Ticketmaster is a bitch.

I logged in ahead of time so that I would be all ready for the 10:00 start.  I also entered my credit card onto my account so that I wouldn’t have to enter it later.

When my clock struck 10:00 I refreshed the event page and discovered that ticketmaster’s clock is behind mine.  Figures.  I refreshed again and got into the sale.  The first thing it did was a friggin’ captcha.  I hate those things.  There has to be a way for the system to know I am a human, rather than me having to prove it.  Get on that, would you please ticketmaster?  Each new page had a timer on it.  The captcha page’s was two minutes.  Stressful, eh?

Finally I get to a page that actually offers me tickets.  Of course they are nose bleeds, right?  I know there were presales galor, and I know it’s a casino so the high rollers will get the very front, but I am as far away as you can get.  Does ticketmaster start selling from the back these days?

I chose to buy the tickets and it asks me to sign in.  Didn’t I just sign in?  I even reset my password so I wouldn’t have to struggle with it.  I entered my newly reset password and of course it failed.  Blow me.  I enter it again, it failed again.  I enter the old password and it fails as well.  I click to create an account and go through 20 steps only to be told that my account already exists and I get prompted for the password again.  I chose to reset the password and finally get in.  All of that happened while the 5 minute timer was ticking down.

Now I am signed in and I have my tickets selected and what does it do?  Asks me to reenter my credit card for verification.  Are you kidding me?  I entered my credit card literally minutes before, now I have to enter it again.  Assholes.  Okay, so now I have my credit card reentered.  What next?  I click the button to complete the transaction.  Finally.  It asks me what credit card I want to use.  Are you kidding?  I only have one in the account and I have entered it twice already, now I have to select it from a drop down.  Okay, okay.

Now I am at the screen that shows me my purchase and gives me one more chance to back out.  I am about to click purchase when I notice a little tiny field, buried in a mess of related sales offers (no I don’t want a t-shirt or anything else you are bundling with my precious Rush tickets) that asks for the little security number on the back of the credit card.  Really?  Why the hell isn’t that field filled when you enter the effing card, and why the hell isn’t it right at the top of the page with all of the actually important information?  Well, bullet dodged, thinks I, and I fill in the field and click purchase.

Next ticketmaster tells me they have to verify my card with my bank and that they will be taking me off of ticketmaster.com and sending me to my bank’s site.  What the hell is this?  Fortunately the processes was automated and all I had to do was watch my screen redirect five or six times.  All while the clock is ticking.

Finally… Finally, I get to the screen telling me that my transaction is complete and that Jen, the love of my life, and I will get to see my all time favorite band again.

That was way too much work.  Was it better than standing in line outside of a strawberries or tower records or newbury comics?  Maybe, but I bet I would have gotten much better seats if I had stood in line.

Aw, who cares.  We’re going to see Rush!