Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager
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UPDATE: Everyone should now be able to see and transfer tickets from their My eTicket Page. Banquet tickets will go back on sale Monday, March 17th, 2014, until they are sold out.
I'd like to apologize for the issues some of you may have been experiencing while trying to purchase tickets for PaizoCon 2014. There are currently a couple issues with the eTickets which our tech team is in the process of fixing. We hope to have these issues resolved and rolled out within a couple weeks.
- Tickets not appearing on the My eTicket Page
- Inability to transfer purchased badges to other users
- Inability to purchase Banquet tickets & Kid's Badges in separate transactions from the regular Badges
Because Banquet tickets are limited in number and there are some users who are not able to purchase them at this time, we have decided to make them unavailable until this issue is corrected. I will post an update to this thread when they go back on sale.
Thanks!
I noticed when I purchased, but knew they'd fix it later. It's been awhile since I purchased, but haven't thought to see if the issue was fixed. Guess not, but they have over 6 months to remedy the situation. :)
Any news on an anticipated ETA on being able to transfer eTickets and the purchase of Banquet tickets?
Ooog.... Just bought 3-day tickets, no joy on the banquet. How likely is it the rest of the tickets will vanish while I'm at work and unable to notice they are back up for sale? Would it help for me to drive over next weekend to Paizo to beg and wave money around at the office? [Security? Please escort the nutter to the parking lot!]
I and others eagerly waiting to throw down money...
A month later, any new news?
Wow. Just... wow. :(
It means, "My wife and I plan to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary at Paizo Con as something special, and tickets to the banquet would be just grand as a part of that celebration. Unfortunately, it would appear the tickets will be offered in such a way as I won't have the opportunity to purchase them, so we will have to plan on doing something else that night. My preference would be that Paizo had their act together sufficient to either offer the banquet tickets for purchase at the time I bought the Con tickets, or publish a date and time when they plan to do so that I could attempt to buy them. At this point, I expect to find out that despite checking this thread daily, the tickets to the banquet have already sold out last month within a few hours of being available, and I never had any way of knowing they were even being offered."
I figured "Wow" was much more concise and to the point of expressing my feelings about this situation without sounding overly cynical and disappointed with Paizo's competence in handling this issue.
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Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager
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Romaq, I understand the frustration. I can't give an ETA however, because I don't have a good idea exactly when this will be fixed. Right now new ticket purchases work with getting banquet tickets but all older purchased badges still don't. I can fix it manually by hand but the number of tickets is such that that is not a feasible task. Additionally, even the new ones aren't showing up on the my eTickets page which is where they can be transferred to other users from. Getting PaizoCon tickets back to normal is extremely important to us. Unfortunately, our very small tech team is swamped with a number of very high priority issues. As soon as I know more I will let people know.
If I may offer some thoughts which may help Romaq and others... From an outside observer of what information you have given us so far, I see two problems that are trying to be addressed by Paizo, at the same time.
The first problem, if I am correct was that some people were not physically able to purchase the banquet tickets.
The second problem is two parts of a single coin which effect both admission badges and banquet tickets. The eTickets themselves are not showing up even after being purchased (Pt-A) which will lead to people not being able to transfer eTickets to another user account (Pt-B). I.E. a purchase was made on the site but the "token" generated from the purchase did not convert to said eTicket. (I'm making an assumption on that is where the problem is.)
Because of these two stacked problems, the decision was made to make banquet tickets unavailable for purchase because banquet tickets are limited but admission badges are not. From your recent information it seems like problem #1 has been solved (and thus my possible suggestion below) but problem two is still happening still both with banquet tickets and badges.
Because the eTickets are still not showing up (at least mine haven't for the badges) and the issue has not been resolved with how to get those who did purchase them show up as a purchased item (not the eTicket side but the "token side") the unavailable still has not been lifted.
My suggestion is actually a three phase idea, which I don't know if it is easier, harder, or has already been thought of and discussed. Also remember, it is going on the assumption that I think I fully understand the logistical problem, which I don't and admit.
Is it a feasible option to issue a store credit gift certificate to those who have purchased the banquet ticket, but the banquet ticket "token" not shown up (probably a very limited set of individuals), so they can go through the process again under the new ticket purchase system to get the "token" to show up - and thus fix that part of the system themselves. This is phase one and could be accomplished with a hidden webpage, link in the email issuing the gift certificate, and with a different button to the banquet ticket so the unavailable need not be lifted, and thus ensure that the individuals who paid for the item previously not get locked out from repurchasing it in a mad rush of others waiting to buy them.
Once that is completed and all users accounted for that need to assist in correcting their issue, phase two would be the removal of the unavailable status on banquet tickets. Because as you said, the new ticket purchase system works with getting banquet tickets - just not the eTicket showing up. This allows the rest of us who are eagerly awaiting it be able to purchase them as well. I realize this does not solve the issue of the eTicket itself showing up under the account status, and thus being able to transferring them. What it does do is allow people to at least make more concrete plans with regards to the Banquet. Phase three is the correction of the eTicket mystery as a whole of why they don't show up and ultimately being able to transfer them.
Thoughts on my suggestions (from Sara/Piazo - not the rest of us peanut gallery). I'd rather try and help be part of the solution to the problem with an open dialog than cause more work or be in wonder.
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Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager
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I have some VERY good new from Techlandia. They were able to take a look at the PaizoCon ticket issue this afternoon and after some intense poking and prodding and voodoo rituals they were able to fix the issue!
Everyone should now be able to see and transfer tickets from their My eTicket Page.
I'm going to wait until about 1pm on Monday to put banquet tickets back up. We still have a bunch left, but they are limited in number.
thanks
sara marie
Thank you, and yes what I posted is rather snarky, which is why I originally was going to go with "wow" instead of going further into it. Mainly it was the "problem noticed Jan 30, "eta 1 week", next week "no news" and then nothing for several more weeks. Layered on top of that is the concern of getting shut out of getting tickets at all before I'm aware they were available again.
I will plan to wake up early and help melt the server attempting to get banquet tickets. Thank you for resolving the situation.
I'm not clear what else we are given to expect based on past performance. :(
Thank you. Two Con tickets and two banquet tickets are showing. Now I can go back to bed and rest easier. :)
Now I just need to figure out who I need to bribe to allow wedding anniversary cake into the banquet. :D
Oh Mighty Sara Marie! Now that you've so neatly resolved the banquet ticket issue, can I bug you with another question?
Will you be launching another helpful thread like this one? I'm particularly interested in the workings of the buddy system - I did it last year, but don't recall if I'm supposed to transfer one of my tickets to my son, or quite how I make him a buddy (which I think is a question fathers perenially struggle with, but Pathfinder helps a lot!).
Thanks.
Oh Mighty Sara Marie! Now that you've so neatly resolved the banquet ticket issue, can I bug you with another question?
Will you be launching another helpful thread like this one? I'm particularly interested in the workings of the buddy system - I did it last year, but don't recall if I'm supposed to transfer one of my tickets to my son, or quite how I make him a buddy (which I think is a question fathers perenially struggle with, but Pathfinder helps a lot!).
Thanks.
You will need to eventually transfer the tickets to your sons account, yes - but the buddy system does not exist yet until you are choosing what events you two want to try for in the lottery - which isn't available yet
So... I need to transfer the ticket and the banquet ticket to my wife's Paizo account? This will be my first Paizo Con, so I'm clueless.
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Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager
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Go to your My Account page then scroll down on right side to My eTickets. Click on the link there to view them and you should see the tickets and an option to transfer the tickets. Make sure you know her exact email address for her paizo.com account.
Let us know if you have any trouble.
thanks
Sara Marie
The tickets are transferred, so we each have the Con ticket and the banquet ticket. Is there a FAQ on "So I have an e-ticket, do I print something? Will you mail something? Buddy system? What's that?"
There are likely questions I didn't think to ask yet, but they are likely frequently asked ones. Jacket & tie at the banquet? High heels? I mean, my wife, not me. I *hope* I'm not required to wear high heels.
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Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager
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PaizoCon Badge FAQ: http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1go#v5748eaic9rcg
I'll try to put up a buddy FAQ in the next couple weeks. Its for the Event Lottery for some of the more popular events.
The banquet is Seattle-semi-formal-if-you-want-but-mostly-pretty-casual. Some people will use it as an excuse to get fancied up, jacket, tie or dress, some people will go straight from a game in t-shirts and shorts and others will fall some where in between.
Carol just asked me if we can just dress casual, nicely dressed. So that is happy for us. :) Is there a contact that can PM me privately about being allowed to have an anniversary cake brought in? I don't want to thwart this thread, but I hope to have something special as a surprise for her without surprising (and annoying) the Paizo staff responsible for the event.
I'm glad I don't have to wear high heels. I'm a big guy, and that would just look awkward. Might annoy my wife, too. :(
Romaq, you can shoot me an email at sara.marie@paizo.com and I will look into it for you.
You Paizoans are insanely awesome.
Email sent, thank you. I was at Emerald City this weekend so I didn't get to this until just now.
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I'm not clear what else we are given to expect based on past performance. :(
Miracles, that's what you should expect. They basically do with a fairly minimal staff what corporations ten to twenty times their size with ample time and money can't manage to get sorted out. That they pull it off and still manage to be friendly, helpful, and customer-oriented makes me suspect that they have some kind of elixir that they give new hires to ascend them to the level of demigods.
Thank you, Kassil. I understand about the "short staffed" thing. That is part of why we are doing 55+ hour weeks at work, and part of why I was getting very anxious about being able to get the tickets at all given how things do get sold out before I'm in a position to act on them being offered.
I have the tickets to the banquet. This has been settled. Please just let it go.
My suggestion is call Paizo and see what has happened to your tickets. The same thing happened to me. I called and found that their system was a muck. They probably have your money. They told me that and also to show up with ID. Make a blind faith roll. :)
Just checking - I see the banquet tickets are listed as unavailable. Ar they all sold out, or is it a technical glitch that should be resolved (soon?).
Banquet tickets have indeed sold out. I've just gone through to update all the pages accordingly.