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88 Comments to Golden Ticket Sales

1. by Derek Zid

   On March 17, 2010 at 8:54 pm

   This is garbage! I had two tickets in my cart and thanks to the site going crazy I wasn’t able to purchase them because by the time I could get it to work they were sold out. Nice choice of sites to host your sale. I’m sure I’m not the only one who got screwed!

2. by J

   On March 17, 2010 at 9:23 pm

   Two tickets for the WIN!

3. by Frank

   On March 18, 2010 at 6:21 am

   Guys – I’ve been one of your staunchest defenders on here and on other message boards, but I hope you realize that you dropped the ball on this one a little bit. Business 101 – try not to piss off your customers. There are a LOT of angry people out there about how all of this was handled. For some reason I think that the coolest part of all of this to the 3F guys was that we brought down shopify with all of the traffic. Well, it might seem cool, or in a year from now we’ll all look back and laugh, but it was a nightmare for a lot of people, and I can’t help but think why you wouldn’t hire a site that could handle all of the traffic – I have to think after doing several of these DLDs that you knew the response would be crazy.
   Anyway, I will be there with tickets in hand, a little saddened because I personally know several people not going (on the principal of how the whole thing was handled), but I will be there none-the-less.
   Frank the Sober-on-St.-Patty’s-Day Tank

4. by Dylan

   On March 18, 2010 at 6:42 am

   I have to admit, that really was quite an intense moment (ordering tickets). About 20 seconds after the Twitter post, I was able to fly through checkout, enter my credit card info, and when I hit submit–got the temporary problem message. All was well though, because when I checked my email about 15 seconds after that, I had an order confirmation! Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled. Oddly enough, I didn’t mind the shipping charge, but even better if it gets removed!

   Really looking forward to Dark Lord’s Day and trying one of the best stouts on the planet!

5. by Dan

   On March 18, 2010 at 7:07 am

   I have been going to DLD since ‘05. Every year you guys seem to be prepared to deal with the volume of interest of the previous year and get a volume of interest substantially higher.

   That being said I think that this is only natural for something that has grown as exponentially as this has. Every year year I have gone (even ‘08 when I didn’t manage to get a bottle) I have had a good time and you guys have put on a great event.

   I think the ticket sales this year was handled well. I am sure a couple people got let down, but that is just the nature of this type of thing (supply<<demand). The most amount of people were accommodated in the best best way possible. I think anybody that had enough dedication should have had no real trouble (just some minor inconveniences) getting tickets and it didn't require many hours of waiting letting many people down or using some service like Ticketmaster where the fees would have likely exceeded the ticket price.

   Thanks.

6. by derek zid

   On March 18, 2010 at 7:09 am

   I am one of the people angered by how this was handled. I went to the shopify as soon as I received the tweet and attempted to purchase two tickets. I got as far as putting them i my cart and starting the checkout process by entering contact and mailing information, but at the next step the site stopped working. I kept hitting try again and it would take me back to my cart. I still had the tickets in the cart, but it would not let me check out. After a while of repeating this loop it finally just said sold out. I am very disappointed at how this was handled and I guess this will be the first year in several that I will not be attending DLD.

7. by Jeff Schleuning

   On March 18, 2010 at 7:19 am

   This was a complete joke. Way to go. I will not be coming as I had planned. There are alot of beers to drijnk and this kind of crap pushes me away from yours. I have plane tickets bought already, but will be going to HopKat and New Holland. They at least treat you like humans and not idiots like you guys did.

8. by wisker

   On March 18, 2010 at 7:46 am

   I’ll occasionally buy concert posters from emek, j.rogers and the like. They have traffic issues as well. They don’t really worry too much about it, I’m sure they get similar emails chastising them for their crappy service. But it only happens once or twice a month and as long as you a patient you generally get in. It’s the interwebs! I was sitting in a fast food parking lot using their free crappy wi-fi and got in, refresh is your friend. Congrats to those that got in! Sorry to those that did not

   wisker.

9. by dmahaffa

   On March 18, 2010 at 7:47 am

   First of all, I do understand the uproar. It must be incredibly frustrating to have waited all day, or stayed up all night, in the hopes of receiving your “Golden Ticket” only to have the site crash and not get one at all. It must be incredibly frustrating to have given up all that time only to be left out in the cold, I get that. What I don’t understand is the all the lashing out at the guys at 3F. People need to remember that they are NOT a macro brewery with millions and billions of dollars at their disposal. They do not have multi-millionaire dollar ad campaigns, an entire PR team at their disposal, nor do they make so much money that Lincoln swims in it every night as a way to relax at the end of the day; they are a small craft brewery in a tiny town in Indiana. 3F has worked really hard to make this a special day for everyone and to make Dark Lord Day as stress free as possible. If you ever went to a Dark Lord Day in the pre-”Golden Ticket” days, you would know what a gigantic hassle it was. 3F surely contracted with shopify.com because it was cost effective for them. It’s not their fault. If they would have used a larger ticket company, like Ticketmaster or whatever, everyone would be complaining of all the surcharges and shipping fees. Such hype was built around this event to the point that thousands of people logged on at once and that bogged the system, that’s the long and short of it. Should 3F have kept this day quiet? Should they only let a few people “in the know” have access to Dark Lord? I say no. I encourage everyone to do two things. (1) Lay off 3F, it’s not their fault. They make great beer that, obviously, everyone loves. (2) Go anyway. If you really want Dark Lord so bad that you are willing to wait up all night and take the day off of work to get the tickets then show up anyway. Dig deep into your cellars and bring the weirdest and rarest stuff that you are willing to trade for. There are many, many stories on Beeradvocate.com that tell of people who arrived with no ticket and left with six bottles. Plus the whole day is awesome. There are people from all over the country and globe there. Even if you don’t get any Dark Lord there are plenty of guest brews there anyway. I don’t know if I’m at liberty to say who is sending stuff, so I won’t, but it would worth any beer geek’s day just to show up and sample some of the beer that will be sent. So give 3F a break, they didn’t do this on purpose and I don’t believe it to be their fault. The only thing 3F is guilty of is being so awesome that for one day they shut down the Internet.

10. by Kevin

    On March 18, 2010 at 8:03 am

    thanks a lot guys. Its really nice that you say tickets will go on sale on March 17 but you cannot give an actual time. do you expect people to sit around all day just waiting?

11. by Dennis

    On March 18, 2010 at 8:10 am

    Frank, you can’t blame FFF for people being angry. Everyone was delt the same hand. And even if they had the best site ever that didn’t crash, the people that didn’t get tickets would be angry anyway. Thats just how these things go. So hand a tissue to your friends and hope for better luck next year.

12. by Charles

    On March 18, 2010 at 8:13 am

    I was in night school, saw it coming but missed it, very sad…

13. by chris

    On March 18, 2010 at 8:16 am

    still looking for the conformation email……am i screwed?

14. by Mike

    On March 18, 2010 at 8:54 am

    Ok…..it was a bit stressful. But if any of you people have ever gotten concert tickets to something that sells out so quick like Buffett, or Dave Matthews, or U2. It works the same way. Yeah, the system was really sketchy but geez. Nobody’s ever going to make everyone happy. But I went through the same hell that everyone else did while trying to get these tickets. For those who didn’t get one, GO TO DARK LORD DAY! First of all, it’s about meeting the people, making friends, enjoying the bands. Chances are, if you’re nice to some body, you’ll get to try some Dark Lord. People bring extra tickets to sell to the fest all the time. Last year, my friend went without a ticket and someone had an extra that he sold to him at face value.
    So, in my opinion, stop complaining to the Floyds about the system. They didn’t deisign it. They had a great idea with the Twitter announcement. And the fact that it wasn’t on http://www.darklordday.com was excellent. There were so many people hovering and refreshing that site you never would have had a chance of getting a ticket. So again, they didn’t design the system. That’s not their job. Their job is to make delicious beer so we can all enjoy. Cheers guys….can’t wait for April 24th. (Which also happens to be my birthday)
    Mike

15. by Dale

    On March 18, 2010 at 8:57 am

    2 Questions:

    1. How many golden tickets where released? I am guessing about 4K just from what I know about peoples order numbers.

    2. Will you be releasing the traffic information from the website? Nothing personally identifiable, but like a graph of the number of hits on the server at any time.

    @Frank I am also a little shocked they did not compensate for what they had to know would be about 3K hits in a matter of a minute, but I don’t know of very many commercially available shopping cart systems that will.

16. by Conpewter

    On March 18, 2010 at 9:10 am

    Well there is no way to satisfy everyone. I had not used twitter before and had issues with it sending updates, thankfully I got tickets in the last couple minutes before they were sold out. I would have liked the sale to be in the morning so I wasn’t spending my evening on the computer, but other people have different hours than I. I wonder if it would be better to have some sort of drawing on who can buy tickets, as opposed to a mad rush to buy them.

17. by Tom

    On March 18, 2010 at 9:11 am

    Hi Guys –

    I noticed that you mentioned turning off inventory tracking. Do you guys know how many tickets were actually sold and will you be honoring ALL of the orders placed or just up to a certain number of tickets?

    A crazy ride, yes. I personally had fun. The “rush” to get online and get tickets was hilarious. The fact that we brought down Shopify, though problematic for many, was funny. Just goes to show how much of a following 3 Floyds has.

    Didn’t hurt that it happened on St. Patty’s Day. Made my 09 Dark Lord that much more enjoyable!

    Cheers!

18. by Arnold

    On March 18, 2010 at 9:22 am

    Stop whining! Everyone I know who tried got tickets. It’s not three floyds fault shopify sucks. The people who didn’t get tickets must have never used the internet before or tried to get tickets online to a high demand event… This kind of stuff happens ALL the time. Get off your dial-up oldies and get a broadband connection! Even if I didn’t get tickets, I still would have gone. I’m not gonna sit at home and pout wike a wittle baby because thwee fwoyds is soooo mean. Boo hoo, suck it up, drink a zima and relax.

19. by disenchanted

    On March 18, 2010 at 9:29 am

    Yes, unfortunately the way this was handled is typical of the organization/service at 3F’s brew pup so I suppose no one should be surprised…

20. by Bill

    On March 18, 2010 at 9:49 am

    What was wrong with last years process? Have a lottery, buy the tickets. no rush, no overload, no race to buy tickets. Seemed to work great last year without a catch. The whole point of the ticket was to eliminate the rat race, this year the rat race was back in!!!!!! The early and crazy bird got the tickets!!!

21. by Dave

    On March 18, 2010 at 10:01 am

    It’s just beer. 3F does not have a responsibility to make everybody happy. Nobody is owed Dark Lord tix. People who let beer effect their lives negatively have severe problems.

22. by AndyReynolds

    On March 18, 2010 at 10:02 am

    Hey guys, don’t let Frank get you down. It is clear that he slept through part of business 101. Supply and demand play a big part in what happened yesterday. There was more demand this year than last, which will happen as Dark Lord Day continues to grow. Since there is a limited number of tickets, everyone who is planning on going attempted to buy their tickets all at once, crashing the system. It happens every year at Christmas when a company comes out with the “must have” of the year.

    As a consumer, I understand that things don’t always go according to plan. I was still able to get 2 tickets for my wife and for myself. Yeah, it may have been a bit frustrating at times, but that adds to the DLD experience. it gives one a feeling of excitment and despiration having to consistently refresh the page while trying to get a ticket. Once the ticket is bought, there is a feeling of relief. In my mind, that just builds the DLD experience.

    Considering 3 Floyds only releases Dark Lord once a year, I can’t imagine not going on “principal.” If it is something you enjoy, get over the fact that technology doesn’t always work perfectly and go to this awesome beer festival. You can play a the blame game all day, but in the end, Frank is still going because of his love of beer. His friends may not be going, but my question would be, how badly did they want to go in the first place?

    Keep up the great work guys and I will see you on April 24th.

    -Andy

23. by Robert

    On March 18, 2010 at 10:04 am

    Agreed you can’t please everyone. That being said. I much preferred last year’s method of ticket sale notification.

    The message sent this year was “Unless you use Twitter, you can’t buy our beer”. It might have been a good idea to allow the Twitter people access to a “block” of tickets. Then announce the release of the remainder of ticket sales via the DLD website and various beer forums (as you stated you would do). I’m such a dummy that I actually thought you might be doing that…so I kept checking the DLD webpage to see when the “real” sales would begin. BTW: you might want to add the text “Sold Out” somewhere on the DLD ticket website. I can sympathize with the growing pains you guys are going through and hope you find a system that works for you and your loyal customers.

24. by Ben

    On March 18, 2010 at 10:39 am

    Will any more tickets be released? Maybe at the door?

25. by Geoff

    On March 18, 2010 at 10:40 am

    I wish everyone would just quit crying. FFF is not Ticketmaster. I think FFF should be given the props they are due for waiting until the end of MOST peoples work days to sell the tickets. If people are not coming because they are not happy with the way this was “handled” that is great, there will be more room for me to move around.

    The thrill of the hunt is what makes this event so intriguing. For most craft beer lovers, the drug of choice last night was adrenaline. I am certain I am not alone is saying, upon successful purchase of my tickets I did a little happy dance, which my wife rightfully made fun of.

    You do not need a ticket to go to the event and I am hopeful, in the spirit of craft beer, there will be enough people willing to share their stash of Dark Lord with everyone who wants a taste. For those who sell their highly coveted Golden Tickets on EBay or Craigslist, shame on you.

26. by David

    On March 18, 2010 at 10:40 am

    How bout those of us who used paypal?

27. by Pip

    On March 18, 2010 at 10:46 am

    Have to say this was an extremely frustrating experience for myself and friends (had a bunch of folks very excited about Dark Lord Day and no-one could get tickets). The whole shipping charge fiasco was just icing on the cake and led to us foolishly cancelling the few orders we did manage to get ‘working’ to try again when the site was functioning properly (who wants to pay 20 bucks to ship two tickets?). I really hope you plan better for next year.

28. by Will Wilberg

    On March 18, 2010 at 11:16 am

    I for one really appreciate the way things were handled once the crash happened. FFF is not M*LL*R or B*DW****R. They are working with the IT systems they have in place and doing their best respond to the situation with great thought and consideration to the customer. I’m sure they thought that shopify would be able to handle the traffic or they would not have gone with them. The fact that they apologized and let everyone know that shipping would be taken care of immediately after the problem came up was aces in my book. This is simply something to be learned from in the future. If I can get though to order tickets on my iPhone on shotty 3G coverage (took a good twenty minutes), I gotta think anyone who really wanted to get these tickets would be able to make it happen.

    And hey, last year I dropped the ball and didn’t get tickets and I still had an incredible time. Great music, great beer, and great people regardless if you can get your hands on some Dark Lord. Remember they still have a great collaboration brew that will be on sale. Last years Popskull was like heaven.

    Kudos to FFF for making the best of a tough situation and I can’t wait to see you all out there bright and early on DarkLordDay.

29. by sack

    On March 18, 2010 at 11:19 am

    Paypal, credit card, who cares, i’m with Geoff. My wife laughed at me after about an hour on the computer i finally danced my own jig. I’ll be sharing some of my Dark Lord with my good friends as i’m sure other will too. Happy days!

30. by Amanda

    On March 18, 2010 at 11:22 am

    got mine with a cell phone internet connection too! stressfull but so excited!!!! High fives were deffinately shared once i got the email confirmation! Was finally able to enjoy a St. Patty’s drink at 7p without my cell phone attached to my hand .

    SOOOOOO looking forward to 4/24! Let the countdown begin!

31. by scott

    On March 18, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    fought the good fight and won. after a long day sitting at a wifi enabled bar, i took one last swing when i got home, saw the tweet, clicked, and won. just dumb luck, though i’d been on all day. and how to explain the “whoo-f’in’-yeah” yell to the kids? i just told them “daddy’s getting his special beer..” and they nodded knowingly.

    there were bumps, but nice job, FFF. see you on the 24th…

32. by Benjamin

    On March 18, 2010 at 12:33 pm

    Agreed, all those who are complaining should stay at home and let the rest of us that truly enjoy the excitement, fun, and thrill of the day and events leading up to it. I say there should be a public flogging for all those that try to sell their tickets or DL on ebay and CL.

33. by Brian G

    On March 18, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    Luckily last night one of my friends who had twitter was over, or else I never would have got these tickets.

    The site failed for me about the first 30 minutes.

    Then after that everything went smooth. I was able to get tickets for my buddy who was over, my dad, and me. However not 1 of my other friends was able to get the tickets.

    I have to admit I was laughing at the day and time they choose, because i’m sure nearly everyone who was attempting to get tickets last night was probably drunk.

    Can’t wait to see you all there!

34. by Kyle

    On March 18, 2010 at 2:44 pm

    FFF……. I hate you. And why should you care? You sell every ounce of DL that you bottle. What a complete waste of time trying to get tickets. After dozens and dozens of re-tries, I was finally able to enter my CC number. Then, 150 to 300 “Try Again” clicks later, I get a message that there is an inventory problem, and my cart has -602 quantity of tickets. What made you pick Shopify? Do they run that place out of the back of a rented cargo van? Please get it together next time. Or not. You seem to have more than enough fans to burn.

    Kyle

35. by Hal

    On March 18, 2010 at 5:57 pm

    Shopify definitely dropped the ball. And so in turn did Three Floyds, for using Shopify. The crash is one thing, but once the site was back up and running, I was unable to purchase tickets because it said my street address did not match my postal code. I checked and doubled-checked all of the information I entered half a dozen times, and it was CORRECT every time. Yet I kept getting an error message saying my order couldn’t be processed because my address didn’t match the postal code. I KNOW WHERE I LIVE! I was on the site 10 seconds after the Tweet saying that the tickets were on sale, and couldn’t get tickets. First the crash, then this postal code bullsh*t. I am a loyal and enthusiastic supporter of Three Floyds. I live 10 minutes from the pub and am there on a regular basis. But right now I am an extremely dissatisfied customer.

36. by Klemmy

    On March 19, 2010 at 4:23 am

    i had fun frantically clicking to get my tickets. i almost posted a clip of willy wonka with the kids singing IVE GOT A GOLDEN TICKET! on my facebook.

37. by Jeff

    On March 19, 2010 at 7:39 am

    Is it too late now to get golden tickets? I was really looking forward to my first Dark Lord Day.

38. by hatepaste

    On March 19, 2010 at 8:22 am

    How about this…Don’t sit there and complain unless you can offer a solution. If you call your attempt to get a ticket a “nightmare” then you need to open your eyes a little bit.

    How else do you want it done? Ticketmaster does the same thing with tickets. They go on sale at this time, site gets flooded. I’ve seen ticketmaster’s site go down/time out as well for events. And that’s their whole business.

    If people are going to boycott the event because of how it was handled, well good riddance.

39. by Oasis Brewery

    On March 19, 2010 at 8:43 am

    Any word yet for those of us that used paypal? Payment is still uncollected.

40. by Rich R

    On March 19, 2010 at 9:26 am

    It cracks me up about how upset some people are getting about this whole situation, as if entitled somehow. Demand is simply greater than supply, and in cases like this there are no guarantees for anyone.

    That’s not the fault of FFF. I look forward to DLD…

41. by Mark

    On March 19, 2010 at 10:56 am

    This is only the second year they have done the Golden Ticket system. If you don’t know how to work Twitter, then you need to ask your local 13 year old or college student. It’s not that difficult. And with increasing success each year, I’m sure you’ll have the next several decades to get your hands on DL.

42. by Joe

    On March 19, 2010 at 11:38 am

    Does it usually take a few days for the paypal payment to get released?
    I notice it says the money is still waiting and the reciever is unregistered.

    I did get a confirmation e-mail from both FFF and paypal.

43. by KW

    On March 19, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    OK, staunch defenders, you whiners need to get a life. Go have a beer and relax. This was a fun beer event, not the second coming. Sorry if you didn’t get a ticket (I didn’t), but you’ll just have to settle with their other dozen or so awesome beers.

44. by Ivan

    On March 19, 2010 at 2:48 pm

    I got tickets last year. This year I was in a work meeting and missed the boat. I love that we all crashed the server. It’s funny. I’m still planing to go. I had an awesome time last year just hanging out with all the beer geeks like me. Keep up the good work Floyd, Floyd and Floyd!

45. by Renae

    On March 19, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    What a crazy day it was indeed!

    I will suggest again to 3 Floyds that if they continue to sell golden tickets in the future, perhaps one of the following can be helpful. 1) Organize a committee of people from around the country to determine a selling strategy that would make people happy. or 2) Sell a certain percentage of tickets throughout the day so not only shift works such as firefighters/cops/nurses/etc., but people in all different time zones will have an equal shot at easily obtaining the tickets.

    I got my tickets, but it wasn’t easy. I got tickets from my phone on the way home from dinner/drinks. If I didn’t have an internet phone we would have wasted the night waiting at home, 8pm on St. Patty’s day was a bit late. I would have rather gotten the notice at 3am.

    Regardless, the event and the beer will be worth it. I’m looking forward to my 3rd DLD.

    And thanks 3Fs for clearing up the shipping stuff. I was a little concerned about the $20, I canceled my first transaction due to that.

46. by joe

    On March 19, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    I actually thought the whole thing with the tickets was kinda fun – Like hunting – even though I dont hunt. I wasnt even really concerned about the shipping charges. This year is going to be a blast

47. by admin

    On March 19, 2010 at 6:39 pm

    Please note: We are working to get all PayPal orders processed as quickly as possible. Confirmations will be sent as each order is completed. Thank you for your patience.

48. by Frank

    On March 19, 2010 at 7:32 pm

    Frank is back. Wow, crazy peoples, there are some vicious ones of you out here. If you’ve seen me on this or any other message board, I am usually the one telling people to stop whining. I think 3F does a great job. My post above that seemed to elicit a strong response from many of you was just a way of venting a little frustration, and from reading the beeradvocate,etc, message boards – it looked like a lot of angry people were out there. I notice that a lot of you telling me to stop crying were people that actually got tickets. I think you’d be singing a different tune if you wouldn’t have gotten any. There were people up since midnight, clicking refresh til their fingers bled, and they didn’t get tickets. I just feel sorry for them is all – wouldn’t that be frustrating to you?
    Also, I think this back-and-forth is funny, too – I can’t wait to hear back from you. I take none of it personally, and I’m sure I’ll be sharing beers with many of you on April 24th, my sworn enemies that dare question my posts! Let me give you some more ammunition – go Cubs!

49. by Diane M.

    On March 19, 2010 at 9:25 pm

    I have to agree with many others, I too missed out on tickets due to all the site problems. I find it very upsetting (still!). I have been closely following for months to be sure I wouldn’t miss out.

50. by Dave R.

    On March 19, 2010 at 11:57 pm

    So those who did not get tickets will complain, those who did get tickets will praise, such is life! I was one of those who stayed up all night waiting for the update got about three hours of sleep and then set up my laptop at work and got in and grabbed my tickets with ease, I had no issues what so ever and I consider myself lucky. Those who missed out due to technical issues too bad. I knew the moment they announced the sale date that whoever was hosting the sales site would bog down. It happens a lot, and had I missed out I would have chalked it up to crappy luck. Come to DLD enjoy it and get some DL anyway! It will be easier than you think.

51. by Mike

    On March 20, 2010 at 1:39 am

    Why was the Golden Ticket sale not posted on this website?! I subscribe sing RSS to stay updated, yet completely missed this.

52. by Nick

    On March 20, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    Mike, Andy, Will, dmahaffa = exactly correct. 3F did the best they could. To the negative feedbackers on here: I think you’re being just a little egocentric and refusing to see the bigger picture. These guys are doing something truly extraordinary these days–raising the bar, busting through frontiers, and vaulting BEER to a level that people 20 years ago never even imagined. On top of that, they’re trying to facilitate one of the best beer festivals in the world to share this adventure with everyone they can, and you’re griping that the ticket purchase wasn’t fair and you didn’t get one? You’re not being fair. This is one of the tiniest brewing operations in the country with limited production capabilities, and you’re upset because YOU didn’t get a ticket? What did you expect to happen?! The demand is FAR greater than the supply, and they’re probably already making more than they should be (just me or did last year’s batch taste a little ’stretched?’). If you did get a ticket, someone else wouldn’t have. Someone had to NOT get some. All Floyds can do is try to adapt each year and make it as fair as they can for people to have en equal opportunity at getting tickets, and I think they did that. Was the system perfect? No, of course not, but darn good in my opinion, considering the rapidly & rabidly growing fan base they have to impossibly predict each year. I’ve yet to read one constructive suggestion on here, or at least not one that would work any better than the way they did it. Five of my friends (none with a twitter account, btw) and I got 2 tickets each, but one of us didn’t. You better believe he’ll still be there like a kid on christmas, and you better believe we’ll share DL with him. Come talk to us at DL-Day, with a smile on your face and a rare brew in hand, and we’ll be more than happy to share the wealth with you and talk beer until we’re blue in the face. I’ll buy you one of the three versions of DL on tap. If you honestly still feel too forlorn to show up, then you didn’t deserve a ticket in the first place.

53. by Crybabies

    On March 20, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    There are a LOT of crybabies out there. Glad they didn’t get their tickets as they obviously didn’t deserve them! FFF rocks! Twitter was a great idea and most of the people who were upset are the sames one’s with dinosaur cell phones without internet.

54. by Forrest

    On March 20, 2010 at 4:39 pm

    I started trying for tickets within a minute of the Twitter announcement, couldn’t get through, and never got any tickets (well, I thought I got two through paypal but haven’t gotten a confirmation yet). I’m bummed, but as someone else advised, I’m not going to complain without offering a solution (plus I still have a couple bottles left over from last year).

    My solution- randomly make golden tickets available at the brewpub every once in a while. Maybe sell then at the end of select tours, maybe just make an announcement at the bar at 8:30 on a Tuesday. Make everyone pay via credit card and upload that information into the same database you’re manually checking now (to make sure no one collects too many tickets).

    This solution would serve two purposes. First, it would guarantee that some of the regulars definitely get tickets (and without the hassle), and rewarding the people who support 3F year round and not just on one fantastically awesome day would be a good thing. Second, it would cut down, ever so slightly, the congestion on ticket sale day.

    See everyone the 24th.

55. by BeerMan

    On March 20, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    I’ve been going for years without buying any bottles of DL and have had nothing but awesome good times and memories.
    This is the first year I decided to try since they offered GTickets, and lucked out.
    No way would I ever have waited 10 hours in a line for any beer…there is just way too many good beers available to me (and you) to place that much glory on one.
    This is besides you can drink DL on draft at the fest so you don’t have to feel left out in a way…which is what I’ve done every other year I’ve gone.

    Internet crashes/errors on high demand tickets/goods are nothing new…not even new to ticketing outlets of which they have millions+ to invest in their systems.

    Anyway, one the fairest system I can think of that doesn’t involve a “mad rush” is how the band Phish currently does their fan based pre-sale for their tours.
    They give a window of time, say a week, that you can enter once per household/name/credit card for “X” amount of tickets.
    Then the system randomly picks orders until the inventory sells out.
    Regardless, people will still not get tickets….its supply/demand!…but at least it may cut out some of the venom spewed by the petulant.

    At any rate, those of you that are fans of FFF, guest taps, beer in general, beer fans, beer fans the country/world over that bring their local brews to share/trade…well, guess what?
    You don’t need any GTicket to have a kick ass time at DLD.
    Show up and enjoy the fest anyway or stay home and cry in whatever beer you want to drink in protest of not getting a ticket.

    Cheers everyone!

56. by Frank

    On March 20, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    Here’s a solution to cut down on part of people’s frustration on the day of the sale – announce the date AND TIME that the tickets will go on sale. I defy anyone to give me one example (besides last year’s DLD) in the history of sporting events, concerts, festivals, etc. that said – “okay, here’s the date that tickets will go on sale, but we’re gonna make you guess the time so that you can’t plan accordingly.” If that was a great way to do it, then all such events would be sold that way. For what reason was it done this way? To try and cut down on the number of people attempting to get tickets so that the site wouldn’t get crippled? Fail.

57. by Chris

    On March 21, 2010 at 7:30 am

    Well, on the now-infamous “Ticket Announcement Day” I happened to be filing a police report for a car accident I was involved in, and was thus unable to secure said ticket. As much as I’d love to say I was involved in the accident because I was rushing home to buy Dark Lord Day Tickets (because who doesn’t love a dramatic tale), I’m afraid that reality is far less exciting, and I was simply rear-ended by an inattentive fool.

    I’m aware of the intense flames that asking a “dumb question” online can ignite, but I’m going to do it anyway…

    So there’s no way for me to get a bottle of the Dark Lord this year? :-/

58. by Travis

    On March 21, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    @ Chris: I have never been but I have studied up on last years DLD. People are forgetting that not having a Golden Ticket does not mean you WON’T be able to get Dark Lord. Last year after around 6-7 pm mostly everyone was gone because of rain and they never sold out the whole day. You can get some DL without the ticket. And at the very least you will be able to taste Dark Lord. Plus people will be willing to trade. I for one couldn’t figure out how to only buy one ticket when I only wanted one. So when I get there I will randomly pick someone out that doesn’t have one and give it to them and only ask they buy me one bottle.

59. by Noe Adorno

    On March 21, 2010 at 7:22 pm

    Blog looks really good mate, keep it up! Inspires me to keep building a following of my own.

60. by Renae

    On March 22, 2010 at 8:26 am

    I’m still a big fan of the days when I could just get there early to get my beers. Instead of buying a golden ticket online, can’t it just be like the deli counter at the grocery store. Get there at 3am on DLD, get my “number” and stand in line. Only those with a “number” get beers. First come, first serve – and I don’t live close to FFF – I just make plans accordingly. Take days off work, driving plans, and secure hotels.

    I feel for those that didn’t get tickets – and if I hadn’t secured them I’d be upset too.

61. by Jason Adams

    On March 22, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    FFF did a great job! We were all given the same chance. Yeah it was a race. Yeah it was a suspensful day, but I’ve missed out on plenty of concert tickets in the same way over the years.

    I got my two tickets. I couldnt be happier after losing out last year and having to offer people trades or $20/bottle to get my hands on a few.

62. by Mr. Miller Lite

    On March 22, 2010 at 4:35 pm

    This is some funny s**t, a bunch of people who wasted a good part of their day / evening in front of their computer or glued to their smart phone for tickets because this brewery has not clue how to run an event, then defend them and complement them on what a great job they did. Very easy to say stop crying when you have tickets and are blinded by your loyalty to a company that as displayed here could give a crap about is patrons. In today’s age with technology it’s inexcusable to f up and event like this. Give a time and a date and stick to it. Do some research on the service you plan on using to be sure it can handle the potential volume of traffic. I would never criticize anyone’s hobby or interests, but some of you “Beer Nerds” need to dry out a bit. See you all at DLD. I had a blast last year but you will not find me wasting my day standing in line, I had plenty of DL they were selling by the glass. So if you did not get a ticket don’t let that keep you from enjoying some great beer and great food and interesting people watching.

63. by Dan

    On March 22, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    I’m at the brewery almost every week, everyone who works there are some of the nicest people you will meet. No one can blame them for their problems, FFF makes darklord for you people yet all you do is complain. Just be happy it exists and if you happen to get some be happier. By the way, when I left DLD last year there was a ton left and anyone could buy as much as they wanted.

64. by Dave

    On March 22, 2010 at 11:54 pm

    Got charged for shipping, whens the refund coming in?

65. by Brickhouse

    On March 23, 2010 at 9:01 am

    Just an FYI for 3 Floyds, I know up above you stated there was a hiccup and people were charged shipping but that it wouldn’t actually be applied to the credit card.

    Well, I was charged shipping on PayPal, and it was applied to my card.

    Really, I couldn’t care less about the $4. I’m just attempting to make you aware that your fix may not have worked as intended. I don’t see any contact info on the site here, so I’mjust throwing it out on the comments section.

    No biggie, just putting it out there. Looking forward to a good time and some good beer.

66. by Ryan

    On March 23, 2010 at 9:10 am

    :: puts finger in air::

    whos got my xtra golden ticket?

    email at buzzard17 at a o l d o t c o m

67. by Rich

    On March 23, 2010 at 4:27 pm

    I too got charged for shipping, had the full $40 taken out of my paypal, would have expected only $20 since they announced ‘no shipping charges’ before the transaction was done.

68. by J-money

    On March 24, 2010 at 1:00 am

    Well would have been nice if I actually used twitter… Then maybe I could have got a ticket two years ago I showed up hours before opening and was about 30 people shy of getting a bottle now two years later still no bottle well I give up plenty of beers in the world just have to put darklord on hold.

69. by coldmeat23

    On March 24, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    It is truly amazing that people are complaining that 3F’s should have given a specific date and time for ticket sales. Do none of you understand what a fiasco that would have turned into? Instead of 5000 people trying to get tickets all at once, you probably would have wound up with about 10,000 people trying to get them. Talk about system crash potential! Lots of people gave up the waiting game or decided to go drink their green beer, because they just couldn’t wait any longer to get hammered. I think that 3F’s did the best that they could with the way that they handled this.
    In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll be at DLD with or without golden tickets. The event itself is a blast and you can easily hook up with a bottle or bottles, if you want them.

70. by spankdog42

    On March 24, 2010 at 6:41 pm

    Has everyone had their cc or paypal charged? I have a confirmation number but I havent been charged for the tickets yet.

71. by Frank

    On March 24, 2010 at 8:16 pm

    I got charged twice last year and never got a refund even after e-mailing and calling – even called one month after the event, thinking things had settled down by then and they would take care of it. It never got taken care of (even though I was promised it would), and at the time I thought “Oh well, it’s going to charity, so no big deal”. Well, starting to see a pattern here after all the screw-ups this year with the charges and still so many people with questions. Time for 3F to stop playing the “we’re just 9 people doing the best we can to throw a fun party” angle, and maybe take $5K of the untold thousands that they’ll gross on DLD and hire an event planner that can handle the whole thing from start to finish, including ticket sales.

72. by Nick

    On March 24, 2010 at 9:30 pm

    Good point, Frank. Despite my unwaivering defense of 3F on here, I have to admit that an irrevocable shipping charge would be disastrous. $40 for me! I remember laughing at this when I was furiously karate chopping my keyboard, as 2 pieces of paper don’t qualify as heavy freight and why was that even an option?….but now I’m not laughing anymore. And since the brewery’s manpower will probably be focused on making DL and preparing for the event this next month, not having someone available to remedy this situation could prove very messy. So yes, hiring an event planner sounds like a reasonable solution for next year. Hopefully this can be fixed though. I’d like to assume they’ll take care of this, but I don’t know how this internet stuff works. At the very least, maybe we can bring our printed e-mail confirmations to claim a refund at the time of purchase? Shouldn’t have to come down to that though.

73. by Dave

    On March 25, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    Frank,

    I’m really surprised they never refunded your money. I bet they could sit down, and in one day crank out all the refunds. Just look at the transactions and see line by line if there was anything amiss. 2000 lines isn’t that much when you consider just looking to see if anything is over 20. Okay, then you have to go back and press the make refund button via PayPal, but really, how hard could that be?

    Then again, I guess if your employees are so disorganized that they forgot to take out the “add a shipping charge” option, then maybe you are too impotent to process a refund request. Which is quite sad really, because it is a rather low standard of competence. If you can’t even remember to specify what the shipping charge is, what can you do?

74. by Mark Smith

    On March 25, 2010 at 10:24 pm

    My wife got charged for her two golden tickets on Wed (March 23rd). I still have not been charged for my two golden tickets. Hopefully it’s just taking them some extra time to go through all the orders. Got the confirmation on site but put in one extra wrong letter on email address so didn’t get the email confirmation. Hope my GT’s still get processed.

75. by Tod Manning

    On March 25, 2010 at 10:42 pm

    I think 3Floyds is one of the coolest breweries in America. To the tastey beverages, awesome package design, to great events like DarkLordDay….Good Job Ladies & Gentlemen of 3FB!!!
    Prost!!!

76. by Ricky

    On March 27, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    i received a full refund of 20 dollars that i was charged shipping for my tickets tonight i just wanted to thank my friends at 3 floyds for taking care of this situation in such a timely manner! see you on the 24th!!!

77. by bird

    On March 29, 2010 at 11:35 am

    Those that didn’t see a clusterf**k coming obviously have no idea what they were dealing with. I understand getting angry at the system. I don’t care for the whole ticket idea but its not my business to run. My only real wish is that people like my friends and I that go to the brewpub regularly got some sort of advantage. 3Floyds makes plenty of money off of this event and they have no real reason to care who gets theirs and who doesn’t. I wouldn’t if I were them either.

    P.S. Bring back the turkey smoker

78. by ana sage

    On March 29, 2010 at 2:39 pm

    People, it’s beer. Really? All this finger pointing…
    I have never been to DLD and wouldn’t be going this time if my son who lives out of state didn’t want some. Yes, I got my tickets. Very little trouble, too. You all are pointing the finger at 3Fs, did you ever stop to think maybe you were the problem and your computer was too slow. Granted there were some freshes needed, but all in all it was handled the way any organization would handle ticket sales. First come, first served.
    Seems to me that those that didn’t get their tickets are being very nasty.

79. by andrew

    On March 29, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    when do the tickets go out in the mail???? i had no problem getting tickets , refreshed the order form once and i got the tix 1o minutes after the tweet went out

80. by Renae

    On March 30, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    WEEEEEEEEEEEE it’s almost april!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

81. by Geoff

    On March 31, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    I heard the Headliner is going to be Tiffany, fresh from the set of Mega Piranha.

82. by Klemmy

    On April 2, 2010 at 9:47 am

    Have they sent out the tickets yet?

83. by Amanda

    On April 9, 2010 at 9:16 am

    2 weeks out still no tickets in the mail..any ideas???

84. by Frank

    On April 10, 2010 at 10:31 am

    Great job, 3F! Two weeks away, and no one has their tickets yet. Yeah, no need to worry about the people that have to travel across the country to get here or anything. I’m sure they don’t mind waiting until a few days before the event to get the tickets. For the love of Frank, we bought the tickets 3 and a half weeks ago! Another example of how 3F doesn’t care about their customers. I don’t think there’s anyone out there that believes that they are actually gonna get their tickets until they actually show up at their house. You know how I know that? Because there aren’t any Golden Tickets on eBay yet. No one is willing to put them out there on sale because they’re not exactly sure if they’re even gonna get them in the first place. Do not get me wrong – if I get mine, I am not selling them, and I am against that practice, but normally you would see them out there by now.

85. by Brian G

    On April 11, 2010 at 11:15 pm

    Anyone get their tickets yet? It’s getting closer and I am starting to worry.

86. by ana sage

    On April 12, 2010 at 8:40 am

    Frank:

    And that is exactly why they aren’t in your possession yet. If you don’t have them early, they don’t hit the “black market”. Assume that if you got a confirmation and your cc was charged that you will have a ticket. Plan the trip and hit the road.

87. by Amanda

    On April 13, 2010 at 4:40 pm

    GOT MY TICKETS IN THE MAIL YESTERDAY!!!!

88. by Ivan

    On April 23, 2010 at 8:26 am

    Any word on the availability of Dark Lord for non ticket holders? Or what % of the available Dark Lord is alloted for the Golden Tickets?