A Slow Fandango

So I finally broke down and bought a ticket on Fandango.com.

It was not pleasant. First, the site is slow, and I used a high-speed connection.

I typed the movie I wanted to see tomorrow (Minority Report) and as I expected it wanted a zip code and the day. So I entered the Zip code, and picked the day with the dropdown menu. As I did so, it submitted the page, so I figured it was trying to help. Except it then asks for a zip code, which I've already entered.

Separate forms? But why have the zip code form use a Go button and the other not use a Go button if that's not the case? It should support entering data one field at a time, or both fields at once. It should never lose the zip code I just typed.

So I finally pick a showing, and then the real fun begins. I want it to remember me, but I don't want to join their marketroid "Spam me with movie news" club. So I punch everything in, with that checkbox carefully left unchecked.

There was no message at the top of the page telling me there was anything wrong. The error messages next to the fields themselves are so small I don't even see them, and assumed it was broken and resubmitted a couple of times.

Again it makes me re-enter something I'd already entered: the looong credit card number, because I'd forgotten the password.
Then I enter the password right and forget the credit card number. The password fields and error messages are below the stupid club verbiage, not below the remember me verbiage. It takes a while before I get everything squared away.

The tickets are not refundable, it turns out when I poke into the customer service area. At least the tickets are printable finally. But wait, the so-called "printer friendly" page—a separate web page—spills on to two printed pages. Come on, I've designed web pages to print to a set number of pages, it's not that hard.

This after I realize I have to switch back behind the firewall to print, and have a bad moment where I'm convinced my computer is going to crash. Fortunately, you can go back and print receipts, but that was clear to me, and Internet Explorer 6 failed miserably at saving the page.

Posted by Chad Lundgren on Saturday, June 22, 2002 (Link)

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