Unbeeffinglievable

Thank you to the readers who sent a copy of an email they received from the ROH Friends earlier this evening. This email explains why the seat-choosing functionality has been removed from the site for next-season booking.

It appears that the ROH's earlier claim they haven't part-launched the new website is not exactly true. They have in fact already implemented a new seating plan for next season's productions, which they hoped to run together with the current booking process.

Unfortunately the two are incompatible, a fact they only found out yesterday. Incredible as it sounds,  "despite testing", nobody bothered until then to check the one basic function the booking system is designed to perform - booking tickets.

Here is the relevant text from the email in full:

"Back in October 2011 we set the target launch date for our new website. Our reasoning for this date at the end of April was to wait until the early Friends’ booking days had taken place, and then have five clear weeks before the next on-sale day so we could iron out the inevitable issues. Our planning was done with the aim to have no impact on any booking days. Yesterday however, we discovered a problem with the old website: the ‘choose your own seat’ tool was not working for the new Season. We had changed the seating plan for the new Season to make a number of improvements, including how boxes are sold and access purchasing. Despite testing only discovered late in the day that the current ‘choose your own seat’ tool will not work with the new seating plan. There is not time to undo the changes for the whole of the autumn, so we have taken the difficult decision to put the Season on sale with only the best available seating functionality available. We are very sorry for the disruption and inconvenience this will cause to you as our valued members; we certainly had not planned to launch our next Season this way."

Comments

[Edward George]

Bar the last sentence, this is exactly the same statement made by Rob Greig, Chief Technology Officer, on the ROH blog: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/autumn-season-booking-for-the-friends-of-covent-garden#comment-19

I'd have thought that, considering the level of support given by these Friends and the 'upset' 'fury' and 'astonishment' that these Friends have expressed, a more targeted, less generic, email may have been more appropriate to try and repair some of the damage.

It shouldn't take such an outburst for this apology to happen and it's outrageous that it has taken so long to be forthcoming. (If they knew there was a problem yesterday, why not start emailing yesterday?)

The fact that they did not test the new booking system by actually trying to buy a ticket just beggars belief. Did nobody think of asking the question "Can I buy a ticket using the new system?"

And yet they "value our support", "apologise for any inconvenience" "ask us to be patient". Hardly instils confidence, though.

[PLIMPTON]

This is the last thing they need, given the decline in ticket sales this season. Idiots- the website seems to get worse every time they try and improve it - heads should roll.

[Miriam]

I was seriously unimpressed when I received that mail, which did nothing to mollify me. To start with it should have been sent the previous afternoon instead of posting that news item on the website where hardly anybody was going to notice it.

It really beggars belief that they did not test the most important thing until less than 24 hours before the first people were due to book. And I still think that the correct decision at that stage would have been to postpone all P1 bookings until after the new website was fully operational, when we hope it might work. Perhaps, if we're very lucky.

The seat selection process was IMO the best thing about the existing site, it was the *only* feature I never had any complaint about!

BTW the ROH has not been the only London opera venue causing stress and annoyance recently. Out of myself and four friends who booked the Holland Park Inspire tickets before Easter only one person has received all of his tickets. Three of us have received part of our orders and the fifth, who only booked one ticket, has received nothing. Nobody replies to my emails about this. The actual booking process was problem-free but I think it was really stupid to have it on three separate days which has obviously increased considerably the volume of work in sending tickets out.

[Rannaldini]

It just basically comes-down to the same thing most of us have said - albeit in different ways: - Lack of basic common sense. There's no phrase better than that - common sense.

[Tinkerbell]

I don't like the Wigmore Hall system either. I can never get their online computerised booking form to go to them. It's a huge, clunking document. Heaven knows where it ends up. Also they randomly allocate tickets and you never know, if you send it in by post, which pile your form goes into. However the people in the booking office are incredibly helpful.
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Intermezzo replies - you can state what area (even what exact seat) you'd like on your booking form and they do their best to accommodate your preferences. And again, at least they're upfront about how the system works.

[Mark]

Package booking is next week - unless the dates have changed since The House magazine was released. It is disappointing that the seat selector process will not be available.

Not sure now whether to book next week, or wait until nearer the general booking date to see if they finally get these issues resolved.

[Ida]

I couldn't agree more!

[Nicolas]

You might be better off booking a package when they are available for general public booking.
They might have sorted their issues by then; but also, non-friends get a champagne and a programme voucher thrown in per package (I wasn't too happy to find out I got less value for money by becoming a friend). More subjectivelly, I have also found that the seats available on general public package booking are marginally better than what is left once more generous friends have taken their pick.

[Frances]

I may be wrong but I don't think you get the chanpagne offer if you are logged in as a friend so you'd need to get someone else to buy it!
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Intermezzo replies - or create a separate login ID.....

[Nicolas]

When booking outside of friends dates, I usually only log in after I've added my tickets (and in these cases the automatically included vouchers) to my basket so maybe that's why.
But I was under the impression that it simply was how the website was set up, the vouchers would be added if you bought the package once they were available for public booking.
I was about to write that if you look at the package booking page you'll see that after suggesting you add programme vouchers it reminds you that the vouchers are automatically added, but the mention has now been removed as the packages on offer are BP1 2012 only available for friends at the moment. But the mention was definitely there when I booked my BP4 package, I only paid attention that it was removed during the friends window and back for public booking then as the first and only package I've booked as a friend was for BP3.

[Mark]

Thanks guys for these tips, the champagne voucher is of no interest to me, but the program one is.

I have stopped buying a program, but if can pick one up gratis then will do.

[Miriam]

How have other readers who were booking this morning been getting on? When attempting to book *one* seat in my preferred seating areas (which were not indicated as sold out)for each of several different performances I kept getting the ludicrous message "Sorry we could not find 1 seats adjoining" followed by the rather unhelpful suggestion that I might try asking for fewer seats. I managed to buy tickets for 2 performances of Robert le Diable but could not be bothered with anything else in the main house. I was not going to ring up as I heard from friends who were in the phone queue that it was moving at a snail's pace.
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Intermezzo replies - other people have complained about the "1 seats adjoining" message too.

[Manou]

Strangely, it was perfectly possible to pick one's seat in the Linbury.
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Intermezzo replies - small blessings.

[Sarah R]

My experience of yesterday's ROH booking; I logged on at 0930 and was 279th in queue. Just before 1000 I was able to book, but the seats I was offered were not what I wanted and whereas I am often perfectly happy to book two seats not next to each other, this wasn't possible yesterday. So, at 1000 I phoned and was 12th in the queue, which I thought quite promising, until 50 minutes later, (yes, really), when I got through to a person. I vented my frustration a bit, got tickets for Robert le Diable, which I'm happy with and was able to book for ETO in the Linbury. Select your own seat there was a bit of a joke as nearly all the seats looked to have been taken, which would not have been the case at 1000 yesterday. Some must have been held back and I was also informed by the box office that the front 4 or 5 rows will be taken up by the orchestra.
BTW didn't the ROH say that the reason that the Select your own seat wasn't in use was because they wanted to enable wheelchair users to book online.? Yet, when I scrolled all the way down to book, all the wheelchair spaces had already been booked - I'd be surprised if that really was the case.

[Edward George]

An email today from Caroline Bailey, ROH Director of Marketing:

"We are currently testing our new site, but of course the real test will be when we go live. It is possible, of course, that we will encounter new issues in the live environment so please do bear with us as we work through any teething issues."

Are we being prepared for it still not working when Friends' booking opens?
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Intermezzo replies - I'm glad these people aren't landing aeroplanes or doing keyhole surgery or anything.

[Frances]

I am relieved to see that at least no-one yet has complained about payment processing problems. I hope that this is a good omen for the main friends booking later on and that they have done some stress tests on this. I remember a time when the payment screen regularly timed out leaving one uncertain as to whether seats were actually purchased.
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Intermezzo replies - One of the benefits of the current waiting room system is that it reduces the load on payment processing. There will undoubtedly be more people trying to pay at the same time when the new system comes in, so I hope it can cope.