Well, I hope CI runs a better HERF than they run a website. It seems they never tested their website.
From 5 to 5:-)0 the button to purchase tickets did not add anything to the shopping cart. They apparantly discovered this and pulled it down for a quick fix. They put a new page back up, but that was buggy and they pulled it down completely. They didn't even put a "dummy" page up there.
You would think they would have debugged this thing last week, before they had to put it up live.

Oh well....
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the auction page for the cigar nut tickets will not even load :-)

Been up for an hour just to do this.

Way to go CI

Chas

Just tried to call the toll free number to find out WTF and it will not go through - Unreal
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Well after a half hour it finally loaded and I was #6 to place a bid.

Last year they only sold 750 of the cigar nut tickets, this year its 1000 :-)

Come on guys, why not just raise the ticket prices and stop playing the games. The whole reason to pay the extra money is to get in early and beat the big crowd. Now 1/3 of the tickets are the cigar nut tickets. So much for beating the big crowd!

Chas
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Don't forget that you get a Continental Breakfast with that Nut Ticket!:-)

I was lucky enough to phone in my order for 2 VIH Tickets. Seems like there are a 1000 of each Ticket this yr.
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Their whole operation is p*ss poor. The website still wasn't working at 6:00 AM, and now they're sold out. Now they figure they'll jack everybody with the bids. Guess what! I'll go to my source and get my hard to find premium cigars, have a few botls over the house and crack open the Irish Whiskey. I'll throw some prime-aged (21 days) porterhouses on the grill and let everyone else fight the crowd for... Oh Wow! 20 premium cigars and forty dog rockets.
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It was very frustrating. :-):-) I was able to get through after 75 minutes and that was with the wife using her cell phone and the land line and me with my cell phone and trying online (what a disaster that was). Plus 500 more people at the event this year. :-)
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I'm dreading the additional 500 tickets. Last year we were packed in pretty tight, this year it is going to be even worse. With any luck we will get decent weather and something will be held outside to draw some of the crowd away from the building.
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Wow. Cigar Nut Tickets already @ $120.00.
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There's another bunch of reasons CI is dead to me. :-)
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They certainly didn't win any new fans today with the whole ticket process. :-)
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I think they did a pretty good job considering that the website fell apart. The Auction is a pretty good idea but I wish they would make it maybe 500 cigar nut tickets instead of a 1000.

I know one thing. They better have more than one Buffet line going at lunch time this yr especially with the extra 500 tickets.
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...Considering the website fell apart??? Are you kidding me? I've done a number of websites and it didn't fall apart... it just plain wasn't programmed right. Anytime you click "ADD TO CART" and your shopping cart comes up empty, that's a green horn coding mistake, and that's what was happening this morning.
The WEBSITE seemed to be the only way to get tickets before 8 AM. When you run a business and put up a website to sell product, especially when there is a limited quantity available, you had better be D**N shure your website doesn't fall apart. I'll bet they lost a HUGE customer base with this morning's glowing display of ineptitude.
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I don't know...I think they did better than the Colorado Rockies did when they sold World Series tix a few years ago.
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I had both my brothers getting tix....when I spoke with them this a.m., both said no tix in cart, etc.etc.....I figured they were full of bull and didn't get up early enough or otherwise f'd up....now I owe apologies....shame b/c 8 of us went last year and had a blast...no tix this year! :-)
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....and it looks like all those that got up early for the 5 a.m. sale start....and got fed up after an hour.....got stiffed :-)
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Same thing happened here. A fellow CA inmate was trying to get tickets for us this morning and he was getting the "empty cart" syndrome as well. We're on the auction list, but that buy in price seems to be shooting up pretty fast...last I checked it was at $140.
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Hey, You sure as heck know more than I do about Putting together a website but do you really think that they intended screw up on such a massive scale? I'm sure the IT guys put that mess together are in DEEP SH** .

You say that the WEBSITE was the only way to get tickets before 8 am. I got my Tickets by calling them around 6. It was tough but after an hr of hitting redial I got through. By the time the site was fixed only a handful of General Admission's were left and that was around 615 AM I believe.
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I'm gonna guess that the low winning bid is gonna be around $170 so if your serious about going I'd start there.
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Yeah, I noticed there was a huge spike in the $170 range...good to know. Thanks. :-)
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I didn't call because their hours are listed as starting at 8:00. And anyhow, for me, an hour of hitting redial just isn't worth it. This is a herf with 20 decent cigars, they aren't selling limited edition rare coins, for crying out loud. I didn't say they did it on purpose, but they sure f....d up by not debugging the website well ahead of time. At least with me, its not like they lost a regular customer or anything because I never cared for their catalog to begin with, but I'll bet they really ticked off a bunch of their regulars.
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