[Albion] Cashless Amex en route...

[Creaky]

I have no objection to using contactless payments as such and probably use them more now than cash.

Nor have I any real objection to the Amex becoming a cashless venue apart from the potential inconvenience if I forget to put my card with my season ticket on match day.

I do object though to the way in which this is being presented as “for my benefit”. I may be proved wrong and queues may be smaller although there are a number of other ways, that wouldn’t potentially impact me as a customer, that could be employed and probably be more effective.

There are a number of benefits for the club in going cashless and it would have been less disingenuous had these been mentioned without implying that removing choice was for my benefit.

 

[Creaky]

If contactless payments really are 30%-60% quicker than cash payments, then it essentially means that you're in queues half the size and getting served twice as quickly.

Unless you really, really love queuing, I'm not sure how this isn't for your benefit.

IF queues do get smaller then great - but from the club statement, “The good news is that a majority of our fans are already paying by card” so how much difference will it really make? Most of the delays I’ve observed when waiting in queues have had nothing to do with payment.

 

[Bozza]

If contactless payments really are 30%-60% quicker than cash payments, then it essentially means that you're in queues half the size and getting served twice as quickly.

Unless you really, really love queuing, I'm not sure how this isn't for your benefit.

Payment is not the whole transaction though, is it? At the very least, each transaction is made up of three components:

- Ordering
- Fulfilment
- Payment

Contactless only impacts the third of these, although there is the added benefit that payment can take place in parallel with fulfilment, which isn't the case for cash payments.

 

[schmunk]

Personally I like spending cash on small sums rather than putting all the sums on a card but I can use contactless and will have to now. OK the club will be setting out as this being for the supporters benefit but this is going to be a win win. Win for them and as they say a win for us. OK waiting may be reduced but I would imagine it is going to be accompanied by a reduction in staffing. This is likely to be a first step. How long before the club offers its own prepaid card to customers who need to pay for it up front with those using their own credit cards paying a supplement for goods and services (sorry no those using the club's card getting a reduction !!). Just a thought anyway, we are customers in a multi million pound business going global . The main issue though is football and staying in this League, there is no room for complacency in looking to achieve that target. 110 per cent effort for Burnley please, we will need to show that for sure.

Are you suggesting there's a direct link between the stadium going cashless at some point next year and the team's performance against Burnley this weekend...?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

With food and beverages already prepared, and punters largely already knowing what they want, the greatest consumption of time in a queue is the punter faffing about with coins and notes, and cashiers calculating and returning change.

It also amazes me the amount of people that don't have their cash already prepared, having been in a queue for so long.

Does anyone “prepare” their cash? Don’t most just whip out a note?

 

[Bozza]

What do you do with all your coins??

Luzzes them.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

What do you do with all your coins??

I keep them, in an ever increasingly bulging section of my man purse, until such time I’m at the supermarket self-service kashier and get shot of them then. I can literally just pour them in and it counts them out for me.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

There are a number of benefits for the club in going cashless and it would have been less disingenuous had these been mentioned without implying that removing choice was for my benefit.

I have no doubt Barber will tell you if you email him.

 

[Worthing exile]

My Wife and I already boycott the hot drinks after the flask ban and won't pay over the odds for a bottle of warm water of Pepsi since the bottle top ban. We never buy a programme because they are overpriced but have always made sure I have a couple of quid handy to purchase two scratch cards to help AITC.
Sorry PB, but I am not using my card to buy those so AITC are going to lose out.
What with the increased cost of my Seagull Travel, I am really starting to not enjoy my Amex experience each game apart from the football..

 

[schmunk]

My Wife and I already boycott the hot drinks after the flask ban and won't pay over the odds for a bottle of warm water of Pepsi since the bottle top ban. We never buy a programme because they are overpriced but have always made sure I have a couple of quid handy to purchase two scratch cards to help AITC.
Sorry PB, but I am not using my card to buy those so AITC are going to lose out.
What with the increased cost of my Seagull Travel, I am really starting to not enjoy my Amex experience each game apart from the football..

Fight the capitalist oppression!

 

[LadySeagull]

My Wife and I already boycott the hot drinks after the flask ban and won't pay over the odds for a bottle of warm water of Pepsi since the bottle top ban. We never buy a programme because they are overpriced but have always made sure I have a couple of quid handy to purchase two scratch cards to help AITC.
Sorry PB, but I am not using my card to buy those so AITC are going to lose out.

I think you are not alone and loads of fans will be alienated. Some elderly fans might only pay cash.

 

[Bozza]

My Wife and I already boycott the hot drinks after the flask ban and won't pay over the odds for a bottle of warm water of Pepsi since the bottle top ban. We never buy a programme because they are overpriced but have always made sure I have a couple of quid handy to purchase two scratch cards to help AITC.
Sorry PB, but I am not using my card to buy those so AITC are going to lose out.
What with the increased cost of my Seagull Travel, I am really starting to not enjoy my Amex experience each game apart from the football..

They'll give you a cup of tap water if you want. It's what we do now, not because I'm tight, but because I got fed up with bottled water we'd paid for getting knocked over and spilling.

 

[schmunk]

I think you are not alone and loads of fans will be alienated. Some elderly fans might only pay cash.

How elderly are these fans?

Debit cards were introduced in the UK in the 1980s; credit/charge cards in 1966!

 

[Uter]

I have no objection to using contactless payments as such and probably use them more now than cash.

Nor have I any real objection to the Amex becoming a cashless venue apart from the potential inconvenience if I forget to put my card with my season ticket on match day.

I do object though to the way in which this is being presented as “for my benefit”. I may be proved wrong and queues may be smaller although there are a number of other ways, that wouldn’t potentially impact me as a customer, that could be employed and probably be more effective.

There are a number of benefits for the club in going cashless and it would have been less disingenuous had these been mentioned without implying that removing choice was for my benefit.

They did mention them. "A cashless stadium also makes things simpler and more secure for us, will reduce costs for Sodexo and for us, and it will ultimately help us keep prices down."

 

[pearl]

I keep them, in an ever increasingly bulging section of my man purse, until such time I’m at the supermarket self-service kashier and get shot of them then. I can literally just pour them in and it counts them out for me.

You should keep some, they might be worth a bob or two one day

 

[Creaky]

They did mention them. "A cashless stadium also makes things simpler and more secure for us, will reduce costs for Sodexo and for us, and it will ultimately help us keep prices down."

And as I said, implying that those savings were for our benefit - strange how in so many walks of life reducing choices is for the consumer’s “benefit.

 

[Acker79]

OK may be lacking in empathy here but if an attendee at the Amex you have either been able to afford a season ticket or paid £30 plus to attend so all the arguments about poverty are a bit rich, pardon a pun.
For the elderly what could be easier than using a cashless card, gotta learn sometime. As for students they all have bank cards. It’s not the 1980’s:

1) When I was younger my parents would buy my season ticket as a christmas present for me, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been in that position - people at an age where their parents will buy their season ticket, but aren't going to give them money each game to buy food, etc. Other people get one-off tickets as gifts, The games for a tenner, the bring a friend half-price, and other special deals, winning competitions, local community activities etc. For some it's the equivalent of a holiday - can't afford a few hundred quid to go away, but like to give yourself a treat now and again. Having a ticket to a game doesn't mean you paid top dollar for it.

2) Who said anything about poverty? There is a difference between being poor and living in poverty. There are people who live on a tight budget, but that budget allows for social activities and events, maybe it involves season tickets, maybe occasional tickets when they're on offer. But by banning flasks, and bottles with tops, the club has already made it difficult to bring your own drinks with you (thus saving money on refreshments/snacks - I know, I know, 'just don't have them it's only two hours, ffs' - but still...). If you're living on a budget and using the commonly advised tactic of using cash to pay for things to make your budget into a tangible thing, taking that away complicates things further for you.

3) What happened to football being 'for the people'? All this 'if you can't afford it, don't go' is great, until it's you* that can't afford it, then it becomes about football being too expensive and being taken away from its working class roots. Too corporate. It's all about the hipsters coming down from London paying over the top prices. Footballs gone, man, it's all about the money now.


*I don't know if that specifically applies to you, but my intent in that sentence is the more general interpretation of 'you' rather than you specifically.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

1) When I was younger my parents would buy my season ticket as a christmas present for me, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been in that position - people at an age where their parents will buy their season ticket, but aren't going to give them money each game to buy food, etc. Other people get one-off tickets as gifts, The games for a tenner, the bring a friend half-price, and other special deals, winning competitions, local community activities etc. For some it's the equivalent of a holiday - can't afford a few hundred quid to go away, but like to give yourself a treat now and again. Having a ticket to a game doesn't mean you paid top dollar for it.

2) Who said anything about poverty? There is a difference between being poor and living in poverty. There are people who live on a tight budget, but that budget allows for social activities and events, maybe it involves season tickets, maybe occasional tickets when they're on offer. But by banning flasks, and bottles with tops, the club has already made it difficult to bring your own drinks with you (thus saving money on refreshments/snacks - I know, I know, 'just don't have them it's only two hours, ffs' - but still...). If you're living on a budget and using the commonly advised tactic of using cash to pay for things to make your budget into a tangible thing, taking that away complicates things further for you.

3) What happened to football being 'for the people'? All this 'if you can't afford it, don't go' is great, until it's you* that can't afford it, then it becomes about football being too expensive and being taken away from its working class roots. Too corporate. It's all about the hipsters coming down from London paying over the top prices. Footballs gone, man, it's all about the money now.


*I don't know if that specifically applies to you, but my intent in that sentence is the more general interpretation of 'you' rather than you specifically.

Fantastic post.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

1) When I was younger my parents would buy my season ticket as a christmas present for me, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been in that position - people at an age where their parents will buy their season ticket, but aren't going to give them money each game to buy food, etc. Other people get one-off tickets as gifts, The games for a tenner, the bring a friend half-price, and other special deals, winning competitions, local community activities etc. For some it's the equivalent of a holiday - can't afford a few hundred quid to go away, but like to give yourself a treat now and again. Having a ticket to a game doesn't mean you paid top dollar for it.

2) Who said anything about poverty? There is a difference between being poor and living in poverty. There are people who live on a tight budget, but that budget allows for social activities and events, maybe it involves season tickets, maybe occasional tickets when they're on offer. But by banning flasks, and bottles with tops, the club has already made it difficult to bring your own drinks with you (thus saving money on refreshments/snacks - I know, I know, 'just don't have them it's only two hours, ffs' - but still...). If you're living on a budget and using the commonly advised tactic of using cash to pay for things to make your budget into a tangible thing, taking that away complicates things further for you.

3) What happened to football being 'for the people'? All this 'if you can't afford it, don't go' is great, until it's you* that can't afford it, then it becomes about football being too expensive and being taken away from its working class roots. Too corporate. It's all about the hipsters coming down from London paying over the top prices. Footballs gone, man, it's all about the money now.


*I don't know if that specifically applies to you, but my intent in that sentence is the more general interpretation of 'you' rather than you specifically.

Well said.

 

[Nitram]

As someone in their 70s I am quite at home with a contactless card. I prefer that to the days when a dear old friend of mine got mugged twice in a year coming away from the Post Office on a Tuesday, which was pension day.

Exactly my point all this condescending nonsense about older people not being adaptable to new technology is rather lazy and stereotypical.