I have sent an e-mail to Dave L of Bristol City about the complete cock-up on Saturday and the way our fans were treated, I have had some PM's from various people about it, I have waited for 48 hours to see if there would be a response, so far nothing.. I am aware that they will hardly take any notice of me but I felt that some sort of action was necessary just to register the way people feel, a copy of the e-mail is down below and I will copy any responses or answers to you cheers wiz.. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Hi Dave L, I am getting loads of bad comments from our not606 members about the complete shambles on Saturday, I have always had a good response from you Dave but why are we hearing nothing from the club about the complete farce and let down over Saturday. I won't repeat all the bad feelings this has created with loads of our fans, will you please update us with some information from the powers that be, the people who are supposed to be running things and in control.. We've not even heard a mention of an apology, just give us an update and a reaction please Dave... Below please find a copy of a typical comment... ' THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE HOW ******** INEPT THIS CLUB IS. What moron is in charge of pay-on-the-day ticketing arrangements? If they wanted to dream up the most customer unfriendly arrangements they couldn't do better - 1) let's make them queue a couple of hundred deep at 5 booths (with away fans!) to buy a ticket 2) lets take a couple of minutes to print off each ticket 3) then, let's really wind them up by giving them a choice of 30 odd open turnstiles with people standing around with nothing to do 4) let's then have loads of stewards and 'I'm here to help' people clueless as to what to do with 1,000 odd people stuck outside an event 25 minutes after its started. Apparently, to quote a steward, 'they were surprised at how many POTD customers turned up'. Even if you could forgive this massive cock up - where the ******* hell was the contingency plan. You have around 1500 people queuing outside with 15 minutes to go before KO in the knowledge you'll get 100 in at KO time. What do you do City?... ABSOLUTELY F...ALL. You've got turnstiles, turnstile operators, people with cash.... you brainless *****s! In 50 years of following City home and away and attending other major sporting events I have never known such a level of incompetence and utter contempt towards paying customers. I travelled up 2 hours for Devon the guy in front of me across from Hull with 2 kids .. thank you City for totally ******** any residue of support for my Club. Never again will I attend AG on a POTD basis.... Any spontaneous 'let's go to AG' is out for me, as I'm sure it will be for many hundreds of other fans. Cr@p, absolute cr@p. One exception to the total contempt demonstrated to fans was a young steward, who at my suggestion actually went to the shop 10 mins after KO and asked them to sell tickets. The fact he didn't come out to tell us they had agreed and it still took them 5 minutes per customer to print off the tickets is neither here nor there and least he DID SOMETHING! The minimum I expect is a full apology, an explanation of why it happened and details of a plan that is agreed by us fans as being a good solution. But hey, it seems we're just fodder to be treated like *****. Remember City, one mistake (Reading) is a 'learning experience', two mistakes (Reading & Bradford) is total and utter incompetence. One final thing. What was our Fans Liaison Officer doing on the pitch at half time? He should have been in the boardroom with the person responsible for ticketing arrangements demanding he goes out on the pitch to personally apologise to all City and Bradford fans who were caught up in the farce. If the Liaison Officer didn't know what was going on outside the ground at 3:25pm then he should have done. I am posting this on our forum and we all await some sort of response from you on behalf of the club.. Thankyou Dave... Derrick &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
You will probably get a reply in about a week saying they are looking into it but that procedures are in place, nothing about what those proceedures are or what exactly they are looking into, then it will get forgotten. That's based on my experience of emailing Bristol City.
I've not had an answer but he flashed this up on OTIB... ' I'm reading this on my phone at a services on the m5 having been up to Manchester to watch the test match yesterday and catch up with family. Sorry I've not been around to respond more fully. Saturday was totally unacceptable and it can't, and won't be allowed to happen again. I understand that a full explanation and apology will be forthcoming this afternoon. '
Has anyone ever noticed that when anything goes wrong in life and I am not just talking football here but things like NHS and so on, that the stock reply is that we will be holding an investigation so that it never happens again. Sorry to give these deluded investigators but it ALWAYS DOES HAPPEN AGAIN! Excuses excuses excuses.
I don't doubt that there will be an investigation into what happened. My issue isn't necessarily down to incompetence, but down to management and process. The problem with the response we've received is that neither of them highlights exactly what the problem was, and how they intend to fix it. What will probably happen is an investigation, with some blame attached to someone. If they aren't a higher-up heads will roll, and if they are then it won't.
Mistakes will always happen - and yes, I'm afraid when something like that happens, you investigate and put processes in place to stop them from happening again. That's how every business works.
Just had this response from Dave L... Saturdays Complete Farce.. david lloyd ([email protected]) To 'derrick ' Hi Derrick Thanks for your email. This supporter has contacted me directly and I have written to him to explain and apologise. The club has now released an apology on the website. The bottom line is that what happened on Saturday is totally unacceptable and we must – and will – make sure that this doesn’t happen again. Regards David Lloyd Supporter Liaison Bristol City Football Club Direct line: 0117 963 0683 Email: [email protected] Twitter: @dave_backwell We've had an answer from Dave L, an apology on the O/S, I thnk that is as far as we can go, I'd like to thank Dave for his reply...
