21 Comments
Jan 5Liked by Alistair Dabbs

there is not a circle of hell deep enough for the "designers" of these ticketing web sites...

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Jan 5Liked by Alistair Dabbs

I didn't know ATG were in France as well!

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Jan 5Liked by Alistair Dabbs

I started writing this comment 3 hours ago. It has taken this long to create and log into a new substack accounts.

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Jan 5Liked by Alistair Dabbs

Still beats having to trek to Carrefour or FNAC like we had to do in the old days.

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Jan 5Liked by Alistair Dabbs

I 100% identified with every word of this sad tale. *ONE. HUNDRED. PER CENT.*

Except I am not as patient as you - I start screaming at the tossers who designed the site the *first* time I have to re-enter information I already gave them. I doubt I would have made it as far as you did without throwing the phone into the ocean.

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Jan 5Liked by Alistair Dabbs

This is exactly why I have six tickets for an upcoming performance.

An Inspector Calls.

Four tickets going cheap. Anyone?

Just don't even think about trying for a refund.

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I usually find these online sites more friendly on a proper computer, with a proper keyboard.

But I am an old grumpy guy and try to limit my online purchasing because I prefer to talk to real people.

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I am reminded of the Kevin Bridges sketch where he tries to use voice recognition to book tickets to see The Taking of Pelham 123. Well worth a look on youtube if you haven't seen it. See also Burnistoun's "eleven!" sketch.

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Time, slips away ...

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Jan 12·edited Jan 12

And let me guess, this entire web site is in a light grey single stroke proportional font on a white background that unless you have the eyes of The Man Of Steel is impossible to read.

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I'm with piee on this one. Book on the computer, not on your phone, and at least some of the difficulties go away.

MFA does have a problem with edge cases though. My brother recently got my dad signed up for the pension he should have been on for a few years - the biggest obstacle being the lack of mobile service (and very limited internet) on their rural property, so that every confirmation code was a pain point. I think in the end he basically had to take all the bits and pieces he needed and drive into town to fill out the forms somewhere with mobile reception.

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