I tried to buy tickets to the +Doctor Who +BBC America premier using MovieTickets.com. I got as far as sending in my credit information … then the site crashed & I *LOST* my tickets. I'm guessing there were 300 seats available and probably 145,000 fans trying to purchase them.
I'd like to say there is a lesson in this for the social media managers at BBC America, but there isn't. The first thing I would have done when presented with an opportunity for this is advised them to host a lottery so that fans can enter at their leisure and then randomly pick ticket holders. Now, fans are rabid over this, MovieTickets.com has lost thousands of potential paying customers, and BBC America looks like amateurs with underestimating fans.
It is 2012. I don't understand why brands and companies DO NOT UNDERSTAND how to work online.
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It's sad how many businesses lag behind on "getting it" +Lynette Young. The whole NBC Olympics coverage was a huge, public example of how the old way of doing things just won't cut it in the digital world, but examples like yours are the million little things we see every day of the year. It's frustrating that when one business makes a mistake thousands of others don't learn from it.
That happened to me too, as well as +Kevin Hill
Your post rocks. My solution was to go back 15 years and have everyone line up overnight for their tickets. That would've been so much fun, meeting and connecting with whovians in person.
I did that a couple of times in high school before people used ticketmaster.com. Each time was an experience, and I met interesting people (With parental supervision, no way was my mom going to let me camp out all night for tickets alone and on a school night)
Agreed. NBC Olympics was a farce. No one learns. Yet they keep on making money and not listening to what their customers want. This just won't change.
I could make a remark from dealing with the Brits, BUT, I am better off saying nothing.
+ROBIN HOOD has a great system for such things. Last year, they hosted The Black Eyed Peas at Central Park. They had a lottery: you entered your email address and after a few days, they sent out emails to those who won tickets.. They also had a small number of tickets available for purchase if you wanted to guarantee a seat. I know dozens of people who entered, and I ended up getting four tickets.
That's really what +BBC America should have done.
There are a million other ways they could have issued the tickets. They have been through this before (premier ticketing) but haven't learned or thought to research beforehand.
The +BBC America hasn't said ANYTHING regarding this ticketing mess. It's been 1.5 hours since the tickets went on sale and they are all out to lunch or something. The Internet moves at the speed of light – every minute they let this catch on fire online ruins their reputation.
Honestly, more companies should really hire me :/
The Olympics should do their own streaming next time, they could charge separately for each sport. Beach volleyball $10 per game. Everything else free. 😉 Or use Youtube and use ads.
As long-time Doctor Who fan, I have to say BBC generally does do a stellar job at engagement as well as practices good etiquette. I've been impressed with their social media efforts thus far.
However, today was a mistake and I agree that making it a contest would have probably been a better way. The site we were directed to was poorly coded, full of ads and overall did not look trustworthy. I'm not sure why they sold the tickets there. However, it's really not a huge deal. Despite the hiccups, I hardly see this as a serious crisis so I very respectfully disagree.
The tickets were sold at $.11 (yes, .11) plus a $1 surcharge. I LOVE the Doctor and this excited me to no end. Tickets to a premiere for $1 USD? That's fantastic. Of course the site overloaded.
BBCAmerica is being called, emailed, Twittered, FB'd etc. and instead of acknowledging an 'oops' they are letting their scheduled Tweets etc. run. I'm seeing people stop following the accounts and leave in a rage & swear to torrent the content (instead of watching it legally – Whovians will still get their fix). What's done is done, but their ignorance of the issue is what's turning people away.
They posted that they wished the theatre was big enough to let everyone inside, ignoring the fact that their system was screwed up. If people are entering payment information, they should have their tickets.