When is something going to be done about the Ticket Office?

[blumoon]

When you phone the ticket number and select 1 to buy tickets you go through to an agency thats nowt to do with City as far as i can see. They are pretty good,

But if yor query is anything out of the ordinary, they put you through, or tell you to dial option 3, which goes through to the club customer services. Last week they were dealing with the club relocates for the napoli game and the waiting time was around an hour at times. That is unacceptable, if they havnt got enough staff, then give the agency the ability to handle it.

What is also unacceptable is the wait for the Blue Memberships (Still not arrived for many). It also is unacceptable to have to phone to sort tickets, wait ages (calling from Ireland.......local rates my arse) and pay a booking fee because you can't do it yourself online. In my case it's 3 tickets which is £7-50 a go !!!

 

[john@staustell]

Me personally - never had a problem obtaining tickets/cup schemes etc.....

However the ticketing system on the whole does appear to be confusing and quite hard to obtain tickets, unless you were relatively comfortable using websites and or already an existing fan.

My father-in-law wanted to come along to a match with us, we had to register him as a new supporter, being just under 70 he felt uncomfortable about giving personal details, so this already ruled him out.
We did register him - but the club did not send his access card.

Anyway tried buying tickets just on my SC, but haven't been allowed to.
WTF?

Needs to be more streamlined.

There are no access cards now unless you pay for membership. In amongst all the golds, platinums and blues on the website I couldn't see for the life of me what we plebs did who could only rarely travel up etc. At first I thought you HAD to buy a blue membership. I phoned to clarify this (when you could still get through) and got answered after a few minutes, local number. They just send out a paper ticket with a bar code, no access card now. Ordered 3 Wigan tickets, 2 on the 23rd and 1 on the 26th. All 3 arrived Tues 30th.

One point - when I tried to do it before 9am on the 23rd I too got the 'exceeded allowance' message and couldn't buy. This seems a standard message up until 9am on the day you are allowed to buy, going by your log-in details. One would've thought it wasn't beyond the wit of man to have it run from midnight, but no.

 

[squirtyflower]

There are no access cards now unless you pay for membership. In amongst all the golds, platinums and blues on the website I couldn't see for the life of me what we plebs did who could only rarely travel up etc. At first I thought you HAD to buy a blue membership. I phoned to clarify this (when you could still get through) and got answered after a few minutes, local number. They just send out a paper ticket with a bar code, no access card now. Ordered 3 Wigan tickets, 2 on the 23rd and 1 on the 26th. All 3 arrived Tues 30th.

One point - when I tried to do it before 9am on the 23rd I too got the 'exceeded allowance' message and couldn't buy. This seems a standard message up until 9am on the day you are allowed to buy, going by your log-in details. One would've thought it wasn't beyond the wit of man to have it run from midnight, but no.

they don't have the window open at midnight on the internet sales as its nine hours before the ticket office opens for personal callers
they make it so that everyone has the same opening time, the office, the phones and the internet so no-one has an advantage

many a time i have phoned up at 8am only to be told to ring back at 9

 

[stadiumcat]

I have had a few bad and good exchanges with the ticket office and there are some really good guys and girls that work there, but there are also some Muppets.
I f they were not working with a captive cliental (which we are) they would rapidly loose a lot of business.
If a ticket sales business were to come in and take over the operation on behalf of the club I am convinced within a few months things would improve vastly. At present there is no tension in the system for them, no competitive edge okay they have deadlines and customers to serve, but no competition. An attitude of ‘Got it wrong! Okay we will put it right’; should not be tolerated, is anybody accountable for errors? It seems not and an attitude of ‘move on nothing to see here, more customers to serve’ seems to prevail.
It is interesting that from the clubs point of view one of the main interfaces between the club and the fans does not have its own feedback section or means of making complaints/suggestions. Okay you can phone up or email but just to the general numbers/contact address how are these logged? Okay action may be taken but it’s not easy for fans to do this, is any analysis done of this to aid continual improvement. Not from where I am sat, they seem to hang hopes on the next bit of technology being the magic bullet, from past and present performances they end up with it being late not working fully when introduced etc. For a club that is making magnificent strides elsewhere customer service from the ticket office leaves a lot to be desired. Like most long standing City fans I have an internal cringe/dread every time I have to interface with them and come away relieved when all goes well.

Rant over I feel better now :)

 

[mancunial]

Ive had problems too with the cup scheme got a text last sunday and also an email when i got to work tuesday. Tried calling sunday and Monday couldnt get through resorted to sending an email no response yet but the money has gone from my account. Worrying stuff.

exactley the same, phoned up friday, 7 calls kept getting your wait is 15 minutes, then after i decided to wait the 15 minutes, after 20 minutes i got your wait is 35 minutes? 45 minutes later i got through, they had taken £50 out of my account for 1 adult and 1 junior for the east level 1 as i had to move from the front row due to the uefa boardings. so i told the nice lady think i have been charged wrong, yes you have you will be refunded in the next 3 to 4 days, she then told me my champions league seating, great i thought, thank you very much, we then disconected i then went online to check my football account which i use seperate from any other, i discovered they had charged me another £5 pound, so phoned back, sorry our offices are now shut? so i rang saturday for another 25 minute wait then got through, another nice lady, she said we have taken the five pounds out because you ordered a junior, by this time i,m totally baffled as i we are both in the cup scheme surely they cant have charged me a further £5 if they have already taken the monies out? i then decided to let nature take its course. i am now wondering if their is a constant turnover of staff due to miss management, i was totally frustrated but then started to feel sorry for these ladies working there, the buck should stop with the head man in the ticket office?

 

[peoffrey]

When I lived fairly near the ground, I used to visit in person because it was just easier. I've used the phones once or twice but the person on the other end always sounds fed up.

 

[ForeverCity]

City have always had a shocking ticket office.
but i have to say for the semi finals they did do a good job when the tickets came on sale, i was expecting it to be chaos and unorginised.

 

[Bluebird1]

Isn't this Danny Wilsons department ticketing?

Yes and it's quite bizarre how he can sort you out in minutes when you go directly to him.

I thought Steve Robinson was in charge of Ticketing.

 

[blumoon]

Isn't this Danny Wilsons department ticketing?

Yes and it's quite bizarre how he can sort you out in minutes when you go directly to him.

I thought Steve Robinson was in charge of Ticketing.

You could be right but any dealings I have had, have been dealt with by Danny Wilson and his emails have the heading "Head of Sales"

Danny Wilson
Head of Sales and Service
Manchester City Football Club
t: 01614387667
e: Danny.Wilson@mcfc.co.uk
w: mcfc.co.uk

 

[beehive_bob]

I have had a few bad and good exchanges with the ticket office and there are some really good guys and girls that work there, but there are also some Muppets.
I f they were not working with a captive cliental (which we are) they would rapidly loose a lot of business.
If a ticket sales business were to come in and take over the operation on behalf of the club I am convinced within a few months things would improve vastly. At present there is no tension in the system for them, no competitive edge okay they have deadlines and customers to serve, but no competition. An attitude of ‘Got it wrong! Okay we will put it right’; should not be tolerated, is anybody accountable for errors? It seems not and an attitude of ‘move on nothing to see here, more customers to serve’ seems to prevail.
It is interesting that from the clubs point of view one of the main interfaces between the club and the fans does not have its own feedback section or means of making complaints/suggestions. Okay you can phone up or email but just to the general numbers/contact address how are these logged? Okay action may be taken but it’s not easy for fans to do this, is any analysis done of this to aid continual improvement. Not from where I am sat, they seem to hang hopes on the next bit of technology being the magic bullet, from past and present performances they end up with it being late not working fully when introduced etc. For a club that is making magnificent strides elsewhere customer service from the ticket office leaves a lot to be desired. Like most long standing City fans I have an internal cringe/dread every time I have to interface with them and come away relieved when all goes well.

Rant over I feel better now :)

Had a wry chuckle at that last bit - nail on head for me.

Not tarring all staff with the same brush because at the end of the day it's up to whoever's in charge to ensure that the staff are getting things right, consistently. I don't think anyone will criticise the occasional error, but for far too long it's been far more than occasional errors, and about a huge range of different issues. Just in the last few months, some frustrations I've seen have included:

- Omitting people from one or more cup schemes despite clear requests to join
errors in adding loyalty points/not being clear when loyalty points are added
- not thinking things through properly in terms of sales dates
- not being able to get through on the telephone
- online ticketing not working/delayed
- leaving it to the very last minute to send tickets out
- changing information on the website without making clear that it's been changed e.g. the terms of membership information this summer
- uncertainty about whether seasoncard holders will be able to claim their own seat for cup games

I've had to e-mail the club on a number of occasions. It's a shame that they don't realise that if they provided better service, then they wouldn't have to spend time dealing with loads of e-mails from fans chasing things up and complaining about things, which in turn delays things even more. Even acknowledging that we're a "captive" market, you would have thought it'd make their, and our, lives a little easier.

Is there a fans' rep who meets with the club regularly e.g. do Points Of Blue meetings cover these issues? If not, is it worth compiling a list on here of common issues and offer constructive criticism of what the most important issues for fans are and where the club can improve things?