“ Ticket Office “ (3 Viewers)

[RegTheDonk]

It’s not about people not being viable, it’s about people still choosing not to have internet in 2023. Same as people that insist on using cash only, or who don’t want to use other technology. At some point it’s on them.

My Dad is 76 and worked as a systems analyst, pretty much everyone alive today will have been at work since computers were a major part of our lives. There’s really no excuse beyond disability.

My dad is a bit older, 82, but when he does go he insists on having a drive up, queueing, paying in person and not remembering to ask for his points! Probably habit, or not really wanting to understand technology ... but importantly it gives him a mission, a reason to get out and feel he's doing his bit for the team (and the family).

 

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[hill83]

I can’t put a shelf up either. I’d like to completely retract my previous comments about using the internet

 

[clint van damme]

I can’t put a shelf up either. I’d like to completely retract my previous comments about using the internet

Stuff like that I'm fine with and have took on some fairly big projects at home but fucking cars.........

 

[wingy]

I don't have a problem with what Schhmee said to be honest, he's younger than me, who wasn't taught about any of it in school,it seems it's his specialism and then add in his impatience , just ain't going to go down that road, elections and stuff.

 

[theferret]

I was in there today to try and upgrade a ticket. Can’t do that online (and as it turns out, you can’t do it in person either) A chap ahead of me in the queue was there because he was trying to buy two half ST in seats that were together. Because his computer was only showing Swansea tickets, he went down to the ground to try and sort it out. As it turns out, the lady couldn’t help him either as her computer was showing the same. The advice he got was to wait until after the Swansea game, note down the seats he wanted and then come back to the ticket office to buy them. Not everything can be done online and I feel enough obstacles are put in the way of sorting out ticketing issues without making them worse by having no human contact.
I came away from the office annoyed with myself but even more annoyed with the club. The friend that I go to the games with is, like me, an OAP who has a concessionary ticket. He can’t attend the match tomorrow. I asked my son if a mate of his, an adult, would like to come along, first time for him up the City, The friend said he’d like to come.
I went into the ticket office thinking I could upgrade the concession ticket to an adult for this game. The lady did tell me there were no upgrades but I was thinking this was a question of semantics. I’m annoyed with myself for not listening properly in the first place. It was only when I was asked to pay £24 for the ticket that I fully realised what she had meant. I then told her that I would leave the ticket as it was, only to be told my mates ST for the Swansea match had been cancelled and there was nothing she could do. (fair enough, my fault this, I’ll make sure I pay more attention in future).
I feel I have been penalised for trying to be honest.I fully expected to pay the difference between the concessionary ticket cost per match, about £16, and the full price match ticket, £24. In effect we have paid twice for the same seat. I think it’s right that the club clamp down on adults going in on concession tickets, but they make it impossible to upgrade. If any of our group can’t attend in future, we’ll just take our chances at the turnstile by using the cheaper ticket if an adult wants to attend.
I would like to write to the club to complain, not that I think it will do any good, but still feel it’s necessary to make my feelings known. Does anyone have a name and email address of who to contact please? Maybe Pete could raise this issue at the next fans representative meeting?

Re buying a half season ticket, it is true that on order to secure a seat it needs to be available for every game until the end of the season. As Swansea and Leicester are basically sold out, it means half STs are basically unavailable at the moment. What the ticket really ought to do is sell the ST seat based on Bristol City onwards, but allow you to choose alternative seats for Swansea and Leicester and issue paper tickets for those games.

 

[Tommo1993]

This is actually one of the best debates I’ve seen on here. The selective evolution of people.

Not “which shit football chant is shitter?”.

 

[SBAndy]

I'm the same with cars.
I have to pay someone to do the simplest jobs.
Lads in my office can't understand it, tell me to youtube it, it's dead easy, but I don't have the confidence or the wherewithal, we all have our falibilities.

And me. Key difference though, in terms of this topic, is that I don’t expect to take it down the garage and have someone do it for free.

 

[theferret]

And me. Key difference though, in terms of this topic, is that I don’t expect to take it down the garage and have someone do it for free.

Not sure that makes sense. Those going to the ticket office aren't being given free tickets either.

 

[SBAndy]

Not sure that makes sense. Those going to the ticket office aren't being given free tickets either.

Not free tickets, no. Free “someone else’s time” to sort something fairly simple, be that purchasing tickets, having a minor fix on a car, electrical work round the house. How many garages do you know who charge for parts only?

 

[clint van damme]

And me. Key difference though, in terms of this topic, is that I don’t expect to take it down the garage and have someone do it for free.

Well neither would they. There's a whole host of reasons while we can't go totally online though.

And there's been several examples on here of people who'd struggle with it.

Ive been referred to the ticket office twice this season by ticketmaster to chase up away tickets that haven't arrived so not sure how that would have worked out if the ticket office wasn't there.

 

[SBAndy]

If we’ve now delved into the argument being to bin off the ticket office altogether, I think I’ve got the wrong end of the stick. Fine as it is in my opinion, and to be honest I think as shmmeee has mentioned there are issues with the online platform that could be fixed fairly simply to reduce the requirement to go to the ticket office even further.

 

[clint van damme]

If we’ve now delved into the argument being to bin off the ticket office altogether, I think I’ve got the wrong end of the stick. Fine as it is in my opinion, and to be honest I think as shmmeee has mentioned there are issues with the online platform that could be fixed fairly simply to reduce the requirement to go to the ticket office even further.

To be fair, I may have jumped the gun with the close the ticket office commentvbut we've basically had the same bare bones staffing levels for years so I don't think there's much fat to be trimmed or much saving to be made bar shutting the whole thing altogether which I don't see as feasible.

 

[chiefdave]

Re buying a half season ticket, it is true that on order to secure a seat it needs to be available for every game until the end of the season. As Swansea and Leicester are basically sold out, it means half STs are basically unavailable at the moment. What the ticket really ought to do is sell the ST seat based on Bristol City onwards, but allow you to choose alternative seats for Swansea and Leicester and issue paper tickets for those games.

Think a lot of these problems, including things like issues upgrading a ticket, are down to the way the ticketmaster system works rather than anything the club are doing and we aren't really a big enough client for Ticketmaster to pay the slightest bit of attention if we want things like that changing.

 

[SBAndy]

You pay a service charge for each ticket. It isn’t free

And it’s the same charge whether you do it yourself online or you head down to the ticket office and have someone do it for you.

 

[theferret]

Not free tickets, no. Free “someone else’s time” to sort something fairly simple, be that purchasing tickets, having a minor fix on a car, electrical work round the house. How many garages do you know who charge for parts only?

I know what you were trying to say, but I'm not sure it makes any difference.

If I order an away ticket online, that still has to be processed. They need to collect the receipt from the printer, find the specific allocated seat from what I imagine is a pre-printed pile, put it in an envelope, seal it and then put it in the pile. Can't imagine it takes long at all, but any less time than taking one from the top of the pile, handing it over and taking payment? The amount of labour is the same surely?

The car garage analogy doesn't really correlate is what I am saying.

 

[wingy]

Broadening it out think we've had conversations on the shutting down of things like for instance like pubs,Wmc's etc,so we go underground to to come together, don't think you will beat the real thing accept maybe we are limited in what we say?

 

[SBAndy]

Exactly, might as well actually get what you pay for

You’re paying a fee towards Ticketmaster’s infrastructure not Sandra’s wages.

 

[SBAndy]

I know what you were trying to say, but I'm not sure it makes any difference.

If I order an away ticket online, that still has to be processed. They need to collect the receipt from the printer, find the specific allocated seat from what I imagine is a pre-printed pile, put it in an envelope, seal it and then put it in the pile. Can't imagine it takes long at all, but any less time than taking one from the top of the pile, handing it over and taking payment? The amount of labour is the same surely?

The car garage analogy doesn't really correlate is what I am saying.

Fair point. Let’s switch to a Ryanair style ticket system. No choice, randomly assigned, probably won’t be sat together. Whilst we’re at it, charge people a quid to use the toilets, might put off some of the kids powdering their noses every 10 minutes!

 

[wingy]

Fair point. Let’s switch to a Ryanair style ticket system. No choice, randomly assigned, probably won’t be sat together. Whilst we’re at it, charge people a quid to use the toilets, might put off some of the kids powdering their noses every 10 minutes!

Seperate it out and monetise it.

 

[skyblu3sk]

And yet all those youngsters with a sneering sense of superiority because they can use a smartphone (despite having no real idea how it works) would have no clue how to cook a nutritious meal, bleed a radiator, fix a door or change a wheel. Progress.

I do wonder what would happen if a solar flare took out all our satellites. Poor old grandad's phone wouldn't stop ringing (land line, obvs).

I'm not sure you understand how mobile networks work either...

 

[Marty]

A few posters have shown themselves up as complete bellends on this thread TBF.

I'm ok on computers, but even I find the ticketing system a bit of a pain to use, and have needed to pop down the ticket office to sort out problems I've had. If someone isn't competent, then I can imagine it will be a bit daunting.

 

[theferret]

I'm not sure you understand how mobile networks work either...

I'm fully aware of phone masts, I have one outside of my house , I was just using a silly scenario to illustrate a point. That said though, isn't direct phone to satellite soon to be a thing?

Regardless, next time I'll expand on the daft doomsday scenario and describe the solar storm taking out the repeaters on the undersea fo cables for complete internet collapse, just for the benefit of the pedants

 

[Boicey]

The fact is there are a significant number of people who can’t afford a phone, can’t use technology and more than you think can’t read very well.
As someone said above football clubs, including ours, are paying players £100,000’s a year to pad out a squad. Pay for another admin and act like a professional community club ffs.

 

[skyblu3sk]

I'm fully aware of phone masts, I have one outside of my house , I was just using a silly scenario to illustrate a point. That said though, isn't direct phone to satellite soon to be a thing?

Regardless, next time I'll expand on the daft doomsday scenario and describe the solar storm taking out the repeaters on the undersea fo cables for complete internet collapse, just for the benefit of the pedants

I just found it comedy someone suggesting not knowing how something works then use an example that showed a complete misunderstanding of how something works . Now if you'd have said about solar flares taking out GPS and the youth not being able to find their arse with a map I'd have shut up .

 

[Somerset Sky Blue]

Just to reiterate what someone mentioned earlier - I usually buy tickets online, but because I am using a jsb voucher tomorrow, I will have to collect the tickets and physically give the voucher over... perhaps the voucher could be assigned to the member and then bought online?

 

[Calista]

If I pretended I couldn’t work the vacuum and demanded someone come and did it for me is that OK?

Unless you’ve got a developmental disorder this is very very basic stuff.

IT suppliers have created a world full of perils, frustrations and complexities that is orders of magnitude more challenging than working ordinary household appliances. I've got dozens (hundreds?) of online accounts, and I think I'm on top of it all, but it doesn't surprise me that lots of people struggle or can't even get started. If millions are left behind, IT guys appear to think that's a just punishment for their stupidity. No wonder so many systems aren't fit for purpose with that attitude.

 

[wingy]

Recognition features,passwords etc etc,child Bank accounts to name but a few.

 

[SBAndy]

Just to reiterate what someone mentioned earlier - I usually buy tickets online, but because I am using a jsb voucher tomorrow, I will have to collect the tickets and physically give the voucher over... perhaps the voucher could be assigned to the member and then bought online?

Put a feckin voucher code on them. Easy fix (this is what I was referring to about easy fixes earlier).

 

[wingy]

Citizen of the world not a nation.

 

[Calista]

Citizen of the world not a nation.

Is that what you said to them in the ticket office when trying to pay by cash in rupees?

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

Based on these comments, maybe the club could make an easy guide on how to buy tickets online. A video, something like that? Would it help?

I support all the comments on difficult ticket situations, the elderly, disabled etc. We absolutely should have a ticket office that can help support these requests, and even be there to sell general sale tickets if it is really needed. I have to admit I cannot help in raising an eyebrow towards some of those who I think are just a bit resistant in wanting to go online for no real good reason, though. Perhaps it is resistance to change. I get that there are exceptions, but comparing buying a ticket on a website to car maintenance and plumbing/electrician work just seems like a bit of a farfetched argument to me.

 

[Boicey]

Based on these comments, maybe the club could make an easy guide on how to buy tickets online. A video, something like that? Would it help?

I support all the comments on difficult ticket situations, the elderly, disabled etc. We absolutely should have a ticket office that can help support these requests, and even be there to sell general sale tickets if it is really needed. I have to admit I cannot help in raising an eyebrow towards some of those who I think are just a bit resistant in wanting to go online for no real good reason, though. Perhaps it is resistance to change. I get that there are exceptions, but comparing buying a ticket on a website to car maintenance and plumbing/electrician work just seems like a bit of a farfetched argument to me.

My GP moved to ‘online only’ for appointments, medication, admin requests etc about 6 months ago.
Last time I went in, there was a queue to a guy who has been hired to type in online requests for people. All sorts in the queue. My wife overheard a conversation where it was obvious the guy couldn’t read very well and was pretty embarrassed when he had to explain why he couldn’t do it online.
Just provide a service to people. Especially if it’s relatively cheap.

 

[clint van damme]

Based on these comments, maybe the club could make an easy guide on how to buy tickets online. A video, something like that? Would it help?

I support all the comments on difficult ticket situations, the elderly, disabled etc. We absolutely should have a ticket office that can help support these requests, and even be there to sell general sale tickets if it is really needed. I have to admit I cannot help in raising an eyebrow towards some of those who I think are just a bit resistant in wanting to go online for no real good reason, though. Perhaps it is resistance to change. I get that there are exceptions, but comparing buying a ticket on a website to car maintenance and plumbing/electrician work just seems like a bit of a farfetched argument to me.

No ones compared it to car maintenance, the point was making is there are things in life people struggle with that come naturally to others.


The lads I was referring to don't even go to games! But my point was its not a given that everyone, even relatively young people, are computer literate.

And as I said in another post, we have a bare bones ticket office. There's no money to be saved or efficiencies to be gained there, it's been like that for years.
It's not like we've got 10 staff which we could reduce to 3.

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

No ones compared it to car maintenance, the point was making is there are things in life people struggle with that come naturally to others.


The lads I was referring to don't even go to games! But my point was its not a given that everyone, even relatively young people, are computer literate.

And as I said in another post, we have a bare bones ticket office. There's no money to be saved or efficiencies to be gained there, it's been like that for years.
It's not like we've got 10 staff which we could reduce to 3.

Yeah, I hear you. Like I said though, I'm just raising a bit of an eyebrow. If someone can log into SBT then there's no reason why they can't buy a CCFC ticket online. That doesn't mean there aren't good reasons why some people go there though.

I think equally if we are charging £37 a ticket, then there should be a respectable budget towards having an efficient ticket office to support that. I appreciate that side of things.

 

[Alkhen]

One thing that needs sorting is the JSB voucher system. Can only redeem them at the ticket office but when I tried on a match day the woman said they aren't supposed to sell tickets for upcoming games on game day. They did in the end as it wasn't busy but it's a stupid system especially for people who don't live locally.

Surely they can just add some codes to your online account or something.