... you're a blight on the club and upsetting lots of people. At a time when the whole club is getting its act together you're becoming the SAFC Mr Fawlty. Not only do you keep making huge mistakes your response to people's queries or genuine complaints is shameful. Get it sorted and have some self respect, you're acting as if you're bigger than the club which is bad enough ... ... but you seem to believe you're above supporters who've been here longer than you'll ever be. Get a grip ffs and address the most important part of your job, customer service not empire building. You'll be lucky to get a job in an injury claims call centre the way you're going.
The reply to that email from TT is shocking really. The club seem to be working through putting things right, hopefully the ticket office is on their radar to sort out.
I'd be fuming if one of my team responded to a client like that. Everything about it is completely unprofessional. Presumably it's a response from some kid in the job who hasn't had proper training. I'd be responding to it and asking for the name of the person and for it to be escalated to the manager.
No matter what kind of business you're in that's no way to speak to a client. The fact that some of these 'clients' have been there longer than he's been alive makes it much worse. This is such a shame when the club is gradually ridding itself of the legacy of ineptitude it was left with.
A tricky situation that could b resolved by someone from the club picking up the phone. Instead an anonymous bullshit email gets sent. Many years ago when I ran customer service depts I used to encourage (demand) that my staff phoned people up instead of sending cowardly letters and emails. Most people will accept a **** situation if the people involved front up, take ownership and offer a resolution
Mentioned a few times the bother I had with my card last season. Both the digital ticket office email they want you to go through and the actual ticket office at BCH were ****ing useless with one telling me something whilst the other contradicting them and telling me another. Ended up missing over half of the season because they refused to admit their fault and I refused to buy a part season card to see me until the end of the season.
In my various lives I've had quite a few occasions when I've completely f*cked up ... ... my policy has always been to say, "I've completely f*cked up, no excuse," The reaction has almost always been 'fair enough, we all make mistakes'. Most people are quite reasonable and don't really want the argument they're sometimes pushed into. My first, and probably only, bit of advice when I started working on the doors was 'Don't back someone into a corner with no way out'. I'd say that pretty much applies to all aspects of life imo.
The Sunderland Echo have picked this up now and will be running an article. Registered letters have gone off to KLD, Holmes and Bruce asking for any comments before the story is published. The Echo journalist is a Sunderland supporter, his number is below if anyone wants to contact him. Neil 07879331065 -- Neil Fatkin Reporter
They’re a long way away from being great at everything they do, which is what the club motto aspires to. Hopefully this gets sorted and if they can’t sit in U18 together they get somewhere better. Young Lewis Spence is trying to improve things on LinkedIn in general for SAFC with the hospitality push and his colleague’s response just undermines that .
If you hire a ticket office manager, who claims to be at the top of his game, you should be able to just leave him to it. It reminds of FIFA who keep trying to improve the game by making it increasingly complicated.
What a fiasco this is going to be for next Saturday due to the rule changes on branches and the very short notice given and the deadline for submitting the branch application. As the branch organiser was not available to submit the branch application in time, they had to get the various fans to purchase their match tickets themselves online and have them posted out by the club. Unfortunately, out of the 93 tickets purchased only 12 have arrived. Due to holidays, they’re now going to have to arrange the collection of the remaining 81 tickets at Cardiff. This is progress according to Mr Holmes ... ... the man has ONE job and he's making a complete pigs ear of it with hairs on. @Guinness Guzzler please can you provide this feedback to the club as it’s naturally causing unnecessary additional stress and anxiety to loyal match going supporters. All of these tickets were purchased between Thursday 25th July and Monday 29th July and would therefore have been expected to have been received on Friday of last week at the latest assuming that SAFC posted them as they advise supporters that they would do. 8 of the tickets purchased on 25th July were postmarked 29th July and received on 31st July.
Already embarrassing to our fans that things that are simple cannot be organised.....but now their managing to go a step further by impacting on the workload of Cardiff's ticket office.....wont be long after this happens with a few more clubs & our ticketing operation will be considered a nightmare to deal with by all other clubs....might find this impacts other clubs decision making when setting our allocation as they may simply not be in a position to have thousands turn up for reprints just before kick off.... something needs sorting quickly on this @Guinness Guzzler if you could make club aware this could have multiple implications. On another note @Guinness Guzzler rather than having this nightmare yourself mediating....it might just be easier & simpler if you become the ticket office manager
Good point mate. The Cardiff ticket is going to be inundated with Sunderland supporters. They'll either arrive a little later than they now need to or cut short their time in the pub. As we all know beer/mates/match is the perfect combination, especially after six hours on a coach. It's a real shame that people are going down, with the worry that there may be a problem collecting their ticket, and have to cut short their time, in the pub with friends, to collect a ticket. And what happens if there's two hundred people queuing and they can't produce a ticket for the first person ... ... you know and so do I. Tempers will be raised, the poor bloke at the front will be aggravated and everyone else will start to panic in case they have the same problem. Voices will become louder and the stewards, then possibly the police, will be called. And, for no good reason what should be an exciting first match of a new season will be spoiled because a man with one job, and one product, can't cope. It's absolutely disgraceful especially when we have technology that's supposed to make these things easy.
One of the branches I'm friends with has been filling me in with how much the members have saved for the Cardiff game. Through negotiations with hotels and train companies they've managed to get return trains from Newcastle, hotel on Friday night and match ticket for £120 for adults and £60 for U18s. Without work by the branches this game, and others, probably wouldn't sell out. Of course the likes of Boro, Leeds, etc, would. Putting all the tickets on general sale would often mean young supporters, the future, would look at a cost of well over £100 and bin the idea. The ticket office seem to be either missing this or don't actually care how much support we take away.
Sunderland AFC fans upset over 'ongoing' ticketing issues - club responds concerns raised (sunderlandecho.com)
https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news...1n4A6Tszuvm4yUpZkI_aem_pus7gzLesstQqj17ZQtqww With the season less than a week away, Sunderland AFC has responded to a number of concerns raised by supporters regarding “ongoing ticketing issues”. A key area of concern regards the booking and distribution of away game tickets. Gateshead supporters branch founder Paul Haley contacted the Sunderland Echo after “finally reaching breaking point” over what he described as “ongoing ticketing issues” for the branch and its members.
