Irritation

I have just spent what seems like half an hour trying to book some theatre tickets on the ATG website, an outfit which seems to control a large chunk of London's theatreland.

Hard to find one's way about. And when one has finally succeeded in selecting some tickets, even harder to pay for them.

Then, after I thought that I had finally succeeded in paying for them, the system appeared to freeze.

There was no telephone number visible, but Bing turned one up for me, for a call centre in Woking. So next stop, the call centre - which first explained to me that once I had clicked the pay button, there was no going back, no returns and no refunds. Which they might, from experience, have found necessary, but it is hardly the way to win friends and influence people. It then rang in a rather uncertain way for a while, then put me in a queue (with music) for a while, then cut out.

I have probably not bought anything as I have had no email confirmation - and I am not inclined to try any harder. Moment passed. But given that it is not as if I am that short of the odd half hour, slightly surprising how irritated and cross I had become.

Don't recall having these sorts of problems before, so perhaps their computer was having an off day.

Reference 1: http://www.atgtickets.com/.