Bad Websites
For whatever reason, regardless of calling them, walking it through on the phone, starting again and again from scratch, I have been frozen from Telecharge’s website. It is incomprehensible to me that large companies who do millions in revenue and are the leaders in their space can have a shitty website. There are plenty of websites that I can point to that are miserable experiences starting with the Government from the federal to state. My guess is once these companies are bought or go public, they just stop in their tracks. Fandango, great company, site and mobile interface are sub-par. Then there are the sites when you have to allow flash. Makes me believe that nobody has upgraded the site in at least 8 years.
I am just ranting because every time I go to buy a theater ticket and have to use Telecharge, I realize that I am screwed because I am going to have to either pray that there is another site to use or I have to pick up the phone and talk to someone which is so not necessary. These days, customer service needs to flow to every single part of the business and that includes mobile, web and a human on the other end. What drives me even crazier is when Telecharge emails me because I have not completed the purchase. No shit I have not completed the purchase because your website sucks and you have blocked me out and can’t figure out how to help me.
Comments (Archived):
100% agree! It drives me absolutely insane that websites and apps of cash-rich companies are so bad. The worst part is they likely haven’t abandoned these – they’re probably paying millions a year to a large consultancy like Accenture etc. to maintain them. Large companies aren’t exempt from needing to put love and care into their products.
They probably are paying money to a big fat company to manage this…
The only thing I can think of is they have no competition. No competition means they can have a shitty web site and it doesn’t matter….would love to see a blockchain ticket company. eliminate fraud, and have better web experience. StubHub etc aren’t exactly seamless web experiences.
Update on this discussion, as I run a theatre company and had to dig into ticketing this week -I can confirm that there is little to no competition in the recurring event ticketing space, and most of it, in London is owned by Ticketmaster and a couple of other smaller booking companies. It was initially our idea to completely avoid using these companies (for 2 reasons: 1) because we don’t like the monopolies and don’t want to pay the big fees, and 2.) because our show is immersive and we want complete control of all touchpoints) but we now recognise that it’s unavoidable.The ticketing industry is broken into 2 sections: event ticketing, and venue ticketing. Event ticketing has a ton of entrants in it. Eventbrite is probably the most well-known. These businesses focus on analytics and event management. Venue ticketing companies, like Ticketmaster and Telecharge focus on an entirely different problem: distribution. By avoiding a company like Ticketmaster, you’re also forgoing their massive distribution footprint, which starts with remarketing (like those emails you get after you see one show), and extending into a large web of affiliates.We’re still evaluating how we’re going to move forward, but it’s important to note that in both sections of the market, the primary part of the business isn’t actually the ticketing user experience.
Thanks for this.
What don’t you like about Fandango’s app?
clunky
The websites for this company sucks because who among the individuals who has the ability to make them good has any interest in working on the sites?They’re all off work you on startups or the FAANGs, where thryrecawash In peeks and salary.I speak from experience. Not a week goes by that I don’t get an email or a phone call from a headhunter looking for me to head up product development for some unbelievably, stupefyingly, boring technology company. I believe I was even approached specifically about Telecharge a few years years ago.
Makes sense. Unfortunate
That’s absurd. It doesn’t take (what you think is) top flight talent to make a website functional in the way that Joanne and anyone would want. We are not talking about anything other than having a site do a simple task well. This is not high level programming and does not in any way require the best and the brightest. There are plenty of people that could improve the experience. The problem flows more from the top people in the organization (per my other comment) either not understanding what is going on or not caring about it because there doesn’t (in their mind) appear to be a direct link to whatever results they are getting.Also there are plenty of talented people that do not want to work for the FAANGS or any startup in particular. Not everybody is looking for that type of opportunity.
I am waiting for (someone else) to do the idea that I have had for years which is called ‘tellceo’.Essentially a way for people to be able to have their dissatisfaction go directly to the CEO of the company so they know of and very importantly directly feel the pain. The key is vetting and presenting the info in a way that is both actionable and believable but not public.This is the big difference between small and large companies. It’s the disconnect between either knowledge that the top person lacks or the pain that they don’t feel themselves personally.You know when you have a bad meal in a restaurant and you tell the waiter the chef will find out and often come to your table. They feel the pain. That feedback loop is super critical.
Agreed. A few years ago, I had an order from a big box store that was incorrectly sent right before Christmas. My first instinct was to get into my order online and (through their website) notify the store that the wrong item had been sent. Much to my disbelief, there was no way to do this online – not even in a comment.The only option was to call customer service, something I abhor doing. To add fuel to the fire, the customer service person had no options for me either, except to return the incorrect order on my own and place a new order.I decided that the CEO of the big box store needed know about this, so I tracked down his email (thank you Google), explained what had happened and offered actionable solutions for their website and customer service. I even stated that I was not looking for his help in my own problem. I had already taken care of that.Guess what? He replied within the day from his iPad, thanking me and providing me with assurance that this would be passed on to a named VP in charge of this area.
This is going to surprise you but there is actually a business reasons that many places keep the CSR’s dumb and helpless.The reason is that that cuts down on their costs. If someone appears to smart or helpful they end up spending more time on the phone and that adds to costs. (This is not a discussion of whether that is the right strategy or not btw that is a different topic entirely).Let me give you an example of that.Often I have been in the position to take care of customer issues by answering the phone just like a CSR would. Now I can have two modes of operation. “Me” in which I sound like ‘me’, know a great deal and can do whatever I want. My voice and my tempo makes me sound knowlegable because I am. “Someone smart is on the phone, yay!” Another case is I will act as a CSR would. I speak in a very staccato voice and I try and succeed at not sounding smart. If I am asked about something that I know about I might not even go down that road. Why? Because I know it is going to take a great deal of time and I don’t have the time (and if I had a boss he wouldn’t want me to do that).You know what happens? If I sound like I have a clue people end up asking me all sorts of questions that often have nothing even to do with the product that I am selling. If I sound ‘cubicle’ they don’t. Honestly I have done this a bunch of times and it tends to almost always play out that way. If you sound pre-programmed with what you say the calls are much shorter in length. Now of course (and I didn’t want to get into this actually but I will partly) if you are selling a luxury good then sure you need to give luxury service that is how you make the margin. But if you are selling something with no margins you really can’t afford possibly to do that.Hence if you go to Best Buy (and I haven’t been there in ages) they don’t want the people to be to smart. They want them to be only smart enough to get the job done and nothing more. Apple store on the other hand high margins, be helpful, especially since there is no way to buy that product cheaper elsewhere.Make sense? This is my theory based on my experience and experimentation.
I understand. If it hadn’t been a just before Christmas situation, I would never have called customer service. I have no idea if they ever fixed their website for incorrect orders. I do know that other online storefronts have this option.
Brilliant, I’m not alone!
broadway.com sells tickets too. I never bought tickets there, but it looks like a better user experience.
Hi thereAll customer service comments related to our websites are routed to the Telecharge product teams whether by social media, phone, survey responses, or blog posts. I’d like to discuss this one with you. I just sent you an email to the address listed in your contact page.I hope I can help make your experience on our websites better.