Much like the rest of the world, the COVID shutdown has had a negative impact on ticket brokers. The worst part is the fact that they’ve laid off most Customer Support staff.

I’m currently experiencing this unfortunate situation with our online ticketing company and wanted to reach out to other tourist RR’s for some input.

Have you noticed the same?

Are you happy?

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks!

Just so I understand, the customer support staff is helping who? Is your railroad the customer that they are not helping?

Being there haven't been any HRA (HeritageRail Alliance) conventions this year, I haven't heard if any of the ticketing vendors that have customarily served the heritage/tourist/museum RR community are having issues. If your group is a member of the HRA I suggest that you contact the HRA, let them know who your ticketing vendor is, and see if they have recommendations.

I think most operations would do well to hire someone internally rather than farm the operation out. Sadly, the people that go to the conventions and get sweet talked by the ticketing companies are not the ones who actually sell the tickets, check the reports, etc.
They typically come down from the mountain with tablets in hand announcing a brand new system, rather than consulting with the people who know the organizations needs the best.

Yes I’m speaking from experience :)

Back when I was still involved with my local group I set them up using WhistleTix and we were happy with them.

What problems did they solve for your organization?

They helped with the processing of online ticket sales. We were using PayPal, and that was fine depending on the event, but for larger events it was helpful to have a system that would also manage the tickets and accept online payments. It also looked more professional than using PayPal, and we were able to use the email address from prior sales as a marketing tool for future events. During the sales pitch they talked about other benefits, although by now I don't remember them, and we weren't a large enough group to use all the features, but the price was comparable to PayPal so using them was definitely an upgrade.

We used WhistleTix when we were still running excursions. The customer could pick which seats in which car. The seats taken were automatically shown as unavailable. That in itself saved a lot of time, hassle and paper in figuring out where to put groups and individuals. We supplied floor plans so the customer could see exactly where their chosen seats would be. Payment processing was a breeze. All in all it was a good experience. We’d use them again.

Sounds like the OP should contact whistletix! Although as a customer I have not been impressed with their calendar. I’ve gotten confused when booking tickets and I generally know what I’m looking for, I can only imagine what a casual visitor would think.

The important thing is to make it easy! Do your customers want to choose their seats? Or is that an extra step that confuses them? (I’m not suggesting one is right, depends on your operation.)

I agree PayPal isn’t the best solution, but square or stripe can work good if you don’t need reserved seating.

At the Nevada State Railroad Museums (Carson and Boulder Cities) we used Vendini... but they have been purchased by Audience View, who are demanding new contracts... and as a state agency we have purchasing rules... so we are between a rock and a hard place.

We are starting a RFP (request for proposal) process, and would welcome any suggestions.

I’m sorry but I strongly disagree. I run a railroad links And directory. I have been to nearly every tourist railroad website in the US and Canada. It is quite clear to me that the vast majority do not have the IT skills in house that they’d need to do ticketing. Many websites are ok at best, often basic and lacking crucial info like location.

Doing credit card transactions is serious business and most weekend webmasters aren’t up to it. Also, the usual transaction firms aren’t suited to dealing with stuff like picking seat assignments. Got 27 t-shirts? No problem. 27 departures, each with unique seating etc? It gets ugly.

There is absolutely no reason to re-invent the wheel on this one, use an established solution.

Bob,

You know how the ticketing systems do not always integrate well into existing sites correct? These ticketing contracts are not cheap and I feel the yearly costs can usually be spent better by hiring someone internally to handle the online ticketing and online marketing needs.

I certainly wasn’t suggesting that a weekend webmaster try to handle the ticketing. Rather we agree, operations need good websites.

Some operations may of course find one of the existing systems is perfect for them. That can work too.

I totally agree on so many levels. I just finished a comparison of using software as a service versus custom and/or canned programming bits just to run a simple storefront. The service wins. Also, good coders aren’t cheap. Why hire someone to attempt to replicate the work of some other firm that has it nailed? You’ll wind up with a mountain spaghetti code that’s a nightmare, if not next to impossible, to modify or be locked into using that coder to maintain it. The recurring costs won’t be pretty. And, you’re liable for online security.

Different ticketing platforms offer different ways of handling ticketing. Some are more robust than others. Do your research. Choose what works best for you.

Just to be clear... I didn’t say the words you quoted as me.

The ticket company I had to work with was a disaster and cost the railroad a fortune during their multi year contract. But it was also a larger operation that probably needed / needs a custom system. A smaller operation would possibly benefit, although I question some smaller operations not using square or stripe.

I can only come at this as a consumer. I did want to say that these day I find it a major turn-off to using a service or retailer if their only payment option is PayPal. I have never found them easy to use. It's much easier just to be able to click on a Visa/MasterCard option for payment. Following anti-hacking recommendations, I have one card I keep for CC transactions. Just my observation as a consumer, if you take MC/Visa and Discover you probably cover 95%+ of any potential passengers/customers for their payment preferences. I know one local discount chain in my area that only took Discover for years, and finally broke down a couple of years ago and started taking MC/Visa because they were losing sales when people got to the register and found out they couldn't use their MC or Visa there. I know, because I was often behind them in line paying in cash, and was delayed by this issue.