I expect we will be having a lively discussion on the ticket position on the coach down tomorrow, and now we have to add the weather to it! Extra liquid refreshment needed later to get through to KO time.
Top brass shocked...you should have suggested he hangs around SS tomorrow with a name badge on, I live in hope he'll take your comments onboard and actually engage but it's probably lovely in the Ivory Tower having a wander through the tunnel club to see that everyone is happy.For those without Facebook this was posted by way of an update following the city matters meeting.
Its at least good to know that the people with the power to make changes are aware of the issues so let's see how they respond....
Fellow Blues
As promised, here are the headlines from the CM meeting last night. The meeting had a lot of City staff in attendance including Danny Wilson, Head of Supporter Services and more importantly Roel de Vries the relatively new chap they have headhunted from Nissan to run operations. He is effectively Danny’s boss.
Here are the headlines…
1.
they decide to introduce Mobile Ticketing because they believe the Everton trial had been a ”success”. We honestly laughed at this suggestion and said the supporters believe otherwise.
2.
They honestly believe that Mobile Ticketing will be of great benefit to fans. I told them that so far they had not proved this to be the case and that they should promote the benefits… They have a list of ideas which you might find interesting such as easily upgrading your ticket to a different part of the stadium of finding out which bar does not have a long queue… I have asked them to give me this information so I can share with you. On the plus side, supporters are already using the electronic Ticket Transfer facility which I think will prove popular.
2.
They described what’s going on at the moment as “challenging” and said that in terms of responding to phone calls and emails they are “not where they would like to be”. I made the point strongly that fans were not just feeling a bit let down, they were downright ANGRY! I think Roel de Vries was shocked, believe me, I gave them both barrels on your behalf.
3.
I told them that because Mobile Ticketing is taking up all their time, all the other issues are being missed and ignored because people cannot get through on the phones and emails are not being replied to and this is completely unacceptable.
4.
CM requested weeks ago that City consider should slow down and introduce mobile ticketing in phases but Danny wanted to go for a Big Bang approach. I emphasised that the club’s decision to introduce an untested system when supporters had not been in the stadium for 18 months has created this tsunami of complaints and enquiries. I told them in no uncertain terms this was a self-inflicted wound with older people, disabled people and people not tech savvy particularly disadvantaged. I have requested that the club apologise to supporters and offer something as a token as part of this apology. They promised to take my request seriously and I will talk to them about it next week.
5.
We told them that fans were saying “the team on the pitch are Premier league, the organisation behind it is third division at best”, I could tell this hurt. Roel de Vries promised that in the future major changes will be brought to CM much earlier for our comment and input, let’s see if this happens.
6.
I told them that nobody believes the technology will work well, people are waiting for it to be a disaster. They promised that tomorrow their primary job will be to get fans in the stadium. If something doesn’t work, the staff are briefed to take a note of the problem, let the supporter in, then Supporter Services will address the issue later in the week.
Of course, tomorrow’s weather forecast is for heavy downpours, so like all of you I am looking forward to queueing in the rain for two hours to get into our Stadium to watch Norwich put 11 men behind the ball for 90 minutes. Up the Blues!
I’m not really sure, with all due respect @blue b4 the moon, that SS is the stand he should be visiting. The people who appear to be most affected if you read a lot of the posts are the older ones with sons, daughters, nephews etc downloading for them sorting out their tickets and generally doing the job of supporting fans for them.Top brass shocked...you should have suggested he hangs around SS tomorrow with a name badge on, I live in hope he'll take your comments onboard and actually engage but it's probably lovely in the Ivory Tower having a wander through the tunnel club to see that everyone is happy.
Whereabouts do you see this on Facebook? Is it a City group or do you have to follow someone? Cheers.For those without Facebook this was posted by way of an update by the Cm rep following the city matters meeting.
Its at least good to know that the people with the power to make changes are aware of the issues so let's see how they respond....
Fellow Blues
As promised, here are the headlines from the CM meeting last night. The meeting had a lot of City staff in attendance including Danny Wilson, Head of Supporter Services and more importantly Roel de Vries the relatively new chap they have headhunted from Nissan to run operations. He is effectively Danny’s boss.
Here are the headlines…
1.
they decide to introduce Mobile Ticketing because they believe the Everton trial had been a ”success”. We honestly laughed at this suggestion and said the supporters believe otherwise.
2.
They honestly believe that Mobile Ticketing will be of great benefit to fans. I told them that so far they had not proved this to be the case and that they should promote the benefits… They have a list of ideas which you might find interesting such as easily upgrading your ticket to a different part of the stadium of finding out which bar does not have a long queue… I have asked them to give me this information so I can share with you. On the plus side, supporters are already using the electronic Ticket Transfer facility which I think will prove popular.
2.
They described what’s going on at the moment as “challenging” and said that in terms of responding to phone calls and emails they are “not where they would like to be”. I made the point strongly that fans were not just feeling a bit let down, they were downright ANGRY! I think Roel de Vries was shocked, believe me, I gave them both barrels on your behalf.
3.
I told them that because Mobile Ticketing is taking up all their time, all the other issues are being missed and ignored because people cannot get through on the phones and emails are not being replied to and this is completely unacceptable.
4.
CM requested weeks ago that City consider should slow down and introduce mobile ticketing in phases but Danny wanted to go for a Big Bang approach. I emphasised that the club’s decision to introduce an untested system when supporters had not been in the stadium for 18 months has created this tsunami of complaints and enquiries. I told them in no uncertain terms this was a self-inflicted wound with older people, disabled people and people not tech savvy particularly disadvantaged. I have requested that the club apologise to supporters and offer something as a token as part of this apology. They promised to take my request seriously and I will talk to them about it next week.
5.
We told them that fans were saying “the team on the pitch are Premier league, the organisation behind it is third division at best”, I could tell this hurt. Roel de Vries promised that in the future major changes will be brought to CM much earlier for our comment and input, let’s see if this happens.
6.
I told them that nobody believes the technology will work well, people are waiting for it to be a disaster. They promised that tomorrow their primary job will be to get fans in the stadium. If something doesn’t work, the staff are briefed to take a note of the problem, let the supporter in, then Supporter Services will address the issue later in the week.
Of course, tomorrow’s weather forecast is for heavy downpours, so like all of you I am looking forward to queueing in the rain for two hours to get into our Stadium to watch Norwich put 11 men behind the ball for 90 minutes. Up the Blues!
You may well be correct on the stand however, even in normal times it's the SS3 where there's less entry points to people.I’m not really sure, with all due respect @blue b4 the moon, that SS is the stand he should be visiting. The people who appear to be most affected if you read a lot of the posts are the older ones with sons, daughters, nephews etc downloading for them sorting out their tickets and generally doing the job of supporting fans for them.
@didsburyblu Was the question raised about older supporters? The consensus seems to be that the so called Legacy fans are the ones being ignored.
This new guy is a marketing guy from reading his CV both with us and with Nissan. So more money making than people orientated.
You don’t, in your excellent report, say what questions were raised really. Just what they said and the fact that CM were vocal.
Did you ask about the issues for older people and also and to my mind more important, our disabled supporters and their issues both with Carers tickets and with car parking.
Thank you for your report. :-)
They just have to have a supporter number so register them an account online, which will generate a supporter number and then add them to your cousin's friends and family list then transfer the ticket.My cousin who I sit with has just phoned to say he can’t make it, so what do I do in this instance? Ordinarily one of my sisters or nieces would come along but they’re not listed as friends and family and besides I thought friends and family had to be season ticket holders or is it just they have to be a member/citizen?? Help needed!!
Cheers mate. I’ll do that but think it might be too late to do anything for tomorrow’s game.They just have to have a supporter number so register them an account online, which will generate a supporter number and then add them to your cousin's friends and family list then transfer the ticket.
think if you start the process when you join the queue you'll have it all sorted by the time you're halfway to the turnstile.Cheers mate. I’ll do that but think it might be too late to do anything for tomorrow’s game.
Apologies for the confusion I wasnt privy to or part of the meeting I was just passing on the info as reported by the city matters rep on FacebookI’m not really sure, with all due respect @blue b4 the moon, that SS is the stand he should be visiting. The people who appear to be most affected if you read a lot of the posts are the older ones with sons, daughters, nephews etc downloading for them sorting out their tickets and generally doing the job of supporting fans for them.
@didsburyblu Was the question raised about older supporters? The consensus seems to be that the so called Legacy fans are the ones being ignored.
This new guy is a marketing guy from reading his CV both with us and with Nissan. So more money making than people orientated.
You don’t, in your excellent report, say what questions were raised really. Just what they said and the fact that CM were vocal.
Did you ask about the issues for older people and also and to my mind more important, our disabled supporters and their issues both with Carers tickets and with car parking.
Thank you for your report. :-)