General queries:

1. When asked to log in I realise I have forgotten my password and log in details.

Click on the "forgotten your password/login information?" link under the "Log in" button and enter your email address in the subsequent page. Your login information will automatically be sent to your email address.

2. The text on the site is too small to read!

If you find that the text displayed on The Sage Gateshead's website is too small to read you may be able to increase the size to a more comfortable setting using your web browser. Follow the instructions below which cover the most popular web browsers: For Internet Explorer / Mozilla Firefox / Netscape: on the Internet Explorer menu bar select View (version 6) or Page (version 7) then point to Text Size.  Select the text size that best suits your needs.  For Opera: on the Opera menu bar select View Point to Zoom. Select an amount that best suits your needs.  For Safari: on the Safari menu bar select View Point to Make Text Bigger.  Repeat this step until text size best suits your needs.

3. Secure online buying:

The security of our patrons' details when buying online is naturally of great importance to us. We want all of our patrons to feel comfortable and safe in the knowledge their personal details are being protected with the best online security at all times. To this end we have used one of the biggest and best known online payment providers, Equifax, to handle all of our online transactions over a secured link using high-grade 128-bit encryption. This makes it virtually impossible for anyone to steal your details whilst booking on our website. You can confirm for yourself that your details are secured by looking for 'https://' in the address bar, and for a padlock or key symbol either near the address bar, or at the bottom of the browser window (the position of this symbol varies according to browser).  Please note that The Sage Gateshead does not retain any of your credit/debit card details at any time.

4. Every time I try to log in the website tells me my login has failed.

Check your details again and make sure you are using the correct login details. If the problem continues you may still be using the wrong details; you can confirm this by following the procedure detailed in Question 1 on this page.  If you continue to experience problems then please email website@thesagegateshead.org.

5. When I tried to register to buy tickets it says I already have an account.

The likely reason for this message is that there is an existing account with your email address allocated to it, so our system prevents a duplicate account being created. If you have forgotten or lost your original details please click on the "forgotten your password/login information?" link under the "Log in" button.  However, if the site is telling you that the username you have chosen is already allocated to an account this means that you need to choose a different username; your username must be unique to your account otherwise it would be possible for two customers to have the same username and password.  If you continue to experience problems, please email website@thesagegateshead.org.

6. I access your site but all of the pages are displayed top to bottom in a linear fashion and without any obvious structure, what's going on?

It is possible that you may be using an older (and now unsupported) web browser that is incapable of correctly displaying our web pages as we intended. Please see the technical information at the bottom of this page for more details.

7. I saw an event advertised on an artist's website but the event is not in your listings; why not?

We try our best to add upcoming events to our website as soon as we possibly can.  However, circumstances beyond our control can prevent us from doing so.  In all cases we will not add an event to our listings until the artist has been confirmed and all appropriate legal documentation completed. Unfortunately we are unable to prevent promoters and artists advertising their events before the required formalities are completed, and so we ask that you bear with us in these cases.

8. I'm looking for a specific web page but can't remember where it is located, can you help?

We provide a comprehensive site map that lists all of our pages in their appropriate section. Simply click the "Site map" link at the top of any page of the site to view it.

9. How can I get in touch with a department or individual at The Sage Gateshead?

Please click the Contact Us link at the top of each page to see a list of staff and their associated contact details.

10. When I try and book tickets it says that my session has timed out.

You are given a certain amount of time to buy tickets and when this time has run out your session is cancelled. We do this so that tickets are not reserved for an unlimited amount of time whilst the user is logged in.

11. I have special access requirements, how do I book online?

So that you get the best customer service we ask that you contact The Sage Gateshead's Ticket Office on +44 (0)191 443 4661 and explain your requirements. Explaining these requirements online does not guarantee your requests will be fulfilled to the best of our ability.

12. I have tried to change my contact details online and it won't let me, how can I do this?

When booking tickets you can update your billing address and email address online. However if you would like to change or update any other details please contact The Sage Gateshead's Ticket Office by telephoning +44 (0)191 443 4661 or emailing ticketoffice@thesagegateshead.org

13. Where are the seating plans for The Sage Gateshead?
Seating plans for The Sage Gateshead can be viewed by following this procedure: 

Find and select an event you're interested in via the search facility on the left hand side of the What's On & How to Book page.

Click on More Information
Click on Tickets
Finally, click on View seating plan
This will show you the relevant seating plan and various pricing areas of the Hall where your selected event takes place.

14. The appearance of the website has changed, what's happened?

The Sage Gateshead is a fluid and dynamic organisation and this means our website must change frequently to offer visitors the most topical information possible.

If you find you are viewing an outdated version of our web page it may be because the page residing on your computer (in an area called the cache, maintained by your web browser) has been left after a previous visit to the site.  Many modern browsers use the cache to speed up the showing of a web page only using the version from the WWW when the browser detects that the original page has changed.  Sometimes this process fails and the outdated page is shown instead of the new version from the WWW.

You can update the cache yourself quite simply to check if this is the case. Go to the page you think needs updating and press the F5 button (Windows and Mac) on the keyboard, or press the same button whilst holding the Control (Ctrl) key (Windows) or the Apple key (Mac).  If the problem persists it may be caused by an issue with your Internet Service Provider or if you are having this difficulty within a local area network please contact your network administrator.

Technical issues:

 

Accessibility
The Sage Gateshead takes accessibility very seriously.  In November 2005 we took the decision, after listening to our users, to re-engineer the entire website to be compliant with the design guidelines set down by the W3C and enforced by UK legislation in the DDA. 

We bring national and international performers to the region who have not previously appeared in the North East and offer a new and outstandingly equipped additional venue to performers already established in the region.

The new and improved website has been constructed both to make information easy to access and to navigate (vital for those visitors who rely on assistive technologies such as Screen Readers to use the WWW), whilst maintaining the original look and feel for other users. At the same time, because of the new design principles used, the use of graphical information has been dramatically reduced. Together with other technical improvements, The Sage Gateshead website now loads much faster, and on a wider variety of devices (including many handheld mobile devices).

Further reading (for the technically minded only!):
W3C - http://www.w3c.org

 

Web Browsers
We intentionally prevent certain older browsers from attempting to display our pages fully. This is because some older browsers cannot display our pages as we intend them to appear, making pages almost unusable in many cases.  For this reason we detect and supply these old browsers with a simplified display that still allows the visitor to read the information on the page.

The following browsers will display our website using a simplified design:

Internet Explorer versions 5.x and below
Netscape versions 6.x and below
Opera versions 6.x and below
Konquerer
Safari version 1.0

This list is not exhaustive; however, we feel it covers the majority of legacy browsers currently being used.  If you have a browser that cannot show our  pages properly, and is not in the list above, please let us know by emailing the name, version and operating system of the web browser in question to website@thesagegateshead.org.