Tickets 1350 Peterborough Away Ticket Allocation

[SSU Dozer]

The simplest thing, that would have been practical, would have been to prioritize season ticket holders who also went to Bolton away. However not sure that there would have been a way to set that up in the time available.
Incidentally I booted up my PC at about 16:01, went on the site and bought the ticket. Done and dusted at 16:04 and I was at Bolton.

 

[holdsteady]

I still feel we could have done something similar for this game.

Many years ago you had to have attended certain games to untitle you to certain big games (ticket stubs etc), so I would have thought in this day and age we could have put something in place.

Anyway, it’s seems quite obvious that the ticketing system failed based upon the circling errors it was sending people on.

That was always home games, never had a priority system based on away games. Plus the club couldn't legally do anything for this game, it was in the terms and conditions when you bought a season ticket that you had priority for away games, absolutely no way could the club change that now.

 

[Chris on a Bike]

That’s spot on .
Why was I and many others asked to continually update my profile and preferences.
It hasn’t been a requirement all season .
And it’s not a dating app
Sort it out .
It’s not fair and it’s not fit for purpose .
I see the planning portal is still open for comments.
If you have more to add-you can

Are you advocating using the planning portal to complain about the ticket system?

 

[Sarge]

wasnt the online ticketing system supposed to have been updated/ replaced a month or so ago- to a system that worked properly?

 

[ECYellow]

My comment was about the club considering their fans e.g. points system, plus not increasing the costs etc. I was happy to pay £32 for my home ticket.

May be the club shouldn’t offer the early bird pricing for next season’s season tickets! to help close the debt and save the billionaire owners further outlay?

The club did consider our fans. Those that parted with up to £4/5/600 in ST purchases last summer, vital funds that allow the club to cashflow for the up coming season nonetheless, were rewarded with the chance to purchase their tickets for a high priority game, first.

Unfortunately, we have more ST holders than tickets available and so some worthy ST holders and loyal supporters missed out. What you cannot do is offer up a points based system for one game, that has not been communicated at the time of releasing ST last summer and the T's&C's that come with that purchase.

Early bird ST's are used to generate greater cashflow earlier in the summer, by creating a 'need' for supporters to secure a better deal on their ST. This is a widespread method of marketing used by nearly all EFL clubs.

I don't recall seeing an increase in ticket costs for the home leg. My SSU ticket was £28. I'm pretty sure that has been the cost of a ticket in that area all season (although i could be wrong as i purchased my ST last June).

 

[Manorlounger]

At no point did the ticketing site crash or go down - so there were no problems related to the amount of traffic to the site.

Problems seem to be:
- the re-directing to profile details delaying people actually entering the ticketing process ( @OUSP - could the club be asked if this is something that re-appears when you haven't logged in for a certain amount of time?)
- the "time to complete order" countdown being incredibly quick and timing out on people who were trying to pay. Should this be amended, especially given the different speeds that different banking apps take to get to the authorisation/approval screens
- the "criteria" issue. The classic thing you see during ticket purchasing for arena gigs etc. Nothing to do with the system, everything to do with supply v demand.
The thing that could be be done in this area though, is a tidy up of the messaging to make it clear what it actually means.

Lots of claims that tickets went on before 4pm and that non ST holders were able to access the sale via their own profiles?
Not seen any evidence of either so far (not that I'd suspect anyone in either category to own up if they have got a ticket via either of those issues)

The re-directing to profile update was entirely random, much like the request to authenticate id via "Captcha" pop up. We were unaware of the process of clicking on the Ticket tab to negate the need. This resulted in being thrown out and starting again - obviously wrong. Agree with changing the "Criteria" message. Given that the only criteria was the number of tickets required, this had no clear meaning.
It does interest me that you speak with an apparent authority of the system. What is your role at the club to be able to do so?

 

[JayOx88]

I still feel we could have done something similar for this game.

Many years ago you had to have attended certain games to untitle you to certain big games (ticket stubs etc), so I would have thought in this day and age we could have put something in place.

Anyway, it’s seems quite obvious that the ticketing system failed based upon the circling errors it was sending people on.

But that's too ad hoc and inconsistent, fans haven't been told to keep ticket stubs for away games - you'd then most likely have loads of fans who might have qualified but can't prove it, who would then be annoyed at not knowing they should have kept stubs.

And even if there are lots of fans who have kept them, you're then having to make up a qualifying points system AFTER you've told all season ticket holders at the start of the season they have priority for away tickets (so don't need away ticket stubs), expecting ticket office staff to have to do more work in manually validating ticket stubs and calculating points for individual supporters there and then at the ticket office, and also expecting staff to possibly deal with long queues it isnt staffed for as a consequence. The whole thing would turn into a farce and just wouldn't get off the ground.

There have been lots of valid issues to criticise the club for this season but I'm not sure this is one of them.

 

[Front Post]

The re-directing to profile update was entirely random, much like the request to authenticate id via "Captcha" pop up. We were unaware of the process of clicking on the Ticket tab to negate the need. This resulted in being thrown out and starting again - obviously wrong. Agree with changing the "Criteria" message. Given that the only criteria was the number of tickets required, this had no clear meaning.
It does interest me that you speak with an apparent authority of the system. What is your role at the club to be able to do so?

I don't work for OUFC.
But prior to getting into the agent side of football, I have worked in ticketing and operations for numerous companies including ATG, See and 3 arenas in the UK.
My interaction working with ticketing systems and experience in testing systems means I have seen all sorts of errors/issues and website crashes over the years. That's why I'm pretty confident that of the issues yesterday, none were related to failures of the system, more so the design which is hopefully something OUFC can look to address during the close season.

It seems that depending which way you access the ticketing site, you get a different "customer journey" of which some delay access to the actual ticketing interface. I've noticed that when I try to use the club shop site, I get re-directed to the account details page first.
Personally think there should just be a single log-in feature for the 'yellows account' and then tabs depending on whether you want ifollow/ticketing/club shop etc. And I actually thought this is what the CRM update was meant to do for everyone - but it seems to be inconsistent.

 

[Essexyellows]

For those advocating a "points system" how will that work then?

Remembering anyone who buys a ticket (Home or Away) week to week should not be able to exceed the benefit afforded to us ST holders. Even those who might only attend a handful of games but stump up our money, without question, before a ball is kicked?

Over the years our "benefits" have been eroded/removed/replaced with inferior deals and getting priority tickets for "big games" is about all that remains.

As previously 1,350 tickets and 5k ST Holders was always going to mean many missing out...

 

[Front Post]

wasnt the online ticketing system supposed to have been updated/ replaced a month or so ago- to a system that worked properly?

It wasn't the ticketing system.

It was the club's CRM system - effectively the database of all supporters who have ever registered for the e-newsletter, bought a ticket online, bought a shirt online etc. This I assume is then linked into the ticketing system to allow it to know who is an ST holder, purchase history etc.

 

[Sarge]

It wasn't the ticketing system.

It was the club's CRM system - effectively the database of all supporters who have ever registered for the e-newsletter, bought a ticket online, bought a shirt online etc. This I assume is then linked into the ticketing system to allow it to know who is an ST holder, purchase history etc.

cheers for the clarification @Front Post ... (out of choice) I go to the ticket office and buy tickets in person on the occasions when any of my kids n grandkids come to home games with me. I have a physical plastic ST card , and admittedly Im pretty rubbish with technology that works exactly as it should, nevermind the shonky ones that don't work as they should

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

I noticed that the system dropped to the profile page after selecting tickets for the game and then I had to click “tickets” to get back to my basket. Clearly not what anyone would expect but also not resolved by a queuing system.

I wonder if people had pressed the back button instead of tickets whether they might have ended up at the bank of the queue again.... Or worse still with tickets in their baskets so unable to 'buy' more tickets.

View attachment 19347

Did exactly the same here. Never received the email ticket so had to call the ticket office and they sent it through manually.

 

[Big Ron]

For those advocating a "points system" how will that work then?

Remembering anyone who buys a ticket (Home or Away) week to week should not be able to exceed the benefit afforded to us ST holders. Even those who might only attend a handful of games but stump up our money, without question, before a ball is kicked?

Over the years our "benefits" have been eroded/removed/replaced with inferior deals and getting priority tickets for "big games" is about all that remains.

As previously 1,350 tickets and 5k ST Holders was always going to mean many missing out...

Someone may well have posted Peterborough's scheme earlier in the thread, but it starts on the basis of 350 points for a ST holder and then adds incremental points for games attended, with various different categories of games (30 to 50 I think). The also regularly post updates as to how many fans in are in the points range:

https://www.theposh.com/tickets/information/priority-scheme

I think I saw something on the Posh forum that said 1,000 points would guarantee an away ticket for Oxford.

This is only going to apply occasionally I would guess but would ensure the season ticket holding fans, who also regularly attend away, would get their tickets. One for the future perhaps.

 

[LowerSouth]

Are you advocating using the planning portal to complain about the ticket system?

Oh Christ,I hadn’t thought of that .
Thanks for the suggestion

 

[Gregortheox]

Tickets were in high demand, supply was limited.
Some people missed out….life isn’t fair.

My actions over the next few days…start looking at my finances for a season ticket next season, get my s**t together on my yellows account and upgrade my devices and internet.

 

[RgYellows]

Oh Christ,I hadn’t thought of that .
Thanks for the suggestion

Trying to harm the existence of the club because you don’t get to see a big game is an odd way to show everyone that deserving supporters missed out.

 

[holdsteady]

Someone may well have posted Peterborough's scheme earlier in the thread, but it starts on the basis of 350 points for a ST holder and then adds incremental points for games attended, with various different categories of games (30 to 50 I think). The also regularly post updates as to how many fans in are in the points range:

https://www.theposh.com/tickets/information/priority-scheme

I think I saw something on the Posh forum that said 1,000 points would guarantee an away ticket for Oxford.

This is only going to apply occasionally I would guess but would ensure the season ticket holding fans, who also regularly attend away, would get their tickets. One for the future perhaps.

I think they have some club you can join that gets you points as well, might get some points if you buy some merch etc. I don't know if that's not a bit overcomplicated for me, just set a high bar of attendance plus a season ticket so the super regulars get a ticket (I like 20 out of 23 league away games but that might be my love of neat, round numbers) and let everyone else amongst the season ticket holders chance their arm.

So many variables you can apply and so many different circumstances that I prefer the simplest option, plus twenty allows a few misses for bad illness, bereavement etc. You can even have it rolling, so it would be the previous 23 away league games that come into consideration whenever the fixture is in the season.

A season ticket has to have some benefits, they keep the club going in the close season , have to be careful not to water those down to much and put the club at risk.

 

[Chris on a Bike]

For those advocating a "points system" how will that work then?

Well anyone who pre-books a non-refundable hotel room near the venue without knowing if they've got match tickets yet should definitely get priority

 

[Essexyellows]

Someone may well have posted Peterborough's scheme earlier in the thread, but it starts on the basis of 350 points for a ST holder and then adds incremental points for games attended, with various different categories of games (30 to 50 I think). The also regularly post updates as to how many fans in are in the points range:

https://www.theposh.com/tickets/information/priority-scheme

I think I saw something on the Posh forum that said 1,000 points would guarantee an away ticket for Oxford.

This is only going to apply occasionally I would guess but would ensure the season ticket holding fans, who also regularly attend away, would get their tickets. One for the future perhaps.

Seems fair enough, the idle rich could also buy away tickets to keep the points tally up.

 

[Essexyellows]

Well anyone who pre-books a non-refundable hotel room near the venue without knowing if they've got match tickets yet should definitely get priority

Like the Co-op Arena? Yes we will refund your tickets but tough luck for travel/hotels etc when they cancel 10 minutes before the doors open!