How did you spend your day today? Living near DC, I joined legions of other DC Metro Area parents, ticket hawkers, and other moms and dads from all over the country online trying to score White House Easter Egg Roll tickets only to experience hope, disappointment, and frustration repeatedly throughout the day.
This year the White House abandoned the old practice of waiting in line on the Ellipse the weekend before the event. When I first heard that tickets were going to be distributed online, I thought this was a brilliant idea. No longer would families be camping out, trading parenting shifts to secure highly coveted tickets and families from all over the country would come to gather on the White House Lawn for this great event. Going online to reserve tickets seemed like a much more humane method of ticketing.
Or so I thought. Since the ticketing information was quite vague, there was a lot of speculation about the process for obtaining tickets. The official website did not say what time today the online ticketing portal would open and there were also rumors of a lottery system. Speculation abounded on my various DC mom listservs, Twitter, and through my friends on Facebook.
When ticketing finally became available, it was clear that the Obama Administration and/or the online ticketing system powered by Front Gate Tickets did not to understand the lengths that parents will go to for White House Easter Egg Roll tickets whether waiting outside in the cold or camping out online.
Messages on my listservs, Tweets from strangers who answered my query about tickets, and friends on Facebook reported checking all day long. I was doing everything right. We were doing the same thing but the game was just about waiting, clicking, and refreshing the screen. Over and over again.
Every once and awhile I was lucky enough to wait, click, enter, wait, hope, wait, wait, and wait only to be kicked out by a server error. Or the ticketing server crashing. Or my browser timing me out from having to wait too long for the screen to update. Numerous times I was lucky enough to click on the link allowed me to enter the Front Gate Ticketing portal, select the number of tickets for my desired time, and get to the verification page only to have the Front Gate server time out due to overwhelming demand. Then it became another round of waiting, clicking, and refreshing in hopes that the ticket portal would open up for me again.
I never got my tickets and realized today that my love of technology only goes so far. As much as I love all things digital, I prefer when everything works and when it isn’t riddled with frustration.
Perhaps the Obama Administration will reconsider the ticketing system for the 2010 Easter Egg Roll and revert back to distributing tickets on the Ellipse. If so, I’ll take my chances waiting for my tickets with the masses in potentially cold weather rather than chance it on inadequate technology.
Or if the online system is as bad next year as it was this year, I’ll worship eBay or CraigsList when I give up and just buy a set of tickets for my family. Earlier this evening I watched 6 tickets sell for the Buy It Now price of $979. *rolling eyes*
And if they switch to TicketMaster then I might just vote for another president in 4 years.
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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
©2012
I had the same experience. I didn’t talk about it on Twitter b/c I didn’t want more people trying to get tickets.
In the end, I was one of the lucky few. I will be driving my family up from Nashville, TN to attend.
As for the technology, I am a web developer and so I was watching how the process was changing to adjust for the heavy load (and I agree that it is pretty unacceptable that they got caught unprepared for this).
In the end, the system changed the flow a little bit and was much more responsive. It would have been a smooth process if the final solution was what they had started with.
When I logged on about 6:30pm CST I made it to the actual ticket system (not the come back later screen). Instead of selecting your tickets, the first screen was the captcha image. I entered in the letters and then saw the familiar ticket selection screen, but this time everything was very snappy. I selected my tickets and then got a screen where I entered my personal info. After that there was a confirmation page and I was done.
I hate that there were ticket scalpers who were trying to get tickets to sell. That would really be lame.
While I like the idea of online ticketing, I think this system was not fair either. Only people like me, who have the luxury of sitting in front of the computer all day reloading the webpage continuously, could get tickets.
I’m not versed in all the issues, but I think a true lottery would be a much better system. Where people submit their names ahead of time, so they don’t have to be at a specific place at a specific time in order to get tickets.
Even in this system, I think there should have been a requirement that your ID match your name on the ticket to reduce the scalping issue.
Luckily, I was able to get tickets and will come to DC from Atlanta to participate in the Egg Roll.
Congrats GBK! I think that having an Atlanta family be able to attend is the true spirit of the event, since it’s a national celebration, not just a local one.
Sounds like non-Tweeter Jackson was one of the lucky few that logged on during the elusive 10 minutes last night when the last of the tickets were available. Some pretty altruistic users on Charm City moms alerted others to this 10 minutes which was very cool.
All in all, I found the entire process fascinating. Oh & we didn’t get tickets.
I, too, was so excited about the new format and clicked througout the day. We never got as far as you did. I would have been super frustrated to have gotten as far as selecting the number of tickets only to be timed out.
Abel and I were joking to each other that maybe they’d let the inauguration purple gate ticket holders exchange those for these. Ha ha!
At least we have 3 (hopefully 7!) more years to try!
Are you sure it wasn’t called Front Purple Gate Ticketing? Cause that would make sense..
It wasn’t camping outside, but camping online. Fortunately, we had a blizzard so I camped online for 11.5 hours. At first it was exciting, then it was frustrating, and then it became a battle of woman vs. machine vs. internet. My 8yo son cooked, cleaned up after, and ate all 3 meals on his own. He really did a great job taking care of himself, the cats, and me 🙂 ! We were able to get tickets for which I’m eagerly awaiting the ticket email so I can believe it actually worked and the confirmation page wasn’t some kind of horrible joke after so much timing out and crashing that happened 😉 ! Airline and hotel are booked, so we’re ready. I hope it doesn’t blizzard again… On election night, my son asked for a playdate at The White House. I told him to believe that he will have one. I guess in a way he got it 😉 .
I was able to score 6 tickets. I logged on a little after 8, all while getting my son ready for school.
I kept checking throughout the morning to see when they would release them. Then, I just gave it a try at 8 am.
I opened several tabs and kept refreshing each of them. I made it to the ticket screen several times, and was kicked-out quite a bit.
Then, I selected my tickets and the next think I know, I was given a confirmation.
No magic, or luck. Just the way it happened. I guess it wasn’t a huge deal to me, so I wasn’t letting my emotion get in the way.
It’s a shame people are scalping. It’s also a shame some are taking it to the extreme with their comments. There’s always next year people. Until then, your own yard will do just fine.
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Jackson- Have a great time at the Egg Roll! The demand for tickets has always been higher than actual supply so you would think that perhaps someone would develop a better system. I did appreciate the changing status updates when I clicked on the “here” link.
GBK Gwyneth- I would have to agree that the online ticketing is most beneficial to those with computer access all day. There is a whole population of people who still miss the opportunity to go because of their lack of access to technology. The Clinton Administration did a lot to help diminish the digital divide (those with and without computers at home) but it is still a big problem in this country. ven though I have access to a computer all day, I still wasn’t able to get tickets. Glad you got yours!
Smiling Mama- I did think of you and about how this was the new Purple Gate! But not quite as bad!
Keonte- That’s awesome you got tickets and I have to agree that there’s nothing wrong with an egg hunt in our yard which we will be enjoying this year!
Jessica- It was fascinating and I’m interested to see what will happen next year!
I was able to obtain 4 tickets from WV at 9 AM EST. Like Keonte, I opened several tabs and just kept trying. I would not have had a snowball’s chance in Hades if I would have had to stand in line in front of the Ellipse, so I am glad for this opportunity.
No system is perfect, que sera.