ArtsWatch

Hi Peter,
> Re the comments on web sales, I couldn't agree more, and would add
> that the ticketing fees are outrageous. Kimmel charges more than many
> sports organizations do. And ALL of the fees are per ticket, not per
> order, which is huge disincentive if you want to get your shopping
> over with the year.
>
> And last time I checked I still couldn't buy tickets for all PO
> concerts this year.

I notice Kimmel is selling Broadway at the Academy tickets by allowing you to view all the unsold seats in any given section, and allowing you to click on the each seat(s) you want to purchase. I'm surprised they are not doing this for Kimmel Center concerts.

At least when I am dealing with Ticketmaster or Telecharge online, I am given the option of seaching for the "next best seats", which I select repeatedly until I find the seats I am looking for.

The same thing happened to me last year with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. The website told me that the best available tickets were either in the 3rd tier, or under overhang in another tier. On concert day, half the hall was empty in all places.

Philadelphia, and other American orchestras need to get with the times and do what Europe does: provide you with a graphic interface seating chart where you can click on the unsold seats you want to buy (and often a picture of a view of the stage from the seats is provided). I've booked tickets in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, Prague and Paris for opera, orchestral and chamber with this method -- clearly the technology exists and is affordable. Everyone else seems to have it.

I figured I'd jump in as a representative of the Opera Company (and a regular reader!) to say that I'm sorry to hear about any less-than-perfect purchasing experience. There were just a few things I wanted to clarify:

1) Our second highest ticket price on weeknights is $115, not $135. If the patron is offered something behind boxes, those are parquet circle seats which sell for $95.

2) We played to 85% of full-view capacity on Wednesday the 10th, so the house was not "half empty." That series used to be our opening night series, so we had a number of exchanges for patrons wanting to attend the October 5th Gala Opening Night for this season. But the majority of available inventory was partially obstructed or supertitle obstructed seating.

3) We did upgrade some patrons; if we have empty seats at curtain time due to last-minute exchanges or donations, we like to thank our loyal subscribers by moving them downstairs if they're interested.

4) Regarding web purchases, the process usually works as most online concert/sporting event purchases. You can either choose a price-point to search, or "best available." If you choose best available and don't like the pair it gives you, you can continue to search and accumulate choices for your seats. As always, talking to a live person at Ticket Philadelphia (215-893-1018) allows the most flexibility and information in purchasing.

We do work to make our systems as user-friendly as possible, but the results are only as good as the feedback we get from users, so we'll definitely take this into account in our discussions. Thanks for the forum for discussion!

But Tracy, you're kind of missing the point here. Talking to a live person should not be the only method that allows "the most flexibility and information when purchasing".

And while I appreciate that user input is helpful, does the Opera actually test its own software? Obviously, if random pruchasers can figure out that there's discrepancies between online and telephone orders, surely the Opera can BEFOREHAND and correct them. How many sales do you lose because of inefficient and incorrect software sales glitches? Can you actually afford to lose these sales, or turn people away do to them?

After going around in unsuccessful loops, attempting to buy 4 tix for Blind Boys of Alabama, I picked up the phone.

This was probably the 4th time in 2 years that I almost put my fist through the monitor. Now, I'm no regular, but I've seen maybe 9 shows at Kimmel over the last 4 years...so you see the percentages (4th time angry, only about 9 shows total) point to one conclusion: Kimmel WEB SITE SUCKS &^$! (say that in the voice of Cartman from 'South Park')

Kimmel has
1) Great shows
2) monumentally incompetent web site(sucks in a 'three thumbs down' way).

Hey Kimmel folks - hire an intern from Drexel University's work-study program. Fix you up within a week. Or, do nothing and continue to suck.

As I waited in line to buy tickets to Rigoletto because the online fees were so high, I noticed a sign explaining that the purpose of a fee added to the cost of the tickets was to "defer" costs of renovation. Now I don't mind a small fee to _defray_ renovation costs, but paying to defer them is just ridiculous, especially if Kimmel can't proofread its own signs.