Anyone else seriously pissed off with today?

[Guy Fawkes]

Why did they need to make three games worth of tickets available on the same day. The club could of put the SSC final tickets on sale last week. Spurs this week and Gills next

And if the club had spread out the sales like that you would still have had large numbers trying to get on at the same time but over three occasions rather than just one.

Also by releasing them at the same time it meant that only one transaction was needed and therefore only one booking fee of £2 instead of three at £6. - I would imagine if they had released them seperately, people would have chosen to moan about that and ask why they didn't release them at the same time.

A case of they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

 

[Notters]

Have to say it all worked fine with me; I think they do an admirable job.

 

[poidy]

Indeed poidy, life would be boring if only one veiw was ever allowed, its good that everyone can put forward their own views, even if they are wrong

I wouldnt say you were wrong mate, its just the view you share thats all.

In all serious though is wasnt the ticket office staff i was criticising whatsoever. Im always the first to congratulate them on the nature in which they go about an extremely difficult job. I just felt there were a lot of snags going into today that perhaps should have been sorted beforehand.

Whilst i have issues with my account still it is genuinely pleasing to hear there were more successes today than i first suspected.

Good news

 

[Art Vs Science]

And if the club had spread out the sales like that you would still have had large numbers trying to get on at the same time but over three occasions rather than just one.

Also by releasing them at the same time it meant that only one transaction was needed and therefore only one booking fee of £2 instead of three at £6. - I would imagine if they had released them seperately, people would have chosen to moan about that and ask why they didn't release them at the same time.

A case of they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Dont think this is really true, a fair few people i know are not intersted in the friendlies as they want the league game to be their first Amex experience. Booking fees are discretional and could be applied only once if need be. Having three games available on the same day would always cause problems. The selling windows for the friendlies could of been staggered into where you would prefer to sit as is what is available.

 

[Codner pharmaceuticals]

Yes my 1901 smart card still hasn't arrived.

Butler sacked.

 

[Giraffe]

As I've said, I've heard from the club that the '3500 points thing' did not impact matters at all.

I know for a fact that this is not the case.

Five new season ticket holders I know bought tickets today. Two of them in the club shop this morning, three online.

My concern as I stated in an email to the club on Monday was that several people who were not entitled to could be buying tickets. In reality this is only relevant to the SSC where capacity is restricted. Theoretically there could be some 1250's who miss out as a result although if they sorted by lunchtime then maybe not. But I know for a fact some have.

The other issue I have is why did 1901ers have to visit the ticket office or phone to get SSC tickets? No online. This potentially added 2,500 calls or visits as if you wanted the best seat available you had to get in early.

Equally they were selling car park passes on the same day. Why? These are a scarce resource and therefore everyone would be trying to get them. So why not do on a separate day?

And finally why release three matches and all parking passes at exactly the same time. Madness.

Data issues are understandable and should be expected, they should therefore have planned for them.

 

[Razi]

The main issue, probably, is the removal mechanism. The user has to click on each unwanted ticket and wait for the transaction to fire and the screen refresh. It would be far more efficient to be able to check all the unwanted tickets and then click 'remove' to remove them all in a single update.

Although I wasn't purchasing tickets today, but merely having a look at the system to see how it worked, I think that this would need to be raised with the club as one of the biggest potential niggles with the setup. I imagine that someone like Mendoza, who I recall adding dozens of people to his F&F scheme previously to ensure that a large bulk of tickets could be bought and sat together, could spend the entire 20 minute window removing unwanted tickets - particulary if 2/3 games ever go on sale again.

Either an 'add all friends and family' button for each game, or a removal system as you suggest, is the way to go. I just wonder how much is already tied into the existing ticketing system and therefore not necessarily a quick change. I'd be amazed if somewhere like Rangers has the same process though.

Also, judging from other posts today, the 'add your reserved seat' process should be made a little more clear to STHs as its obviously caused some confusion today.

 

[Razi]

I know for a fact that this is not the case.

Five new season ticket holders I know bought tickets today. Two of them in the club shop this morning, three online.

I'd be interested to know whether the five STHs in your example managed to do it as part of the 1250 loyalty point requirement not being met as occurred with people who only had 1000 points (and was fixed around midday) or whether they had the 3500 point irregularity and were able to then purchase tickets AFTER the aforementioned fix due to the amount of points they had more than meeting the requirements?

 

[Giraffe]

I'd be interested to know whether the five STHs in your example managed to do it as part of the 1250 loyalty point requirement not being met as occurred with people who only had 1000 points (and was fixed around midday) or whether they had the 3500 point irregularity and were able to then purchase tickets AFTER the aforementioned fix due to the amount of points they had more than meeting the requirements?

The two in the club office bought them by giving their number and the tickets were given. They were not STHs last season, but don't know how many points were showing.

The three online were all credited with 3500 points and decided to fill their boots online!

Wrong, but you can't blame them.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

The two in the club office bought them by giving their number and the tickets were given. They were not STHs last season, but don't know how many points were showing.

The three online were all credited with 3500 points and decided to fill their boots online!

Wrong, but you can't blame them.

Nothing to stop the club putting a 'stop' on the tickets/smartcard and just refunding the money I would have thought . Should they find out of course.

 

[Lord Bamber]

I think there will be lots of similar data issues - friends not linking, kids who are adults and the like. The good thing is that over the course of these ramp-up events, 95% of them will be resolved by fans discovering them and fixing them with the club's help.

By the time the season kicks off the ticketing data should be very clean, which will help us all when it really does matter.

Agree with this. Unfortunately it lead to a number of us going to the shop, hey maybe we didnt need to but we did. Arty got it right in an earlier post, why put three games on sale at once.

 

[El Presidente]

Nope, not pissed off, the whole point of the exercise was to stress test the systems, and it can hardly be expected to go smoothly given that so much is new. This is a ramp up event, and if you don't understand what that means then you shouldn't be trying to buy a ticket.

Remember that for most home matches the club have already sold 18,500 tickets, so they do not need many staff to man the phones for regular league matches.

Superfans getting hissy 48 hours after the club have just spunked £2.5million on a player, only a few years after we were having to beg with a bucket for £40 a throw to sign Mark McCammon either have very short memories, or weren't there in the first place.

 

[DT Withdean]

Just posted a long old rant on ATC but today really has been a f***ing abortion.

The worst bit about it is the club were pre warned about all the point cock ups and yet nothing gets done.

What infuriates me even more is you cannot contact the club in anyway shape or form at times like this. Not without waiting on the phone for hours on end anyway.

The website was crap, no matter how good your broadband, and the phone team over-whelmed. Just coz a few got lucky (they had to sell some tickets that way!) doesn't mean the website and phone lines were well set-up for the obvious deluge.

Joined the Brighton queue instead, to make sure. Successful, and had great chats with fellow Albion fans in the 3.25 hour queue.

 

[DT Withdean]

I know for a fact that this is not the case.

Five new season ticket holders I know bought tickets today. Two of them in the club shop this morning, three online.

My concern as I stated in an email to the club on Monday was that several people who were not entitled to could be buying tickets. In reality this is only relevant to the SSC where capacity is restricted. Theoretically there could be some 1250's who miss out as a result although if they sorted by lunchtime then maybe not. But I know for a fact some have.

The other issue I have is why did 1901ers have to visit the ticket office or phone to get SSC tickets? No online. This potentially added 2,500 calls or visits as if you wanted the best seat available you had to get in early.

Equally they were selling car park passes on the same day. Why? These are a scarce resource and therefore everyone would be trying to get them. So why not do on a separate day?

And finally why release three matches and all parking passes at exactly the same time. Madness.

Data issues are understandable and should be expected, they should therefore have planned for them.

Spot on about the car parking. Clogged up matters further. Could easily be left for another day.
And the shop staff said they knew today would be manic.

 

[Razi]

The three online were all credited with 3500 points and decided to fill their boots online!
Wrong, but you can't blame them.

I think that this is more concerning than the 1000 point problem from earlier in the day, since those with 1000 points were only able to buy tickets up to around midday when the problem was resolved. I'd think that the majority may have not bothered trying since they knew their day was next Weds - plus the problems with getting access to the online system. The numbers of these folk buyings tickets are possibly fairly minimal.

Of a greater concern is those who still have 3500 points and can still buy online, since there's no way of knowing how many people have been affected in this way. Bozza seems to suggest that this isn't the case as these people can't buy online regardless of the number of points they show, but your information seems to suggest otherwise. Not such a problem if it's only 50 people, but if it's 5000 people who have these 'fake' points then the matches might sell out sooner than expected..

 

[DT Withdean]

Nothing to stop the club putting a 'stop' on the tickets/smartcard and just refunding the money I would have thought . Should they find out of course.

Shop staff were told by people in the queue about the 1,000 point anomoly, and quickly moved to block it, about midday-ish.

 

[Wozza]

Just posted a long old rant on ATC but today really has been a f***ing abortion.

The worst bit about it is the club were pre warned about all the point cock ups and yet nothing gets done.

What infuriates me even more is you cannot contact the club in anyway shape or form at times like this. Not without waiting on the phone for hours on end anyway.

Nope. Took me 20mins to get sorted.

 

[Lord Bamber]

I think that this is more concerning than the 1000 point problem from earlier in the day, since those with 1000 points were only able to buy tickets up to around midday when the problem was resolved. I'd think that the majority may have not bothered trying since they knew their day was next Weds - plus the problems with getting access to the online system. The numbers of these folk buyings tickets are possibly fairly minimal.

Of a greater concern is those who still have 3500 points and can still buy online, since there's no way of knowing how many people have been affected in this way. Bozza seems to suggest that this isn't the case as these people can't buy online regardless of the number of points they show, but your information seems to suggest otherwise. Not such a problem if it's only 50 people, but if it's 5000 people who have these 'fake' points then the matches might sell out sooner than expected..

I was told by the ticket office (middayish) even if people had 3500 pts, they could not buy any more tickets. Cant vouch if this true or not.

 

[Laridae]

...not worried, as this is what "ramp up" events are for - testing the infrastructure..

Totally agree with this statement, Jim.

 

[Bozza]

I think that this is more concerning than the 1000 point problem from earlier in the day, since those with 1000 points were only able to buy tickets up to around midday when the problem was resolved. I'd think that the majority may have not bothered trying since they knew their day was next Weds - plus the problems with getting access to the online system. The numbers of these folk buyings tickets are possibly fairly minimal.

Of a greater concern is those who still have 3500 points and can still buy online, since there's no way of knowing how many people have been affected in this way. Bozza seems to suggest that this isn't the case as these people can't buy online regardless of the number of points they show, but your information seems to suggest otherwise. Not such a problem if it's only 50 people, but if it's 5000 people who have these 'fake' points then the matches might sell out sooner than expected..

I'm only passing on a conversation I had with the club earlier.

It may be that those with 3500 points who bought, got through on the '1000 point' glitch, not the 'have 3500 point' glitch.

Another thing, and I have to be careful about what I say, but having heard some of the ticket sales stats from today I would say sales kinda align with the view that a lot of people have said "I want to save my first game for August 6th" and that the Gillingham game may be better attended than some, like me, would have expected.

Those who want to get to Spurs should be fine, and there may be more 1000 point availability for the SSC Final than some may expect.