I seem to be losing track of this thread now? Many posts ago I said the club are interested in hearing our ideas for improving the system, lets give them a chance before calling all out war. Damo, the compromise you suggest already exists, there are 4 friends for a £5 vouchers in the season ticket book which can be exchanged without further cost, along with your ticket for that match for a guest ticket. (if you plan to miss more than 4 games I suggest a season ticket is not the way to go) Most of the other arguments about train tickets, cinema tickets, car parks, are all smoke screens, you don't pay for a reserved seat/space, if you don't use it someone else does unlike your football seat which remains empty.
Damo What is the difference between a season ticket holder, who cannot attend a match through, say illness, passing his ticket to his brother and a person who has bought a single ticket doing exactly the same thing? Both are technically non transferrable and both are difficult to enforce. By the way, at Old Trafford most of the best seats have been occupied by the same (long deceased) season ticket holders for the last 50 years or so. They are family heirlooms passed from generation to generation. It is just custom and practice which is common place and the consequences are already "priced in" and quite unlike the examples you quote which do not anticipate 100% useage potential and are priced accordingly.
I've added rep and told him that if I was queer I would kiss him for this post ( IT deserves a place in the AGRS thread ) Damo666 You are absolutely correct. You may have seen that I have accepted that season tickets have NEVER been transferrable. I just would like some parity with non-STH regarding their ability to return unusable tickets for a refund. I know that THIS will never happen with season tickets - and I don't think it is relevant - because I am sure all STH would look to try to 'use' the ticket for a guest. I have suggested, in my email to the Club, that I do not have a major problem in the ( ridiculous ) practise of changing the season ticket to allow a guest to use my seat - but, as the Club have already received payment in FULL for the seat allocated to ME, they should do so without extorting more money out of us.... This 'gesture' , rather than expecting us to use the 'Friends for a £5,' would 'deprive' the Club of 'peanuts' and the equivalent money, if not more may be spent by the guest whilst inside the ground. If my seat remains empty the Club WILL lose at LEAST £5 out of me on ALL matchdays ( I will refrain from purchasing anything inside the ground by way of protest ) edit - bristol407 - I didn't realise that I was a trouble maker - sorry ( as if )
People are still talking about a cost for transferring their seat to a friend? As far as I can see from Paulo's letter it costs nothing. "the £5 friend voucher and relevant match voucher will be exchanged for a £5 guest ticket" nowhere does it say you have to pay money, it's a exchange of vouchers for a ticket.
grumpygit I have read the message again. You could be right. The message can be read as an extra payment is not as well as is required. The Club needs to clarify this point - but I bet I can guess which is correct. If the exchange is 'free', I'm not sure that this STH can continue to complain on a personal basis - but I would still say that a 'gesture' of goodwill would not hurt the Club - so that the STH can use the ' Friends for a £5 ' tickets to try to encourage non supporters to start following the Gills.
I read it as "exchange" they do give a nominal Value of £5 for the guest ticket but most things give this nominal value for tax/accounting purposes, it has no mention of cash payment anywhere.
Not happy about id cards but it was obvious that the Season tickets were not transferable. But if the £5 voucher can be used if STH misses a game for no cost then well done to the club. Hopefully the club will clarify this. If anyone is picking up their season ticket tomorrow could they ask this question.
I shall be in Gillingham for the next two days - picking up my season tickets & an extra matchday ticket and 2 tickets for the Wolves game (brb don't be surprised if I charge you a £5 'carraige' fee.) I will ask the question re additional charge for 'exchange' of STH to a guest. Do you think I should take my solicitor ?
alwaysright - there is no additional charge for an exchange, I have always understood that. It is an exchange of a friends for a fiver voucher from your book only. However, ask them how this works online or over the phone? Assumption would be that it just deducts one from your database rather than an exchange of paper. Although more importantly will then be an admin charge for this purpose. If so again it defeats the point of being an ST holder, because to avoid the charge, you would either have to go to the ground or pick them up on match days. Again I might as well convert to match day tickets IF this scenario applied. I just feel at this moment in time there has not been a lot of thought put into this from the supporters view point. Obviously I would be happy to be proved wrong.
brb Today I picked up my season ticket - and that of my son. A couple of days ago my brother picked up his ticket and that of my nephew - would you believe that, despite having a photo of my brother in front of them - the idiot at the club ticket office asked my brother for identification. I asked the personnel at the ticket office regarding a fee for exchange as has been discussed. I regret to say that they say that a fee of £5 will be demanded. The personnel in the office agreed with me that this is wrong - but that is their directive. As you say - not a lot of thought has been put into this 'extortion' - because I know that, over 23 league games the minimum I would have spent on shirts, programs, lottery tickets and hot or cold drinks ( let alone any food ) is £ 264. I will not be spending a penny more on anything ( I can easilly bring my own hot or cold drinks and chocolate bars ( none for you BSG ), whilst the Club insists on making this extra charge. I will, reluctantly hand over the extra £5 to allow a guest to use any unused ticket - I doubt if it will be as many as 4 times a season. I hope the Club enjoys the 'extra' £ 20 whilst reflecting on the net 'loss' of £ 244 !!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Guys Not been on hear for a while but I felt I had to say something about the season tickets. As some of you may know I no longer am a season ticket holder. Prior to this I held three tickets as I have a family of five but due to work etc it was rare that more than two from the family went at once but i could spin any three from five. There IS NO WAY i would ever buy 5 tickets for my family when no more than three attend at a time. I would point out that the tickets given to sponsors are not subject to these conditions...anyone can go. If the seat IS paid for then imo it is paid for. Football clubs are getting more like the government every day Rant Over
and here lays the serious problem. I'm sure there has to be something in this regarding trading standards. Most ST holders I have spoken too were not aware of this £5 charge on purchase of season ticket. Even still I did not think the £5 charge applied as I said somewhere earlier without reading back. Yet now the office are telling you the £5 charge will be demanded. No wonder ST holders such as ourselves are bloody confused. In the next turn of breath I'm expecting someone to tell us it does not apply to the friends for a fiver ticket exchange. Surely this has to be about clear and concise pricing.
( well - for me they are ! ) As you know I buy 2 adult tickets - one for my younger son. They each cost £ 365 ( the season ticket - not my sons ! - that figure is a hell of a lot more ). This coming season, as a STH I am entitled to use the 4 'Friends for a £5' tickets, plus I get 2 'free' tickets - as well as the kids for a £1 - which will probably go unused. My son's season ticket has the same ' benfits ' However, if I had purchased only MY season ticket and used the aforementioned discounts to buy pre-matchday tickets for my son , the cost would work out at £ 360. .....That is 4 x £5, two 'free' plus 17 games @ £20. This is before any 'savings' I could achieve if neither my son or guest could attend. My son would not have needed to provide photo ID & I could purchase the ticket for ANYONE to use. Don't tell me about guaranteeing the same seat etc - because I purchase additional tickets next to, or directly in front of my seat on many occasions - without any problem. All of THIS ^^^^^^^^ AND I wouldn't need to be ripped off another £5 plus the hassle of the inconvenience of the administration and let's not forget the further savings I could make by taking advantage of extra 'deals' given to all fans during the season. It almost makes it a no-brainer for anyone buying two or more season tickets NOT to do so in future.
Exactly. The more we discuss it the more I have realised how bad this deal actually is for me personally. I completely forgot about the 2 free tickets! So contrary to my emails to the club my losses with 2 ST's now amount further. Adult ST £350 = £350 If I miss 4 home games = £380 (Pre) Match Day Tickets. = £30 dearer MDT However, I could have made these savings... -£5 online ST charge for purchasing my two ST's -£5 ID -£60 Friends for a Fiver -£40 2 x Free Tickets Although add back on £20 for purchase of friends for a fiver tickets. Total £90 £380 - £90 = £290 compared to £350 for ST ok, ok you can minus £2.50 for the split between two ST admin charges, making it £292.50 I still would have saved £57.50 if I had NOT bought 2 x ST's...which would allow me to attend a further two games (21) and still make a saving of £17.50 !
I now have no clue as wheter what I bought with all the money was in fact the most cost effective way of watching the Gills But I like my seat and really don't like sitting anywhere else, I don't want the hassle of buying tickets for matches and as I normally got to all the home games I suppose that a ST still makes sense? Enough of this now though pleased to report that my youngest was able to collect two season tickets without any form of identity or knowing the highly secret customer numbers of either of us, that's the sort of service I expect from a small club - never mind all these stupid rules lets have some decent customer service please Mr Scally Football Saturday and Tuesday Roy
Everyone is missing the point in terms of cost. A season ticket holder lends the club £3-400 over the next 10 months or so providing a cash flow advantage to the club which would otherwise borrow at overdraft rates (very expensive). Secondly the season ticket holder runs the comparatively high risk (maybe a 10% chance ) that the club will go into administration or just fold up and an unexpired ticket is worthless oe there are just no games to go and see. In economic terms a season ticket holder has to expect at least a 20% discount if he is going to attend every game, or send a substitute. in reality i reckon most season ticket holders will miss 4-5 games a year and if there is going to be a restriction on substitutes this warrants a further 15 % discount. This is an argument from an economist rather than a passionate supporter but it is sometimes essential to do a proper economic analysis in order to reach a correct intellectual conclusion.
Even if you do, why should it be the STH that pays it? If its £5, then your mate should be giving you that money himself to pay for it...and be happy he's getting a discounted game whilst the STH isn't ripping off the club by handing his ticket out to just anyone. Are we really still droning on over this?
On a personal basis, I cannot make any apology for fighting a point of principle. For me, the subject can be anything - not just about football. If something is morally wrong, I hope that I continue to have strength of character to voice my opposition. I appreciate that what GFC are doing to STH is 'legal' within their T & Cs, but it is NOT ethical. Some STH, including myself, have mentioned the economic stupidity of the Club if they persist with their conditions on STH. We will ensure that the Club will lose substantially more than they stand to gain from their shortsightedness. Like I said - It's not about Football - and I will NOT sit down and allow Apathy to rule.
Hang on though, the savings you mentioned aren't available to non ST holders though are they, are you not assuming that you would need a ST holding friend, who essentially will give you all his friends for a fiver and free ticket benefits? Is this not an unreasonable assumption, unless your friend only happens to haveone friend i.e. you.
