Way to go to piss off more people for very marginal benefit if any.
Surely it can only be designed to ensure as many people as possible have to register details win the club and they can track who is going in and to what seat?
Way to go to piss off more people for very marginal benefit if any.
Surely it can only be designed to ensure as many people as possible have to register details win the club and they can track who is going in and to what seat?
If that's the case then it's definitely Tone's idea.
Covered End it's almost as if you don't like people being people, or that every has to conform to one type of person. On this discussion it is about the practicality of buying a ticket at face value. That is not an unreasonable thing to discuss, or indeed an unreasonable thing for the range of supporters to expect. it may be that you personally have the wherewithall to do the online and smartphone thing, but not everybody is the same as you.
Seth, I've resolved your personal problem.
Buy the ticket online at zero cost, then get your bus from Lee Green to Charlton to collect it.
It costs you nowt and you still get to see The Valley.
PS If you're not lucky enough to have a freedom pass or are too young to qualify. Please take an OYSTER card, or these days you can actually pay by card, debit or credit if it "wireless".
Buses NO LONGER ACCEPT CASH. Sorry, if that ruins your day, but it's the best I can come up with.
I can understand Covered End's arguments AND I recall from last season at least one away game where paying at the turnstile carried a £5 surcharge
However, it just comes across as bad PR at a time when there will be an awful lot of tickets to shift. Ryanair can charge people more if they use certain cards, or book late because their planes are full. If we were in the PL, then you have such an attractive product that you can push the punter around, but we're not
Exactly.
This is the sort of scheme you could normally expect to be introduced at a club on the up, with high demand among a growing fanbase for a limited number of tickets available per match.
I went to a small number of home games last season after not renewing my season ticket and, to be fair, found the online system pretty usable.
And if I go this season, I will probably use it again.
But surely the club needs to be making it as easy - and cheap - as possible for casual fans to turn up on the day (possibly with season ticket holding friends and family) and take their pick from the thousands and thousands of empty seats on offer.
We're a third division club with Premier League delusions.
Just shows how terrible the SMT are at running the club and that they have very little common sense!
The idea to push the majority of ticket sales online means that they get to save money on ticket-office clerks (and if people STILL buy on the day at the TO, then we get more money) = an easy win surely?
Nope! Because what is there to now stop fans from buying the cheapest tickets in the ground/certain area , even though they are a 50 year old buying an under 18s ticket- loosing the club the £15-20 they would usually get PER TICKET!
Earlier today my son phoned and asked me to get an extra two tickets for Bury away for his two friends...both Charlton very regulars. I have had this discussion on here, indeed heeded Covered End to an extent. When he got home from work (he is young and tech/internet savvy, his job depends on it) and we all sat down to a Plum family dinner cooked by yours truly. As usual my son had his laptop next to him. I said to him, I want you to get the tickets online, use my credit card, so I can go to the Valley tomorrow to collect them without a surcharge. he said OK (after all three of the tickets were for him and his mates). After saying 'this is stupid' and stopping and starting again from fresh he eventually said 'can't you do it by phone?' It turns out that he would have to input the names, addresses and email addresses of all four of us to buy the tickets online. Unsurprisingly he didn't have that information immediately to hand. So I will end up being a personal caller to the Valley tomorrow to buy tickets for the Bury away game...AND THEY WILL CHARGE ME EXTRA FOR DOING SO! The online system was actually tried, believe me, and it wasn't possible to complete. Presumably the snorters on here will say I should have anticipated what information was required for all four of us and we ought to have had it to hand. All I will say is I tried following Covered End's advice, spirit of open mindedness and all that, and it didn't work for me. How is my experience as a fan to be justified? I am somehow at fault? Moaning for moaning sake on this issue?
Well on this point I agree with you 100%. I said last season that the system was not fit for purpose if you wanted to buy for more than just yourself.
I phoned Mandy Palace fan & explained the issue and said I refused to pay additional charges for a phone purchase, because the online system didn't work properly. They despatched the tickets free of charge.
Earlier today my son phoned and asked me to get an extra two tickets for Bury away for his two friends...both Charlton very regulars. I have had this discussion on here, indeed heeded Covered End to an extent. When he got home from work (he is young and tech/internet savvy, his job depends on it) and we all sat down to a Plum family dinner cooked by yours truly. As usual my son had his laptop next to him. I said to him, I want you to get the tickets online, use my credit card, so I can go to the Valley tomorrow to collect them without a surcharge. he said OK (after all three of the tickets were for him and his mates). After saying 'this is stupid' and stopping and starting again from fresh he eventually said 'can't you do it by phone?' It turns out that he would have to input the names, addresses and email addresses of all four of us to buy the tickets online. Unsurprisingly he didn't have that information immediately to hand. So I will end up being a personal caller to the Valley tomorrow to buy tickets for the Bury away game...AND THEY WILL CHARGE ME EXTRA FOR DOING SO! The online system was actually tried, believe me, and it wasn't possible to complete. Presumably the snorters on here will say I should have anticipated what information was required for all four of us and we ought to have had it to hand. All I will say is I tried following Covered End's advice, spirit of open mindedness and all that, and it didn't work for me. How is my experience as a fan to be justified? I am somehow at fault? Moaning for moaning sake on this issue?
Well on this point I agree with you 100%. I said last season that the system was not fit for purpose if you wanted to buy for more than just yourself.
I phoned Mandy Palace fan & explained the issue and said I refused to pay additional charges for a phone purchase, because the online system didn't work properly. They despatched the tickets free of charge.
Well we have some convergence now. To extend it, I note your kind advice about not taking time to go to the Valley, but then (possibly in the spirit of piss taking) you explain how I ought to get a bus to the Valley to pick the tickets up, so maybe we can agree on something here. Of course people can buy online, they can print out tickets, they can scan smartphone applications, they can be ambivalent about surcharges because they feel flush, they can even get others to do all the stuff for them. But. Do you think it is really reasonable to charge a personal caller to the ticket office window a surplus for taking the trouble to go to the Valley to buy one or more tickets in cash? Someone is sitting at the window anyway. All they have to do is take in the money and hand over the ticket. How does that justify charging above face/advertised value?
For the last few years my attendance has always been from buying a ticket at the ground on the day. Usually about half an hour before kick off. Although i could do it on line i prefer to buy my tickets this way. So next season i won't be going at all. I might give Dulwich Hamlet a go or Welling but not Duchatelet's team.
I'm with you all the way on this.
Aside from the above, why should we have to pay another £2.50(or whatever it is) at 10.30 on a Tuesday morning at The Valley.
I do realise other clubs do charge an extra price for buying on the day, but we need to encourage people to come not deter them.
Duchatelet and squirrel face will never know how to run a football club as long as they have a hole in their backside.
Can't we get the local press to run something about this bizarre initiative ? I fail to comprehend the sentiment in penalising walk ups. People who don't know about this madness and there will be a good number will only get caught once. Anyone not knowing their availability to attend until the day of the match will certainly think twice about having to pay £5.50 extra for the privilege of watching us lose again.
I'm stunned by the stupidity.
Really ? I'm stunned that your stunned. This is Charlton Athletic 2016, nobody should ever be surprised at what they do next. Just when you think you've heard it all ....... they break new ground.
The real joke of this is: If the regime hadn't alienated the fans so badly, any appeal for a volunteer to help with ticketing and save money would probably have been met with success.
Any time the club has asked fans to rally around for a sensible reason - the fans have responded. This saga will surely appear in a future book called something like " how to properly **** things up".
Fundamental flaw in all of this. To channel shift people away from in-person sales to online, the channel you are shifting people to has to have a fit for purpose solution supporting it. The online ticketing offered by the club is the worst system I have ever used at best it is a royal pain in the arse and a deterrent, at worst it simply doesn't work and buying tickets for more than one person is next to impossible.
Ha, ha very good CE, but lets not let anything get in the way of a good old moan at the regime eh!
Maybe its the club's way of getting back at the protesting fans that are not renewing!
Well as one who hasn't renewed I fail to see how they're getting back at me. While I would probably have gone to the odd game, now I just won't bother so thats even more money that they'll miss out on & more money in my pocket to spend on other things I enjoy doing. When the scum have fucked off back to Belgium I'll return ... if there's anything left to return to.
I've not used it yet. So you don't get to click on a picture of the stadium, select seats from those available and then specify how many in each category?
Our ticket system is clunky and doesn't work well. The shambles of duplicated details doesn't help either, nor the lack of a login tied in to the CON client ref number
By coincidence, Kent Cricket mentioned previously also have a poor online ticketing system, as each time you go on is treated as a separate transaction, there's no unique username stored so that it remembers you. It's daft that I have no account with Kent, yet have an account with Lord's, The Oval/Surrey...
For the last few years my attendance has always been from buying a ticket at the ground on the day. Usually about half an hour before kick off. Although i could do it on line i prefer to buy my tickets this way. So next season i won't be going at all. I might give Dulwich Hamlet a go or Welling but not Duchatelet's team.
So in summary it's cheaper to buy online in advance.
It's akin to buying a cinema ticket online or using an Oyster or contactless card rather than buying a paper ticket on the day.
I seem to recall a period in the past when the club shop charged more for credit card payments which introduced a similar penalty.
These practices come and go / get refined but usually start with the intention of encouraging customers / fans to exhibit behaviour that is most efficient for the club / business to work with. Cost cutting of staff volumes is probably the root cause as it is in many businesses. Not really unique.
If people choose at the last minute to attend a match they probably won't make the expensive choice twice. Some risk it alienates a few but potentially more upside to the club if it actually encourages people to buy in advance and commit before the day of a match when potentially waverers are more likely not to bother at all.
TK: 'Hi Chief Katrien, I've been worrying about a lot of things but given how poor season ticket sales have been, we may have a few more people buying on the day.' KM: 'yes can you fix it so they can't sit above me in the directors box please? And we need to save some money now we have spent so much on the ticket system.' TK: 'yes boss, I have an answer that solves that, and punishes people who haven't bought a season ticket, and allows our new tracking system to work and for us to build up a valuable data profile like the consultants spoke about last week.' KM: 'Will it also reduce the number of real fans in the ground and minimise the protests' TK: 'yes mistress.' KM: 'any downsides?' TK: 'we may suffer a loss of revenue and some current fans may never return. We can solve the first issue by flogging umerah next season, and we could do without that sort of fan if you know what I mean.' KM: 'I don't need to know the details, just do it.'
Sorry, bit off topic but related. Is there any way of buying tickets in bulk in the Jimmy Seed stand so that fans can attend the match and protest from the away end? Would make something of a statement and there won't be too many away fans in attendance next season. Just an idea, I haven't thought it through.
If NightMeire or anyone from Charlton is reading this thread, if I have to pay an extra £3 on the day, I not going to bother. They can take their pricing and shove it where the sun don't shine ...
Comments
Way to go to piss off more people for very marginal benefit if any.
Surely it can only be designed to ensure as many people as possible have to register details win the club and they can track who is going in and to what seat?
Bugger, I've just given KM another idea.
But you can use a smart card, which is fun and much less bother, two words that can't be used in conjunction with Roly's Charlton.
This is the sort of scheme you could normally expect to be introduced at a club on the up, with high demand among a growing fanbase for a limited number of tickets available per match.
I went to a small number of home games last season after not renewing my season ticket and, to be fair, found the online system pretty usable.
And if I go this season, I will probably use it again.
But surely the club needs to be making it as easy - and cheap - as possible for casual fans to turn up on the day (possibly with season ticket holding friends and family) and take their pick from the thousands and thousands of empty seats on offer.
We're a third division club with Premier League delusions.
The idea to push the majority of ticket sales online means that they get to save money on ticket-office clerks (and if people STILL buy on the day at the TO, then we get more money) = an easy win surely?
Nope! Because what is there to now stop fans from buying the cheapest tickets in the ground/certain area , even though they are a 50 year old buying an under 18s ticket- loosing the club the £15-20 they would usually get PER TICKET!
I phoned Mandy Palace fan & explained the issue and said I refused to pay additional charges for a phone purchase, because the online system didn't work properly. They despatched the tickets free of charge.
To extend it, I note your kind advice about not taking time to go to the Valley, but then (possibly in the spirit of piss taking) you explain how I ought to get a bus to the Valley to pick the tickets up, so maybe we can agree on something here.
Of course people can buy online, they can print out tickets, they can scan smartphone applications, they can be ambivalent about surcharges because they feel flush, they can even get others to do all the stuff for them.
But.
Do you think it is really reasonable to charge a personal caller to the ticket office window a surplus for taking the trouble to go to the Valley to buy one or more tickets in cash?
Someone is sitting at the window anyway. All they have to do is take in the money and hand over the ticket. How does that justify charging above face/advertised value?
Aside from the above, why should we have to pay another £2.50(or whatever it is) at 10.30 on a Tuesday morning at The Valley.
I do realise other clubs do charge an extra price for buying on the day, but we need to encourage people to come not deter them.
Duchatelet and squirrel face will never know how to run a football club as long as they have a hole in their backside.
Good effort.
If the regime hadn't alienated the fans so badly, any appeal for a volunteer to help with ticketing and save money would probably have been met with success.
Any time the club has asked fans to rally around for a sensible reason - the fans have responded.
This saga will surely appear in a future book called something like " how to properly **** things up".
If not, it's shit.
By coincidence, Kent Cricket mentioned previously also have a poor online ticketing system, as each time you go on is treated as a separate transaction, there's no unique username stored so that it remembers you. It's daft that I have no account with Kent, yet have an account with Lord's, The Oval/Surrey...
It's akin to buying a cinema ticket online or using an Oyster or contactless card rather than buying a paper ticket on the day.
I seem to recall a period in the past when the club shop charged more for credit card payments which introduced a similar penalty.
These practices come and go / get refined but usually start with the intention of encouraging customers / fans to exhibit behaviour that is most efficient for the club / business to work with. Cost cutting of staff volumes is probably the root cause as it is in many businesses. Not really unique.
If people choose at the last minute to attend a match they probably won't make the expensive choice twice. Some risk it alienates a few but potentially more upside to the club if it actually encourages people to buy in advance and commit before the day of a match when potentially waverers are more likely not to bother at all.
It's not a big issue.
I want to see Meire live on Watchdog, being slowly grilled by Anne Robinson.
I want to see her live on Masterchef being grilled by anyone who can turn a feckin grill on.
I reckon this decision will have gone like this:
TK: 'Hi Chief Katrien, I've been worrying about a lot of things but given how poor season ticket sales have been, we may have a few more people buying on the day.'
KM: 'yes can you fix it so they can't sit above me in the directors box please? And we need to save some money now we have spent so much on the ticket system.'
TK: 'yes boss, I have an answer that solves that, and punishes people who haven't bought a season ticket, and allows our new tracking system to work and for us to build up a valuable data profile like the consultants spoke about last week.'
KM: 'Will it also reduce the number of real fans in the ground and minimise the protests'
TK: 'yes mistress.'
KM: 'any downsides?'
TK: 'we may suffer a loss of revenue and some current fans may never return. We can solve the first issue by flogging umerah next season, and we could do without that sort of fan if you know what I mean.'
KM: 'I don't need to know the details, just do it.'
As you know, I shall not be attending & have sent my apologies....
However, I'm sure that @rikofold or Ian Wallis would be prepared to pose questions/read a statement on fans' behalf so something to consider.
So much for a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
It's fast becoming a mere pinprick.....with the emphasis on the prick.