For weeks people have wanted their season ticket and now people cannot part with theirs quick enough as the company employed to send them out make some elementary errors that have left supporters rightfully annoyed.
12 match season ticket books have been sent to some fans who have purchased full season tickets whilst others have found that their ID card states the wrong category of supporter on it. All things that have to be changed and the club have moved quickly to alleviate supporters fears by saying it will be done.
It all seemed so simple. People pay their money, get a receipt and a few weeks later a season ticket arrives. Not quite so as tickets clearly got mixed up and the wrong tickets sent to groups of wrong people.
In addition to that, there are many fans disgruntled that they have to visit the stadium in person to pre book their seat for the Fulham and Blackburn games. Fine if you live in or around the city itself but not acceptable for people that live miles away. Even more so when reports of fans being told "you don't have to go you know" when they ring to enquire if there is another way when it involves a couple of hundred mile round trip to get to the stadium or in plenty of cases even more.
These are all things that have to be ironed out or we are in danger of losing some of our loyal support base. The club has experienced what we know to be record season ticket sales this season and from a business sense we know that we have to hold onto them. We cannot afford to see any supporter disappear from the club - be they a short term supporter purchasing a season ticket for the first time or a long term supporter buying a season ticket for the umpteenth time. Each and every one of them is equally as important.
It is good that the club have recognised these problems immediately and issued an instruction to return incorrect books as soon as possible but quite simply it shouldn't have happened. And similarly we shouldn't be in the position where people have to go to the stadium to purchase a ticket, the internet is a wonderful invention apparently and could be used for this kind of thing. I am led to believe that in future it will be. Indeed I would even add to that that the bulk of tickets for games should be purchased on line - the days of people needing to go to a ticket office in person should have long passed.
We can all accept a few issues here and there and if they are corrected then they become an issue of the past. But does anyone have confidence at times that they will be corrected? I suspect the numbers of people that do are reducing by the hour almost.
We know that the club have outsourced their ticketing and I understand that it is to a company that has done this kind of thing before. Well surely on that basis they should have corrected these kind of errors or are they commonplace? Maybe we should start worrying now about a cup tie in the future that means ticket queues and being able only to visit between the hours of 3pm and 5pm if there is a T in the day and your surname starts with a letter between C and F?
Come on folks, its the 21st century. If the fanzine team can offer the facility to order online or I can order a CD from Japan to arrive on Monday next week then surely it isn't too difficult for a season ticket holder to place an order using a credit card to reserve his/her seat for an upcoming friendly? Surely?
I'm not really bothered on who comes up with the solution as long as someone does. A Swans fan who jetted off on a fortnights holiday last weekend will come back in ten days and realise that the chance to purchase his seat has passed and the game has been sold out. Online ordering would mean it hadn't. Good grief what a novel idea.
The challenge is there to the ticketing people to find solutions to these minor problems
The ability for Swans fans to order tickets online regardless of whether they are a season ticket holder or not
The same for 12 match season ticket holders to order ahead of games no matter how far in advance. We have a fixture list let's use it and if someone wants to buy a ticket for a home game in April why shouldn't they be allowed to
Reduce the number of people needing to come to the ticket office. Less personnel at a desk queuing the better
It can be done - lets see how long it takes?
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