Ticket Office

[Easy 10]

The people might be nice enough, but the whole system is utterly two-bob.
People are not going to fall over themselves to chuck their hard-earned our way. The fact that it seems to cause so much aggro is really unforgivable.

I notice on the back of my handy wallet-sized fixture list, it has a picture of some fans in the crowd, bearing the superimposed legend:

"I called 0123 716992"
"I went to the Ticket Office, 5 Queens Road, Brighton"
"I went to Seagulls.co.uk - simple as that"
"Ticket buying has never been easier"



Hmmmm.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The club never does - you're dead right and that needs to be addressed. The Scottish chap - Paul McGowan (?) - is the manager and is very helpful. However he seems to be acting with his hands tied behind his back most of the time as the rest of the ticket office staff are not- which undoes all the good that he does !! He has phoned me before and does genuinely seem to want to help - pity that the rest of the staff do not share his attitude.
Being in a customer service environment is gutty, having to smile at people that you think are absolute oafs is not at all fun BUT if you don't like having to do that you should not have taken the job !!!

The ticketing is a f***ing joke. The club are trying to run it on the cheap. This is why it is so shoddy.

 

[Wardy]

It surely would not take long to send out a blanket email to all those received (do it every day at close of play) and say that there order has been received etc. Or would it?

Or set-up an auto reply. This could be changed when needed. For example at the moment it could read...

Thank-you for your email asking for tickets from an away game. At the moment we are busy dealing with ticket request for the Carling Cup game against Manchester City.

On Monday the 8th September we will start dealing with requests for Yeovil Town. Once these are dealt with we will deal with ticket request for the Northampton Town game. Etc Etc

 

[Easy 10]

Or set-up an auto reply. This could be changed when needed. For example at the moment it could read...

Thank-you for your email asking for tickets from an away game. At the moment we are busy dealing with ticket request for the Carling Cup game against Manchester City.

On Monday the 8th September we will start dealing with requests for Yeovil Town. Once these are dealt with we will deal with ticket request for the Northampton Town game. Etc Etc

Don't be silly. Thats far too hard.

 

[1234andcounting]

There seems to me to be two slightly contradictory factors in the administration, not just the ticketing but that is obviously the most important element for most if not all fans.

When I have spoken to staff in the ticket office - as I had to this week regarding the Man City ticket - I have found the helpful and courteous and to deliver on what they say they are going to.

However, an underlying ethos at the club seems to be to take the paying customer, ie the fans, whether we go to all games, just home games or just away games etc for granted. This was never more in evidence than in the fiasco that was the Barnet match. I have had frustrating face-to-face conversations with Paul Rogers and Martin Perry and a frustrating email correspondence with Ken Brown subsequent to this and the most frustrating thing is that they just don't seem to accept or understand that the most important thing to most fans is that the ticketing arrangements are clear and efficient.

And this itself is contradictory as on the face of it, the club does genuinely seem to strive for excellence, eg in the community programme or in the programme. I really do think the fans need to make a concerted effort to ensure that the club starts taking the ticketing concerns of the supporters seriously. As other posters to this thread have observed, the impact of the credit crunch is starting to be felt by many, and our attendances aren't that great as it is. Can the club afford to alientate even one committed supporter at the moment through poor administration or just plain rudeness.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

the most frustrating thing is that they just don't seem to accept or understand that the most important thing to most fans is that the ticketing arrangements are clear and efficient.

That's the crux of the matter really.

It's in the club's best interests to make it so.

Else most normal people will just say f*** that for a game of soldiers.

Plenty of other calls on yer money in Brighton & Hove & further afield.

 

[Easy 10]

Can the club afford to alientate even one committed supporter at the moment through poor administration or just plain rudeness.

Good post.
And just to pick up on your last point - the committed supporter is the one who will put up with this shit and be determined enough to jump through the administrative hoops in order to secure a ticket.

But how many CASUAL fans could be arsed ? Their money is as good as the regular fan, but I dread to think how many potential fans have been turned off by the whole rigmarole of faffing about with our ticketing system (and the dreaded perma-engaged phoneline) and thought "ahh, stuff it. I'll go to the pictures instead".

 

[blue'n'white]

Taking a point from another post on this board about the train system could the club not do as some of the train systems do and, after ensuring that you were a member etc etc issue a ticket for you to print out at home ?
Or are there league rules to say that ypu must have a piece of card printed by the club ? If you put a bar code on it a la BA website it could not be abused. Let's face it if BA will do it for flying surely a football club could do it for matches.
Perhaps the club are looking in to it for Falmer.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Good post.
And just to pick up on your last point - the committed supporter is the one who will put up with this shit and be determined enough to jump through the administrative hoops in order to secure a ticket.

But how many CASUAL fans could be arsed ? Their money is as good as the regular fan, but I dread to think how many potential fans have been turned off by the whole rigmarole of faffing about with our ticketing system (and the dreaded perma-engaged phoneline) and thought "ahh, stuff it. I'll go to the pictures instead".

I would argue that casual supporters can be worth more money to the club. If you a seat which is used by say 5 people during the season as opposed to one season ticket holder their is 5 times more exposure to the merchandise.

Either way the ticketing is a joke. Every season there is some new farcical scheme to distribute away tickets: bins outside the ground, random ticket stubs, postal apps only, having to wait for letters, ever changing supporter criteria, links that dont work.

There are loads of venues in Brighton selling gig tickets. They dont have these problems. Why does the Albion?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

There are loads of venues in Brighton selling gig tickets. They dont have these problems. Why does the Albion?

Used to always buy me gig tickets at Rounder records. Even bought the odd Skint tee-shirt there. Absolutely no reason why they couldn't sell Albion tickets also. Or just set up a mini-ticket office in Churchill Square on the day of a home game. It's pitifully simple really.

 

[The Oldman]

Hmm. Do you think anyone at the club reads this? Perhaps this should be printed off and sent to every director of the club. Maybe Mr Naylor might do an article because surely he reads this site. Or maybe Harty but then who from the club at 5 o'clock has time to listen to the phone in?

 

[severnside gull]

Good post.
And just to pick up on your last point - the committed supporter is the one who will put up with this shit and be determined enough to jump through the administrative hoops in order to secure a ticket.

But how many CASUAL fans could be arsed ? Their money is as good as the regular fan, but I dread to think how many potential fans have been turned off by the whole rigmarole of faffing about with our ticketing system (and the dreaded perma-engaged phoneline) and thought "ahh, stuff it. I'll go to the pictures instead".

I always sit with the home (other team's) fans at Albion away games as it is easier to get a ticket. I gave up with the box office seasons ago as a total waste of time and it doesn't seem to have improved.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Used to always buy me gig tickets at Rounder records. Even bought the odd Skint tee-shirt there. Absolutely no reason why they couldn't sell Albion tickets also. Or just set up a mini-ticket office in Churchill Square on the day of a home game. It's pitifully simple really.

I still get my tickets from Rounder. They are superb. Quick, simple service. The Dome would be a good option as well. I'm sure they could get them to shift tickets as they have a first rate service......which seems to only need about 5-6 people to run.

Not sure I like the idea of the Albion setting up an mini-ticket office in Churchill Square. It's a great idea, dont get me wrong.....but I'd prefer it if they got a third party to do it. The club cant even hand over pre-paid tickets in a sensible fashion at the ground...another Albion run ticket office would be chaos.

 

[Easy 10]

Used to always buy me gig tickets at Rounder records. Even bought the odd Skint tee-shirt there. Absolutely no reason why they couldn't sell Albion tickets also. Or just set up a mini-ticket office in Churchill Square on the day of a home game. It's pitifully simple really.

Any time I've raised the possibility of ticket kiosks elsewhere in the county, there always seems to be 1001 reasons why its apparently absolutely impossible.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Maybe we should ask for a specific fans forum on ticketing? This single issue seems to account for about 80% of gripes with supporters.

 

[Easy 10]

Our ticketing system is firmly lodged in 1981
Unlike the team, sadly.

 

[1066familyman]

I e-mailed in for the Northampton game as well - live in Derbyshire - never got a reply to the e-mail either - put my work number in e-mail for them to call me for credit card number etc as did not want to put in e-mail re security etc

Rang up a couple of days later - spoke to Paul to give credit card number etc - he said none of the e-mails looked at yet, match long way ahead etc - then took my card details and processed the ticket over the phone - money has gone from my card - have still to receive the ticket - suspect because they are sorting out Man City game first

Paul was very polite - had a row with ( I think ) him last season as despite paying £30 for Blue Membership they now ordinarily refuse to accept away ticket bookings by phone - in order to keep phone lines free for calls re home games

Tha fact that arguing with someone about why they can't buy away tickets on the phone keeps the phone line busy for longer than selling them a ticket has maybe dawned on Paul who seems to thankfully be quietly abolishing this stupid recent rule

I've always found the Scottish sounding manager very helpful. I like his style but agree with others that he seems to be working with his hands tied behind his back.

Tried to get our Southend away tickets this season over the phone whilst ordering Barnet & Bristol City home tickets. I was told that away tickets can no longer be purchased over the phone too. As it happens I got a result as it ended up we couldn't make the game after all anyway.

I will however just put in postal apps. for any away tickets this season though, just to save myself the hassle.

 

[1066familyman]

I of course mean Rovers not City.

 

[timbha]

i've always found everyone in the ticket office very helpful. If someone needs to be sacked it's the person responsible for the email system. i heard from a friend last week that he had sent many (more than 10) emails to the club about his missing season ticket and didn't get one reply. When he phoned he was told that the club "filters spam" and his emails were probably automatically deleted - ironically his firm sometimes sponsors matches so his emails could have been offering further sponsorship.

It's about time Ken Brown found out what was goin on. Reading NSC would be a start.