This is further to a conversation, yesterday, regarding the current situation with the ticket office. This is becoming like Kramer v Kramer tbh, entitled Sunderland v The Supporters ... ... we've been struggling not to become angry with the club but have endeavored to separate the SAFC we love from the ineptitude of some of their current employees. ---------------------------------- So, back in 2018 the club asked me to set up as a branch as I sorted (from memory) 40 tickets for Coventry away when the club charged a £1.25 booking fee per ticket capped at £10.00 per customer. Naturally, the ticket website couldn't apply the cap so the club had to manually refund me the difference down to £10, so to make it easier for the club I was set up as a branch and submitted the applications in the same was as the branches do. Everything was going very well until this season when Mr Holmes decided that he didn't want me doing it this way. Fair enough that's his choice at the end of the day with how he wishes to operate the ticket office in his role as ticket office manager. So, now we have to purchase the tickets in batches of 9 with other fans in the group having to add season ticket numbers to their accounts etc. The club have made it as difficult as possible for fans to travel to games in my opinion. This started off from me going to away games by myself many years ago (1996 onwards), to now I travel with significant groups of very good friends that I've made from travelling all over the country with them over a number of many years. The fans who I help out, in the main don't trust the club to deliver their tickets as many have had very poor experience where their tickets haven't arrived and they've told me they trust me to sort ticketing issues out more than they trust the club. I find this to be a very sad state of affairs, but I completely get where they're coming from. Many fans simply want to go to an away game and have a day on the drink etc and not have to spend hours queueing for match tickets that haven't arrived etc. That side of it doesn't bother me particularly as I've undergone life saving heart surgery on 3 separate occasions so drinking isn't particularly for me, hence I'm not too bothered if I have to go an que to collect tickets that don't arrive. I have such a wide ranging network of work colleagues, friends etc, as I umpire in the North East Premier Cricket League, so a very significant number of players, club officials and league officials get me to sort their match tickets and rail travel as well, as a complete package as it's easier for them. Word spreads and they get their mates to do the same as again not everyone has access to the internet when match tickets go on sale etc. (Work, education, sporting participation etc). The majority of these people still can't believe the costs that they end up paying as due to my loyalty to LNER in particular we receive the biggest discounts in the UK on rail travel. As I have a DBS certificate, relevant safeguarding training and experience and the appropriate first aid training and experience, this has allowed many fans who wouldn't normally be able to go to games to travel safely in the knowledge that they're well looked after from door to door. It's safe to say that as time has gone on, numerous fans with suitable experience help with the arrangements and this benefits all who travel with us. Last September (2023) after many years of trying to secure a contract (so to speak) with a train operating company, I finally managed to get this in place with LNER who were delighted to take on the work and the example of yesterday only serves to prove how valuable this arrangement is to me and the group that I help out. Many of the deals I get from LNER are quite frankly unbelievable, however, as LNER have advised me I am the biggest non business purchaser of train tickets in the UK, it's very understandable that I receive the level of customer pre and post service that I do. As @tunstallhill (https://www.readytogo.net/smb/members/3116/) mentioned in another post I saw yesterday, companies fall over themselves to secure and then retain those levels of business. When refunds are required on delayed / cancelled trains etc many of the fans who travel with me wouldn't bother claiming their refunds as they'd consider it too much hassle etc (many don't know their entitlement as each train operating company offers differing levels of delay repay, however, these are all done for them during a weekly meeting that I have with LNER. As we have moved in to a world of no telephone communication with the club, E Mails very rarely answered and such a complete lack of customer service in general, more and more fans who are having difficulty in purchasing their match tickets are contacting me for help. 2 fans missed out on going to Portsmouth due to a technical issue on the clubs ticketing website as just one example.
I will message the lad on RTG, just to see if he could help the small number of our members who go to away games all the time, they could use the help on transport as they are reliant on cars, ALS or the odd minibus, but its not cheap for them
I'll pm his contacts Chunk, he's a great lad and has taken on a huge amount of work for no profit. In fact he, and me to a degree, lose money because we buy tickets, cop the fees & postage and only ever charge face value. It's all for the love of the club and our fellow supporters which sounds a bit soft but there you go. At least we now have modern technology to help. When I ran my Mansfield 'branch' there was no internet or mobile phones. Most lads didn't have house phones so I'd spend Thursday night driving around persuading lads to go when they'd said they'd not be able to ... ... I used to be hated by lots of unhappy wives and mothers who'd already planned a weekend of chores or shopping
Hes a fantastic lad as Smug says, i travel with him with my lads, some of the LNER deals he gets are unreal, it works out cheap for me to go by train with my lads than it would on a supporters bus
Agree with the comments of @Smug in Boots and @The Professor . He is a cracking lad who only wants to help Sunderland supporters. Yes I travel with him and nothing is to much trouble for him.
You should both now have each others contacts. Your lads who go to away games should see a significant change in how much they're forking out. Good luck and Ha'way the Lads!!!
Word around the campfire is that Holmes has been sacked, anyone know anything? He seemed to be waging war against supporters, especially for away games, which was unacceptable. Claiming that tickets had sold out for Portsmouth because he couldn't be arsed to organise them being sold and sent out, was disgraceful. Hopefully he was the Michael Beale and his replacement is an RLB
Sorry you’ve been a victim of the ineptitude that the commercial side of the business have shown over the last few years. A few of us have pointed the wider issues out in the past and things are changing (although the Vaux/Double Maxim issue was another blemish) so hopefully this person has gone on a customer service training course or been replaced by someone who knows what they’re doing. Unfortunately, due to the way they’ve been treated since Short left some good people have left the ticket office and took their tacit knowledge with them. WRT Smugs Train Travel service. Does it work for any tickets or just football related.
Long as hes gone is the main thing, hopefully someone who has a clue & is keen to build bridges, recognise the need for supporters, want fans to have a decent experience with this area of the club
He's definitely gone the distance, fingers crossed for the next one ... ... the whole club is being improved and this is a very important aspect of the club.
Exactly mate, no club without supporters, club are very lucky to have support we do.... especially given people are practically having to fight to go to games..... feeling this will change for the good very soon
