For any member of the City Matters Committee

[Ribchester]

You're entitled to what the club want to share. They're a commercial operation in a very competitive business and we are just customers essentially. Does any other business you deal with choose to share commercially sensitive information with you?

How about you share all the details of your income and expenditure on here?

Income = live of savings since leaving job waiting for pension to kick in next year. As for out goings it costs me £400 a month to keep the house no mortgage but insurance community tax utilities need covering. I set aside about £400 for the big shop each month. Then I outlay £100 a month for me and sons season tickets plus approx £40 to £80 a month for cup scheme tickets. Pay out about £200 a month on away tickets travel and booze, usually blow a big hole in £50 on travel booze every home game, never get home the same day as any game home or away and therefore get hit with about £100 a month in fines and forfeits every week usually in the shape of new handbags shoes frocks or pub carvery etc. And all I ever expected from the club was a free scarf and a tin box every year…. Thanks for your support PB keep the good work up

 

[Eccles Blue]

Our relationship with the club is at a all time low.

I agree and feel so sad about it.

I realise, as we all do, that the pandemic has changed a lot of things but essentially the service we used to receive from the club has deteriorated so badly. I have been lucky in that the one time I needed to ring I got through almost immediately but too many people did not have the same experience that it can't be good for the morale of both the supporters and the staff who are involved in trying to answer these calls and emails.

The staff are not to blame, it is the hierarchy I'm sorry to say. They are not looking after the staff and they are not looking after the fans. That makes me so, so sad.

 

[dickie davies]

Our relationship with the club is at a all time low.

It may be "low" but it's nowhere near fans rioting outside the stadium in an attempt to have the board resign

 

[Len Rum]

It may be "low" but it's nowhere near fans rioting outside the stadium in an attempt to have the board resign

Ah, those were the days.

 

[Lavinda Past]

Your missing my point your previous post suggested you as a rep of us the fans cannot pass feedback to the very people the initiative was intended to bridge. As for my personal details if the information would benefit people who supported me then I’d feel I had a duty to share

Absolutely correct. If the club are providing responses to questions raised by City Matters on behalf of supporters, the supporters must be entitled to hear them.
It's not for CM to censor responses, and if it's true that the club are actually blocking feedback, it begs the question 'why?'.
I can't for one second imagine that the club would be naive enough to divulge apparently confidential information to CM... They would simply say that it wasn't for discussion, or delay response until a later date. That being the case, I see no reason whatsoever why minutes could not or should not be provided for every CM meeting.
Something smells very fishy about the whole relationship between the club and the supporters via CM.
If, as I suspect, the club pays CM no more than lip-service, and is not prepared to issue full and agreed minutes for every meeting, I see no good reason for the arrangement to continue.
I certainly wouldn't expect any City fan worth their salt to want to be involved in CM, or any similar arrangement, if the club has such a lack of respect for supporters.

I honestly don't think that we supporters have ever been further from the club.

 

[Len Rum]

Various clubs have now publicly commented that customer services are declining due to supply and labour shortages.
Is this also the case at the Etihad, City?
Needs to know.

 

[Lavinda Past]

It may be "low" but it's nowhere near fans rioting outside the stadium in an attempt to have the board resign

Fans know that there's absolutely no point in protesting against anything that the club does.

The Board will do what they want, safe in the knowledge that as long as the team is successful, fans can be replaced.

Let's see how the relationship changes if/when the team isn't doing well or attracting tourists etc. No doubt they will want us all on board then.

It's not OUR club anymore.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Your missing my point your previous post suggested you as a rep of us the fans cannot pass feedback to the very people the initiative was intended to bridge. As for my personal details if the information would benefit people who supported me then I’d feel I had a duty to share

I've looked through my notes and here's what was discussed at the formal meetings we've had.These have been largely single issue meetings where we've talked about a specific subject that's coming up and where we discussed the communications going out to fans.

We had 2 close together in May, mainly about tickets for the CL final, Everton & seasoncard renewal. All that information was communicated to fans by the club so there's nothing that was discussed in those meetings that you weren't told about via official communications.

We then had another meeting about 5 weeks ago, where we talked about mobile ticketing, Covid protocols (which weren't clear at that point) and got an update on the status/numbers of seasoncard renewals (information which the club specifically asked us not to share).

We've recently had a very informal meeting where we met the CFG COO and quite a number of other club staff from all areas. There were lots of individual conversations about various things, including the new pitch, the new advertising boards, rail seating, sustainability and other things. I can tell you we had a lot to say about the state of customer service and the way mobile ticketing was introduced. Again, there's nothing that would come as a surprise to anyone.

Hopefully, from now on, with all this crap over, meetings will be back to the normal format where we have items on the agenda suggested by both City Matters & the club, and which are minuted.

I agree that it's important that fans understand what's being discussed, as far as that's possible. But it's also important that the club feel they can speak freely to City Matters and us to them. If they only give us the bland, official, whitewashed view then that defeats the whole purpose of the exercise.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Our relationship with the club is at a all time low.

Not sure about that given our turbulent history with riots in the car park at Maine Road. I do think the fans' relationship with the club has weakened since Garry Cooke left though. There is something fundamentally wrong with the Customer Services Operation and its not down to the individual staff who I usually find helpful. It seems like a structural problem.

 

[BillCarlisle]

What I find to be particularly of concern is the speed in which we as fans have seen our best interests and our Matchday enjoyment eroded in recent months. Starting with the Super League fiasco it's continued with Digital Ticketing, sub standard catering plus withdrawal of discount, appalling lack of customer service etc, etc, etc.
I find it incredible that an organisation which clearly knows how to run a business appears to be making a great fist of showing its customers (fans) how NOT to run a business. It almost seems like industrial sabotage from within and in any other commercial enterprise customers would have gone elsewhere in droves.