Blizzcon Ticket for a Lock

So when I first set up my twitter.com/HydRAWR, I announced that I did indeed have tickets to Blizzcon. Husband and I are going.

I tried to get tickets last year to Blizzcon 2008. It was an utter horrible disaster. Hours upon hours dealing with the broken Blizzard store site. It was the worst execution of tickets sales I have ever seen. I am still a little pissed about the waste of time that was for everyone.

Then this year…

I give a full Congratulation to Blizzard for Blizzcon 2009 ticket sales. They prepped people on what would happen. They gave dates, times, how, and cost way prior to the date. Ticket buyers were not left to wonder about anything.

I set up Husbands and my battle.net accounts the week before the May 16th sale date. There was going to be a May 30th sale date but that was our 10th wedding anniversary. Even if we were not thinking about going to Vegas I was not hanging around a computer. I only had one chance at tickets.

Above all else I promised myself I would not be upset. I felt this time everyone had a fair chance to get tickets. There were a lot of people who wanted the tickets and only a few to be sold. Plus I decided if I really wanted to go this year, I would pursue some familial means.

I, like everyone else, at the time of tickets hit refresh browser over and over and over again. I had the page. I put in my information. I had my queue number.

501

I was yelling to (note that is not an “at”) Husband that I was in queue. He was too with a number 4,3xx. At this point I was excited. I started to actually think there was a possibility of getting tickets.

I got in. I put my credit card information in. I got an error screen.

Calmly, because it said you had 15 minutes to process your order. I tried again. Then I tried again. The fifth time I finally called the customer service number they were giving me.

I got though to a very nice man. Ultimately he was no help. Everything seemed fine on their end. He tried to reassure me that there were tickets still left.

I knew better.

I watched as I was timed out of the Blizzard Store. Even though I did everything right. Something went wrong. That something was not something I could have fixed prior.

I was resolved that I was not getting tickets. As much as I didn’t want to be disappointed, I was.

Husband was sweet. He took me out for some Greek food to take my mind off everything.

Days and weeks passed.

The weekend of the next ticket sales we were off to Vegas.

My sister and her boyfriend were there looking for apartments. They were moving in the next week or so and was getting last plans done. We met up at an all-you-can-eat buffet for dinner.

My phone rang at 8 PM in line at an all-you-can-eat buffet in Vegas.

Completely odd for me, I picked up my phone. I never notice when my phone rings. I never pick it up when I don’t recognize the number. This time I just picked it up.

It was Blizzard’s Customer Service.

The lady on the other end explained that there was issue processing orders with American Express that first day. I was one of them. To rectify that they were calling before the second sales day to see if I still would like to purchase tickets.

I did.

While she was doing that, I asked if she was at the Irvine office. She was. Being local we chatted. She coached basketball at the High School I graduated from. We talked about eateries. We talked about Vegas. I bought my tickets using my Visa this time.

Blizzcon starts Friday. Currently my plans are to go to the Wow.com meet-up Thursday, the Twisted Nether Blogcast meet-up Friday, and adsorb some panels at Blizzcon. I don’t really care about what new News is being released. This is a chance to meet face-to-face some of the people I have talked hundreds of hours too online.

See you at Blizzcon.