Coachella 2011 Passes Distribution System Satisfaction Survey

[weeklymix]

Members of the board:

While some of you love this festival to no end, I believe you have let the passion cloud your ability to relax. I am in no way doubting a very select few, emphasis on few, have had issues receiving tickets when you needed them in order to travel. I understand there are the festival, camping and shuttle passes left to be distributed. I thought it was only fair to see, in the midst of what some are declaring a crisis, we as a unit accurately determine the shake on these tickets.

The options MAY seem biased to you, but if you think about it for two seconds, you will shut the fuck up and realize you're going to be fine.

Poll closes Coachella Weekend. You babies.


I request Sticky Status.

[weeklymix]

89% satisfactory of 28 votes thus far. This is pretty much all the evidence I needed.

[Inthecolumbiagorge]

Our passes came a bit disjointed, 5 deliveries when it seems like they could have a computer program that sorted this stuff and sent one shipment for all orders to a household, but we got everything and know our UPS guy by his first name now:-) No complaints really!

[gaypalmsprings]

89% satisfactory of 28 votes thus far. This is pretty much all the evidence I needed.

Is 11% fail acceptable? What about the overcharging for FedEx when we got sloppy soconds with UPS?

[thewoodenman]

happy with my stuff, but these answers lie. there's more than one tasty asshole.

[BROKENDOLL]

happy with my stuff, but these answers lie. there's more than one tasty asshole.

If assholes were airplanes, this board would be a fucking airport. Not sayin' you eat airplanes or anything... -

[weeklymix]

Is 11% fail acceptable? What about the overcharging for FedEx when we got sloppy soconds with UPS?

While it does suck for a few people and I'm sure every person here sympathizes, the fact that it's become such a goddamn issue is baffling.

Down to 9.1% "fail" with a 1.86% margin of error out of a total of 55 votes.

Also, this might be somewhat of a generalization but I imagine people who have issues would come to the forum to ask / complain about it first. I'd be willing to bet the majority of the ticketing issues of every pass mailed has been discussed in this very message board. If there are 200 ticket issues and 150 of them have been discussed here, it might seem like a lot concentrated in a thread but the overwhelming majority are doing just fine.

[PlayaDelWes]

Couldn't have done a better poll myself. Nice work.

[thedude15]

don't like paying for shipping we did not get

don't like getting told a sig will be required when it turns out it is not

But for me personally it worked out. All my orders were left at the door but nothing was stolen. My last item will get here on Monday. A full 10 days before I will leave for Coachella.

[Wheres the beef?]

While it does suck for a few people and I'm sure every person here sympathizes, the fact that it's become such a goddamn issue is baffling.

It truly is.

How does "the first batch went out without tracking numbers" even happen?

I voted "no problems" but it could have easily been a disaster.

Did not like: shipping without tracking numbers and no signatures required.

Did like: calendars, decals, cloth wristbands, clear and informative directions and information.

[weeklymix]

Not really what I meant, Ryan. Let me better explain:

While some people in this NEW ticketing system are overwhelmed because it's different and not-so-shiny for a select few, not a lot of the people complaining seem to understand this company was hired SPECIFICALLY with everybody's complaints from last year in mind. They specialize in secure entries.

From the company's website, it looks like they've done maybe one large event before Coachella. It's a new secure system, do you have peace of mind right now? The great majority does. Sure, some of you are experiencing technical difficulties but in the end guess what, you're going to Coachella. You might have to jump through one hoop you did not plan on jumping through, but in a festival where so much went wrong last year because of gate crashers and a NON-secure entry point, our cries were heard and answered with a completely new system designed to essentially keep people without tickets out of the festival entirely.

Now, a FEW people are experiencing issues with receiving their tickets. While that is a problem for those exact people, it doesn't properly warrant everyone else bitching that things aren't the way they should be.

The festival has become overwhelmingly popular, it was a major issue last year and obviously unexpected by the promoters and staff. While it may be an issue for a few people now, we will all benefit from these changes once we're inside the festival, even if that means going to Will Call to get your tickets. Grouchy as it may make you now, the majority of the people have figured out their ticket issue or received their tickets so you're probably not going to be screwed with a major line.

For the few people that paid for shipping and didn't get it or didn't receive your package at all before you had to travel, I feel bad for you. That's extra money nobody wants to pay. I'm not sure if shipping is part of the "Rain or Shine" bit, but checking into that specifically with GV might be a better route than emailing a company not responsible for billing.

The fact of the matter is if you get your tickets before you go to Coachella, griping about it beforehand is really easy to do but kind of skews what's actually happening, which is an implementation of a system which will greatly contribute to our festival experience. Sitting at home checking tracking numbers does not and really should not count toward that. Some may argue that it does, but the last fucking thing I'm going to remember when I'm dancing with crazy hot women in the Sahara tent is what happened beforehand with my tickets.

[Suffacated]

Hey weeklymix...
When you mention the company's website, are you referring to Bandmerch?

[Stickjohn]

Absolute bullshit. Looks like GV has the propaganda squad out.

Telling people to go to will call is not an acceptable solution. I have zero confidence that GV can organize an efficient will call operation. I think it's going to be a giant cluster with lines hours long. I can try to get there early but that means changing travel plans. I also have to transfer two passes to other people, so that means arranging to meet people somewhere between the will call and the festival traffic boundary. It completely screws up the day and there was absolutely no reason for it. Nothing has happened in the way in which we were told. It's a question of integrity and how you treat your customers, even if you are a cool music promoter.

[weeklymix]

Absolute bullshit. 1. Looks like GV has the propaganda squad out.

2. Telling people to go to will call is not an acceptable solution. I have zero confidence that GV can organize an efficient will call operation. I think it's going to be a giant cluster with lines hours long. I can try to get there early but that means changing travel plans. 3. I also have to transfer two passes to other people, so that means arranging to meet people somewhere between the will call and the festival traffic boundary. It completely screws up the day and there was absolutely no reason for it. 4. Nothing has happened in the way in which we were told. It's a 5. question of integrity and how you treat your customers, even if you are a cool music promoter.

1. Come on, be more dramatic. I don't work for GV and I'm not even a Coachella lifer. I'm someone with common sense who's had plenty of ticket issues before with other festivals and I don't cry about it this hard. I've actually had ticketing issues on the DAY OF THE FESTIVAL in Sasquatch's case, and still didn't freak out this much.

2. You are absolutely right on it not being "acceptable," but like I said, you won't fucking remember it once you've received your tickets. You also haven't waited in line yet, so leave this bullshit out about assuming there will be clusterfucks. Yes, I'm sure Coachella will be really mean to the people who got worked over on shipping due to a new system. They won't be remotely understanding at all right and force you to sweat and die in the hot sun? The majority seem to have received their tickets. It's 15-30 people constantly talking about their problems on this board, not 10,000.

3. Between the two checkpoints inside the radius? Let's think about this? The festival radius is 1 mile around the festival, the will call is located 10 miles away. You don't have to change tickets INSIDE the radius, do it in Indio wherever you were planning on meeting them in the first place? Or... RIGHT OUTSIDE the boundary. Nobody's going to demand you put on your wristbands inside the 10-mile radius, christ. This is just something you've added to your woes while hyperventilating about it honestly.

4. Nothing happened the way YOU were told. The "WE" you speak of are a select few and as unfortunate as it is and as sorry I feel for you having to wait in line, you're going to remember there being a shitload less shitty people in the festival than there were last year due to this system. I'd be a fucking lunatic if I was saying it was necessary for you to do this. I really do feel bad for you and others that got stuck. I got reamed hard at Sasquatch 2008 and had to wait for 4 hours when they found my tickets had fallen out of a portfolio at Will Call and under a door in one of the portable trailers out there. The difference was I understood shit like this happens, and while I didn't like it, I didn't cry about it this much.

5. What's really unnecessary is how you have decided that in the wake of not really reading what I wrote and being an unfortunate soul who got stuck with a ticketing issue, a problem that exists entirely outside GV's control AT THIS POINT, you choose to bitch or tell me that I'm GV Propaganda? Actually, I'm just doing my best to not be an asshole and hoping everyone realizes how fucking trivial all of this is.

[weeklymix]

Hey weeklymix...
When you mention the company's website, are you referring to Bandmerch?

No, Intellitix, the people who actually made the new wristbands, passes and such. They are the people you can email regarding deactivation, shipping and etc.

coachella@intellitix.com

[Stickjohn]

(I understand this is obnoxiously long; please don't quote it excessively)

Anyone can go read the Passes Came!!! thread and decide for themselves if I'm being overly dramatic. Or if they think your poll is unbiased.

Tell me what you would do. Seriously I would really like to know. I bought 2 extra passes through TM at the very last minute (literally) as a favor for someone freaking out who later backed out of the deal. Fine, that's on me. I would do the same thing again. Having 2 unexpected extra passes, I responded to posts from two long time board members looking for passes. Both buyers (who are not the actual boardies) live in CA. My intent was to overnight the passes to them after I received them here in MN, and hopefully figure out how to get paid via PayPal in the process. I've never sold a ticket in my life, much less online to people in another state. Now I'm looking at having to go to will call to claim these passes, and arrange to meet with 2 different people traveling separately to the festival. I never said I needed to meet them within some sort of a "radius" like you mention above; my point was that I can't really enter the festival myself until I meet these people. I need to hang out somewhere around the area outside of the traffic restrictions. Or possibly find a way to will call from the festival without my car, which will theoretically be in a car camping spot after I enter the festival.

I think I need to get to will call as early as possible to avoid the crowd, and then hang out somewhere until my buyers arrive. That probably means skipping sunrise at the Grand Canyon, which was my original plan. The completely unexpected change to will call affects my travel plans, the person traveling with me, the two people who want(ed?) to buy my passes, and whoever they are traveling with. ALL of this is supposedly due to UPS rejecting my shipment due to a problem with the address, despite the fact I double checked the address with TM well before the deadline, and verified it again when I finally got through to a Band Merch service rep last week who explicitly told me neither of my 2 orders had been sent yet and both would go via overnight and not Ground.

Now intellitix is saying something different, and no one can or has told me where my original order is. I have never used layaway in the past specifically because of the delay in shipping orders. If I need to use will call, fine tell me that upfront and I'll plan accordingly. Just say what you do and do what you say. It's that simple. ALL of this is on GV because that's the promoter who selects the vendors. TM, Band Merch, intellitix, FrontGate, etc etc. I feel bad for them (GV) because it seems they are out of their league with managing the success of their own festival. It's ironic given their ownership by AEG and the Anschutz group, which is a global powerhouse. It's just business - I get that. They can probably sell this festival out just to people in CA and not have to deal with providing customer service to people who travel from a distance and need to plan more. I get it - I really do. I'm just surprised how quickly we got there.

[GuyInTucson]

I selected "You're still going to Coachella and you have everything you need but you want to be a tasty asshole about it and whine." because of the phrase "tasty asshole". Seemed like a funny oxymoron.

[M Sparks]

There's not an option for "Contacted Intellitix multiple times and would be happy to clear things up at Will Call, but Intellitix keeps insisting that it is shipping 'today' day after day."

[djcosine]

#9 You think this poll is mad stupid


Take a look at what has been happening with peoples passes and you might not trust that everything will be ok at will call. It's easy to say "stop hyperventilating" when you have passes or active tracking on passes.

You begin to wonder whether you can trust anybody in charge of ticket allocation when my tickets have now - apparently - been shipped on three different days, and uh i'm still waiting for that UPS status update.

[M Sparks]

Is 11% fail acceptable? What about the overcharging for FedEx when we got sloppy soconds with UPS?

Currently at 28.26% that haven't gotten passes, not that this poll means anything.

The "overcharge" complaint is kinda bullshit though, FedEx doesn't cost that much more and we always have to pay inflated shipping for things like this. If it had said UPS, no one would have blinked at the $10. I also don't think there's much evidence that UPS is to blame for most of these issues, if any. Signatures were not required because that feature was not paid for by the shipper as promised. Tracking numbers didn't move because Bandmerch didn't ship the packages in a timely manner. Packages were missing passes because Bandmerch didn't pack them right.

[laurtie]

I haven't gotten my passes yet, but I did not vote in the poll because I do not feel confident that I will get my order problem free at Will Call. I have had nothing but problems getting my tickets so far, why would Will Call be any different.

Yay for you, that you have your tickets, but in no way are people over reacting to this ticket fiasco. It's not pleasant planning a trip across the country without any real answers as to when and how you will receive your tickets to a sold out festival.

[weeklymix]

(I understand this is obnoxiously long; please don't quote it excessively)

Anyone can go read the Passes Came!!! thread and decide for themselves if I'm being overly dramatic. Or if they think your poll is unbiased.

Tell me what you would do.

You're right, anybody can read the thread and see that a number of people are freaking out about their current ticket situation. It means this has been a problem for some people, but talking about bad situations with others is not going to help you.

For the record, I actually DID have an issue with ticketing for this very Coachella, but I cleared it up because I'm assertive and I don't cry about it on the message board. They're a business, if you threaten someone with claims of bad business, maybe they'll do something for you? Crying HERE won't do anything about it. That's my entire point in all of this. Sunrise at the Grand Canyon? Look, your travel plans are hindered and that really sucks, I legitimately feel for you, but you didn't pay for a sunrise at the Grand Canyon when you bought these tickets. Traveling to the festival is one thing, making pit stop in Arizona to watch the sun go up like it does every day there is not really a valid complaint for this issue.

Laurtie and Stick: The poll is not skewed to lessen the fact that certain people are going through a hard time. I've acknowledged that people shouldn't go through that and it really sucks. It's skewed in this manner to show that complaining about it on end to people going through a similar ordeal is a misery-loves-company situation and it's just heightening your anger and dissatisfaction with this process. Focus on your situation, maybe instead of responding to me and telling me I'm GV propaganda, calling them every half hour until maybe they budge. Robots aren't in charge of your order and neither are any of the people on this board.

[Stickjohn]

What I paid for - a few months ago - was to have my passes sent to me here in MN. We're way past that, and it keeps flip flopping anyway.

Tell me how you would transfer passes to these "buyers" if you were me? That's what I was really interested in.

[faxman75]

It's 15-30 people constantly talking about their problems on this board, not 10,000.

You can say quit crying but it's not 15-30 people. I have a camping group of about 40 and there are already 5 people who are wondering where their tickets are. 4 of them don't even post on this board and I haven't asked the entire group to see how many of them are having issues so it could be even more.

I'm starting to think 10% or so of all tickets might have been messed up. There are certainly more than the 15-30 who actually came here to post though.

[GuyInTucson]

You can say quit crying but it's not 15-30 people. I have a camping group of about 40 and there are already 5 people who are wondering where their tickets are. 4 of them don't even post on this board and I haven't asked the entire group to see how many of them are having issues so it could be even more.

I'm starting to think 10% or so of all tickets might have been messed up. There are certainly more than the 15-30 who actually came here to post though.

Exactly. Like people say when it comes to the topic of why they book what this board deems to be shitty acts - this board is a very small percentage of how many people attend the festival.

That also means you are seeing a very small percentage of the people who are experiencing issues. For every one person with a gripe or complaint, there are at least 10 people out there who don't post here experiencing a similar scenario.

[thenoiboi]

don't like paying for shipping we did not get

don't like getting told a sig will be required when it turns out it is not

But for me personally it worked out. All my orders were left at the door but nothing was stolen. My last item will get here on Monday. A full 10 days before I will leave for Coachella.

agreed on all counts.

[PlayaDelWes]

You can say quit crying but it's not 15-30 people. I have a camping group of about 40 and there are already 5 people who are wondering where their tickets are. 4 of them don't even post on this board and I haven't asked the entire group to see how many of them are having issues so it could be even more.

I'm starting to think 10% or so of all tickets might have been messed up. There are certainly more than the 15-30 who actually came here to post though.

They are all aliases, even your friends who don't post on this board.

[faxman75]

Indeed. You blew my cover.

[weeklymix]

You can say quit crying but it's not 15-30 people. I have a camping group of about 40 and there are already 5 people who are wondering where their tickets are. 4 of them don't even post on this board and I haven't asked the entire group to see how many of them are having issues so it could be even more.

I'm starting to think 10% or so of all tickets might have been messed up. There are certainly more than the 15-30 who actually came here to post though.

Congratulations on poor comprehension. I note there's plenty more than 15-30 people likely affected by the issues. So who gives a fuck how many people you can tally in the thread? My point is the bitching is frivolous.

Nobody is refuting or really can refute my main point, which is bitching about it online so that others publicly see your woes does NOTHING.

[weeklymix]

What I paid for - a few months ago - was to have my passes sent to me here in MN. We're way past that, and it keeps flip flopping anyway.

Tell me how you would transfer passes to these "buyers" if you were me? That's what I was really interested in.

It takes 20 minutes maybe to walk a mile and that's IF you were dumb enough to go inside the festival before doling out the tickets you bought for other people. Literally this should be like your least troubling issue. Tell them to meet you at Will Call? They were going to have meet you somewhere to get the tickets anyway. Of all the things you're going through I don't understand why you give a shit about this aspect so much. Your other concerns are completely valid, however.