Student tickets

[mikeypat15]

Just got done with the Student Government meeting... Nate Martindale addressed hockey tickets in his executive report. Said that it was a long day for him. They had previously tested the system last week and it was working correctly. However, when he logged on today he got error messages. He learned that there was a communications breakdown/failure between the Ticketmaster main server and the UND server. 74 students were able to get through and purchase tickets, they will get a full credit card refund and the entire process will start over at step one next Sunday. He was unaware of a $3 surcharge from Ticketmaster (1100 seats at $3 is a lot of money for Ticketmaster) but he said he would have more info on that tomorrow. They are bringing in Ticketmaster officials to work out all the kinks this week, but they made some progress today. He was optimistic and gave us his word, and Ticketmaster's word that the system would work on Sunday. When our "group" (four people) got up to leave, he followed us out and let us know that he would be in his office most of the day tomorrow if we had any further questions.

It seemed like he didn't think that this would happen and he was very apologetic that it was inconvient and that everything should be worked out by Sunday.

Well good to hear, glad he was aplogetic, my friend and roomate are not happy they lost their tickets

[PCM]

And why did they fail? Because UND didn't hire me when they had the chance.

One word from me and you would have been in. When will they ever learn?

[Diggler]

One word from me and you would have been in. When will they ever learn?

One word from you and I'd have been blacklisted. Which obviously is your true intention.

[Shawn-O]

...74 students were able to get through and purchase tickets, they will get a full credit card refund and the entire process will start over at step one next Sunday.....

I don't think I'd be too pleased if I were them. That sounds like a huge can of worms that could blow open.

[mikeypat15]

I don't think I'd be too pleased if I were them. That sounds like a huge can of worms that could blow open.

There is now a facebook group that i was invited to join even though i didnt get tickets, that is for the people who got tickets. Really kinda a bragging kind of group. 1 of 50 is the name. I quickly got on and told them their having theres taken away. If i got tickets today, the last thing i would have done was brag about it, like 3 of my friends did

[SiouxTupa]

Isn't it nice how they do this on a Sunday at 1pm, when Ticketmaster (and UND athletics) isn't even available for a phone call? Then, they finally do have people to answer phones, but they are so flustered that they hang up on you. THEN, they improve things by pushing it back to ANOTHER Sunday, one week before game 1.

I like the idea, and I think it has promise. But, this pushing back should really have happened back in June/July; when there is actually time to work the kinks out before hockey season. Granted, the class status may not have been nailed down, but it should have by August.

My girlfriend is another member of the "season football ticket" buyers. She'll love the fact that it doesn't count. Especially because she was such a trooper, pulling her hair out over this while I was at work. She was trying so hard to get tickets for us. Oh sad.

[bigsioux21]

Every single one of you has been talking smack all day about the ticket distribution system AND I only saw 6 people at the senate meeting....Maybe you should all quit your bickering and actually do something about it...only 6 people did!!! You're all a bunch of whinners and want everything to happen perfectly. SOMETIMES it doesn't work out the way it was planned to!!! So deal with it and wait till next sunday...

[Diggler]

How would going to the student senate meeting help them any though? The problem is that this is the second time in three years that it hasn't worked out the way it was supposed to. It seems like UND took for granted that this was going to occur flawlessly and was completely unprepared when it didn't. People are frustrated.

[bigsioux21]

How would going to the student senate meeting help them any though? The problem is that this is the second time in three years that it hasn't worked out the way it was supposed to. It seems like UND took for granted that this was going to occur flawlessly and was completely unprepared when it didn't. People are frustrated.

I've noticed that everyone blames UND for the problem but the truth is that it is students like yourself, that come up with some sort of fix that is defiantly only a bandage not a permenant solution....finally this year nate and nate have come up with a better bandage that will hopefully close the scar that was ripped open when we were not allowed to camp anymore. AND for teh record I wish we could still camp out for tickets...it showed people what fans we are of fighting sioux hockey!!!

[Diggler]

I'm no longer a student, so this doesn't effect me. Heck, I don't even know who Nate and Nate are. I'd guess they are the Student Body Pres. and VP.

Who is to say this idea is a permenant solution? Why wasn't last years good enough? Every year there is a new system and every year that is supposed to be the best system. Seldom does it work as well as it should though. This really annoys students to put it mildly. Student Government is elected to represent the students and get things done for them, so I really don't see why students shouldn't have the right to complain when they feel their government isn't doing that job effectively.

But as I said earlier, I don't blame the Student Government for this happening. I blame UND ITS and/or Ticketmaster. As you said, the Student Government had a good plan and got it approved. After this it moved on to UND ITS/Ticketmaster to implement. They didn't do this. Just because students are complaining about this, doesn't mean they neccessarily blame the Student Government.

[SiouxTupa]

I'm not saying I could do any better. But then, I do not say that I will. Every year the administration says they will do better. Every year I believe them.

Truthfully, I don't really care about the hassle as long as I can get tickets. It's really not the student government that makes this difficult. It's the idiots that work for, say, Ticketmaster, the people that get frustrated at the high number of phone calls. My girlfriend even got hung up on after barely saying one word.

You can't get mad at frustrated students if the system doesn't work. These students are LEGITIMATELY frustrated, they wasted up to 4 hours banging their heads...some of them at work! A system is supposed to work, every year, and it often disappoints. I understand that people are working themselves into the ground, but it's stupid to think that nobody should be upset. I'm not an administrator, and I don't really want to be, but should I just assume that the ticket plan will continue to fail, because I don't have time to be part of student government? Or, should I believe what I'm told about the next great system? Do we need to participate in government in order to be legitimately upset? That's not the way it works in the rest of the world. A lot of times when people in a city are upset, they don't go to city council meetings, they write to their council representatives in complaint. There are people elected to represent the students. I trust them to fix the situation. But of course people are going to be a little frustrated. They'll get over it, and have a great time at the hockey games.

As long as things get sorted out, and people can get tickets I'm not going to care so much.

[PCM]

I blame UND ITS and/or Ticketmaster.

Do you know for a fact that one or both are to blame? You could certainly be right, but it'd be nice to know what really happened before assigning blame.

[Diggler]

Do you know for a fact that one or both are to blame? You could certainly be right, but it'd be nice to know what really happened before assigning blame.

The Student Government was designated to formulate a plan, UND ITS/Ticketmaster/Whoever the heck it is was designated to implement the plan. The Student Government formulated the plan and it moved on to UND ITS/TicketMaster/Whomever implementing. Seems to me, they didn't do a very good job of implementing it as it failed.

The system that was set up to distribute tickets did not work as designed, who else is there that could be to blame? Other then some third party hacking the software that was set up for the ticket distribution, I can't think of anything else.

I truly think you just wait for me to post my position on anything that concerns students at hockey games and then you take the contrary position.

[mikeypat15]

I hate that for four years here, never has season ticket distribution not been clouded over with distribution problems. You would think after four years they could get the system right. My freshmen year was the only year it was somewhat normal, the only reason that system failed was because people cut. They need to go back to a system like that. That makes it so the people who want the tickets the most get the tickets. Not someone who has a umail account, a computer, and 5 minutes to get the tickets

[WiSioux]

I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not in my earliest post... but the question was also posed as to what happens if it still doesn't work next week. The response was simply "we've got all week to figure that out". So if you have a good idea for a back up plan, I'm sure that Student Government wouldn't mind hearing it... as long as you express it in a respectful manner

[SiouxTupa]

It will be a lottery. Just like last year. Guarenteed if this one doesn't work. There is no time to set up a new one.

One of the main problems I see is that no two administrations, since I've been in school, have done this the same. The new officials don't take the old program and improve it. They instead, implement their own. Granted, if the new ones finally work better, it'll be for the best. For now, however, it just creates a lot of headaches for everyone.

[PCM]

I truly think you just wait for me to post my position on anything that concerns students at hockey games and then you take the contrary position.

I didn't post any position. I asked a question. And your answer was: I don't know.

[Diggler]

I didn't post any position. I asked a question. And your answer was: I don't know.

Who else is there that could be to blame for the system not working as planned? I said I couldn't think of anyone else other than the third party hacker. If you want to elude to the fact that I may be incorrect in who I blame for this problem occuring, you should probably give examples of other people/things that could be to blame. I could be wrong in who I blame for this occuring, but as it stands I don't think I am. You can't just blame some third unseen occurence for why the system failed.

[PCM]

Who else is there that could be to blame for the system not working as planned?

Not knowing who was responsible for doing all that was necessary to make the system work, I can't say. You could very well be right that it was UND or Tickmaster or both. But until someone who knows what was supposed to happen says what caused the problem, I won't simply assume that UND/Ticketmaster was at fault.

I said I couldn't think of anyone else other than the third party hacker.

And that is the only other possibility it could be? Is there an outside chance that there was some other person or organization or service outside the control of UND or Ticketmaster that fouled up?

If you want to elude to the fact that I may be incorrect in who I blame for this problem occuring, you should probably give examples of other people/things that could be to blame.

I'm not "eluding" any facts. I'm attempting to determine the facts before jumping to conclusions.

[Diggler]

Which is why I added whomever to UND and Ticketmaster. My point was that the reason this failed was because whomever was in charge of implementing the system did not properly test it. While you're right that we don't know for certain, it is likely that either UND or Ticketmaster are to blame in all or at least in part for the failure of the system. And it is Ticketmaster/UND's fault that they were not prepared for phone calls, etc. when the system didn't work. When it comes to dealing with stupid computers, you can never assume it will work, especially when it comes to what seems to be a complicated system like this.

[PCM]

And it is Ticketmaster/UND's fault that they were not prepared for phone calls, etc. when the system didn't work.

You don't know that. You are assuming it.

[The Sicatoka]

Who else is there that could be to blame for the system not working as planned?

Trust me:

Most software issues have root causes not in the software but back in the requirements phase of the project.

Even I can't write code to fix someone else's crappy requirement generation process.

[Diggler]

Trust me:

Most software issues have root causes not in the software but back in the requirements phase of the project.

Even I can't write code to fix someone else's crappy requirement generation process.

I have no idea what you just said.

Whether or not I'm assuming some things, UND's ITS/Ticketmaster should take some of the blame. They are the top layer of this whole process and this is their system. Because it is their system, ultimately it is their responsibility to make sure it worked when needed. The buck stops here.

I've been involved in things that are similiar to this where overwhelming response causes overload with the system. A company had an online sale and got such a huge response that their servers were crashed. They were told by their web provider that everything would be fine as the neccessary precautions had been taken and it had been tested it out. But when the sale actually began chaos ensued. That next day the company issued an apology, explained things and took responsibility even though it wasn't directly their fault. I see UND being in a similiar situation, whether it is or is not directly their fault, they should shoulder some of the responsibilty and I think they will.

These things happen sometimes and it's unfortunate. Hopefully it gets fixed for next Sunday.

[choyt3]

Trust me:

Most software issues have root causes not in the software but back in the requirements phase of the project.

Even I can't write code to fix someone else's crappy requirement generation process.

...says The Sicatoka in his best Mr. Incredible impersonation.

[bigsioux21]

Its official as of 11AM Monday the 74 students that got tickets on sunday will recieve their tickets with a 3 dollar refund. There will be approx. 360 senior tickets left for next sundays distribution. Please pass the word to everyone you know. Also there will be no 3 dollar charge to any other students!!! The DS will be making a special edition paper on wednesday about the distribution since the papers for tommorrow have already been printed...