Spent rather longer than I expected queuing for tickets today. There was a long and steady queue swollen by angry season ticket holders who have yet to receive their passes for the opening home game tomorrow. The Club's statement that they were all posted out by 31st July suggests that either the Club's postal service has failed rather spectacularly or else someone has been gilding the lily. Even if the club uses one of the more competitive postal services, Royal Mail are pretty reliable for their next day delivery (I am assuming they were being sent First Class) and they still do the actual deliveries.
To add insult to injury, the club somehow only managed to have three out of seven ticket office windows open. There were a couple of people visibly manning the phones in the background and several others standing huddled chatting without a care in the world. They should at least have had the decency to do it out of sight of the inconvenienced supporters or looked like there was some urgency about what they were discussing. The lad who served me was polite, apologetic and efficient as were the other two from what I could see but why weren't there more staff on?
I have no doubt the mass of season ticket holders managed to get their tickets on time but there was clearly a sizeable minority who haven't and it's simply not good enough given the criticality of keeping and trying to grow the support base. A number of people walked off muttering expletives once they had sized the queue and calculated the delay. I also had to collect two season tickets for a couple of boys who haven't received theirs and was surprised to see that the club can now print the credit card season passes including names and other details. This means there is no outsourcing to a third party, so assuming the fault doesn't lie with the Royal Mail, the ticket office boss needs to be holding his or her hand up.
I am also now wondering what chaos we face tomorrow as thousands try to use these new passes at the gates for entry. I will be turning-up unusually early to claim my seat. I hope the match proves worth all the trouble and expense.
*NEWS FLASH* Something at club goes wrong!
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't everyone just get over it. No it shouldn't happen, and No it isn't great for the supporters and No it doesn't strike me as well organised but mistakes happen - is it really the end of the World.
Who said it was the end of the world? Just another poor show by the people running our club. Lots of loyal Charlton fans have been frustrated, disappointed, angered and inconvenienced by the club. I assume you aren't one of them.
ReplyDeleteApology from the club today which blames "technical difficulties surrounding data migration." It would appear we are learning many lessons of the past which might have been avoided with better continuity of personnel. That's not all the fault of Roly and Meire by any means but they have continued to let good people go and have failed to recruit in a couple of key positions, notably PR and Communications.
ReplyDeleteA good mate today collected his season ticket from Royal Mail to discover the reason it wasn't delivered on time was that Charlton had not paid any postage - no stamp or frank.He had to pay that himself. Those bastards at Royal Mail eh?
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