opinios

Press '1' If You Would Like To Sit In The Back Row

I bought tickets to the Dave Matthews concert this morning. They went on sale at 9am, and at about 10 o'clock I had some spare time at work to make the call.

I figured the operators would have been swamped with callers, DMB being so popular and this being their first Australian concert and all, so I was happy to wait on hold for a little while, and was prepared to be nice to the flustered call centre staff.

It turns out computers don't feel "flustered".

That's right. In the 15 or so minutes it took for me to work my way through the purchasing process, I didn't speak to a human being once.

Not once.

I entered my credit card through the phone's numeric pad. I had to state my name (and spell it), and I had to state my full address (and spell that too). And when I was informed that my seat allocation was right up the back ("best available" my arse!) there was no "Press '0' to speak to an operator" option. I tried it.

You have dialled an invalid number. Press '1' to confirm your seat allocation, or '2' to cancel your purchase.

I can see why Ticketmaster have implemented this system. They can fire all of their call centre staff, set the automated system up and let it go. It probably saves them millions.

But here's the thing. Let the internet be the medium for automation. When I get stuck with tickets in the bleachers an hour after they go on sale, and I know that there are better seats available, let me talk to someone about it.

And don't make me spell my whole damn address out to a voice recorder over the phone. It feels incredibly patronising.