pembsexile wrote: January 18th, 2024, 12:57 pm

Amberexile wrote: January 18th, 2024, 12:41 pm

JonD wrote: January 18th, 2024, 11:58 am How come season ticket holders can buy online today but not trust members? It says both should be able to.h

Edit: talk on Fakebook is that trust members have to attend in person. That old chestnut - parochialism.

I think part of it is the disregard for Trust Members, but mainly it is down to a lack of organisation and forethought.

They allowed Trust Members to buy online for the match this Saturday and provided a window in which that could happen. You have to log into the ticketmaster system to be able to buy tickets and it is a simple matter for the system to connect login details with trust membership details. I just don't think they have done this and although for Saturday it was supposed to be a Trust Members only window, my suspicion is that anyone who managed to log in could buy tickets. So the club have decided to "punish" Trust members for their own lack of organisation by removing that option.

Been advised that the club probably didn’t want to pay for the facility. There is a club line, but the Trust membership is held on a separate database and the club would have to pay to get that all in one package. The answer makes sense to me but it is a pain. I’ve tried the phone about 8 times now as a Trust member - always engaged. I’ll keep trying.

Pay for the facility sounds like an excuse. there will be a simple API which should accommodate a CSV file as input. We are talking around 1000 rows of data. I do wonder at times whether there is anybody at the club who can actually spell IT.

The physical queue when I left, having obtained my tickets at 11:30 was from the ticket office back to the old club house.
They did have 4 windows open to sell tickets.
But as usual the process is quite slow (especially when you have individuals discussing their seating options).
The temp seating structure on the North Terrace is well on the way to completion.

Ooh. Caller number 34.

Got down to 1st in queue. Now back at 35th. Interesting.

I've been first in the queue about 20 times now. I wouldn't mind the phone line chaos if there was an actual queue instead of this free for all.

Oh god. Really?

I've been number 1 twice. Not made it across the line yet.

Fu Ming wrote: January 18th, 2024, 1:30 pm The physical queue when I left, having obtained my tickets at 11:30 was from the ticket office back to the old club house.
They did have 4 windows open to sell tickets.
But as usual the process is quite slow (especially when you have individuals discussing their seating options).
The temp seating structure on the North Terrace is well on the way to completion.

To coin your online name it makes me 'Fume' when people in any form of lengthy queue seem clueless and surprised when they get to the end of that queue as to what they want and oblivious to the 100's waiting behind them (don't get me started on the buffoons who start sorting themselves out when they get to the end of airport security queues - you had the whole time you were waiting to do it!!!!) - 2 tickets next to each other (or x number of sets of 2 tickets) if possible please if not then I'm happy to be there and can cope for 90 minutes 3 seats away from my mate/wife/Man Utd supporting brother in law - done - don't um and ahh some of us have jobs or homes to go to - thanks!

Would clarify that for those with young children or carers of someone with difficulties then of course sitting next/near to them is important but in most cases grow up and stop holding up the queue.

Amberexile wrote: January 18th, 2024, 1:28 pm

pembsexile wrote: January 18th, 2024, 12:57 pm

Amberexile wrote: January 18th, 2024, 12:41 pm

JonD wrote: January 18th, 2024, 11:58 am How come season ticket holders can buy online today but not trust members? It says both should be able to.h

Edit: talk on Fakebook is that trust members have to attend in person. That old chestnut - parochialism.

I think part of it is the disregard for Trust Members, but mainly it is down to a lack of organisation and forethought.

They allowed Trust Members to buy online for the match this Saturday and provided a window in which that could happen. You have to log into the ticketmaster system to be able to buy tickets and it is a simple matter for the system to connect login details with trust membership details. I just don't think they have done this and although for Saturday it was supposed to be a Trust Members only window, my suspicion is that anyone who managed to log in could buy tickets. So the club have decided to "punish" Trust members for their own lack of organisation by removing that option.

Been advised that the club probably didn’t want to pay for the facility. There is a club line, but the Trust membership is held on a separate database and the club would have to pay to get that all in one package. The answer makes sense to me but it is a pain. I’ve tried the phone about 8 times now as a Trust member - always engaged. I’ll keep trying.

Pay for the facility sounds like an excuse. there will be a simple API which should accommodate a CSV file as input. We are talking around 1000 rows of data. I do wonder at times whether there is anybody at the club who can actually spell IT.

Its outwith the immediate control of the 'club' its Ticketmaster our contractor for online ticketing, who probably charge [a lot i.e, an uneconomical amount] extra for short notice changes/bespoke packages.

I applaud trust members and they should get their dues however if anyone wants(ed) to guarantee 2x tickets for big games to be available online [to them] then at the start of each season buy the cheapest season ticket at the earliest opportunity - otherwise queue up in person/phone as we ALL had to for all previous FA cup run games or watch the game in the warm and dry at home on TV.

Sounds smug I know, but I and many others, give the club x £100's upfront in the summer for certain (albeit cup win/draw dependent) privileges.

[edit] OK it IS a bit smug and insensitive - feel like politician in reverse but if I was a trust member having to queue for my ticket in person/phone I'd be mighty miffed too.

Whereas I asa trust member give hundreds a year for one match ticket+school dinner and the right to vote. It's a mug's game

JonD wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:06 pm Whereas I asa trust member give hundreds a year for one match ticket+school dinner and the right to vote. It's a mug's game

In fairness a lot of trust members pay the lowest subs (£60 a year which is a LOT less than even the cheapest adult season tickets cost) and its not in one cash-flow boosting chunk either arguably the club need a few sweeteners for ST holders whereas the trust in theory is more altruistic perhaps? In any case its not trust v ST holders, many are both, its just easier for Ticketmaster to register ST holders than trust members hence the online facility for one and not the other.

CathedralCounty wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:15 pm

JonD wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:06 pm Whereas I asa trust member give hundreds a year for one match ticket+school dinner and the right to vote. It's a mug's game

In fairness a lot of trust members pay the lowest subs (£60 a year which is a LOT less than even the cheapest adult season tickets cost) and its not in one cash-flow boosting chunk either arguably the club need a few sweeteners for ST holders whereas the trust in theory is more altruistic perhaps? In any case its not trust v ST holders, many are both, its just easier for Ticketmaster to register ST holders than trust members hence the online facility for one and not the other.

On the point of it being marginally easier to register season ticket holders than Trust members, the margin is very small as an example, the FAW manage to do it for every away game when liaison with foreign FAs all around Eurpoe is required, the do it with multiple levels of sales windows for people with different levels of priority using Ticketmaster, it is different criteria every time and it works every time. It is a matter of will and organisation.

Still, my Can Can has improved greatly today.

You've managed to get the Can-Can...... I don't even get the dialling tone.

My mate is almost at the ticket window. Almost five hours. I hope they'll let him collect my ticket.

Amberexile wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:40 pm

CathedralCounty wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:15 pm

JonD wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:06 pm Whereas I asa trust member give hundreds a year for one match ticket+school dinner and the right to vote. It's a mug's game

In fairness a lot of trust members pay the lowest subs (£60 a year which is a LOT less than even the cheapest adult season tickets cost) and its not in one cash-flow boosting chunk either arguably the club need a few sweeteners for ST holders whereas the trust in theory is more altruistic perhaps? In any case its not trust v ST holders, many are both, its just easier for Ticketmaster to register ST holders than trust members hence the online facility for one and not the other.

On the point of it being marginally easier to register season ticket holders than Trust members, the margin is very small as an example, the FAW manage to do it for every away game when liaison with foreign FAs all around Eurpoe is required, the do it with multiple levels of sales windows for people with different levels of priority using Ticketmaster, it is different criteria every time and it works every time. It is a matter of will and organisation.

Still, my Can Can has improved greatly today.

I agree its not that complicated but it all costs money for us the client - the club probably didn't think it was worth the £x thousands it would cost for a more bespoke system to be used in the event event of a rare big game occurring - yes it has meant some fans are inconvenienced which is a right burger but its a balancing act - one cannot please all of the people all of the time.

CathedralCounty wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:48 pm

Amberexile wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:40 pm

CathedralCounty wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:15 pm

JonD wrote: January 18th, 2024, 2:06 pm Whereas I asa trust member give hundreds a year for one match ticket+school dinner and the right to vote. It's a mug's game

In fairness a lot of trust members pay the lowest subs (£60 a year which is a LOT less than even the cheapest adult season tickets cost) and its not in one cash-flow boosting chunk either arguably the club need a few sweeteners for ST holders whereas the trust in theory is more altruistic perhaps? In any case its not trust v ST holders, many are both, its just easier for Ticketmaster to register ST holders than trust members hence the online facility for one and not the other.

On the point of it being marginally easier to register season ticket holders than Trust members, the margin is very small as an example, the FAW manage to do it for every away game when liaison with foreign FAs all around Eurpoe is required, the do it with multiple levels of sales windows for people with different levels of priority using Ticketmaster, it is different criteria every time and it works every time. It is a matter of will and organisation.

Still, my Can Can has improved greatly today.

I agree its not that complicated but it all costs money for us the client - the club probably didn't think it was worth the £x thousands it would cost for a more bespoke system to be used in the event event of a rare big game occurring - yes it has meant some fans are inconvenienced which is a right burger but its a balancing act - one cannot please all of the people all of the time.

EDIT: Ticketmaster provide a Suite of free APIs so maybe it wasn't the wrong service to buy, maybe we just don't know how to use them to do what we want?

It shouldn't cost thousands. If you buy the right service, it is client controlled customisation/paramaterisation. People buying IT have demanded that for over 30 years. maybe they screwed up the procurement by buying the big name - nobody ever got fired for buying IBM as we used to say.