SAFC - Fan Ban & Ticket Cancellations

[SPUFF]

This is what I can’t understand.

Pointing out errors and preventing tickets being sold outside of the requirements of the phase should be seen by the club as helpful- strange they would have a vendetta against someone who is actively assisting them.

I just cannot understand the clubs motivation for this action and their statement does not really add any clarity.

I imagine the ticket office hierachy arent football fsns and have never bought tickets in their life. They have zero understanding/empathy of issues and their impacts.

Needs changing.

Disapointing nobody higher up has spoke out.

Feels like the entire club (and press/fan groups mind you) want it just swept under the carpet.

 

[Keith S30S]

what about those of us who travel all over who aren't in a branch? being a member of a branch should never give anyone some sort of 'preferential' treatment over who gets a ticket.

I regularly travelled all over the country, mostly by car with me doing the driving the vast majority of the time. However, this was mostly in the pre away ticket era, late 80's onwards.

Branches have more tickets and contacts, it's just a numbers game. If 2 of you are going to a game then chances of one of you dropping out are slim. If 52 people are going the chances of people dropping out and tickets becoming available are far higher. Illness, changes of circumstances etc.

By the sounds of things the club just want these tickets to go to waste which is literally madness.

As I requested on several occasions but they didn’t want to engage.

I’ve been told from 26 different individuals that they’ve given their number to friends/family to use for Villa. IMO all they’ve done is made an issue much harder to police. They could and should have worked with all the branches and the vast majority (if not all) would’ve been more than happy to work with the club. Instead they’re targeting every branch and no branch will now work with them imo and the problem they’ve resolved has become an even bigger issue going forward.

They way they have gone about it everyone will clam up because they'll be concerned they are going to end up in the shit too.

All it would have taken was a meeting and a process put in place to transfer away tickets rather than them being wasted.

 

[SAFC2012]

I imagine the ticket office hierachy arent football fsns and have never bought tickets in their life. They have zero understanding/empathy of issues and their impacts.

Needs changing.

Disapointing nobody higher up has spoke out.

Feels like the entire club (and press/fan groups mind you) want it just swept under the carpet.

That’s one thing that won’t happen.

The statement they issued on Tuesday has broken GDPR law as I’m clearly an identifiable living subject and people on social media know me hence why people contacted me following the release of that statement on Tuesday before I’d seen it. If people didn’t know who the person was they wouldn’t know who to contact.

They’ve also broken confidentiality regulations as they are not allowed to disclose details outside of the organisation after advising that all information discussed in the meeting would be treat in confidence.

 

[viccarlton]

what about those of us who travel all over who aren't in a branch? being a member of a branch should never give anyone some sort of 'preferential' treatment over who gets a ticket.

It doesn’t.

 

[humbug]

I regularly travelled all over the country, mostly by car with me doing the driving the vast majority of the time. However, this was mostly in the pre away ticket era, late 80's onwards.

Branches have more tickets and contacts, it's just a numbers game. If 2 of you are going to a game then chances of one of you dropping out are slim. If 52 people are going the chances of people dropping out and tickets becoming available are far higher. Illness, changes of circumstances etc.

By the sounds of things the club just want these tickets to go to waste which is literally madness.

i don't think they want them to go to waste but i do think from what i hear at the games talking to folk about this issue and from what's posted on here,the passing on of tickets and the touting of numbers is more widespread than i thought. this means there's a lot of people missing out who aren't getting the chance purely because they're not in a branch.
tbh, i have no skin in the game as i have plenty of points that means i'll always get a ticket but i don't like unfairness. it must be quite annoying for someone to read on here that they've missed out and others have been able to go just because they're in a branch.
i'm also not for one minute saying the club has handled this issue correctly but i do think something needed to be done.

It doesn’t.

it certainly does. it's been admitted on here that their branch has a 'reserve' list of folk if someone drops out. i was also told this by a person who runs a branch at the derby the other sunday.

 

[SAFC2012]

i don't think they want them to go to waste but i do think from what i hear at the games talking to folk about this issue and from what's posted on here,the passing on of tickets and the touting of numbers is more widespread than i thought. this means there's a lot of people missing out who aren't getting the chance purely because they're not in a branch.
tbh, i have no skin in the game as i have plenty of points that means i'll always get a ticket but i don't like unfairness. it must be quite annoying for someone to read on here that they've missed out and others have been able to go just because they're in a branch.
i'm also not for one minute saying the club has handled this issue correctly but i do think something needed to be done.

I suspect the club fears that 50% of away ends are populated by people not on their own ticket, hence the 50% figure quoted on Tuesday. This will include corporate, staff, players allocations etc.

 

[SPUFF]

That’s one thing that won’t happen.

The statement they issued on Tuesday has broken GDPR law as I’m clearly an identifiable living subject and people on social media know me hence why people contacted me following the release of that statement on Tuesday before I’d seen it. If people didn’t know who the person was they wouldn’t know who to contact.

They’ve also broken confidentiality regulations as they are not allowed to disclose details outside of the organisation after advising that all information discussed in the meeting would be treat in confidence.

I hope not.

The statement had a whiff of “that will be all”.

 

[Keith S30S]

i don't think they want them to go to waste but i do think from what i hear at the games talking to folk about this issue and from what's posted on here,the passing on of tickets and the touting of numbers is more widespread than i thought. this means there's a lot of people missing out who aren't getting the chance purely because they're not in a branch.
tbh, i have no skin in the game as i have plenty of points that means i'll always get a ticket but i don't like unfairness. it must be quite annoying for someone to read on here that they've missed out and others have been able to go just because they're in a branch.
i'm also not for one minute saying the club has handled this issue correctly but i do think something needed to be done.

it certainly does. it's been admitted on here that their branch has a 'reserve' list of folk if someone drops out. i was also told this by a person who runs a branch at the derby the other sunday.

People have literally said on this thread they have offered away tickets back to the club and they have said not our problem, tough tit!

 

[viccarlton]

it certainly does. it's been admitted on here that their branch has a 'reserve' list of folk if someone drops out. i was also told this by a person who runs a branch at the derby the other sunday.

In the context of what I originally replied to , anyone in a branch with the requisite number of BCP has no right to a ticket in whatever phase we’re talking about than anyone not in a branch that also has the required amount of points.

 

[humbug]

I suspect the club fears that 50% of away ends are populated by people not on their own ticket, hence the 50% figure quoted on Tuesday. This will include corporate, staff, players allocations etc.

and also include those on other people's tickets.

 

[SAFC_FTM]

it certainly does. it's been admitted on here that their branch has a 'reserve' list of folk if someone drops out. i was also told this by a person who runs a branch at the derby the other sunday.

The problem is though that the club don't offer an easy option to return or forward away tickets at short notice.
Until they can provide that they should be working with the likes of the branches to make sure we don't have any empty seats, which incidentally they used to do until this season and it appears the reason for change is because a branch leader has upset them by letting them know about some of their mistakes.

People keep calling for the away ticketing system to be scrapped and replaced with a new one. For me the first step should be the ticket office staff to be scrapped and replaced with new as they aren't fit for purpose.

 

[humbug]

People have literally said on this thread they have offered away tickets back to the club and they have said not our problem, tough tit!

that's one thing the club should sort out. if someone ends up not being able to go there should be something whereby they can be returned and put back on sale legitimately and not just dished out to someone just because they're on some reserve list. for all those who can't go at the last minute there'll also be those who can go at the drop of a hat. for brentford away i wasn't going to go but had a change of plan, looked on the website out of curiosity and got a ticket the afternoon before the game despite it supposedly being sold out well before.

 

[brains]

The problem is though that the club don't offer an easy option to return or forward away tickets at short notice.
Until they can provide that they should be working with the likes of the branches to make sure we don't have any empty seats, which incidentally they used to do until this season and it appears the reason for change is because a branch leader has upset them by letting them know about some of their mistakes.

People keep calling for the away ticketing system to be scrapped and replaced with a new one. For me the first step should be the ticket office staff to be scrapped and replaced with new as they aren't fit for purpose.

This is the main issue. The ticket office seem to make decisions on a whim without any logical thought.

Consultation with fans and a clear set of rules, punishments and mechanisms should be in place before banning someone who has been such a positive individual for many fans attending away games.

There has to be a way of transferring x amount of tickets per season to another season ticket holder or something.

 

[humbug]

The problem is though that the club don't offer an easy option to return or forward away tickets at short notice.
Until they can provide that they should be working with the likes of the branches to make sure we don't have any empty seats, which incidentally they used to do until this season and it appears the reason for change is because a branch leader has upset them by letting them know about some of their mistakes.

i know that and see my reply above. as for filling a bus, if there's not enough branch members with the right amount of points to go they could merge with another branch. there should be no preferential treatment given based on a mode of transport.

 

[Keith S30S]

that's one thing the club should sort out. if someone ends up not being able to go there should be something whereby they can be returned and put back on sale legitimately and not just dished out to someone just because they're on some reserve list. for all those who can't go at the last minute there'll also be those who can go at the drop of a hat. for brentford away i wasn't going to go but had a change of plan, looked on the website out of curiosity and got a ticket the afternoon before the game despite it supposedly being sold out well before.

Yeah, it's a perfectly normal situation where people's circumstances change to either not be able to go or go at short notice. You've got enough points but you could have had none and still secured that ticket.

The club should have sorted the wider away ticketing issues out FIRST and then made the new rules clear to ALL and then taken action if there was still issues. Instead they've gone arse over tit and fucked over good, loyal fans. It's a shambles of their own making.

 

[humbug]

Yeah, it's a perfectly normal situation where people's circumstances change to either not be able to go or go at short notice. You've got enough points but you could have had none and still secured that ticket.

The club should have sorted the wider away ticketing issues out FIRST and then made the new rules clear to ALL and then taken action if there was still issues. Instead they've gone arse over tit and fucked over good, loyal fans. It's a shambles of their own making.

i wouldn't have got a ticket with no points mind.
as for sorting the ticketing issues out first, like i said before i'm not defending the club but it's been widely publicised since the beginning of the season about checks at away games.

 

[Keith S30S]

i wouldn't have got a ticket with no points mind.
as for sorting the ticketing issues out first, like i said before i'm not defending the club but it's been widely publicised since the beginning of the season about checks at away games.

Sorry you mean the SAFC website, I just thought you meant some random website / Facebook page.

Yeah but they haven't sorted out returns. If you and your good lady couldn't go at the last minute that's £60 down the drain for you and 2 empty seats in an era of full away attendances. That's crazy.

 

[humbug]

Sorry you mean the SAFC website, I just thought you meant some random website / Facebook page.

Yeah but they haven't sorted out returns. If you and your good lady couldn't go at the last minute that's £60 down the drain for you and 2 empty seats in an era of full away attendances. That's crazy.

i think the one i got for brentford was a return from either players or sponsors judging by where i was sat. surely if they can put those back on sale you'd think they could do it for the general fanbase?

 

[Keith S30S]

i think the one i got for brentford was a return from either players or sponsors judging by where i was sat. surely if they can put those back on sale you'd think they could do it for the general fanbase?

They could but their focus seems to be on punishing fans rather than helping them.

Not a great priority list at all!

 

[SAFC_FTM]

i think the one i got for brentford was a return from either players or sponsors judging by where i was sat. surely if they can put those back on sale you'd think they could do it for the general fanbase?

In this day and age you would think so.
I had it in the Champ where I took bad the Tuesday before the Millwall game. Somehow managed to contact the ticket office and got told tough shit there's nowt they can do about it.

We've heard the club have used the affected lad to get rid of returns and excess tickets previously.

I also know of a case at the playoff semi at Coventry last year where one of the players bought a batch of tickets for his friends/family for the away fixture thinking it was the home tie, so in the end he didn't want them!
Those tickets ended up being sold on by a lad who knew someone in the club rather than them being put back on sale to fans, it was only about 12 tickets but still it would have been easy enough for them to be put back onto the ticketing platform.