those that held out for later (30-45 minutes) also got GA or great floor seats. I'm assuming it's because the assault on Ticketmasters servers subsided and it could handle the current load.  I panicked 15 minutes in and figured lower bowl was the best I'd do and settled.

Now this morning, I got access to a Citi card and thought I'd try for GA and wouldn't quit until I got them. I was ready to try for an hour.  I opened my PC and it was giving me either so-so floor seats or lower bowl seats.  I opened the live nation app and tried from there.  It chugged for about 1 minute or so and immediately returned two GA seats so I bought them through the app (android).  

A comp sci colleague and I were talking and since the app is newer it might have a better/newer way to access the ticketing system.  The PC/website infrastructure is probably using the old and busted so to speak.  To complete my experiment I tried on the PC again at around 10:40 am after everything theoretically settled down a bit and it gave me 2 GA tickets no problem. (I didn't purchase these, I hope some other fan got them.)

For the record this was all for Pittsburgh.  I know this information won't help some of you now. But my advice to you is if you can take advantage of any of the remaining presales, TRY THE APP (I used livenation).  Or else just keep trying for an hour or so and don't settle.  If ticketmaster returns errors and won't let you get ANY seats, it might think you're a robot. Going incognito mode or logging out should help.

Don't give up!! They'll most likely allot some GA tickets for the remaining presales (Facebook, Livenation app presale, local football teams, etc.) so there will be some available.  Same with general onsale although you'll have much more competition then.

In the meantime, I got a couple section 111 tickets to unload.

[D-GenerationX]

I guess this sort of explains why our experiences were different.

I wouldn't want GA if you comped them.

How come? Ga would be 100 per cent what I wanted, personally

I'm about comfort and convenience, not proximity.

I went right to the club boxes.  I want a relaxed, fun night.  Not throwing elbows and defending my turf like an NBA power forward.

[doooodickiebr]

Does one need a citi credit card to checkout using the citi code?

[w.axl.rose]

I don't have a citi card but when i tried checking out I couldn't with my credit card, it was giving me errors but i clicked on other payment options and used visa checkout and it worked perfectly.

[doooodickiebr]

I'm at checkout screen. Where is other payment options. I don't see it. Help!!!

[Classic Case]

what is the citi code?

[w.axl.rose]

I'm at checkout screen. Where is other payment options. I don't see it. Help!!!

it should be in bold letters, other payment options

code is 546616

[w.axl.rose]

or ill say, other ways to pay