[Albion] PASSING ON A TICKET WARNING

[paulfuzz]

So, to pick this apart...

1. It seems certain that your post on here that detailed your seat details was read and acted upon, as you not been sanctioned for selling your ticket but because "a match ticket owned and assigned to yo...has been listed for sale online"

2. The rest of the letter repeatedly mentions "Home supporter match ticket". Your ticket was not a "home supporter match ticket". Regardless...

3. The letter says:

"If more than one Home Supporter Match Ticket is issued to you, one Home Supporter Match Ticket must be retained by you, for personal use (subject to the provisions below) and the remainder may be transferred to your Guest(s) for his/her/their personal use only PROVIDED THAT such transfer takes place in consideration of no payment or benefit in excess of the face value of the Home Supporter Match Ticket, and such transfer does not take place in the course of any business or for the purpose of facilitating any third party's business."​

​

From what you've said you did have more than one ticket (the one you bought and the guest ticket of your friend), you intend to use the guest one of your friend and you have sold the remainder for face value. You seem to have complied fully with those terms.

4. Before starting the ticket purchase process for this game, the club detail, and link to, a single set of sale Ts&Cs. Those Ts&Cs are Wembley's own. The Wembley Ts&Cs also explicitly allow you to transfer a ticket so long as you do so for face value or below. You have complied with that.

Assuming all you have told us is correct, if this happened to me, and I believe I'd acted entirely in good faith, I would immediately file an appeal with the club and, if I was not satisfied with the outcome of that, I'd file a complaint with the Independent Football Ombudsman, via their form here.

Thank you I could only purchase one ticket and had a guest from a STH in order to go with my sister so sold the original. Had I been able to purchase two at the point of sale the problem would never have arisen

 

[Bozza]

I fully support the club trying to clamp down on touting etc, but this seems like either a) no rules have been broken or b) if they have, it's an innocent mistake with no harm caused and no profit made, so I hope the club can reverse their decision (whether their decision had grounds or not).

Oh, so do I wholeheartedly.

There are a host of really good people at the club who work really hard on behalf of all Albion fans. Trying to minimise abuse of the club's ticketing scheme, ensuring tickets go to the most deserving whilst allowing others to legitimately further their chances of obtaining scarce tickets by working up the priority ladder is entirely laudable, and in all of our interests.

But when I read of cases like this my heart sinks. It doesn't sit right with me that decent, long-term Albion fans being harshly penalised for simply trying to ensure a seat at an FA Cup Semi-final doesn't go empty, because there's no official club-endorsed channel to make that happen.

And, speaking very personally, to find out that it's almost certainly because that fan made a post on here, that someone at the club scanned the site I administer, saw the post and instigated the sanction makes me feel physically sick.

 

[trueblue]

All the tickets for Sunday in my wallet have received "updates" today so those fans may need to send new screenshots as seems as though something changed.

The addition of an 'entry time'? Didn't notice that before. Doubt it makes much difference to anything.

 

[BNthree]

The addition of an 'entry time'? Didn't notice that before. Doubt it makes much difference to anything.

Nope that were always there.

 

[Wardy's twin]

You’re in IT - they have all the STH/F&F details, and presumably can see where (who) has uploaded tickets to wallets - quite easy to run an algo cross-matching the two and flag up any mismatches (ie ticket uploaded to a wallet not associated with the STH etc)

Are you saying that guest tickets have to be held on the phone of the person who bought them rather than the fan using them?

 

[Guinness Boy]

Had to do the same a couple of times. Very frustrating

The ticket in question just went unused and that was that.

Had to do this on Saturday and ours was a "pick up from away ticket office" for that game.

I put Chelsea and Spurs into my basket when they came up, knowing I could do Spurs but not being 100% about Chelsea due to some family stuff. I never found a way to sort this so called the club to see if I could return the Chelsea tickets but was told no.

Two seats unused for probably our best game of the season and I'll no doubt be on the naughty pick up list again for Arsenal. Firstly an away ticket exchange (which I'm sure could be points threshold limited) as well as digital away tickets would be so much easier and surely have to be next on the club's "fan experience" agenda.

 

[dazzer6666]

Are you saying that guest tickets have to be held on the phone of the person who bought them rather than the fan using them?

No - nothing to do with guest tickets

 

[dazzer6666]

This is up for debate, see Bozza’s post.

The posted email from the club is explicit……..

 

[dazzer6666]

So, if you can't go, you can't get a refund, and you can't give it to someone who wants go?

Correct. Same for all away games.

 

[AmexRuislip]

 

[birthofanorange]

Reading all of this, it's a shame that as a club, we do so many things, so well, yet appear to be lacking common sense or offering a viable solution when it comes to something like this.
That's without taking (what seems to me) rather draconian steps against fans who fall foul of this situation.

 

[jcdenton08]

Correct. Same for all away games.

Not an away game, mate.

 

[dazzer6666]

Not an away game, mate.

What isn’t?

 

[PeterT]

If I were OP I’d stick that in an email to Paul Barber OBE, along with a link to this thread.

I notice that pb21 has already Liked that comment, so it looks like you are part way there already

 

[jcdenton08]

What isn’t?

FA Cup semi final at Wembley. It is a neutral ground beholden to the terms and conditions of the neutral venue endorsed by the FA

 

[PeterT]

The addition of an 'entry time'? Didn't notice that before. Doubt it makes much difference to anything.

The time will be rigidly enforced by Albion ticket office staff. Anyone not using the turnstiles at the designated time will be refused entry and given a ban.

 

[dazzer6666]

FA Cup semi final at Wembley. It is a neutral ground beholden to the terms and conditions of the neutral venue endorsed by the FA

Club have sold tickets under away game principles and adding club T&Cs (tiered allocation, loyalty points etc) and it's not at the Amex, but my point was the inability to transfer a ticket applies to all away games currently

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

The letter from the club, written by an Assistant Supporter Services Manager, is almost certainly a standard letter issued without a detailed investigation of the full circumstances having been carried out. The fact that an appeal can be made and reviewed suggests that maybe a little more time will be allocated to carry out a VAR type review before enforcing the harshest penalty designed to deter touts, whch I'm sure shouldn't apply in this case.

 

[dazzer6666]

Reading all of this, it's a shame that as a club, we do so many things, so well, yet appear to be lacking common sense or offering a viable solution when it comes to something like this.
That's without taking (what seems to me) rather draconian steps against fans who fall foul of this situation.

To me, the initial email would have ideally been to the OP asking for an explanation before any banning decision was made.

 

[schmunk]

Nope that were always there.

The entry times have been moved forwards. Unclear why (other than for Wembley stadium to sell more beer) but it's referenced in this article on the Albion website: https://www.brightonandhovealbion.com/news/3159314/fans-advice-for-fa-cup-semi-final