433 posts
|
Post by DuchessConstance on Sept 8, 2016 9:33:07 GMT
Tried a couple of times. Bah. I'll come back this afternoon and sniff through the dregs.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2016 9:33:26 GMT
To be fair, wasn't this to be expected? You don't need to be Carol Vorderman to know that:
Andrew Scott
+
One of the most overrated plays around
+
The Almeida
x
The Almeida's hideous website
+
The Almeida's dreadful FOH staff
=
Carnage
Muliplied by
Utter carnage
Carry forward the
Complete and utter carnage
= Disaster
|
|
4,156 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Sept 8, 2016 9:40:54 GMT
Has anyone managed to book? I've literally been hitting re-dial for 40 minutes.
|
|
34 posts
|
Post by Jasmine on Sept 8, 2016 9:41:58 GMT
Managed to get 2 £10 tickets, but it was a struggle!
When I eventually got the seating plan to load and selected my seats there was an agonizing wait as each subsequent page too about 10 minutes to load.
I have never had an easy booking experience with the Almeida, it's atrocious.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2016 9:42:33 GMT
Hey, the Almeida FOH staff are NOT dreadful. They are perhaps stymied by the system they have to work with, but I've always found them personable, charming, and helpful when dealing with them directly.
|
|
4,156 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Sept 8, 2016 9:49:41 GMT
I haven't even managed to select a date yet.
I may give up soon.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2016 9:57:52 GMT
Found my basket again so got the £10 seats I wanted (or rather, the ones I had to take because my first choice left one seat going begging) but like Jasmine it took AGES to run the payment process. Still, got there in the end. Good luck everyone still struggling!
|
|
4,156 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Sept 8, 2016 10:01:19 GMT
I have manged to get a seating plan to load, and chosen 2 seats. Now waiting to see if they'll go into my basket.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2016 10:29:01 GMT
I'm ranting at them on Twitter and hoping they will get sick of me and offer to phone me up
|
|
4,156 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Sept 8, 2016 10:32:25 GMT
Finally got through and have a processed order with an order number!
It took about 10 minutes for each page to load - and I never did get through on the phone, but got there eventually.
Went for row F £10 tickets.
|
|
|
|
Post by alexandra on Sept 8, 2016 11:54:21 GMT
Jessica Brown Findlay and Luke Thompson. It'll be pretty, anyway.
|
|
406 posts
|
Post by MrBunbury on Sept 8, 2016 12:06:25 GMT
I still haven't managed to get my tickets so I am losing hope. I had several tickets in my basket five times but the website crashed and everything disappeared...
|
|
|
|
Post by Jan on Sept 8, 2016 13:02:33 GMT
Jessica Brown Findlay and Luke Thompson. It'll be pretty, anyway. Richard Lumsden as Polonius ? Just guessing. |
|
50 posts
|
Post by cmcphail on Sept 8, 2016 13:03:07 GMT
It took two and a half hours of waiting for the site to load before I finally managed to get everything booked.
Their website seems almost too bad to be unintentional. Surely they are sick of people rightfully complaining at them about it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jan on Sept 8, 2016 13:03:46 GMT
I still haven't managed to get my tickets so I am losing hope. I had several tickets in my basket five times but the website crashed and everything disappeared... That's not fair, you're getting the same level of service for free that I paid £50 membership fee for. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2016 13:36:23 GMT
What an absolute farce. Four hours down the line and no sign of any interaction with a seating plan...
I love how their error page suggests attempting a telephone booking. Unless their telephone booking operation is a call centre staffed by every out of work actor in the city, I don't see how that that could be any more proficient than a website that should be able to withstand demand.
|
|
923 posts
|
Post by Snciole on Sept 8, 2016 13:44:15 GMT
I've got unnecessarily arsey with some poor social media person because the website has been awful for as long as I can remember. Booking period after booking period nothing has been done to improve it and I have no reason to believe they are actually working on it when they've failed to fix it before. There are smaller theatres, with less money that manage to have a system that doesn't fall over.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2016 13:45:59 GMT
I eventually managed to get in and book but what a palaver
i also got arsey with their social media people, particularly when they claimed this was due to "exceptional demand" - pointed out this happens every time and so it's not exceptional! Just ridiculous and as you point out every other theatre seems to have sorted this with a queuing system
|
|
193 posts
|
Post by demelza on Sept 8, 2016 13:55:59 GMT
After a combined four hours between my friend and I we were finally able to get a pair of tickets! I was beginning to think we'd miss out again after failing to get tickets for Richard III! I can only hope the production is going to be worth all this hassle!
|
|
725 posts
|
Post by theatremiss on Sept 8, 2016 13:58:14 GMT
Found my basket again so got the £10 seats I wanted (or rather, the ones I had to take because my first choice left one seat going begging) but like Jasmine it took AGES to run the payment process. Still, got there in the end. Good luck everyone still struggling! And thank you for getting me a ticket, you have the knack. |
|
406 posts
|
Post by MrBunbury on Sept 8, 2016 14:36:56 GMT
Finally I got the tickets. I am proud to be more headstrong than the Almeida website  ) |
|
209 posts
|
Post by argon on Sept 8, 2016 14:38:57 GMT
With cloud space readily available & abundant now for all booking/queued procedures what ever excuse The Almeida Box office provide for this situation will no longer wash. They meed to drop the exceptional demand nonsense & just deal with the problem otherwise the true issue is a economical one. Why don't they just own up.
|
|
923 posts
|
Post by Snciole on Sept 8, 2016 14:39:55 GMT
I eventually managed to get in and book but what a palaver i also got arsey with their social media people, particularly when they claimed this was due to "exceptional demand" - pointed out this happens every time and so it's not exceptional! Just ridiculous and as you point out every other theatre seems to have sorted this with a queuing system It is completely irrelevant whether members are priority booking or general public booking a week later, it still breaks. The system is not fit for purpose and it is clear Almeida haven't and won't make fixing it a priority. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2016 14:51:23 GMT
It's sort of similar to how the whole country grinds to a halt whenever it snows, if you think about it. Yes, it's annoying, and there are other theatres/countries who deal with it much better, but in the greater scheme of things, it's only a few days a year, and with a finite amount of funds available, I can see why they'd rather invest in things that are rather more all-year-round than the booking system which is reasonably sufficient the rest of the year round.
Of course I am musing this from my comfortable vantage point of having had tickets sorted before this morning's drama commenced...
|
|
21 posts
|
Post by Angram on Sept 8, 2016 15:41:12 GMT
Having read all the comments about the Almeida booking system, and being mildly interested (but not desperate) to see this, I thought to myself, just how bad can it really be ("Theatreboard doth protest too much methinks"...), so about an hour ago I gave it a whirl. How could I doubt you all - it's so painfully S L O W and leaves you hanging there wondering whether it's doing anything, or should you refresh, or just give up. But eventually I did get a ticket, the whole process took about 40 minutes which admittedly included setting up & activating my account. Not a lot of choice, even for one seat at a matinee, but at £18 for my partially restricted view (J21) I'm thinking it must be pretty good value. Will be my first visit to the Almeida.
|
|
)
