All Who Have Gotten Through With Their Fax Order, post here.

[NattyBo]

No, I dont think Amazon would have this problem. Then again, Amazon is actually a competent buisness.

If the USSF had any kind of accountability it would have gone out of buisness years ago.

[fidlerre]

I have to agree on one thing -- faxing is totally old school. I am stunned, given their partnership with Nike and Phillips, that they couldn't come up with an online ordering system for these tickets. It just continues to baffle me when they send out the "fax in your orders" PDF ordersheets.

[JoeSoccerFan]

No, I dont think Amazon would have this problem. Then again, Amazon is actually a competent buisness.

If the USSF had any kind of accountability it would have gone out of buisness years ago.

monopoly.

[suppitty]

So, any suggestions? Should I fax it in tomorrow, or mail it overnight?

[Medeiros]

See, this is messed up. I dont think they should/will allow faxes after buisness hours to count, otherwise we would never have f'ing FedExed our order probably.

im with you man, dont worry. I wish eveyone luck, but ill be pissed off if my order gets beaten out by a late fax, especially since i was trying all day

[JoeSoccerFan]

I have to agree on one thing -- faxing is totally old school. I am stunned, given their partnership with Nike and Phillips, that they couldn't come up with an online ordering system for these tickets. It just continues to baffle me when they send out the "fax in your orders" PDF ordersheets.

Let me also add, that a competent supporter's group would have created a ticket ordering system as well. Sam's Army could support itself on ticket sales convenience charges if they'd create a system. However, I haven't seen anything from SA since Mark stated he was going to work the product.

I don't mean this as a criticism of the many volunteers (Monty, BigDog, Evan, Fid, Andrew, etc.) who have gladly tried to make SA more successful. But, until an organization is formally defined/incorporated, all the profits and hard work only benefits Mark. Sorry, but I'm a well-paid (er, adequately-paid) professional, why would I want to give up my time/expertise for Mark's benefit. For the good of soccer, no thank you.

If Mark is serious about working the product, he'll set up a non-for-profit that is incorporated with a set of by-laws and board of directors with the main asset being the SA trademark. Until then, we'll continue to lanquish. I wouldn't object if he made a percentage on the profits for his assigning the trade mark to the corporation.

Sorry for jacking the thread. It's been a very stressful day.

[JoeSoccerFan]

im with you man, dont worry. I wish eveyone luck, but ill be pissed off if my order gets beaten out by a late fax, especially since i was trying all day

I know what you mean - but the ball has been dropped by the incompetence of the USSF - I was in a seminar all day long. My admin spent the entire afternoon trying to fax until I got out of the seminar at 5pm.

[GOMLSREVS]

I'll be pissed if my fax that went thru at 1030 EST is not processed before all the fedx that arrive tues morn. First come first serve

[ChelseaMatt]

I'll be pissed if my fax that went thru at 1030 EST is not processed before all the fedx that arrive tues morn. First come first serve
Who really knows what goes on over there? I'm betting that a large percentage of us will get tickets.

[Mick]

Not to knock those who faxed their orders after hours, but is it fair that those faxes will take precedence over those, like me, who sent their apps by overnight delivery after spending the better part of a day trying to get a fax through?

I overnighted mine because: 1) my fax did not go through during the early afternoon when the line was working (if it ever did); 2) I received a message from the phone company that the line was out of service (about an hour prior to my local FedEx pickup deadline); and 3) USSF said that duplication of orders through fax and overnight delivery would/could invalidate one's entire order.

So...I followed the rules and will probably miss out. And those who kept faxing well into the night followed the rules as well. So, my only conclusion is that this is a bad system that is alienating those who care most about this team.

I'm a grad student, so I probably can't really afford the trip anyway (have you looked at airfare????). But, what a disappointment.

P.S. How the hell will they prioritize the hundreds of overnight deliveries they'll likely receive tomorrow morning??? I guess I'm hoping FedEx is the first delivery service to arrive at Soccer House tomorrow morning.

[eissman]

I'll be pissed if my fax that went thru at 1030 EST is not processed before all the fedx that arrive tues morn. First come first serve

This would be disheartening... will they separate by time???

My fax went through at 3:11pm CST. I started at 12:30pm roughly after completing my ap. That would suck if the mail beats out my fax.

[eissman]

Not to knock those who faxed their orders after hours, but is it fair that those faxes will take precedence over those, like me, who sent their apps by overnight delivery after spending the better part of a day trying to get a fax through?

I overnighted mine because: 1) my fax did not go through during the early afternoon when the line was working (if it ever did); 2) I received a message from the phone company that the line was out of service (about an hour prior to my local FedEx pickup deadline); and 3) USSF said that duplication of orders through fax and overnight delivery would/could invalidate one's entire order.

So...I followed the rules and will probably miss out. And those who kept faxing well into the night followed the rules as well. So, my only conclusion is that this is a bad system that is alienating those who care most about this team.

I'm a grad student, so I probably can't really afford the trip anyway (have you looked at airfare????). But, what a disappointment.

P.S. How the hell will they prioritize the hundreds of overnight deliveries they'll likely receive tomorrow morning??? I guess I'm hoping FedEx is the first delivery service to arrive at Soccer House tomorrow morning.

Great response, Mick. It is hard to say what the hell they will do.

The "duplicate" application thing freaked me out... I didn't DARE leave that Fax machine. Once it went through, I just hoped and prayed it was legit.

And yes, the airfare is NOT cheap. I searched for a week straight for the best airfares and it was hard to find anything reasonable. I did find a rare, less expensive (by today's airfare standards) non-stop, round-trip flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. Just over $1100!!

[Mick]

Who really knows what goes on over there? I'm betting that a large percentage of us will get tickets.

I hope you're correct, and all the frustration evident all over the blogs on BigSoccer (and elsewhere, I'm sure) is for nought.

On a bright note, it does seem like the number of folks posting here saying they were successful is low when compared to the number of posts on other threads complaining about not getting through.

[miked9]

I got through at 11:36 EST. Kept faxing because I figured it would be easier to fax it late at night than wait for overnight delivery, and I didn't believe that the fax system would go totally down without a word from USSF. Even though yes, faxing is about the worst possible system that this could use.

Honestly, I'm more concerned about all the "fax machine is broken" rumors that were both on here and in the yanks in germany listserv. Maybe people got bad information, and maybe people just misunderstood messages, or maybe (quite possibly) the Fed was botching it in another way, but whatever it was I sincerely hope it wasn't people being cynical.

Here's hoping we can laugh this off in the stands vs the Czechs six months from now.

ps-
quite a few of us were able to book JFK-Dusseldorf for about $500. I dunno if that fare is still available, but it's worth a shot checking orbitz & cheaptickets regularly. I'm also a grad student living on a foodstamp budget, so I know how tough it is. These USSF tix are just about my only shot. Good luck to you.

[DC_Gunner]

as far as airfare goes, don't fly to germany- fly to amsterdam or brussels and take the train, it's significantly cheaper, or heathrow and then Ryanair is proboably also better.

[jorge805]

Well...ours finally made it through...at 10:15 p.m. Nearly 12 hours after we started. It's unbelievable...it sent a partial order once, so I hope they don't disqualify me for that.

Not too many days when I'm at work from 8:00 to 10:30. Hope it wasn't all for naught.

Good night and good luck to all.

[Galaxian]

I sent mine overnight delivery , after trying to fax for two hours . Just wondering , to those who got their tickets through USSf for 2002 , how did the process work then , and were there huge mistakes like there is right now ?

[marchewd]

I think it is fair to accept the faxes that arrived after hours. I faxed for nine straight hours before it went through. I thought about FEDEX, but decided to keep faxing through the night. If I wasn't successful, I was heading up to FEDEX at 8 AM CST. Some of these faxes are from people who tried faxing literally all day long.

[Stinkey Turner]

Great response, Mick. It is hard to say what the hell they will do.

The "duplicate" application thing freaked me out... I didn't DARE leave that Fax machine. Once it went through, I just hoped and prayed it was legit.

And yes, the airfare is NOT cheap. I searched for a week straight for the best airfares and it was hard to find anything reasonable. I did find a rare, less expensive (by today's airfare standards) non-stop, round-trip flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. Just over $1100!!


I wold not let the duplication of applications thing worry you. There is only one password tied to an email and they are very unlikelty to "over" award tickets by accident (as it says on their faq).
It doesn't say anywhere, that I can see anyway, that you'd be disqualified for sending more than one method.
Due to all the f-ups with the fax, crossed fax numbers on the receiving end, bad information (fax is broken, ship them overnight, it's ok to use the other fax number, my fax got cut off so I resent it, etc) coming out of Chicago, and general mass confusion, I don't think they can get away with disqualification on those grounds and there will be duplications. They would likely just process the one, earliest application. Of course, to do that would take some sort of intillect. On second hand, nevermind what I said!

[taylor]

I sent mine in to a different fax number at 3am Chicago time. I decided to send mine in, just because USSF may be so chaotic that they screw up and include it.

Also, for students trying to find flight tickets, try www.statravel.com and www.studentuniverse.com

Also, consider flying into neighboring countries and just taking a train over.
e.g. Brussels is like 5 hours by train to Gelsenkirchen, I think.
Prag is also around 5 hours to Nuremburg, I think.

If you speak any German, try www.travelocity.de
I have found that their ticket prices are generally cheaper than www.travelocity.com



Just a tip or two.