Trying to buy a ticket for tonights game... (The before)

[Easy 10]

Originally Posted by Easy 10 View Post
The ticketing system at the Albion is an absolute f***ing disgrace. We must be losing money hand over fist, you have to be DETERMINED to get through.

Let's hope Ken sorts it fast, then.

.

 

[Brovion]

Well I defended the club earlier but had a terrible experience tonight.

Arrived 20 odd minutes prior to kick off, a q right up the slope, fans struggling to get past to the north stand.

Stewards and Police just watching, q not moving people getting angry. Virgo scores people in the q get very angry, small kids in the q, still no response.

If there was a rush or charge people would have got hurt, eventually gates were opened and people rushed in.

Ken Brown was then being verbally attacked by a fan, and then starting arguing back. He said they had no idea of how many tickets were sold?

Sort it out, if I had managed that in my job I would have been sacked.

I'm sure Titanic and others would say that was 'perfectly acceptable' and that you should have got there earlier.

EDIT: Just seen the other thread. Wow What a crummy, badly-run, two-bob, tinpot club we support. A few hundred extra people decide, on the day, that they wanto to watch the match and all hell breaks loose.

 

[Icy Gull]

I got the impression that the last time he was here MA thought the club was a bit Mickey Mouse, it seems some aspects still are.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Any business that effectively is turning away customers has to be poorly managed especially when this business has been running for 10 YEARS at this location.
Dick Knight is at the helm and should therefore be accountable for this.

Double standards if he was a football Manager then he would have sacked himself a long time ago for poor results.

 

[Questions]

Time on phone booking tickets = 50 mins

Time in queue picking up tickets = 30 mins

Time watching football = 72 mins

Shame really as the footie I saw was ok.

 

[Titanic]

I'm sure Titanic and others would say that was 'perfectly acceptable' and that you should have got there earlier.

How wrong you are.

Yesterday, I defended the ticket office for their good service when purchasing tickets over the phone.

Last night - as my text message to the phone-in said, it was a shambles!

We arrive at 7:25 to collect our tickets... one window was open, and the queue was already half way up the ramp.

By 7:35 the queue was at the top of the ramp and still hardly moving.

They then opened a second window... but the queue still failed to move other than splitting in two.

It took until 8:00 for the club to respond with anything other than a shrug from the surly stewards or powerless officials who were standing cluelessly by.

At 8:00, Ken Brown arrived, and to his credit, assessed the situation quickly and sanctioned the gate opening... but it was far too late.

There is no excuse for not knwoing how many tickets needed to be handed out before kick off and staffing the ticket booths or turnstiles properly to ensure it could be cleared.

Of course the club are struggling for resources, but this is not rocket science.

It just needed a cool head and someone taking responsibility.

What a pity it rather tarnished a good evening out with my two sons.

 

[Icy Gull]

Not sure if this been asked before on the thread but why wasn't the game delayed? I have been to quite a few away matches over the years where the game has been delayed due to too many people still trying to get in.

 

[desprateseagull]

just a thought.. i hope the club dont (ab)use an expensive 0871 phone number, for bookings..

 

[MORTY]

Not sure if this been asked before on the thread but why wasn't the game delayed? I have been to quite a few away matches over the years where the game has been delayed due to too many people still trying to get in.

Do we not get fined if we delay a game?

 

[Nemesis]

Not sure if this been asked before on the thread but why wasn't the game delayed? I have been to quite a few away matches over the years where the game has been delayed due to too many people still trying to get in.

As has been said elsewhere-what a joke we'd look for delaying the game because the club couldn't get 2517 fans into Withdean in time for kick off. We DO look a joke but at least it's only us aware of it at the moment...

 

[Icy Gull]

As has been said elsewhere-what a joke we'd look for delaying the game because the club couldn't get 2517 fans into Withdean in time for kick off. We DO look a joke but at least it's only us aware of it at the moment...

A bit of negative National press about the shambles (not forgetting the very similar shambles for the youth match against Chelsea a couple of years ago) may just inspire the board to actually find a solution. It's quite apparent that either f*** all has been done since the Chelsea game (where they didn't open enough turnstiles I believe) or it's not seen as an issue worth pursuing.

If we can't organise something that should be reasonably simple it does bring into question the possibility of the building of Falmer turning into something resembling scenes from Fred Karno's army.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

How wrong you are.

Yesterday, I defended the ticket office for their good service when purchasing tickets over the phone.

Last night - as my text message to the phone-in said, it was a shambles!

We arrive at 7:25 to collect our tickets... one window was open, and the queue was already half way up the ramp.

By 7:35 the queue was at the top of the ramp and still hardly moving.

They then opened a second window... but the queue still failed to move other than splitting in two.

It took until 8:00 for the club to respond with anything other than a shrug from the surly stewards or powerless officials who were standing cluelessly by.

At 8:00, Ken Brown arrived, and to his credit, assessed the situation quickly and sanctioned the gate opening... but it was far too late.

There is no excuse for not knwoing how many tickets needed to be handed out before kick off and staffing the ticket booths or turnstiles properly to ensure it could be cleared.

Of course the club are struggling for resources, but this is not rocket science.

It just needed a cool head and someone taking responsibility.

What a pity it rather tarnished a good evening out with my two sons.

Being in that q, I back up everything you have said above, I was embaresed that lots of kids were involved in that fiasco last night. I love the albion and will go again and again, but casual fans especially with kids will need reasuring to return.

This will put people off using the current system and hit the club in the pocket, 200 people not bothering to go along to another game is big bucks to us.

 

[Storer68]

Just to add my two penneth

Ordered tickets via the website yesterday afternoon

Just strolled up to window and picked the tickets up straightaway around 7.15 - no q whatsoever. didn't seem to be much of a problem when I went into the ground at 7.30 either.

People need to be a bit more organised about picking tickets up than they obvioulsy were last night. If you're picking tickets up on the day of a concerts (say) surely you leave enough time (rather than 15 minutes before the start of the event)

Add to which I got a free programme and a free poncho in case it rained so I say well done to the club for slick orgainsation and good customer care. Obviuosly I am in the minority here but that was my experience last night.

 

[Ernest]

Just to add my two penneth

Ordered tickets via the website yesterday afternoon

Just strolled up to window and picked the tickets up straightaway around 7.15 - no q whatsoever. didn't seem to be much of a problem when I went into the ground at 7.30 either.

People need to be a bit more organised about picking tickets up than they obvioulsy were last night. If you're picking tickets up on the day of a concerts (say) surely you leave enough time (rather than 15 minutes before the start of the event)

Add to which I got a free programme and a free poncho in case it rained so I say well done to the club for slick orgainsation and good customer care. Obviuosly I am in the minority here but that was my experience last night.

Don't know what queue you were in but when I walked down the ramp at 715 the queue was well up towards the car park and a steward was telling me to queue there to collect tickets.
So at 715 the club was well aware that 30mins before the kick off there was rather a large queue already and they simply chose to ignore it and let people miss the first part of the game.
Refunds should be made to all those who suffered.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Just to add my two penneth

Ordered tickets via the website yesterday afternoon

Just strolled up to window and picked the tickets up straightaway around 7.15 - no q whatsoever. didn't seem to be much of a problem when I went into the ground at 7.30 either.

People need to be a bit more organised about picking tickets up than they obvioulsy were last night. If you're picking tickets up on the day of a concerts (say) surely you leave enough time (rather than 15 minutes before the start of the event)

Add to which I got a free programme and a free poncho in case it rained so I say well done to the club for slick orgainsation and good customer care. Obviuosly I am in the minority here but that was my experience last night.

Lucky you had the time to get there early and were not delayed. At least you got to see the first goal and saviour the game. It shows how quickly the situation changed as by 7.20 when I arrived it was chaos.

I have picked up tickets before with 5 minutes to go (perhaps wrongly assumed this works) and strolled up, perhaps the club felt 500 plus people could have done this?

 

[Brovion]

How wrong you are.

Yesterday, I defended the ticket office for their good service when purchasing tickets over the phone.

Last night - as my text message to the phone-in said, it was a shambles!

We arrive at 7:25 to collect our tickets... one window was open, and the queue was already half way up the ramp.

By 7:35 the queue was at the top of the ramp and still hardly moving.

They then opened a second window... but the queue still failed to move other than splitting in two.

It took until 8:00 for the club to respond with anything other than a shrug from the surly stewards or powerless officials who were standing cluelessly by.

At 8:00, Ken Brown arrived, and to his credit, assessed the situation quickly and sanctioned the gate opening... but it was far too late.

There is no excuse for not knwoing how many tickets needed to be handed out before kick off and staffing the ticket booths or turnstiles properly to ensure it could be cleared.

Of course the club are struggling for resources, but this is not rocket science.

It just needed a cool head and someone taking responsibility.

What a pity it rather tarnished a good evening out with my two sons.

Yes I did post that comment before I saw the other thread. However you have consistently supported the club's ticketing arrangements, only yesterday you were trumpeting that it 'only' took four minutes to get through on their antiquated seven-line system. For myself and others there are two points: firstly in this day and age four minutes is still too long to wait in a queue, and secondly, as you know from reading other posts, that is not the usual experience - it certainly isn't mine. Your response(s) have then been along the lines of 'Well how much do you want it?'

Ergo I've had you down as an apologist for the inexcusable. If you've now seen the light (and this was a disaster waiting to happen), then good.

 

[Storer68]

Lucky you had the time to get there early and were not delayed. At least you got to see the first goal and saviour the game. It shows how quickly the situation changed as by 7.20 when I arrived it was chaos.

I have picked up tickets before with 5 minutes to go (perhaps wrongly assumed this works) and strolled up, perhaps the club felt 500 plus people could have done this?

No its just that i know thare's only one small window open and one bloke working it.

So I make sure I get there in good time to pick up the tickets. Then I can go to Sportsman or wherever at my leisure

It called organisation

 

[Storer68]

Don't know what queue you were in but when I walked down the ramp at 715 the queue was well up towards the car park and a steward was telling me to queue there to collect tickets.
So at 715 the club was well aware that 30mins before the kick off there was rather a large queue already and they simply chose to ignore it and let people miss the first part of the game.
Refunds should be made to all those who suffered.

There wasn't a q - there was me and couple of other but that was it. Amd it didn't even reach the edge of the car park markings

If you'd got there in good time you would have my experience and not yours

 

[Barrel of Fun]

If everyone had turned up at 7pm, then our experience would have been similar to the latter arrivals. I got there at 7pm and had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes. By the time I had got my tickets, there was a queue snaking halfway up the ramp.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

No its just that i know thare's only one small window open and one bloke working it.

So I make sure I get there in good time to pick up the tickets. Then I can go to Sportsman or wherever at my leisure

It called organisation

Yep and the club need a fraction of your organistational skills to get it right, just lucky for you they don't run the bar in the Sportsman.