Season Tickets

[LegendaryMrDude]

Called the ticket office today to find out if I could expect more problems with my season card at the next home game and to my amazement was told that they'd sold the seat I've sat in for the last 6 years or more to someone else, despite me turning up at the ticket office, queueing for hours and filling in the crappy application form, all well in advance of the deadline fo renewals or even general sale of previous season seats.

Amazing and more than a little disappointing. I might buy it again next season, after we're relegated and the glory hunters have lost interest... but the fool in me hopes that we stay up (or get promoted).

Good luck for the rest of the season.

LMD

 

[ARSE!!]

Quote[/b] (LegendaryMrDude @ Aug. 08 2006,15:51)]Called the ticket office today to find out if I could expect more problems with my season card at the next home game and to my amazement was told that they'd sold the seat I've sat in for the last 6 years or more to someone else, despite me turning up at the ticket office, queueing for hours and filling in the crappy application form, all well in advance of the deadline fo renewals or even general sale of previous season seats.

Amazing and more than a little disappointing. I might buy it again next season, after we're relegated and the glory hunters have lost interest... but the fool in me hopes that we stay up (or get promoted).

Good luck for the rest of the season.

LMD

didnt you notice saturday when someone was sitting in your seat?

 

[LegendaryMrDude]

Quote[/b] (ARSE!! @ Aug. 08 2006,16:10)]didnt you notice saturday when someone was sitting in your seat?

The curious thing was, there was only me sat in my seat on Saturday... I can only guess that either:

- it must be a phenomonon of the holiday season that whichever lucky soul bought it wasn't able to make the first game.

or

- they think they've sold my seat to someone, but actually it's just marked as held for an anonymous supporter.

My guess is that it's down to holidays. I'll ask my mates who turns up and see if they can't be given a hard time when they turn up as all theirs were renewed without problem...

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

How can the club get something so simple so wrong?! It absolutely defies logic. The price of success? Maybe. But I wonder if the likes of Manchester United, Newcastle United or even West Ham United have the same problems each summer? It's simple, surely -- one fills in a form, the club processes the form in the relative priorities (i.e. existing STH first, etc.), the club allocates a seat, the seat is annotated as taken, the form is filed appropriately, the fan is informed. Is it really too difficult for the club to grasp? Or is it down to penny-pinching by Southend United, employing people without much logic or common-sense on the cheap? Some answers from the club would be nice for all those people who are having such problems at the moment ...

 

[Jam_Man]

And why when I went in couldnt they tell me if the seat I did want was taken ?

Surely take the application, reserve the seat and process it.

Not take 6000 applications, put them in a box and sort it out later....

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

Quote[/b] (Jam_Man @ Aug. 08 2006,17:52)]Surely take the application, reserve the seat and process it.

See?! It's NOT difficult!! Maybe we should do it next summer, Jam Man!!

 

[GodblessArthurRowley]

Now I'm worried.My Card didn't work this week but luckily no one was sitting in my seat. Which begs the question has my seat actually been sold to someone else who is on holiday at the moment but will be back for the Sunderland game.

We never had this problem in the mid eighties when we only had 1,000 odd turn up for games,ah marvellous times.

 

[SUFCEssex]

My seaso didn't work Saturday. I was told by the ticket office yesterday that an engineer had been in and fixed the problem and that everything will be ok for the Sunderland game.

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

So the club should tell EVERYONE in an official statement then ...

 

[SUFCEssex]

I said the same in a previous topic. knowing so many fans had trouble you'd think the club would put out some kind of apology and update on the current situation with Seaso cards old and new. I'm still not convinced that i won't have problems getting in against Sunderland.

 

[Mick]

No consolation or excuse but Palace too were having problems. Literally hundreds of season tickets had not reached their owners and they were having to issue extra tickets for the first two games.

 

[Hooly]

As I also said in a previous topic, my card was checked in the ticket office 2 1/2 hours before kick off, as they'd sent me another one.  I was assured it would work, shown a computer screen that apparently confirmed that it would definitely work and hey presto.............it didn't work.    

  How on earth I sort that one out I've got no idea!  

 

[Thenewblue]

Same thing happened to me, I went into the ticket office, filled in my form, picked which seat I wanted, located near my mates. only to be told on saturday that I did not in fatc have a season ticket at all, and had to buy 1 no-where near where i wanted to sit.

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

Did they take any money from you?! Sorry, but this just proves how incompetent the ticket office has been this summer. Don't give me the excuse that there were a record number of season ticket applications to process and there wasn't much time -- from evidence presented earlier in the summer, the applications were left to sit in a box in an office for some time so it's not as if the club have been caught out. It's only through sheer incompetence that far too many fans are being inconvenienced and are ending up disappointed for the start of a special season for Southend United. Placing an vacancy advert this week is simply a case of trying to shut the proverbial barn door after the horse has long bolted and queued up outside for a ticket. Poor show and it's even poorer that the club have not even had the common courtesy to publish an official statement ...

 

[Thenewblue]

No. no money was taken as I was told that cause I changed seats the card would take 3 weeks at least to arrive so I kinda let things lie a little, I maybe could have chased it up, but you don't expect a professional outfit to fcuk up an application form when they already processed roughly 6000 of them. So instead of being located 2 seats away from my friends i'm now stuck in the back row of the stand with my seat also being sold for the first 2 games of the season! The joys of supporting southend eh!

 

[TITSUP]

Quote[/b] ]a professional outfit

now I've heard that somewhere before

 

[Firestorm]

Quote[/b] (LegendaryMrDude @ Aug. 08 2006,15:51)]Called the ticket office today to find out if I could expect more problems with my season card at the next home game and to my amazement was told that they'd sold the seat I've sat in for the last 6 years or more to someone else, despite me turning up at the ticket office, queueing for hours and filling in the crappy application form, all well in advance of the deadline fo renewals or even general sale of previous season seats.

Amazing and more than a little disappointing. I might buy it again next season, after we're relegated and the glory hunters have lost interest... but the fool in me hopes that we stay up (or get promoted).

Good luck for the rest of the season.

LMD

When was the money taken from your account ?

I would suggest that if there is evidence that the money left your account before the deadline date for General sale then you have every right to demand that seat.

Have they given you another seat or have they just not processed your application at all ?

If you paid cash did you get a receipt ?


XS , interesting comment about Newcastle...I recall uproar a few years ago when they relocated a shed load of season ticket holders to another part of the ground so as they could use the seats for some "executive package" or another.

and West Ham telling season ticket holders (I knew of two who had renewed for 30 years) that the next season they would have to stump up a 500 quid bond in order to secure their seats (and they put the price up)

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

Fair do's, FS. But what I was trying to get at was the ability to process season ticket applications in a logical manner, not leaving them in a cardboard box on a desk for weeks ...

 

[Firestorm]

Quote[/b] (Xàbia Shrimper @ Aug. 10 2006,09:08)]Fair do's, FS. But what I was trying to get at was the ability to process season ticket applications in a logical manner, not leaving them in a cardboard box on a desk for weeks ...

Yeah I know Mike............

it strikes me that they (tbh along with the rest of us) were really taken by surprise by the almost 300% increase in demand for season tickets. That said I can't understand why they had difficulties with renewals. I would have thought that it would have been reasonable to assume they everyone would renew and that they should have planned to get all of the renewals done before the deadline (I know a number of renewals would have gone in on the last couple of days which may have complicated things) .

That said, my renewal was dealt with absolutely brilliantly, so I dont have any gripes. I posted the application on the Monday and by Wednesday evening I had received the receipts and confirmation of my card being topped up. 2 days door to door and the Royal Mail were involved as well !

 

[LegendaryMrDude]

Quote[/b] (Firestorm @ Aug. 10 2006,08:57)]When was the money taken from your account ?

I would suggest that if there is evidence that the money left your account before the deadline date for General sale then you have every right to demand that seat.

Have they given you another seat or have they just not processed your application at all ?

If you paid cash did you get a receipt ?

No money was taken... I went to the ticket office expecting to pay but they made me fill in an application form complete with my card details and told me that my seat would be reserved and the application processes in due course. As it turns out, they never processed my application at all and so never took any money. They simply sold my seat to someone else.

I didn't think it odd at the time but when I was queueing in the ticket office there were folks there buying season tickets for the first time that were paying up-front... which may explain why it seems to be the renewals that are suffering more than the new issues.

Becuase I only filled out an application I didn't get a receipt, so unless they've got CCTV footage from the shop, there's not even any evidence that I filled the form out (because presumably they've long-since lost or otherwise disposed of it).

When the mistake was discovered, I was offered an alternative seat in the South Upper with restricted view but it was miles away from my dad (who successfully renewed the seat next to me) and all my mates of the last 6 years, so I didn't take them up on their offer.

I think it's a disgrace that someone who's been a loyal season ticket holder for the last 6 years of generally cr@ppy football (the last 2 seasons excepted) should get treated like this.

I understand that there have been a lot of season tickets this year, but the simple fact that they didn't seem to have any record that I'd been had one for the previous X years was a bit poor...

I'm sufficiently displeased that I doubt I'll attend any more games. Maybe it's cutting my nose off to spite my face but hey-ho.

LMD