Online ticketing

[Row L]

On 14/08/2023 at 22:38, smithie said:

For reasons unknown, on Saturday anyone arriving after 2.45 to buy a match ticket was being redirected to the club shop counter to buy one from there. 

It took me around 20 minutes to get my season ticket and (I'll put it kindly) the first home game of the season didn't seem an ideal occasion to have staff on duty who were visibly unaware of what to do.    

As a consequence l had no time to mooch round the club shop.

I also overheard the radio communications between some stewards and it sounded like chaos at the Railway Stand turnstiles. 

We seem to do the big stuff easily and well but struggle to get to grips with the basics. 

I'm sure that you had reasons, so this isn't a direct pop at you or anyone else, but trying to pick a season ticket or match ticket) up 15 minutes before the start of the first game of the season seams like its asking for trouble to me! I have no idea how you thought that you could get a ticket, mooch in the shop , get in the ground and not miss any of the game in 15 minutes!

Saying that, I am not defending the club in any way as Saturday was a bit of a shambles. The turnstiles in the paddock were broken for a long time and it was mad. They are lucky that people were (on the whole) quite good humored about it and stood very very patiently in lines while it was sorted out. It could have been much much worse. I agree with you, get the basics like tickets, queues, food right first Vale!

[andy jones]

5 hours ago, ollyandpatch said:

3000 Hamil, 1800 Lorne St 1200 Bycars. 1800 Paddock comes to 7800 and not even guessed the railway stand. I think the attendance was spot on.

If the announced attendance was correct then I think 7800 Vale (1150 Away) was very encouraging towards Carol's desire to see an average of 10,000 plus a realistic target over the season if we have a successful season. Yes it was first home game, but many people are still on hols.

However Lorne Street was not close to full and were there 3,000 in Hamil with such a big area netted off.

Hope you are right and not me to be honest.

[smithie]

4 hours ago, Row L said:

I'm sure that you had reasons, so this isn't a direct pop at you or anyone else, but trying to pick a season ticket or match ticket) up 15 minutes before the start of the first game of the season seams like its asking for trouble to me! I have no idea how you thought that you could get a ticket, mooch in the shop , get in the ground and not miss any of the game in 15 minutes!

Saying that, I am not defending the club in any way as Saturday was a bit of a shambles. The turnstiles in the paddock were broken for a long time and it was mad. They are lucky that people were (on the whole) quite good humored about it and stood very very patiently in lines while it was sorted out. It could have been much much worse. I agree with you, get the basics like tickets, queues, food right first Vale!

I'd agree , except I was there at 2.30. Instead of allocating alphabetical splits to each window of the ticket office, they had all the season tickets together and the staff were having to wait their turn to search for people's tickets. 

Mistakes happen and unforseen circumstances can arise......but it seemed to be lacking in forethought and organisation.

 

[Brian Johnson]

Just reading some notes from the Supporters Club meeting last night.

The ticket office is now permanently closed.

They want all fans to purchase tickets through the club store

The turnstile manager, ticket office manager and most of the club store staff are now gone

[Rory]

Carlisle are moaning that we haven't sent them any tickets yet, maybe we have shut everything down. I'll never get my membership back, the season could be over for me after tomorrow.

EXPLAIN YOURSELVES PORT VALE.

[Brian Johnson]

5 minutes ago, Rory said:

Carlisle are moaning that we haven't sent them any tickets yet, maybe we have shut everything down. I'll never get my membership back, the season could be over for me after tomorrow.

EXPLAIN YOURSELVES PORT VALE.
 

Just reading some notes from the Supporters Club meeting last night.

The ticket office is now permanently closed.

They want all fans to purchase tickets through the club store

The turnstile manager, ticket office manager and most of the club store staff are now gone

[Rory]

Just reading some notes from the Supporters Club meeting last night.

The ticket office is now permanently closed.

They want all fans to purchase tickets through the club store

The turnstile manager, ticket office manager and most of the club store staff are now gone

Somebody has already said all of that.

[Rory]

It was you. That makes it even dafter.

Port Vale. On its arse I tell you.

[Wrex]

1 hour ago, Brian Johnson said:

Just reading some notes from the Supporters Club meeting last night.

The ticket office is now permanently closed.

They want all fans to purchase tickets through the club store

The turnstile manager, ticket office manager and most of the club store staff are now gone

Did they give an explanation for such bold action?

[NorthwoodValiant]

2 minutes ago, Wrex said:

Did they give an explanation for such bold action?

Well considering all anyone has ever done for the past year is moan about ticketing, hopefully everyone will be over the moon that the club have gotten rid of the people responsible.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Or perhaps everyone will moan about that as well now

[Doha]

Not really sure what to make of that. Why would we "permanently close" the ticket office? Why would we get rid of 4 lots of useful counter space and the facilities in the office?

 

[Wrex]

5 minutes ago, NorthwoodValiant said:

Well considering all anyone has ever done for the past year is moan about ticketing, hopefully everyone will be over the moon that the club have gotten rid of the people responsible.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Or perhaps everyone will moan about that as well now

It does make sense. I'm all for sacking lazy and incompetent people. Surely new people have to come in and take over their responsibilities though?

[NorthwoodValiant]

7 minutes ago, Wrex said:

It does make sense. I'm all for sacking lazy and incompetent people. Surely new people have to come in and take over their responsibilities though?

Imagine you have to get rid of the people before you can replace them

[Brian Johnson]

19 minutes ago, Wrex said:

Did they give an explanation for such bold action?

Not what I can see.

 

[Doha]

My point of view on ticketing comes solely from wanting to be protective of PVFC and its interests.

The online ticketing platform is not fit for purpose. It shouldn't take people 3 hours, like it did Jacko, to get a ticket for Blackpool because the hamsterwheel server ground to a halt. People shouldn't have their card debited but not get a ticket confirmation message & email, not least because it then takes up club staff time and resources the next day when fans have to try to ring up or go out of their way to show up in person to make sure it actually did go through and they actually do have a ticket.

We are all about trying to grow the fanbase. Carol's ambition is a 10,000+ average. Mega, I love that ambition. If you're a weary experienced Vale fan you are used to getting frigged about and the ticketing portal crashing every away ticket release, points resetting without warning, 1876 membership discounts not being applied correctly, only being allowed to buy 1 away ticket despite having 2+ STs linked to your account, turnstile scanners being down etc, it's all par for the course and so you persevere. If you're not a Vale fan but you're wanting to start taking your kids to the football for the first time for summat do and see the big away game as an attractive proposition, or if you've just moved into the area and are curious, or the thousand other reasons where we could attract a new money spending fan to the club, you're not going to bother again when the website crashes on you and the office phone just goes to voicemail, and you can't get a ticket without going out of your way, you can't be bothered with the whim anymore. Worse, you might end going to that lot up the road instead. We could be missing out on future diehards who over their lifetimes could quite easily each spend tens of thousands at the club, simply through making it too much of a ballache to get properly involved.

For every 'product' we have, tickets, food and drink, merchandise, membership packages, we have got to make them all as accessible and easy to buy as possible.