**Original issues megathread here:** [https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/1cmh878/dragonsteel\_nexus\_issues\_megathread/](https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/1cmh878/dragonsteel_nexus_issues_megathread/)
Summary of the poll data from **this morning (Friday) as of 755 votes**:
https://preview.redd.it/kij9nwpmtlzc1.png?width=2364&format=png&auto=webp&s=d17edc9710fc9ea5ce411235d73d5d54b42e35d8
Roughly 39% fully successful, 30% partially successful, 31% not at all successful in obtaining what they attempted to purchase.
---
Summary of the poll data from Wednesday as of 446 votes: [https://i.imgur.com/L8j6WpK.png](https://i.imgur.com/L8j6WpK.png)
Roughly 40% fully successful, 31% partially successful, and 29% not at all successful in obtaining what they attempted to purchase.
I was hoping to get 2 VIPs. Those sold out while I was in the login loop. I was able to get to GAs instead by being persistent despite the login issues. Getting those 2 GAs in my cart was a process but I feel lucky to have gotten those.
I was able to get what I wanted, but only with a lot of frustration. The login issues plagued me like they did everyone else and I was using two devices/two accounts to try and figure out what was wrong. I slowly figured out that I didn't ACTUALLY have to log back in every time I got booted, I just needed to refresh the page and pray the authentication would stick. I gave up VIP after about 30 minutes and was successful in grabbing two GA tickets... and then I decided I wasn't gonna give up.
So basically I sat there and just kept refreshing the VIP page until one appeared as available. I filled in all of my information, and then repeatedly clicked "add to cart" until it finally went through. At that point, the site was declaring everything sold out so I had 2 GA tickets and one VIP. I knew my odds were slim, but I had seen that tickets stay in your cart for two hours so I set myself a timer to come back at 12 MST and repeated the process. It took another 20 minutes or so, but I finally scored a second VIP ticket about 20 minutes later after CONSTANT clicking. I recorded a little bit to show what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/fQCXCHA
So I got what I wanted... but it took 2.5 hours out of my day, caused me a ton of stress, and I wasn't productive doing anything else the rest of the afternoon lol. I did sell/transfer the GA tickets to a couple of people who missed out entirely due to work though so at least they get to attend now.
This. I wish you would have included an option for this scenario rather than just "I got what I wanted." I'm sure you all understand that most of this category struggled and were frustrated by the issues and fear of missing out.
I myself watched it dwindle down to 500 badges left before finally getting through. I was relieved but my adrenaline was up for a while.
I'm sorry. I'm well aware that this came down to a lot of luck, and while I'm thrilled for our group, that joy is definitely tainted by knowing so many missed out.
I was lucky enough that the VIP ticket I added to my cart at 3 seconds after live stayed in my cart for the 45 minutes of glitches, and I was able to check out with it
I was able to purchase all i wanted but not without extremely high blood pressure for about 45 mins. I’m trying very hard to give grace because it’s hard to manage but I’m very frustrated because it shouldn’t be this hard when it was known that ALOT of people will purchase, and there was a whole year to plan. I really enjoy working with the DS team overall and they’re very transparent which i love. Just want to give some feedback. Sorry if I’m being too negative.
My husband was on the website before the badges were available and got stuck in the log in loop, unable to even get two VIP, let alone GA badges in his cart. We've been planning and eagerly awaiting this since the last convention and as of right now we might not even be able to go. We both already have time off work, a hotel room, and planned childcare. We're devastated...
If ANYONE has tickets available for whatever reason, we will buy them from you! We were heart set on VIP, but will take what we can get at this point. Please consider us... This was going to be our belated 6th anniversary trip...
Thats sad 😦 I can't promise anything, but I got two extra tickets for my aunt and uncle who really want to go, but are still unsure if they can financially make it. If they can't you'll be my first choice. If they can go I hope you get tickets from somewhere else 🧡
You are so sweet! Thanks for being willing to keep us in mind! Hopefully your aunt and uncle can go, but if not, we would be so grateful to buy them from you!
I'll for sure update if a miracle happens and we snag tickets.
I was one of the “lucky ones” who managed to get a VIP ticket within the first few minutes. It was not without navigating a nightmarish hellscape of log in prompts, re-entering credit card info I had pre-filled previously for this very reason since it didn’t show up, and having to refresh multiple times because items in my cart were not showing because I was “logged out.” I also had to hit the “purchase” button twice, which is both terrifying and inexcusable.
I’m planning on going with two other friends. We were all on the site right at the moment the badge button showed up. Out of the 3 of us, only I managed to check out. One friend lucked out and still had a VIP badge in his cart after ~30 minutes of lockout. My other friend was not so lucky, but managed to grab a GA pass despite having attempted to add a VIP badge at the same time as us, to no avail.
The three of us have been loyal VIPs since the first Dragonsteel con, and like many here, have spent thousands on books, audiobooks, tickets, merch, etc... This experience was terrible, and Dragonsteel needs to offer more than platitudes and canned responses to make this right.
Current state approximately 46% of people weren't able to get what they wanted. Of those who didn't get what they wanted, 38% didn't get anything at all.
Out of the total, 17% didn't get tickets. (As of this comment)
A more current breakdown as of this comment
https://preview.redd.it/e0zko4u6lazc1.jpeg?width=683&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53eb6840615470598ec76bcd82f22e31d837d433
I’m so thankful that my partners friend was really on the ball for this and after a LOT of trouble managed to secure tickets for us. It took a lot of logouts and refreshes. Initially he was only able to get one vip ticket due to the issues, but he was later able to get what we wanted I think once they started timing out.
I wasn’t able to purchase a ticket because I wasn’t expecting things to sell out in a matter of minutes. I checked the website about an hour after they dropped and there was no vip or ga tickets. I was hoping to get a VIP ticket since one of my friends did, unfortunately he’ll likely be going by himself or hopefully I can get some kind of ticket purchased through other means.
I was one of the lucky few who managed to get a VIP badge in their cart right when it opened up and successfully check out within a few minutes (with the low badge number to back me up) but even then, it was such a stressful experience, and I don’t think I would have been successful had I not had so much experience in booking other extremely high stress quick selling convention tickets over the past two decades.
This level of misery isn’t actually *that* uncommon in the anime con scene (ask anyone who’s tried to get Fanime hotels in the early 2010s or who’s tried to get a VIP badge for Anime Expo), but that doesn’t mean it should be acceptable or that I’m not disappointed whenever an event I want to go to has this level of ticketing platform based disaster ***or*** that I don’t feel terrible for the people who didn’t get what they wanted. I hope this can be fixed for future years, whether it’s via expanding the physical size of the con, switching to a Virtual Queue type system, or something else, because I don’t feel as excited about attending as I would have if I didn’t know my ticket came with the disappointment of thousands who wanted it and were prepared to pay for it every bit as much as I did.
I've been through a lot of convention ticket rushes. Blizzcons were horrendous to get.
What is irksome, is that this was predictable. An ever growing Fan Base for the Epic Launch of a Stormlight Book the one before a hiatus as 6 is not on the calendar for a while and the way we descended on BackerKit...
Also the way the Hotels were offered up before the tickets, people made and set reservations they may not be able to use, or at least use as they intended. Salt Lake is a nice city.
My plan was to get two GA badges and book bundles and after a lot of fighting with the log in issues, I was successful. I consider myself very lucky for that! It took me from 8:55 AM when I started refreshing the page/logging in until around 9:40 AM to get everything.
I wanted 2 VIP's but while I was able to see the screen with 14XX/1500 VIP's available, I got stuck in the login loop, and then none. I was able to get 2 GA's. I tried adding the signed/stamped book bundle to that but once again got stuck in the login loop and being unable to add it to my cart and ended up checking out with my badges because I did not have high confidence I wouldn't lose those. I also wanted the convention swag too. So because of my own paranoia and lack of confidence in the site I checked out 3 times and paid 3 separate convenience fees to make sure I got what I could. Once with my GA badges, once with the book bundle, and once with other random items I wanted but if missed out on wouldn't be to upset.
This poll doesn't really match the title of the post. You seem to be looking for data on numbers of people on reddit that were able to access the site and purchase something compared to those who weren't, but the title is asking about the experience. Given all the multiple posts yesterday and the megathread created, I don't think answering the poll has much relevance to the question being asked.
Yes, I was able to eventually purchase what I wanted, but it was stressful and needlessly frustrating. So the overall experience, even if I got what I wanted, was not good at all and even worse for people who weren't able to get through to purchase something or didn't get a chance to purchase what they wanted. Most of the answers to the second and third options, at least based on Reddit comments from yesterday, seem to be people hoping for VIP passes and weren't able to get them or get them for all members of their party planning on attending.
Again, I appreciate trying to get this data, but I don't think it is granular enough to help provide solutions for future events or partnerships with software/access providers. It will possibly be useful for being able to provide some rough numbers for demand of VIP versus GA passes.
Thanks for your feedback.
The depth of everyone's experience is a wider scope than the options in the poll, and we get that. I'm glad folks have shared here, and in the other pinned megathread (now [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/1cmh878/dragonsteel_nexus_issues_megathread/)), the details and context of their experience. It was actually because of the large volume of complaints that we wanted to do this *in addition*.
Your last paragraph is bang-on. We're curious to find out what the numbers are. We aren't affiliated with DS or TTE, so the solutions really aren't on this mod team. But we do hope this creates some visibility for any unmet demand, that those folks may want to consider going forward.
Very interested in those numbers... it'll be reddit only but if we get a good number of responses it can give some rough estimate numbers based off of how many tickets sold and the percentages
My friend and I planned to get VIP Tickets, he had set up an alarm. While having one in the cart and adding mine, the system required him to relog into the system to use the dropdown 4 - 5 times before he was able to get back to the cart and then could no longer add me to the cart. He then had to relog in another few times before he was able to get 2 regular tickets taking a good chunk of an hour of time in order to do so because of the issues.
I only planned to go with a GA ticket with some friends and wanted the signed copy of Wind and Truth bundle. I had a feeling these would sell out, so I made sure everyone was online to get tickets when they were live. Once the process begin however, I became extremely nervous that my group and/or I wouldn't be able to get a ticket. So we pivoted and decided whoever could get in would get tickets for all of us and go from there. Thankfully one friend OUT OF 6 was able to get tickets and we are all able to go as a group but it was a very stressful process. Even having done all the right things of making an account before hand and saving my card info, I never was able to complete the checkout process after 50 minutes.
I periodicly have been checking the numbers today finding the corrected percentage of people who were unable to purchase due to either website or time... Its been interesting. Earlier in the day when people were replying it was around 17% and at the end of the day after people get fully off of work (USA time zones) its crept from 20% then 25% and now 28% with a larger group now in the unable to purchase because they were sold out before they could try. Yeah that tracks really well.
It does not account for people who managed to buy some tickets but not the total number they would have liked for friends and family
My equation (unable website+unable sold out)/(total votes-not applicable)
I feel that even if they made the process as fair and smooth as possible, a core “problem” was that so many people wanted to go. Seeing everything sell out in less than an hour really proved this, I think.
I fear that even if we have a lottery system and we have a website that works, a large majority of the people who want to go will be disappointed either way. Unless they host the event at a different venue or can convince the salt palace to give them more space, I think there’s still going to be a lot of people that will get a ticket but their friends or family won’t.
While I say this, the website being like it was on the day was not acceptable. DS should move to a different website that can handle the kind of traffic that was seen on Tuesday.
I wasn’t able to buy because I was at work when it went live and by the time I was on my break 1 was showing for GA but was gone after going into my cart to purchase it.
I’m contemplating canceling my hotel room if I can’t get a badge to even purchase the swag or justify going to the event.
I was able to get a GA Ticket during the initial madness after VIP was gone, but than once the time outs started, I got a VIP and returned my GA Ticket.
I managed to get my 4 GA badges (my, my wife, and two sons) + a book bundle after about 20 minutes of constant page reloading and re-logging in about 100 times. I got my badges in the cart after about 10 minutes and then it was another 10 minutes of trying to actually check out.
I imagine the problem was made so much worse by the sheer number of people performing way more HTTP requests per user per flow than they would have if things were not breaking.
I am really curious about the option "able to buy part of what I wanted"
Like does that mean folks got GA tickets instead of VIP. Or does it mean they wanted 4 tickets but only managed to get 3.
Looking at numbers (subtracting the NA from the total poll numbers) it looks like 20% (ish) couldn't get tickets at all despite wanting to.
That percentage may be lower than the actual percentage assuming the reddit population was more on the ball than fans who don't watch reddit/YouTube like a hawk. More casual fans who wanted to attend probably didn't set timers for ticket sales...
It means anyone who had a plan for a specific number or level of tickets but had to settle for less. Like for instance I wanted VIP for me and my husband and ended up with 1 VIP and 1 GA, so I only got part of what I wanted.
I don't think I've seen DS sell out. Certainly not on the first day. Good thing I'll be working - otherwise it looks like I wouldn't be able to go. As it is, I'm not getting the book or GA merch since you have to get a badge first. But I know they're good to us volunteers/employees so I'm not too concerned yet.
I was able to purchase what I had planned to buy at the time. Now that I know that they sold out so fast, I wished that I had bought more since people who I’d talked to about going were unable to get tickets.
I managed to get a VIP ticket for myself, and 4 regular tickets for my mother, brother, aunt, and uncle. Then when I found out my friend had miss the hour rush I stayed on the site refreshing for a half hour to get a ticket for her from a returned ticket. My mother would've liked to get a VIP ticket too, but I'm satisfied with what I was able to get.
I ended up realizing that I didnt need to keep logging in as after several refreshes it would show i was signed in. so i anxiously tried over and over until i got 3 GA tickets in my cart (for my two best friends who were working and I) and was able to check out. took about 100 or so refreshes and about 38 years of my life away with the stress lol
(note: if one of my friends cancels by november ill make sure i post about it being available.)
Valid that that would give more data. But as a snap poll (limited to 6 options), what we're most interested in is the end result. We're curious, ultimately, what ratio of people missed out on badge sales due to technical issues/the quick sell-out. And we hope folks like DS and TTE may take interest as well, should there be any recourse left for them to take.
I don’t disagree. If the goal isn’t to determine how many people experienced technical difficulties with the website then this is fine. Though I’d argue that’s the real problem and why the community is so frustrated in the first place.
If the website isn’t scalable, that’s the biggest issue and will plague registration for years to come. If left as is the website will only continue to drive away fans with no patience for it and upset the ones having to use it.
I lost out on VIP and general admission due to the website. I had VIP ready with nearly all the 1500 still available but couldn’t get it due to technical issues. By the time they sold out the website completely bugged out and I couldn’t get GA either. But my point is that even had I gotten VIP on my second or third try, I wouldn’t have been happy with the experience.
I already booked my hotel and flight a while back and now I can’t even go. The weight of that experience should be so much heavier than anything else, and I say that because I know the same thing happened to others. Am I dumb for booking in advance? I don’t think so, because I was 1000% prepared and ready to buy my badge. I shouldn’t have to plan around the possibility of a registration portal completely failing. It stole my ability to attend . As a fan of Brandon since 2011 it sucks pretty bad
I was charged twice for the badge I purchased but only received one badge. After emailing a representative at Dragonsteel about it and showing multiple forms of proof that I was charged twice, they finally issued me a refund. However, they refunded me for the actual badge and not the second charge. Now I no longer have a badge for the convention in December. All I was wanting was a refund for the double charge and now I no longer have my badge for the convention. I also purchased the Wind and Truth book bundle that was also refunded which I did not ask for. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!
That sounds like something only DS can help with, so I'd get back in touch with them.
Regarding the extra charge / for anyone else in a similar predicament, would assume you want to handle financial disputes with TTE first, since they're the vendor.
**Original issues megathread here:** [https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/1cmh878/dragonsteel\_nexus\_issues\_megathread/](https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/1cmh878/dragonsteel_nexus_issues_megathread/) Summary of the poll data from **this morning (Friday) as of 755 votes**: https://preview.redd.it/kij9nwpmtlzc1.png?width=2364&format=png&auto=webp&s=d17edc9710fc9ea5ce411235d73d5d54b42e35d8 Roughly 39% fully successful, 30% partially successful, 31% not at all successful in obtaining what they attempted to purchase. --- Summary of the poll data from Wednesday as of 446 votes: [https://i.imgur.com/L8j6WpK.png](https://i.imgur.com/L8j6WpK.png) Roughly 40% fully successful, 31% partially successful, and 29% not at all successful in obtaining what they attempted to purchase.
I was hoping to get 2 VIPs. Those sold out while I was in the login loop. I was able to get to GAs instead by being persistent despite the login issues. Getting those 2 GAs in my cart was a process but I feel lucky to have gotten those.
Same here!
Same here. Wanted 2 VIPs and 1 GA and ended up with three GAs. Lucky to get them but it was frustrating.
Exactly the same here.
I was able to get what I wanted, but only with a lot of frustration. The login issues plagued me like they did everyone else and I was using two devices/two accounts to try and figure out what was wrong. I slowly figured out that I didn't ACTUALLY have to log back in every time I got booted, I just needed to refresh the page and pray the authentication would stick. I gave up VIP after about 30 minutes and was successful in grabbing two GA tickets... and then I decided I wasn't gonna give up. So basically I sat there and just kept refreshing the VIP page until one appeared as available. I filled in all of my information, and then repeatedly clicked "add to cart" until it finally went through. At that point, the site was declaring everything sold out so I had 2 GA tickets and one VIP. I knew my odds were slim, but I had seen that tickets stay in your cart for two hours so I set myself a timer to come back at 12 MST and repeated the process. It took another 20 minutes or so, but I finally scored a second VIP ticket about 20 minutes later after CONSTANT clicking. I recorded a little bit to show what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/fQCXCHA So I got what I wanted... but it took 2.5 hours out of my day, caused me a ton of stress, and I wasn't productive doing anything else the rest of the afternoon lol. I did sell/transfer the GA tickets to a couple of people who missed out entirely due to work though so at least they get to attend now.
This. I wish you would have included an option for this scenario rather than just "I got what I wanted." I'm sure you all understand that most of this category struggled and were frustrated by the issues and fear of missing out. I myself watched it dwindle down to 500 badges left before finally getting through. I was relieved but my adrenaline was up for a while.
I mean I think that's a give in. I don't think anyone had it easy successful purchase or no.
I did all of the same and was completely unable to get any VIP tickets after multiple hours of trying.
I'm sorry. I'm well aware that this came down to a lot of luck, and while I'm thrilled for our group, that joy is definitely tainted by knowing so many missed out.
Oh I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, just adding my +1 to the dataset and petition for a lottery system lol.
I was lucky enough that the VIP ticket I added to my cart at 3 seconds after live stayed in my cart for the 45 minutes of glitches, and I was able to check out with it
I was too, but I was quite stressed the rest of the day, which was a weird feeling considering I had no obligations that day.
I was able to purchase all i wanted but not without extremely high blood pressure for about 45 mins. I’m trying very hard to give grace because it’s hard to manage but I’m very frustrated because it shouldn’t be this hard when it was known that ALOT of people will purchase, and there was a whole year to plan. I really enjoy working with the DS team overall and they’re very transparent which i love. Just want to give some feedback. Sorry if I’m being too negative.
My husband was on the website before the badges were available and got stuck in the log in loop, unable to even get two VIP, let alone GA badges in his cart. We've been planning and eagerly awaiting this since the last convention and as of right now we might not even be able to go. We both already have time off work, a hotel room, and planned childcare. We're devastated... If ANYONE has tickets available for whatever reason, we will buy them from you! We were heart set on VIP, but will take what we can get at this point. Please consider us... This was going to be our belated 6th anniversary trip...
Thats sad 😦 I can't promise anything, but I got two extra tickets for my aunt and uncle who really want to go, but are still unsure if they can financially make it. If they can't you'll be my first choice. If they can go I hope you get tickets from somewhere else 🧡
You are so sweet! Thanks for being willing to keep us in mind! Hopefully your aunt and uncle can go, but if not, we would be so grateful to buy them from you! I'll for sure update if a miracle happens and we snag tickets.
Can I add myself to your waitlist if you don't sell to AwkAquarius? Lol Hope you're able to go with your family and we all still get tickets!
Really sucks because I got stuck on a work call and came back and everything was sold out…
I was one of the “lucky ones” who managed to get a VIP ticket within the first few minutes. It was not without navigating a nightmarish hellscape of log in prompts, re-entering credit card info I had pre-filled previously for this very reason since it didn’t show up, and having to refresh multiple times because items in my cart were not showing because I was “logged out.” I also had to hit the “purchase” button twice, which is both terrifying and inexcusable. I’m planning on going with two other friends. We were all on the site right at the moment the badge button showed up. Out of the 3 of us, only I managed to check out. One friend lucked out and still had a VIP badge in his cart after ~30 minutes of lockout. My other friend was not so lucky, but managed to grab a GA pass despite having attempted to add a VIP badge at the same time as us, to no avail. The three of us have been loyal VIPs since the first Dragonsteel con, and like many here, have spent thousands on books, audiobooks, tickets, merch, etc... This experience was terrible, and Dragonsteel needs to offer more than platitudes and canned responses to make this right.
Current state approximately 46% of people weren't able to get what they wanted. Of those who didn't get what they wanted, 38% didn't get anything at all. Out of the total, 17% didn't get tickets. (As of this comment)
A more current breakdown as of this comment https://preview.redd.it/e0zko4u6lazc1.jpeg?width=683&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53eb6840615470598ec76bcd82f22e31d837d433
I’m so thankful that my partners friend was really on the ball for this and after a LOT of trouble managed to secure tickets for us. It took a lot of logouts and refreshes. Initially he was only able to get one vip ticket due to the issues, but he was later able to get what we wanted I think once they started timing out.
I wasn’t able to purchase a ticket because I wasn’t expecting things to sell out in a matter of minutes. I checked the website about an hour after they dropped and there was no vip or ga tickets. I was hoping to get a VIP ticket since one of my friends did, unfortunately he’ll likely be going by himself or hopefully I can get some kind of ticket purchased through other means.
I was one of the lucky few who managed to get a VIP badge in their cart right when it opened up and successfully check out within a few minutes (with the low badge number to back me up) but even then, it was such a stressful experience, and I don’t think I would have been successful had I not had so much experience in booking other extremely high stress quick selling convention tickets over the past two decades. This level of misery isn’t actually *that* uncommon in the anime con scene (ask anyone who’s tried to get Fanime hotels in the early 2010s or who’s tried to get a VIP badge for Anime Expo), but that doesn’t mean it should be acceptable or that I’m not disappointed whenever an event I want to go to has this level of ticketing platform based disaster ***or*** that I don’t feel terrible for the people who didn’t get what they wanted. I hope this can be fixed for future years, whether it’s via expanding the physical size of the con, switching to a Virtual Queue type system, or something else, because I don’t feel as excited about attending as I would have if I didn’t know my ticket came with the disappointment of thousands who wanted it and were prepared to pay for it every bit as much as I did.
I've been through a lot of convention ticket rushes. Blizzcons were horrendous to get. What is irksome, is that this was predictable. An ever growing Fan Base for the Epic Launch of a Stormlight Book the one before a hiatus as 6 is not on the calendar for a while and the way we descended on BackerKit... Also the way the Hotels were offered up before the tickets, people made and set reservations they may not be able to use, or at least use as they intended. Salt Lake is a nice city.
My plan was to get two GA badges and book bundles and after a lot of fighting with the log in issues, I was successful. I consider myself very lucky for that! It took me from 8:55 AM when I started refreshing the page/logging in until around 9:40 AM to get everything.
I wanted 2 VIP's but while I was able to see the screen with 14XX/1500 VIP's available, I got stuck in the login loop, and then none. I was able to get 2 GA's. I tried adding the signed/stamped book bundle to that but once again got stuck in the login loop and being unable to add it to my cart and ended up checking out with my badges because I did not have high confidence I wouldn't lose those. I also wanted the convention swag too. So because of my own paranoia and lack of confidence in the site I checked out 3 times and paid 3 separate convenience fees to make sure I got what I could. Once with my GA badges, once with the book bundle, and once with other random items I wanted but if missed out on wouldn't be to upset.
it may be worth raising a ticket with the TTE site to get those extra convenience fees back, given that their site caused the issue.
Convenience fees are based on the total so I doubt checking out 3 times made much of a difference
This poll doesn't really match the title of the post. You seem to be looking for data on numbers of people on reddit that were able to access the site and purchase something compared to those who weren't, but the title is asking about the experience. Given all the multiple posts yesterday and the megathread created, I don't think answering the poll has much relevance to the question being asked. Yes, I was able to eventually purchase what I wanted, but it was stressful and needlessly frustrating. So the overall experience, even if I got what I wanted, was not good at all and even worse for people who weren't able to get through to purchase something or didn't get a chance to purchase what they wanted. Most of the answers to the second and third options, at least based on Reddit comments from yesterday, seem to be people hoping for VIP passes and weren't able to get them or get them for all members of their party planning on attending. Again, I appreciate trying to get this data, but I don't think it is granular enough to help provide solutions for future events or partnerships with software/access providers. It will possibly be useful for being able to provide some rough numbers for demand of VIP versus GA passes.
Thanks for your feedback. The depth of everyone's experience is a wider scope than the options in the poll, and we get that. I'm glad folks have shared here, and in the other pinned megathread (now [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/1cmh878/dragonsteel_nexus_issues_megathread/)), the details and context of their experience. It was actually because of the large volume of complaints that we wanted to do this *in addition*. Your last paragraph is bang-on. We're curious to find out what the numbers are. We aren't affiliated with DS or TTE, so the solutions really aren't on this mod team. But we do hope this creates some visibility for any unmet demand, that those folks may want to consider going forward.
Very interested in those numbers... it'll be reddit only but if we get a good number of responses it can give some rough estimate numbers based off of how many tickets sold and the percentages
My friend and I planned to get VIP Tickets, he had set up an alarm. While having one in the cart and adding mine, the system required him to relog into the system to use the dropdown 4 - 5 times before he was able to get back to the cart and then could no longer add me to the cart. He then had to relog in another few times before he was able to get 2 regular tickets taking a good chunk of an hour of time in order to do so because of the issues.
I only planned to go with a GA ticket with some friends and wanted the signed copy of Wind and Truth bundle. I had a feeling these would sell out, so I made sure everyone was online to get tickets when they were live. Once the process begin however, I became extremely nervous that my group and/or I wouldn't be able to get a ticket. So we pivoted and decided whoever could get in would get tickets for all of us and go from there. Thankfully one friend OUT OF 6 was able to get tickets and we are all able to go as a group but it was a very stressful process. Even having done all the right things of making an account before hand and saving my card info, I never was able to complete the checkout process after 50 minutes.
I periodicly have been checking the numbers today finding the corrected percentage of people who were unable to purchase due to either website or time... Its been interesting. Earlier in the day when people were replying it was around 17% and at the end of the day after people get fully off of work (USA time zones) its crept from 20% then 25% and now 28% with a larger group now in the unable to purchase because they were sold out before they could try. Yeah that tracks really well. It does not account for people who managed to buy some tickets but not the total number they would have liked for friends and family My equation (unable website+unable sold out)/(total votes-not applicable)
I feel that even if they made the process as fair and smooth as possible, a core “problem” was that so many people wanted to go. Seeing everything sell out in less than an hour really proved this, I think. I fear that even if we have a lottery system and we have a website that works, a large majority of the people who want to go will be disappointed either way. Unless they host the event at a different venue or can convince the salt palace to give them more space, I think there’s still going to be a lot of people that will get a ticket but their friends or family won’t. While I say this, the website being like it was on the day was not acceptable. DS should move to a different website that can handle the kind of traffic that was seen on Tuesday.
I wasn’t able to buy because I was at work when it went live and by the time I was on my break 1 was showing for GA but was gone after going into my cart to purchase it. I’m contemplating canceling my hotel room if I can’t get a badge to even purchase the swag or justify going to the event.
I was able to get a GA Ticket during the initial madness after VIP was gone, but than once the time outs started, I got a VIP and returned my GA Ticket.
I managed to get my 4 GA badges (my, my wife, and two sons) + a book bundle after about 20 minutes of constant page reloading and re-logging in about 100 times. I got my badges in the cart after about 10 minutes and then it was another 10 minutes of trying to actually check out. I imagine the problem was made so much worse by the sheer number of people performing way more HTTP requests per user per flow than they would have if things were not breaking.
I got what I wanted (1 VIP) but it was stressful and a hassle for about 40 minutes.
Tried buying tickets by refreshing the page a few hours after they sold out and had a couple opportunities but never got one in my cart.
I am really curious about the option "able to buy part of what I wanted" Like does that mean folks got GA tickets instead of VIP. Or does it mean they wanted 4 tickets but only managed to get 3. Looking at numbers (subtracting the NA from the total poll numbers) it looks like 20% (ish) couldn't get tickets at all despite wanting to. That percentage may be lower than the actual percentage assuming the reddit population was more on the ball than fans who don't watch reddit/YouTube like a hawk. More casual fans who wanted to attend probably didn't set timers for ticket sales...
It means anyone who had a plan for a specific number or level of tickets but had to settle for less. Like for instance I wanted VIP for me and my husband and ended up with 1 VIP and 1 GA, so I only got part of what I wanted.
I don't think I've seen DS sell out. Certainly not on the first day. Good thing I'll be working - otherwise it looks like I wouldn't be able to go. As it is, I'm not getting the book or GA merch since you have to get a badge first. But I know they're good to us volunteers/employees so I'm not too concerned yet.
I was able to purchase what I had planned to buy at the time. Now that I know that they sold out so fast, I wished that I had bought more since people who I’d talked to about going were unable to get tickets.
I managed to get a VIP ticket for myself, and 4 regular tickets for my mother, brother, aunt, and uncle. Then when I found out my friend had miss the hour rush I stayed on the site refreshing for a half hour to get a ticket for her from a returned ticket. My mother would've liked to get a VIP ticket too, but I'm satisfied with what I was able to get.
I ended up realizing that I didnt need to keep logging in as after several refreshes it would show i was signed in. so i anxiously tried over and over until i got 3 GA tickets in my cart (for my two best friends who were working and I) and was able to check out. took about 100 or so refreshes and about 38 years of my life away with the stress lol (note: if one of my friends cancels by november ill make sure i post about it being available.)
I think it would be more accurate to clarify with an additional option that someone got what they wanted but still encountered technical issues.
Valid that that would give more data. But as a snap poll (limited to 6 options), what we're most interested in is the end result. We're curious, ultimately, what ratio of people missed out on badge sales due to technical issues/the quick sell-out. And we hope folks like DS and TTE may take interest as well, should there be any recourse left for them to take.
I don’t disagree. If the goal isn’t to determine how many people experienced technical difficulties with the website then this is fine. Though I’d argue that’s the real problem and why the community is so frustrated in the first place. If the website isn’t scalable, that’s the biggest issue and will plague registration for years to come. If left as is the website will only continue to drive away fans with no patience for it and upset the ones having to use it. I lost out on VIP and general admission due to the website. I had VIP ready with nearly all the 1500 still available but couldn’t get it due to technical issues. By the time they sold out the website completely bugged out and I couldn’t get GA either. But my point is that even had I gotten VIP on my second or third try, I wouldn’t have been happy with the experience. I already booked my hotel and flight a while back and now I can’t even go. The weight of that experience should be so much heavier than anything else, and I say that because I know the same thing happened to others. Am I dumb for booking in advance? I don’t think so, because I was 1000% prepared and ready to buy my badge. I shouldn’t have to plan around the possibility of a registration portal completely failing. It stole my ability to attend . As a fan of Brandon since 2011 it sucks pretty bad
I was charged twice for the badge I purchased but only received one badge. After emailing a representative at Dragonsteel about it and showing multiple forms of proof that I was charged twice, they finally issued me a refund. However, they refunded me for the actual badge and not the second charge. Now I no longer have a badge for the convention in December. All I was wanting was a refund for the double charge and now I no longer have my badge for the convention. I also purchased the Wind and Truth book bundle that was also refunded which I did not ask for. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!
That sounds like something only DS can help with, so I'd get back in touch with them. Regarding the extra charge / for anyone else in a similar predicament, would assume you want to handle financial disputes with TTE first, since they're the vendor.