Tea/coffee and late 1901 ticket - Paul Barber reply and then another Paul Barber reply

[Soulman]

So serious question - the Royal Mail have not delivered my season tickets today - and there is a match tomorrow. Post generally comes about 2.30pm in midweek. Do I wait and hope for the best that something comes ( they are really doing me a favour because I'm so silly I might lose my ticket between 2.30 and 7.45) ? Do I call someone in the morning and ask them what I'm supposed to do ? Do I hope that the amazing customer service for 1901 members actually kicks in and provides me the well-explained solution in advance ? Or do I queue up at the ticket booth at The Amex and hope I can convince them I'm a member and would like some service please. Very, very seriously, the cost of two 1901 season is eye-wateringly substantial and I'm happy to pay it because I really enjoy watching the Albion - but the service being provided by the CLUB and Barber's "I blame everybody else - and you can get stuffed if you want free tea" mealy mouthed excuses are annoying me a bit today.

My sons ST arrived today, adult from U21, hopefully you will get yours tomorrow which is why the ticket office are saying ring back tomorrow..

 

[Eddiespearritt]

My sons ST arrived today, adult from U21, hopefully you will get yours tomorrow which is why the ticket office are saying ring back tomorrow..

Thanks for the reply - I'll go on the assumption that I scoot under the wire on this one - but not really sure why we need the added stress of it all.

 

[El Presidente]

Fair play to [MENTION=3734]Giraffe[/MENTION] for taking the matter to PB and for PB giving a detailed (although he doesn't do one liners as we all know) reply.

I've crunched a few numbers and the losses for 2015/16 are I suspect going to be eye-watering. The club lost £10.4 million in 2015, but that was AFTER booking a £6.3 million profit on the sale of Leo Ulloa. Take that away and the losses are nearly £17 million. Take into account the signings made last season, and the new contract for Lewis Dunk, and you can see that losses could easily be nudging £20 million as we didn't sell anyone at a profit.

What the board have done to their credit is reduce non-football costs from £16.6 m in 2013 to £11.8m in 2015. It's through a large number of small savings that this has been achieved. There are, I suspect, few ways in which further cuts can be made, but the 1901 tea and coffee is one that is still outstanding.

We all applaud Tony Bloom for not cashing in on Dunk, Tony K, Stephens et al, but there is a limit to his generosity.

 

[clippedgull]

Fair play to [MENTION=3734]Giraffe[/MENTION] for taking the matter to PB and for PB giving a detailed (although he doesn't do one liners as we all know) reply.

I've crunched a few numbers and the losses for 2015/16 are I suspect going to be eye-watering. The club lost £10.4 million in 2015, but that was AFTER booking a £6.3 million profit on the sale of Leo Ulloa. Take that away and the losses are nearly £17 million. Take into account the signings made last season, and the new contract for Lewis Dunk, and you can see that losses could easily be nudging £20 million as we didn't sell anyone at a profit.

What the board have done to their credit is reduce non-football costs from £16.6 m in 2013 to £11.8m in 2015. It's through a large number of small savings that this has been achieved. There are, I suspect, few ways in which further cuts can be made, but the 1901 tea and coffee is one that is still outstanding.

We all applaud Tony Bloom for not cashing in on Dunk, Tony K, Stephens et al, but there is a limit to his generosity.

It's an expensive hobby!

El Pres, I don't know if you have the answer but are the club tied to the travel subsidy for 'ever'?

 

[Deleted User X18H]

I received almost exactly the same response from PB. Although I didn't mention tea and coffee.

If the withdrawal has nothing to do with trying to increase alcohol sales at halftime, them I'm a Danny Holla!

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Final straw for me. I was wavering over going tomorrow with no coaches or train but no ticket yet means I will not be going. As far as I can remember, this is the first competitive home game in well over 15 years I will be choosing/forced not to go to. That includes JPT games at Withdean. Whilst I understand the need to save money and most of what PB has to do, the last couple of weeks have been full of bad decisions and weasel words for me.

Well done Paul. One less supporter/customer tomorrow in a game that will likely lose the club money anyway. Still, you have me signed up for 5 years so keep on pulling up the ladder, eh?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[bhanutz]

Never thought I would see the day 'corporate fans' were moaning about having no coffee....

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Never thought I would see the day 'corporate fans' were moaning about having no coffee....

Keep trying. You will have something useful to say one day.

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[bhanutz]

Keep trying. You will have something useful to say one day.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Take a flask!

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Take a flask!

Trolls come in many guises. You seem to have gone down the ROTR 'banal' route. Good luck with that.

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[bhanutz]

Trolls come in many guises. You seem to have gone down the ROTR 'banal' route. Good luck with that.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

If I knew what that meant I would either agree or disagree....But come on moaning about coffee?? only giving my opinion

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Fair play to @Giraffe for taking the matter to PB and for PB giving a detailed (although he doesn't do one liners as we all know) reply.

I've crunched a few numbers and the losses for 2015/16 are I suspect going to be eye-watering. The club lost £10.4 million in 2015, but that was AFTER booking a £6.3 million profit on the sale of Leo Ulloa. Take that away and the losses are nearly £17 million. Take into account the signings made last season, and the new contract for Lewis Dunk, and you can see that losses could easily be nudging £20 million as we didn't sell anyone at a profit.

What the board have done to their credit is reduce non-football costs from £16.6 m in 2013 to £11.8m in 2015. It's through a large number of small savings that this has been achieved. There are, I suspect, few ways in which further cuts can be made, but the 1901 tea and coffee is one that is still outstanding.

We all applaud Tony Bloom for not cashing in on Dunk, Tony K, Stephens et al, but there is a limit to his generosity.

So how many cups of tea = 1 Dunk?

They'll be charging separately for sugar next. Although if you can afford a swanky private members club, you can probably afford to bring your own teabag and thermos of hot water.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

I don't know off hand what my match day 1901 experience costs me but I have found good quality catering tea bags online at 0.5p so I'll have to disagree with PB and say it looks like penny pinching to me.

 

[Icy Gull]

Has the free programme been withdrawn yet? That has to be next surely. Thousands upon thousands saved and making 1901ers buy it would bring in another few thousand over five years. Missed a trick there I think, apart from the seat position and the lounge facility all the other little extras have been removed, might as well stop the free programmes too.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

Sad to see my new extra 0.5p contribution to the cause was insufficient to save Stephens.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds per season

I find this figure very hard to believe.

 

[Icy Gull]

I find this figure very hard to believe.

It is clearly a gross exaggeration.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

So how many cups of tea = 1 Dunk?

Or how many was Kemi Augustine? The screw up on transfers and take it out on us.

 

[big nuts]

At some point continual penny pinching will result in less renewals and no new memberships. You can look at the saving in isolation but if you're potentially jeopardising repeat and new business then the drop in income will outweigh several times over the cost savings. I'm not suggesting tea and coffee is a make or break but if you continually chip away at the quality of the service/product then sales and matchday spending will fall.

The best thing the club can do is properly sort out match day catering for the stadium, I see so many missed opportunities it would only take a half decent catering manager to organise their team to maximise match day takings.

 

[Icy Gull]

At some point continual penny pinching will result in less renewals and no new memberships. You can look at the saving in isolation but if you're potentially jeopardising repeat and new business then the drop in income will outweigh several times over the cost savings. I'm not suggesting tea and coffee is a make or break but if you continually chip away at the quality of the service/product then sales and matchday spending will fall.

The best thing the club can do is properly sort out match day catering for the stadium, I see so many missed opportunities it would only take a half decent catering manager to organise their team to maximise match day takings.

Five years for us to get over it. It was done in a very sneaky way IMO, which grates more than anything else for me. They should have told us this before renewal, not that it would have stopped most renewing but it leaves a bad taste (much like the coffee anyway )