Old Away Scheme member......

[Easy 10]

And then you;ll be the first to moan when the club can;t afford to fund an additional loan signing because they;ve spunked a few grand up the wall writing to a bunch of \"fans\" who havn;t been to an Albion match since White Hart Lane.

 

[sparkie]

No - I haven't ever moaned about loan signings or lack of etc. That comes with the territory at this club.

It is not, however, an excuse to rip off fans by takiung their money and then not delivering what was promised in the deal.

 

[Easy 10]

Oh do get over yerself sparkie. Its ten frigging quid and you had the chance to renew for nothing, but missed it. End of. Move on. Life really is too short to get so riled up about stuff like this.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

No - I haven't ever moaned about loan signings or lack of etc. That comes with the territory at this club.

It is not, however, an excuse to rip off fans by takiung their money and then not delivering what was promised in the deal.

Did you not have an opportunity to renew for free?!

What do you suggest the club should do, when it comes to a high profile/over subscribed game. Would you be happy to miss out on tickets (having been to many/all of the away games) and someone sneaks in with one appearance in 5 years? There obviously had to be a cut off point for the sake of administration expenses (office hours) and to get the newer system up and running properly.

They clearly did not intend to 'rip the fans off'.

The fact of the matter is - if you had followed/investigated the new scheme or read the website or attended a game (tannoy/programme) then you would know about it.

 

[The Large One]

Because those members had bought a lifetime membership for a 10 quid fee which covered 'administration' of the scheme.

Is a 25p stamp + an envelope out of that 10 quid too much to expect?

The club can weasel around it all it wants, and is doing, but they've not stuck to the deal and as such have let themselves down. I expected better of this board, but not anymore.

Is that all it costs 25p and an envelope?

I thought there was a sheet or two to be printed, and electricity for printing, and people's time of putting together notifications of ticket priorities and administering the priorities for each game, plus the emailing several times a season of ticketing information - those emails take time to write, plus the building, re-building and constant update of the database, and the time that may take. And there's the ensuring the Data Protection Act is upheld. Oh, and the cute little plastic gold card, of course.

And at the last count, that was for six seasons - or over 130 games to give out information for. Of course, if you want to dismiss out of hand the people whose job this is work on this stuff, go ahead.

But personally, I'd say that's not bad for a tenner.

 

[beorhthelm]

You had plenty of opportunity to renew for free - all you had to do was fill in one simple form.

which noone would know about unless they went to the site or here. thats a bit shit isnt it. i only found out about it the day before the deadline. i'll get over it, but the changing of the goal posts is bang out of order.

frankly i wouldnt have minded paying £10 a year anyway for the old one, its just like a sub to any club. but they said life originally, then sprang this quietly over the summer. if this was a bank charge you lot (those who think its no problem) would be screaming blue murder about it. the club has done the fans a disservice on this.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Well I BLAME OATWAY and MAYO

 

[The Large One]

I wouldn't say the club did it 'quietly'. I certainly recall the club made a fairly big brouhaha about them changing the away membership scheme during the summer, and this was on the back of a fair whack of criticism the club had already received for the way the scheme was working previously. I certainly saw the stuff on the club website, and in the Argus, and something tells me I was written to about it - or did I really imagine that last one?

If the club had swallowed the cost of setting up the new scheme, people would have been moaning that it would have been 'X-grand' down the shitter, and 'why couldn't it have been left alone...?' etc. To some people, in whatever capacity, the club are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Has no-one on here ever told someone something they had every intention of doing and then didn't? Oh, so it's just the Albion that do that, is it? f*** it, it's a tenner. A sense of proportion and perspective wouldn't go amiss here, please.

 

[Easy 10]

Banks make chuffing MILLIONS out of us though beorthelm. A bit different from an impoverished third division football club who have somehow still stayed afloat despite everything thats been thrown at it these last 10 years.

Plus I have zero affection for my bank.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

which noone would know about unless they went to the site or here. thats a bit shit isnt it. i only found out about it the day before the deadline. i'll get over it, but the changing of the goal posts is bang out of order.

frankly i wouldnt have minded paying £10 a year anyway for the old one, its just like a sub to any club. but they said life originally, then sprang this quietly over the summer. if this was a bank charge you lot (those who think its no problem) would be screaming blue murder about it. the club has done the fans a disservice on this.

No they have not. They changed the scheme in the first place, quite rightly, because of complaints from fans. If they had just let everybody stay in the scheme automatically then it would have been pointless and had the same number of fans as before.

This whole thread was started because one person is annoyed at having to give the club £10. All this crap about the principle is rubbish. Get over it, it is only £10. It costs double that just to get in to an away game. Alternatively, don't go to away games. Either way this thread is getting boring!

 

[sparkie]

Did you not have an opportunity to renew for free?!

Yes - I did - but only by travelling back in time.

What do you suggest the club should do, when it comes to a high profile/over subscribed game. Would you be happy to miss out on tickets (having been to many/all of the away games) and someone sneaks in with one appearance in 5 years? There obviously had to be a cut off point for the sake of administration expenses (office hours) and to get the newer system up and running properly.

Do what they've always done. I've had the dreaded 'sorry, over subscibed' letter from Perry before. Not good at the time, but forgotten about now.

They clearly did not intend to 'rip the fans off'.

I'm sure they didn't intend to, but clearly they have. They can still put it right by the way.

The fact of the matter is - if you had followed/investigated the new scheme or read the website or attended a game (tannoy/programme) then you would know about it.

I think we all know that this system of letting everyone know hasn't worked particualrly well.

 

[Easy 10]

Do what they\'ve always done. I\'ve had the dreaded \'sorry, over subscibed\' letter from Perry before. Not good at the time, but forgotten about now.

Well think of it this way. Now that loads of the once-in-a-blue-moon deadwood AMS members have been culled from the old scheme, there are now loads of AMS members who DID renew in time who will now benefit from having much more of a chance of getting a ticket for one of those over-subscribed games.

If that just means a handful of people like you are pissed off because you didnt get the message in time, I think thats a price well worth paying.

 

[rool]

What's all this about letters anyway?. They're so last century, what's wrong with emails?. I know they have my email address as I get mails about offers from the club. It would have taken two minutes to compose and no other cost attached to hit a large chunk of the registered fan base.

I never visit the club website due to it's general shitness but I can't complain as I saw Yorkies original thread and took no action due to my own laziness but I do think the club wanted as few people as possible to find out about it.

 

[sparkie]

I wouldn't say the club did it 'quietly'. I certainly recall the club made a fairly big brouhaha about them changing the away membership scheme during the summer, and this was on the back of a fair whack of criticism the club had already received for the way the scheme was working previously. I certainly saw the stuff on the club website, and in the Argus, and something tells me I was written to about it - or did I really imagine that last one?

If the club had swallowed the cost of setting up the new scheme, people would have been moaning that it would have been 'X-grand' down the shitter, and 'why couldn't it have been left alone...?' etc. To some people, in whatever capacity, the club are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Has no-one on here ever told someone something they had every intention of doing and then didn't? Oh, so it's just the Albion that do that, is it? f*** it, it's a tenner. A sense of proportion and perspective wouldn't go amiss here, please.

The club basically have shafted anyone who bought a life membership and didn't realise, for whatever reason, they had to renew it.

That'll be 10 quid please sir...

oh, there's 3 AMS members in your household.... ooo... it's now going to cost you 30... and I can actually see on the database you've purchased regular tickets over the years...

It's OK because we can basically just say TOUGH to you.

I don't think I'm wrong in thinking that is unacceptable, and a poor way of treating loyal fans.

 

[sparkie]

However, that's life I suppose. Win some and lose some.

Without doubt I feel let down by the club though.

 

[Easy 10]

Couldnt you just have said that ten pages ago ?

 

[Franks Wild Years]

Blimey.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Didnt rejoin as missed the deadline, not too bothered to be honest because it was partly my fault and also people really are not going to have much trouble getting in away games and if a big cup game comes up the people that go to more games (home or away) than me deserve to go more than I do so I dont mind missing out as I did at West Ham.

I do understand sparkles point though, and maybe the club should have sent an email out?

 

[The Large One]

The club basically have shafted anyone who bought a life membership and didn't realise, for whatever reason, they had to renew it.

That'll be 10 quid please sir...

oh, there's 3 AMS members in your household.... ooo... it's now going to cost you 30... and I can actually see on the database you've purchased regular tickets over the years...

It's OK because we can basically just say TOUGH to you.

I don't think I'm wrong in thinking that is unacceptable, and a poor way of treating loyal fans.

The choice of paying £30 was yours (assuming you're not talking hypothetically). You could have paid nothing.

You're not even moaning about the nature of the system itself, merely the principle that they had to re-start the whole bloody thing because of people not liking what was there before. The fans who complained have to take their share of responsibility for the scenario arising. A system was in place that wasn't perfect (none are). So the club change it, and the moan when you have to pay for it. Are you really surprised?

You might feel shafted - I don't. Shafted is when you get promised a ticket for a match which they then say you can't have. Shafted is when Hazel Blears says 'NO'. Shafted is when we build Falmer. and are not allowed to play in it. Paying £10 once every six years in order to assume a higher-integrity mailing list is NOT shafted..

So they intended for something to exist and it hasn't happened. If it was about the future of the club, that's one thing, but it's about ten poxy quid. You're simply repeating the mantra about 'prinicple' - it cuts no ice. If you're REALLY that principled, don't renew.

Then see where that would get you...

 

[British Bulldog]

Are people seriously wound up about this or just on a wind up?