New Turnstiles v Tottenham Hotspur Tomorrow

Marvin. said:
I have used google pay for ages. Last season I couldn't use NFS on my turnstile so I relied on scanning the barcode. After downloading the season ticket and finding that there was no bar code option, I went down to the ground and tested it on a turnstile that City had set up for the purpose, and it worked.

Yesterday, my phone would not scan at turnstile K. The stewards in the yellow and white vests tried and it didn't work. The majority of fans were getting in but a significant number were not. I was sent to join a huge queue at a pre-fabricated supporter services office and it moved incredibly slowly. I was in that queue for an hour. Before I got to the front, a steward went down the queue to say that if you have ticket for turnstile K, try it again because it should now be working, and it did using NFS.

My problem with this is that:

a) Each turnstile should have been tested repeatedly with multiple phones. That does not seem to have happened.
b) They should have had the barcode option in case of NFS failure.
c) They should have had more people available to produce paper tickets, or a better work-around.

These are simple and obvious steps but City did not take them.

There was a guy behind me in the queue for supporter services who had come from Italy to watch this game. The system worked fine for the vast majority of fans, but for hundreds it did not. I don't know the scale of the problem as I did not walk around the ground to see if there were other queues at supporter services offices.

I am going to complain about this because I think that is the right thing to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. If people don't complain, then problems do not get resolved. I know that the problem is with City's hardware and not my phone because I use my phone everywhere without problem to pay and it has worked at a test turnstile, and it did eventually work on the day.
Click to expand...

I think the level of testing (or not as the case may be) is a kind of proxy for the level of consideration (contempt?) that is given to the fans. Though it's not realistic or cost effective to eliminate all issues they and/or their tech partners would have had a pretty good idea of what level of service they would end up offering on Saturday and decided that would be sufficient/tolerated by the fans. In effect the fans paid for the privilege of participating in the latter stages of the test cycle.

Tbf to the club as a strategy it's cynical but effective unless and until the fans find the appetite and meaningful ways to punish the club for treating them this way.
 
It worked fine for me, to the point where I was a bit baffled as to why the queues were so big.

I did see people struggling with how to use the contactless, taking double figures in attempts before getting in.

Suggestion to the club, if you change anything to do with getting in, let people come down during the week and trial getting in.

It won't fix it for everyone, late buyers and people living afar but it'd fix it for most. And those struggling could maybe get an alternative.
 
MCFC1993 said:
It worked fine for me, to the point where I was a bit baffled as to why the queues were so big.

I did see people struggling with how to use the contactless, taking double figures in attempts before getting in.

Suggestion to the club, if you change anything to do with getting in, let people come down during the week and trial getting in.

It won't fix it for everyone, late buyers and people living afar but it'd fix it for most. And those struggling could maybe get an alternative.
Click to expand...
They did have a trial in the week before. Marvin went down and his worked fine but didn't on Saturday. I think he's trying to get a plastic card now.
 
How much longer are fans going to put up with this shit? What other industry or business go out of their way to make it hard to receive something you have purchased?

I strongly suggest a game - maybe a home league cup game with an attempt to have a 100% boycott of the game with the threat to it going into a PL game to have entry into the game made simple.
What the fuck was wrong with a season card or paper ticket?
For whose benefit are all these changes for? And why? Certainly not the paying customers.
It’s time the customers started fighting back. I appreciate it’s easy for me to suggest this 5,000 miles away, but the club need challenging on this. They listened after the protests last season and they need to listen again.
 
Marvin. said:
I have used google pay for ages. Last season I couldn't use NFS on my turnstile so I relied on scanning the barcode. After downloading the season ticket and finding that there was no bar code option, I went down to the ground and tested it on a turnstile that City had set up for the purpose, and it worked.

Yesterday, my phone would not scan at turnstile K. The stewards in the yellow and white vests tried and it didn't work. The majority of fans were getting in but a significant number were not. I was sent to join a huge queue at a pre-fabricated supporter services office and it moved incredibly slowly. I was in that queue for an hour. Before I got to the front, a steward went down the queue to say that if you have ticket for turnstile K, try it again because it should now be working, and it did using NFS.

My problem with this is that:

a) Each turnstile should have been tested repeatedly with multiple phones. That does not seem to have happened.
b) They should have had the barcode option in case of NFS failure.
c) They should have had more people available to produce paper tickets, or a better work-around.

These are simple and obvious steps but City did not take them.

There was a guy behind me in the queue for supporter services who had come from Italy to watch this game. The system worked fine for the vast majority of fans, but for hundreds it did not. I don't know the scale of the problem as I did not walk around the ground to see if there were other queues at supporter services offices.

I am going to complain about this because I think that is the right thing to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. If people don't complain, then problems do not get resolved. I know that the problem is with City's hardware and not my phone because I use my phone everywhere without problem to pay and it has worked at a test turnstile, and it did eventually work on the day.
Click to expand...
It might not actually be NFC that’s the issue now you’ve said you tested it already.

What happens when you present your phone/ticket/card is it has to check the ticket is valid and hasn’t already been used. I don’t know how they do this, it could be a centralised database that all the turnstiles use OR each gate of turnstiles has its own database. I would hazard a guess that the issues could be linked to when there is lots of data traffic (when lots of people are trying to use the turnstiles at the same time) and the computers just can’t handle it. Still very poor that the turnstile computers haven’t been stress-tested if that is indeed the issue.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
How much longer are fans going to put up with this shit? What other industry or business go out of their way to make it hard to receive something you have purchased?

I strongly suggest a game - maybe a home league cup game with an attempt to have a 100% boycott of the game with the threat to it going into a PL game to have entry into the game made simple.
What the fuck was wrong with a season card or paper ticket?
For whose benefit are all these changes for? And why? Certainly not the paying customers.
It’s time the customers started fighting back. I appreciate it’s easy for me to suggest this 5,000 miles away, but the club need challenging on this. They listened after the protests last season and they need to listen again.
Click to expand...
Concentrate on being a covered bridge nerd you busy twat.
 
I had a lot of trouble getting my season tickets ( men and women) to work last year . Club said , when I finally got through , it was because having two season tickets had confused the system . I didn't get it sorted for a good few weeks .
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
What the fuck was wrong with a season card or paper ticket?
Click to expand...
They worked perfectly, yeah right maybe we should go back to cheque books as well

When the e-tickets were introduced there was all the nay sayer’s declaring a disaster on the opening day which never materialised, since then people have come to accept that the system works well
the advantages of e-tickets are far and wide.
The issue on Saturday was due to the introduction of new readers, as I’m sure you know. There are probably numerous reasons as to why people had problems old phones, forgot to update pass, wrong entry point on card, one entry point not working as it should. I’m of the opinion that the club cocked up in not allowing QR code entry for whatever reason Hopefully they are aware of all the individual reasons and are fixing them
For sure they didn’t put in place sufficient contingency
If the entry point readers hand em update the old e-ticket system would have worked just fine
 
Anyone know how to check if your entry was validated on Saturday. The guy who did mine on Y gate looked less than happy and just waived me through , but it didn't sound right.
Dont want to be sat on phone and my last email was answered 10 weeks later.
 
Gordyola said:
They worked perfectly, yeah right maybe we should go back to cheque books as well

When the e-tickets were introduced there was all the nay sayer’s declaring a disaster on the opening day which never materialised, since then people have come to accept that the system works well
the advantages of e-tickets are far and wide.
The issue on Saturday was due to the introduction of new readers, as I’m sure you know. There are probably numerous reasons as to why people had problems old phones, forgot to update pass, wrong entry point on card, one entry point not working as it should. I’m of the opinion that the club cocked up in not allowing QR code entry for whatever reason Hopefully they are aware of all the individual reasons and are fixing them
For sure they didn’t put in place sufficient contingency
If the entry point readers hand em update the old e-ticket system would have worked just fine
Click to expand...
I get the point but these changes and updates aren't for ease or to help fans. It is to stop fans passing their tickets on, simple as that. The new readers are for the facial recognition which will come in next season, again not to aid or help the fans one bit. Season cards should be an option, I think fans would even be happy to pay a small fee to have a card for greater ease. That way we can pass them on to family and friends and you don't need a phone that costs a few hundred quid in order to enter a fucking football stadium.
 
blueandy1mac said:
Anyone know how to check if your entry was validated on Saturday. The guy who did mine on Y gate looked less than happy and just waived me through , but it didn't sound right.
Dont want to be sat on phone and my last email was answered 10 weeks later.
Click to expand...
I have emailed City to complain and ask for a refund as the person I transferred my ticket to said the pass was blocked. I got City on the phone Saturday morning who said they are emailing it again. It never arrived and after waiting on hold a further 50 minutes I gave up and told my mate it was a lost cause. I am not having that going down as a missed game either. See if they reply to me at some point this year.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
How much longer are fans going to put up with this shit? What other industry or business go out of their way to make it hard to receive something you have purchased?

I strongly suggest a game - maybe a home league cup game with an attempt to have a 100% boycott of the game with the threat to it going into a PL game to have entry into the game made simple.
What the fuck was wrong with a season card or paper ticket?
For whose benefit are all these changes for? And why? Certainly not the paying customers.
It’s time the customers started fighting back. I appreciate it’s easy for me to suggest this 5,000 miles away, but the club need challenging on this. They listened after the protests last season and they need to listen again.
Click to expand...
Music and theatre industries, rarely give paper tickets now almost all are mobile plus some venues switch off transfer or resale options, and to be honest neither of my children or partners in their 20s can see what the issue is with it.
 
blueandy1mac said:
Anyone know how to check if your entry was validated on Saturday. The guy who did mine on Y gate looked less than happy and just waived me through , but it didn't sound right.
Dont want to be sat on phone and my last email was answered 10 weeks later.
Click to expand...
That’s a very good point actually. This is information that should be available to account holders online but I can’t see anything in my account to check. It would be unfair on a supporter if there’s been a technical issue and it only comes to light months later leading to further stress.

I’ve just emailed the club to ask if this info could be added to our accounts or if something like a regular summary statement could be emailed to fans confirming which games have been registered.
 
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Gordyola said:
They worked perfectly, yeah right maybe we should go back to cheque books as well

When the e-tickets were introduced there was all the nay sayer’s declaring a disaster on the opening day which never materialised, since then people have come to accept that the system works well
Click to expand...
The original digital ticket system took half a season to iron out all the issues. But it "worked well" because there were alternatives. Season cards were issued and there was the option of a print at home ticket. Plus people could use the barcode rather than NFC.

With this new system there aren't the alternative options.
 
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