Every year I have problems buying online on the day single tickets go on sale. I am going to try buying them in person this year and would like some advice from people who have bought tickets in person. How early should I get there if I wanted to be one of the first people in line? I was thinking 2am Friday morning would be safe. And is it better this way? Let's say I'm lucky enough to be one of the first few people in line, will I get what I want?
Buying at box office vs. Online
(16 posts) (10 voices)-
bobbob
Member2am should be safe to get tickets, but will it be safe to be hanging out from 2am onwards on King st is the question!
But seriously, holy cow - if you wanted the tickets that badly why didnt you just do the advance order? Or is everything you wanted to see a premium?
Posted 1 year ago # -
leo87
MemberYes, because of the changes this year, most of what I want to see is premium. There are a few that are regular though, but I didn't think it would be worth it even for a 10 pack advance order, since I wouldn't use them all. Do you know when people usually start to line up at the box office on single tickets day?
Posted 1 year ago # -
There were already people in line when I went to the box office on Thursday after work. Somebody has posted a picture of the line Thursday evening: http://twitpic.com/2ko48a
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was going to order a few premium screnings this morning from my computer at work, but just realized: (a) I left my schedule at home and can't 100% remember which films I was going to buy, and (b) the TIFF website is slowing to a crawl--just the website itself, I haven't even gotten to the dreaded ticket ordering system yet--as it does every year.
Really, with Bell as one of their main sponsors you would think that they would have a super fast connection. Not a good advertisement for whoever designs and hosts the website, and if Bell has anything to do with it, well... Yes, there are a lot of people trying to access the website, but on the other hand this is just the Toronto Film Festival--it's not like the whole world is zoning in on the website like there was free candy or something.
I noticed that the TIFF twitter feed and Cameron Bailey are apologizing for the technical difficulties, but guys--this happens EVERY YEAR! It's not a new problem.
Posted 1 year ago # -
abishop
Memberyep, their ordering system is terribly outdated. but hey, look this year they created a whole new Shopping Cart system! Yay! Which - in a stroke of brilliance - they decided not to test until this morning. And oops! It broke. So it's back to the old, long-time broken system. I really would be more accepting of this if the same issues hadn't happened for the past 5 years. And like previous poster said, with Bell as their lead sponsor, you'd expect better.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Nanabush
MemberBy some miracle I managed to get through and place my order through the bloody online order system. I know it's terrible. Constantly crashing because of the serious overload in ticket requests. Can't even get through to an operator to place an order over the phone. The online system crashing on the day when single tickets go onsale ALWAYS happens. My advice: keep trying. I know it's friggin' frustrating but you might get lucky like I did. Goodluck!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Nanabush
MemberBourne101 is right. If you get an error message, hit the back button and try again. Keep repeating if necessary. Eventually the system will let you in to finalize your order but you've got to be persistent! I clicked on the back button and resubmitted about 10 times before it finally went through. Trust this helps. Goodluck!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I've given up with the online ordering for now. After 3 hours of getting part way through, I was able to select a couple of premium screenings, enter my credit card information and hit "buy"... only to get an error message. I went back and tried it again, but no luck.
Someone suggested that TIFF purposely wants the ticket ordering experience (both online and in person) to be hellish so that people will becme donors and be able to skip the line. Sometimes I think this nefarious scheme just might be true...
Posted 1 year ago # -
luke416
MemberI got up extra early today to try to buy my tickets on-line for 7:00 am. I must have tried the back button hundreds of times--at the same time I was trying to dial the phone order line--also pressed redial hundreds of times and got a constant busy signal. I felt like this was a practical joke! I gave up for a while at 8:30 am, showered, dressed, went to work, and started trying again on my work computer. Pressing the back button until my fingers were sore--finally, at about 11:30 am, a miracle happened and I was able to get through and purchase 4 films at the times I wanted. The on-line and telephone order system is an embarrassment to Toronto, for what is otherwise an excellent film festival.
Posted 1 year ago #
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