Reasons Front Gate Tickets is a complete JOKE

[Archie Bunker]

The "waiting room" is definitely random. In a way, its a feature and not a bug because it trips up ticket brokers who have legions of bots all sync'ed to log in right at 9:59/10:00am. By random choice, it gives fans more of a shot, rather than just taking first-come, first served.

It seems like we'll only have a few more years before its random lottery like Glastonbury.

This is a terrible idea, if true.

It punishes dedicated people who are willing to wait a long time to get tickets, and rewards others who show up at the last minute and luck into tickets.

If they really want to thwart scalpers and give everyone a random shot, they should have everyone register for a presale lottery and give people the tickets who win. Is that what Glastonbury does? If so, I think that's the best solution.

[JustSteve]

or gives people who have jobs and can't log on right at 10am a chance to get tickets if they are able to try within a couple hours.

[Archie Bunker]

or gives people who have jobs and can't log on right at 10am a chance to get tickets if they are able to try within a couple hours.

Yeah, that too.

A weeklong "presale" that ends in 2 hours is ridiculous.

[JustSteve]

last year they gave it a full week and still had passes left over. they set a time frame but nothing said how long it was guaranteed to last. so what, they should just keep selling tickets for 7 days? oversell it by 10's of thousands of passes? you get how presales work, right? the demand was there to go through the allotted passes in 4 hours or so, how is that ridiculous or in any way the promoter's fault?

this happens all the time with presales for every other show out there, too. why is this event any different?

[TickleMeElmo]

If they didn't have a set allotment of tickets for the advance sale and just had all of them available, it would've sold out today. They can only control the demand, if at all, so much.

[Archie Bunker]

If they didn't have a set allotment of tickets for the advance sale and just had all of them available, it would've sold out today. They can only control the demand, if at all, so much.

If past models with presale purchasing showed that the tickets they made available would be snapped up in a few hours, they shouldn't have misled people into believing it would last a week.

They should have either been honest that it was going to begin at 10am and likely end within hours, or done a lottery system that would have ensured fairness.

[nathanfairchild]

If past models with presale purchasing showed that the tickets they made available would be snapped up in a few hours, they shouldn't have misled people into believing it would last a week.

They should have either been honest that it was going to begin at 10am and likely end within hours, or done a lottery system that would have ensured fairness.

well, last year it did take a week and there was never a presale sold out announcement.

[TickleMeElmo]

They should have either been honest that it was going to begin at 10am and likely end within hours...

No festival does that, period.

[KickerConspiracy]

I think the GV/Coachella folks are learning on the fly. The fest has grown in popularity faster than the promoters have to adapt to it. When I started going in 2008, I don't think any days sold out. 2009 and 2010 had single days and some days sold out. 2011 was the first (if I remember correctly) with 3 day passes only and it only sold out a few days before the festival. 2012 expanded to 2 weekends, and sold presale tix for for a full week without selling out. 2013 sold out of the presale allotment in 2-4 hours depending on the weekend.

Who knows what's going to happen next year. I wish there was a way to buy some kind of season ticket, or the ability to purchase tickets for next years festival at the current year's event, so regular users didn't have to put up with the presale uncertainty.

[lt.roast.a.botch]

2010 was the first year with 3-day passes only and that sold out a few days before the festival. 2011 sold out after 5 days or so. 2012 sold out after a half day. GV probably knew that this year's pre-sale was going to go fast. I think everyone did. If not, people just weren't paying attention or ignoring the trends. It's not on GV to warn people of the obvious.

[frazzles]

If past models with presale purchasing showed that the tickets they made available would be snapped up in a few hours, they shouldn't have misled people into believing it would last a week.

They should have either been honest that it was going to begin at 10am and likely end within hours, or done a lottery system that would have ensured fairness.

This is so fucking stupid. What's misleading? Logic would dictate that it would last a week UNLESS all the passes sold. Just like any event where passes are sold.

Would you bitch to AMC if you had been "mislead" to believe there would be tickets for a movie you wanted to see at the door but other's got them before you and capacity was reached?

[Bosco]

Regarding the possible lottery system... I'm not sure where Coachella is to gain off of a system like that, other than pleasing its public at its own expense. I think the best way to solve the problem of giving fairer opportunity to obtain tickets at face value, is by raising ticket prices. At $500+ per pass, that should limit its consumer and deplete some of its populous. Plus, create greater risk for ticket brokers, by decreasing their profit margin. Ultimately, less ticket traffic. The price increase would suck, but it's totally warranted considering the demand. After the past few years of sellouts, I'm shocked we haven't seen a significant price increase already.


As for me, I'm totally content with the way Coachella has handled the ticketing process. I believe they have been more than fair in giving an equal opportunity for buying tickets at a more than fair price.

[geonotgio]

This is so fucking stupid. What's misleading? Logic would dictate that it would last a week UNLESS all the passes sold. Just like any event where passes are sold.

Would you bitch to AMC if you had been "mislead" to believe there would be tickets for a movie you wanted to see at the door but other's got them before you and capacity was reached?

pwnage.

[insbordnat]

I think the best way to solve the problem of giving fairer opportunity to obtain tickets at face value, is by raising ticket prices. At $500+ per pass, that should limit its consumer and deplete some of its populous. Plus, create greater risk for ticket brokers, by decreasing their profit margin. Ultimately, less ticket traffic. The price increase would suck, but it's totally warranted considering the demand. After the past few years of sellouts, I'm shocked we haven't seen a significant price increase already.

Don't you think raising ticket prices would alienate concert goers even more so? Or on the flipside, how elastic do you think prices are? I'm willing to bet that raising the tickets to $500 wouldn't cause a radical shift in demand.

[heart cooks brain]

No festival does that, period.

regardless if they would do that or not, if you weren't aware that it would happen, you're a goon.

[loubque]

I can't believe I'm actually wishing for TicketDisaster to eventually take over the Coachella ticket sales.

Why do I think Front Gate is a complete joke and a terrible solution to sell tickets for this very large and famous music festival? Let me count the ways...

1) Ticket purchasing isn't first-come-first-serve, but they pretend it is. I opened up three browsers to get on standby to purchase tickets. Browser #1 was opened right away, Browser #2 shortly thereafter, and Browser #3 about 10 minutes later. Guess which one got through? Yup, Browser #3. The other two browsers never made it through to purchase Week 1. Others reported similar experiences (people not getting through after an hour, but friends getting through after 10 minutes at the same time). Obviously they were either randomly picking people off the standby line, or their first-come-first-serve algorithm was messed up big-time.

2) There was a bug that allowed you to keep purchasing tickets once you got through. After I got my tickets, it plopped me right back at the purchase page (while my other browsers were still waiting on standby!) Others reported the same experience. One of my buddies told me that he actually purchased additional tickets this way.

3) Their "you are not likely to get through to buy tickets" message was bullshit. Well, at least it was for some. Most people who actually bought tickets got this disheartening message while waiting. Why even demoralize people like this (and make them give up) if it's not true?

4) There were bugs in the purchase page that sometimes kicked you right back to standby. This happened to me once, and I just managed to buy my tickets for week 1 like a minute before they sold out.

Time to dump this incompetent company full of Austin hippies and get a ticket provider that can handle the rush to buy tickets for this event.

I had no problem with Front Gate the three years they have used it. Never was a payment not credited, I got my passes in time, Never one issue. I had three windows going also, and my first window is the only window that brought me to the purchase page. The only problem I had and it was minor, was trying to log into my account before the tickets went on sale to have it ready to go. Not Likely doesnt mean Not at all so if you give up thats on you.

[loubque]

If past models with presale purchasing showed that the tickets they made available would be snapped up in a few hours, they shouldn't have misled people into believing it would last a week.

They should have either been honest that it was going to begin at 10am and likely end within hours, or done a lottery system that would have ensured fairness.

They can only go by last years presale for this years presale. Like this year they have only an allotment, last year it sounds like they didnt. (but maybe they did and it never reached it). So next year they may only have a day long presale, or perhaps a 4 hour presale to go with this model, and when it sells out in 2 hours next year, guess waht in 2015 it maybe lottery. LIke itw as said it has grown so fast and it seems like paul didnt even expect both weekends to sell out last year/this year.

[Archie Bunker]

This is so fucking stupid. What's misleading? Logic would dictate that it would last a week UNLESS all the passes sold. Just like any event where passes are sold.

Would you bitch to AMC if you had been "mislead" to believe there would be tickets for a movie you wanted to see at the door but other's got them before you and capacity was reached?

You, sir, are the one who is fucking stupid.

A presale with a specified start and end date is very different from ongoing sell-til-they're-out ticketing such as the movie theater model.

If Coachella was a new event, I would forgive them for underestimating presale demand and assuming the allotted presale tickets would last a week.

I have a hard time believing that demand was so much greater this year than last year to the point where last year's presale was available for awhile, while this year's sold out in under 2 hours. I think they must have changed something (such as greatly decreased the presale tickets available), and that's what accounted for the difference. Otherwise, I simply don't understand why the tickets sold out so much faster this time, especially with fewer available per order (went down from 5 to 2) this time around.

If they really made the same number of presale tickets available, then what I said does not apply. However, if they decreased them, and still said the presale was "a week", that was misleading to people who legitimately thought they would have more than 2 hours to purchase them.

There is one other possibility -- that the sellout occurred because scalpers were able to game their system and grab most of the tickets. That's also possible, given the bug that allowed people to keep purchasing tickets repeatedly once they reached the purchase page. If that's what happened, again, it is an epic fail on Front Gate's part.

[suprefan]

Ken, SHUT THE FUCK UP AND BUY TICKETS FROM STUB HUB ALREADY.

[JustSteve]

A presale with a specified start and end date is very different from ongoing sell-til-they're-out ticketing such as the movie theater model.

have you ever looked at the details of a presale on ticketmaster? has a start time and an end time, yet for in demand shows those tickets are gone within minutes. why does ticketmaster give the hours of a presale 12 hours when it is obvious a show will sell out like that? answer? who cares.

If they really made the same number of presale tickets available, then what I said does not apply. However, if they decreased them, and still said the presale was "a week", that was misleading to people who legitimately thought they would have more than 2 hours to purchase them.

when has there ever been a presale where several days are alotted and everyone feels comfortable waiting till the last day to try and purchase? in my world? never. if it is a presale for an event or concert that has sold out every other show in recent years or on a tour i would never risk waiting. is internet ticketing new to you?

[momof5]

I like the idea of getting tickets at Coachella for the next year but can"t even imagine how that would work out. maybe they could just send some special code with the wristbands so you could log on and purchase for the next year. I have gone every year,don't care what the line up is before I buy( because there is always lots to see) but I am dreading the year that I won't be able to get tickets. Thursday was nervewracking for me!

[mikespimpin]

what the hell are u guys arguing about? all the real coachella lovers know that a week or 2 before the fest, maybe even days before the fest, you can get a ticket online/craigslist at or below face its a fuckin year away get a life guys

[gaypalmsprings]

[LAVeniceDude]

or gives people who have jobs and can't log on right at 10am a chance to get tickets if they are able to try within a couple hours.

I had a meeting starting at 10 I couldn't get out of, so I brought in my iPad and bought them during the meeting.

[flicchic8100]

They need to get rid of this monthly payment system during presale and sell tix at full price right then. Not this %20 down crap. Would explain the increased number of all these, *cough* hipster kids. This year, I thought how can all these kids really afford this? Was I the only one? After this pass years CF. I'm over coachella. Dont get me wrong everyone should experience coachella at least once. 6 years is enough for me. RIP the days when you were still able to buy tix a month before and KNEW who was going perform. Good luck to all!

[suprefan]

So Ken got fucked? Yay!

[alpharuin]

They need to get rid of this monthly payment system during presale and sell tix at full price right then. Not this %20 down crap. Would explain the increased number of all these, *cough* hipster kids. This year, I thought how can all these kids really afford this? Was I the only one? After this pass years CF. I'm over coachella. Dont get me wrong everyone should experience coachella at least once. 6 years is enough for me. RIP the days when you were still able to buy tix a month before and KNEW who was going perform. Good luck to all!

COACHELLA IS OVER!

[Jman4321]

They need to get rid of this monthly payment system during presale and sell tix at full price right then. Not this %20 down crap. Would explain the increased number of all these, *cough* hipster kids. This year, I thought how can all these kids really afford this? Was I the only one? After this pass years CF. I'm over coachella. Dont get me wrong everyone should experience coachella at least once. 6 years is enough for me. RIP the days when you were still able to buy tix a month before and KNEW who was going perform. Good luck to all!

No more poor people at Coachella. Not only will this solve the ticketing crisis, but it will significantly reduce the amount of douchebags by 0%!!

[ialvarado2]

But where does it state that it is random? how do you know for sure? I think that all the multiple browsers fuck it up some way.

They have stated before that it's random. Lokk for FrontGate's facebook page and look at all the hate posts during the 2012 regular sale. They indicated that IT IS random.

[euphonicfiend]

They have stated before that it's random. Lokk for FrontGate's facebook page and look at all the hate posts during the 2012 regular sale. They indicated that IT IS random.

Well I must have gotten super lucky. I had one window open, I was on at 10am - Had ticket and camping by 10:30am. Just seems with that the odds would be against me with everyone having multiple windows open vs my lonely one window.