NT's new website crashes as Priority booking starts

I've been on the site 45 minutes now and the furthest I've got is selecting a seat and then getting an error  . 

The NT has tweeted 'Apologies to members trying to book, the site is temporarily unavailable. We're working on it. Thanks for your patience.'

I was logged in at 8.28 and was in the process of booking seats when it crashed

What gets me is that the old system used to work. In the last few years it was a bit of a scramble but you got your tickets and could concentrate on something else. Grrrr. #NTFail

Like Vdcni I was able to book a couple of minutes early but can see the web site is now unresponsive.

I also noticed the payments page has at least two problems. I won't say how as one of the bugs is a bit of a security issue and have reported this to them.

I think the NT needs to give their IT people a good kicking. This is all indicative of a very poor testing regime.

Or why not just put the old system back, which worked perfectly.

"We are experiencing technical difficulties with online booking. We have taken the decision to suspend Priority booking for the new season this morning: we will contact all members by email to let them know the new date and time when Priority Booking will re-open. Please accept our sincere apologies for the frustration and inconvenience. We are working to resolve the problems as quickly as possible."

That's the message I got, after the following:

(1) Getting tickets in basket, and having basket completely emptied;

(2) Seeing buy pages with two maps, and finding out you have to select the same seat on both maps to basket it;

(3) Selecting tickets and being told to try again because they failed to basket, only to find 16 tickets in my basket;

(4) Inability to remove any tickets from the basket;

(5) Inability to see any pages whatsoever;

(6) Queue-it system that stalls and won't move, saying there's 171 people ahead, no matter what, even though the man is walking.

For goodness' sake, put the old system back! Put it back. Put it back! Put it back!

For some weird reason you can get 'Young Chekhov' tickets without all this nightmare. Just managed to get tickets to Platonov.

Perhaps the new NT website is linked to the electoral roll registration website?

In fairness the website was functional by 0900am

And then someone phoned me shortly after to apologise and go through all my dates and bookings and appease me

My point being I got my tickets before I could escalate my rage too much

I just selfishly hope that when they fix it for you priority guys, they fix it well enough that public booking runs without a hitch, 'cos I'm going to have to arrive early to work on public booking day if I want to be on the website as soon as I can.

In terms of theatre

I know many of you won't agree

But ATG are amazing

Never any issues booking

Other than Harry Potter at that time and Hamlet

But they set up micro sites for those shows to prevent traffic to the main site

Donmar use ATG and always a breeze using the site

Why does anyone really other with National membership is beyond me, I don't hold membership and still manage to see everything.

Parsley: Your sense of entitlement is amazing.