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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 27, 2017 16:29:17 GMT
Flying - I just use my smartphone with the barcode on the self check in.
Regardindg theatre tickets, I normally do post - if free, if not box office collection, regarding the later, you know when you rock up to the box office and request “do you have a ticket for Mr.................,,,,,lol,” the the box office assistant looks through their plastic box, the one with separators in, but cannot find your ticket, you get anxious as I then start to think Have I booked the right date, this is a tense moment, even when they start to tap on the keyboard, normally they find the ticket no problem, this happens when I book at the last minute, but once they couldn’t find my ticket, so they consulted their ticketing system, I reassured the assistant I definitely booked, when they say “you did book Mr .................... but we posted the ticket out to you 3 months ago”, me I go red and apologise perfusely, but only damaged pride as they printed off a duplicate.
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Post by rockinrobin on Dec 27, 2017 16:52:27 GMT
Box office collection or e-ticket. I live on the Continent and I travel a lot so these options are much safer for me (also, as a no-life, I hardly ever receive any post other than letters from my bank or my insurance company so I peek into my mailbox extremely rarely).
I received my CumberHamlet tickets by post, surprisingly.
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Post by ensembleswings on Dec 27, 2017 17:52:04 GMT
I used to receive them by post until earlier this year when my post kept being delivered to the wrong house, I got so anxious that theatre tickets would be delivered there and I'd never see them that I started opting for box office collection instead.
I never choose e-tickets unless it's the only option and even then I resent selecting it, I like keeping the physical tickets.
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Post by zak97 on Dec 29, 2017 16:21:04 GMT
Shocked that Nederlander now charge for box office collection - £2.50 at the Dominion. My printer has the habit of playing up a bit and not printing everything on the document if its not been used for a few weeks, so I didn't want to gamble on a print-at-home ticket. Hopefully other box offices don't follow suit.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2017 9:56:43 GMT
C/o box office, everytime it’s an option. I like to preserve my tickets in a reasonable state, and if I only need to worry about how to get them home flat it’s not so bad (aside from the concern that the usher might be over zealous when tearing the stub off). On the odd occasion I’ve been upgraded upon arrival, or I have the chance to at least ask. Paying £15 for the ticket then a further £15 to upgrade to premium seats on the night has been a blessing on some ocassions.
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Post by fiyero on Dec 30, 2017 12:21:46 GMT
Shocked that Nederlander now charge for box office collection - £2.50 at the Dominion. My printer has the habit of playing up a bit and not printing everything on the document if its not been used for a few weeks, so I didn't want to gamble on a print-at-home ticket. Hopefully other box offices don't follow suit. Dick Whittington at London Palladium would have been £1.50 extra to collect at Box Office (and the e-ticket says they can charge that if I forget the e-ticket too). Not sure I this extends to all the Really Useful Theatres. Bit confusing that the ticket filename says please print but the ticket itself says it can be on a phone! |
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Post by zak97 on Dec 30, 2017 12:41:15 GMT
Shocked that Nederlander now charge for box office collection - £2.50 at the Dominion. My printer has the habit of playing up a bit and not printing everything on the document if its not been used for a few weeks, so I didn't want to gamble on a print-at-home ticket. Hopefully other box offices don't follow suit. Dick Whittington at London Palladium would have been £1.50 extra to collect at Box Office (and the e-ticket says they can charge that if I forget the e-ticket too). Not sure I this extends to all the Really Useful Theatres. Bit confusing that the ticket filename says please print but the ticket itself says it can be on a phone! To be honest if theatres started employing tickets that can be stored in the wallet iPhone feature like boarding passes can I wouldn’t object. Could be a free alternative to print at home, keeps the tickets organised as a record of what you’ve seen etc. Would also surely make re-selling tickets harder too (although I may be wrong about that). |
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Post by lynette on Jan 3, 2018 18:55:43 GMT
The whole Theatre tic thing is antiquated isn’t it? Why can’t they send a text or email that is a ticket. You can board a plane with a phone 'card' for goodness sake. Mind you, I like a proper ticket but mainly so that I can give it to someone else if I can’t go. I would be happy to have an electronic pass.
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Post by Jon on Jan 3, 2018 19:02:46 GMT
The whole Theatre tic thing is antiquated isn’t it? Why can’t they send a text or email that is a ticket. You can board a plane with a phone 'card' for goodness sake. Mind you, I like a proper ticket but mainly so that I can give it to someone else if I can’t go. I would be happy to have an electronic pass. I suspect ticketless and e-tickets are the future just from a costs saving point of view. You'll still need box office for purchasing tickets on the day or with gift cards but I imagine like Hamilton, it won't be an actual ticket, more like a slip of paper. |
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Post by peggs on Jan 3, 2018 19:31:11 GMT
Why can’t they send a text or email that is a ticket Because a text can be faked, and a lot, including myself, refuse to have a phone that can handle such nonsense as email. I wonder that every time they said train tickets will all be electric in a few years time etc. what about those without a smart phone (or a flat battery, forgotten phone). On the basis that every ticket I leave at the box office I print out the confirmation email even when it says you don't need to just in case I suspect i'd still be doing the same thing with electronic ones although presumably that would no longer work or you could have dozens of the things and merrily distribute for a bun fight for when you all go there. |
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Post by lynette on Jan 3, 2018 19:38:13 GMT
Yes, point taken but you know, they send hospital appointments by phone text sometimes. You can opt in or out of the system I think.
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Post by Jon on Jan 3, 2018 19:38:39 GMT
Because a text can be faked, and a lot, including myself, refuse to have a phone that can handle such nonsense as email. I wonder that every time they said train tickets will all be electric in a few years time etc. what about those without a smart phone (or a flat battery, forgotten phone). On the basis that every ticket I leave at the box office I print out the confirmation email even when it says you don't need to just in case I suspect i'd still be doing the same thing with electronic ones although presumably that would no longer work or you could have dozens of the things and merrily distribute for a bun fight for when you all go there. I think with train tickets, it'll be a mix of smartcards and e-tickets rather than solely smartphones. Theatre will have to eventually adapt to the changes in ticketing technology like other things. |
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Post by peggs on Jan 3, 2018 19:42:56 GMT
I think with train tickets, it'll be a mix of smartcards and e-tickets rather than solely smartphones. Theatre will have to eventually adapt to the changes in ticketing technology like other things. You're probably right, i'm still thinking what about people without access to printers or phones but in truth i'm thinking of mother and she doesn't get on trains unaccompanied, the day the garden centre asks her if she wants to pay by phone though may just be the nail in the coffin  |
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Post by Jon on Jan 3, 2018 19:51:11 GMT
You're probably right, i'm still thinking what about people without access to printers or phones but in truth i'm thinking of mother and she doesn't get on trains unaccompanied, the day the garden centre asks her if she wants to pay by phone though may just be the nail in the coffin The percentage of people without smartphones or printers is very small and companies have to rightly or wrongly have to serve the majority, if we didn't progress, we'd still be using Abacuses and horse drawn carriages. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2018 21:33:49 GMT
Who says that doing things all shiny and new-like is progress? To do things electronically you need to add all sorts of authentication and processing behind the scenes because it's so ridiculously easy to fake up messages, and you still need fallback mechanisms to handle failures in the greater complexity you've imposed on yourself.
Look at what happened when the DVLA switched from paper tax discs to electronic systems. Tax evasion tripled, revenues plummeted and the entire system has cost a fortune. But hey, it's modern.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2018 8:37:20 GMT
I like what Cineworld do with tickets. You get your confirmation email which has a QR code embedded in it, so you can either pick up your ticket at the machine or concessions counter, or you can just have the usher scan the QR code directly from your phone. I've also had print-at-home tickets for theatres which I've been informed I don't have to print if I'd rather just show them the pdf on my phone (Shoreditch Town Hall is keen that no one prints anything, and a not-very-helpful-but-that's-another-story chap at the Apollo told me I could just show the ushers my print-at-home pdf when I went to see Jamie). The option to either collect your ticket or show your phone is appealing to me, I'd like to see it become standard.
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Post by zak97 on Jan 4, 2018 12:10:55 GMT
I like what Cineworld do with tickets. You get your confirmation email which has a QR code embedded in it, so you can either pick up your ticket at the machine or concessions counter, or you can just have the usher scan the QR code directly from your phone. I've also had print-at-home tickets for theatres which I've been informed I don't have to print if I'd rather just show them the pdf on my phone (Shoreditch Town Hall is keen that no one prints anything, and a not-very-helpful-but-that's-another-story chap at the Apollo told me I could just show the ushers my print-at-home pdf when I went to see Jamie). The option to either collect your ticket or show your phone is appealing to me, I'd like to see it become standard. So the QR code thing is effectively like the one you get on boarding pass that is stored on a mobile? |
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Post by joem on Sept 20, 2018 10:08:56 GMT
Not quite theatre but Eventim Apollo now charging £2.50 for either box office collection or print at home.
So they get the kudos for being "green" except the ticket is being printed anyway - by you - and they are charging you for the privilege of using your computer, your printer, your ink and your time.
Stand and deliver!
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Post by viserys on Sept 21, 2018 6:18:04 GMT
They seem to be fleecing you now because they're not allowed to in Germany anymore (Eventim is a German outfit). The highest court here ruled in spring that it's illegal for Eventim to charge 2.50 Euro for print at home tickets since it doesn't cost them anything (postage, paper, manpower). They don't only have to axe the fee but also refund all those who got ripped off with this fee in the last three years. I'm sure you have a similar organization that protects consumers' rights, so I would let them know. Here's the full article in German, not sure what kind of gibberish will come out when you run it through Google Translate... www.verbraucherzentrale.de/aktuelle-meldungen/vertraege-reklamation/tickets-zum-selberausdrucken-eventims-printhomegebuehr-unzulaessig-29126 |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2018 9:37:36 GMT
I usually get my tickets in advance, so I post so I don’t forget the event, but box office collection if it isn’t an option or if I book the ticket last minute.
Never e-ticket. I like having a physical old-fashioned card ticket to remember the show by.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2018 12:52:28 GMT
It annoys me when theatres don’t give you the option for box office collection and charge for postage, or only give the option of collecting tickets when it’s too close to the event, and charge for that service.
Newcastle TR is one of them. They don’t offer box office collection service and charge £1.50 for Royal Mail.
Ticketmaster too - the SSE Hydro in Glasgow charge £2.29 for postage, and £2.50 for box office pickup.
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Post by sf on Sept 21, 2018 20:16:55 GMT
Not quite theatre but Eventim Apollo now charging £2.50 for either box office collection or print at home. I despise box offices that do this. I'm sure it has to do with recouping the cost of the software that generates the tickets, or something, but it still leaves a sour taste - and like @theatremonkey, if I'm going to have to pay a fee I'm afraid I default to the option that will cost the organisation the most. In the normal run of things, if there's no charge for doing so, I am perfectly OK with using an e-ticket and displaying it on my phone screen. |
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Post by harrietcraig on Sept 22, 2018 16:27:41 GMT
Here's an outrage: I just tried to order a ticket online for a screening at the New York Film Festival. The delivery options are "print at home" or "hold at box office". I don't know if mailing the ticket was ever an option, but at this point, the festival dates are so close it would be imprudent to trust the Postal Service to deliver tickets on time, so providing only those two options is reasonable.
What isn't reasonable is that, if you select the "hold at box office" option, they charge a $10 fee; no fee for the "print at home" option. I have previously bought online tickets for non-festival screenings at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and I have never paid a $10 fee, so I can only assume they're trying to encourage people to print tickets for festival screenings at home in order to reduce box office traffic during the busy festival season, Anyway, I don't have a printer, and there's no way I'm paying a $10 fee, so it looks like a stroll down to Lincoln Center to buy my ticket at the box office is in order.
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Post by harrietcraig on Sept 22, 2018 21:10:45 GMT
^Do they mean literally "print at home" or what many UK theatres mean, which is "either print it on paper or show it to us on your phone." Good question. I suppose they could mean the latter, but since I don't have a smartphone (I'm one of the last people on earth who still has a flip phone), that wouldn't help me anyway. (I know, I know; one of these days I'll move into the 21st century.) |
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Post by viserys on Nov 11, 2018 7:47:07 GMT
As a warning to all of you across the channel, I've now discovered the latest rip-off scheme by Eventim over here: Since they are no longer allowed to charge a fee for print@home... they've gone and axed the print@home option completely. Instead your "free" option is to pick up your ticket from a ticket-selling outlet in the city. So I trudged into the city yesterday to pick up my "free of charges" ticket only to find there was a 1.25 Euro charge incorporated in the price - the lady explained (a little apologetically) that this is their fee because they need to make money somehow too (which is understandable).
When I asked why no more print@home, she said it was "because people would print one ticket 2-3 times to get into a place" - now I call BS. a) when it's a venue with seats, you can't stack three people into one seat anyway and b) even when it's a standing room venue, surely the scanner at the entrance would detect that it's the same ticket being used more than once? And if not, why not upgrading the scanner software? But of course that would cost Eventim money, while it's easier to fleece people. Making pick-up at a ticket outlet the only free option is rubbish. I mean, I'm lucky that I'm living in the city and can go there. But how many people in the surrounding area don't have that option or are just too busy during the week? They will be forced to choose (expensive) delivery. Not to mention that with the ticket outlet slapping -their- fee on, it's not a "free" option either.
Why always trying to cheat and be sneaky instead of just delivering customer service?! Sorry, rant over.
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