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The Mail Bag

Season Ticket Fiasco

Where, on the Official Site, did it say that season tickets were only available to able bodied men who could catch a bus to the ground?

As they were generally available today — well that's what I put in my Everton diary ages ago — I was sitting by the phone at ten this morning, customer number, section, row and desired seat (next to the brother's) written down.

Got through, put No 20 in a queue and was quite surprised when I was eventually asked what I wanted. The highly-trained operative who claimed that he had no idea what the OS said must have been taking much worse abuse from the feeble efforts I could summon before I told him where to stick it.

I'm calmer now. However, on reflection, my hackles are rising for others.

Half-term holiday week starting, for nearly every school because of the bank holiday. So Evertonians presumably don't have family holidays. Families? Holidays?

And they can't be women with children. 'Sorry kids, look after yourselves from 8 til 4 as I'm traveling to Goodison today'.

They are unlikely to be the people who get on the fleet of coaches which arrive from places like Coventry, Taunton, Workington and all points in Wales for every home game.

My feeble excuse for not driving down the East Lancs Road is that I am caring for my gravely ill partner, and the District Nurses wouldn't look too kindly on me being away for five hours or so.

So I wish those intrepid folk who show up at The Old Lady a joyous day out today. I certainly hope that no more tickets than the number of people who actually show up are allocated. I suppose that 'first come, first served' means that you can't get one for someone else — your wife, your old dad, your son who plays for the school team on a Saturday morning....

What a bloody fiasco.
Keith Glazzard, Too far from the ground Posted 22/05/2010 at 10:26:40

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Michael Kenrick
Editorial Team
1 Posted 22/05/2010 at 17:15:30

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Keith, sorry for your pain but it might help our readers if you could explain a little more what the issue was? I can't believe you only got one if you came by bus!

I'm assuming you were unable to order four season tickets for your extended family over the phone, and actually had to be present at the ground... is that what was not made clear on the OS?

Tony J Williams
2 Posted 22/05/2010 at 17:23:50

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I had to visit the ground to submit my application years ago, so I can't see it changing anytime soon. I suppose it could be to prove who you are, as there are photographs in all grounds of banned people. You could be anyone just trying to get a ticket.

Gavin Ramejkis
3 Posted 22/05/2010 at 17:50:34

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My personal gripe is the 10% discount still available as I missed the early bird window this season due to new work commitments and got post from the club saying 10% discount still available up to a few weekends ago. After trying to logon using the renewal form they posted me that belonged to another supporter who lives in nearby Skelmersdale - my addres on envelope but his contents in mine. If a supporter in Skelmersdale opened their envelope and got my weird name in their's I'd love to know.

I then had to ring club to get my logon credentials, after numerous timeouts I finally got to the stage to submit and hello, thats full price £600 odd, a quick call to the ticket office to be told "yeah, sorry that 10% is compared to buying match day tickets" not what it said on the post at all but with very few vices besides the match and working miles away these days I bit the built and paid for another season in the Park End.

Alan McGuffog
4 Posted 23/05/2010 at 00:29:47

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Keith

Best wishes to you and your partner... hope she's on the mend soon.

From all at Tynan Tours

Keith Glazzard
5 Posted 23/05/2010 at 08:15:22

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Michael - whether I approved of the principle of the 'open day' or not, I would have appreciated something on the OS saying 'don't bother ringing .... 1878 as all you'll get is a highly trained operative telling you you are wasting your time and money, try again on Monday'.

It seems to me that they were so busy trumpeting their promotion of EFC being a local club for local people that they forgot about the many thus excluded from this offer. I am sure that at least 19 others will have thought the same, and no doubt a few after me.

Tony - they were quite happy to register me into eticketing and Txt2Ticketing and will no doubt encourage me to spend spend spend as a result. But buy a season ticket on the day they went on general sale? Forget it.

Gavin, my colleague in wierd nameness, I rang again at noon - just to check that they hadn't changed the rule and were now allowing 'normal' purcheses. They weren't, but I suspect that you believe them to be capable of such a move.

Thanks for that Al. The lady in question is a TT veteran herself with a Calella Campaign Medal to prove it.

Chris Butler
6 Posted 23/05/2010 at 12:17:28

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I agree with you in many ways, although I don't understand the season ticket open day. If anyone else has tryed to explain where you want to sit down the phone to Everton then it can be very hard. I find Everton's ticketing policies ridiculous that it makes away trips a pain because you have to wait until your mates can get time off work as sometimes they ask you for identification when handling your friends' season ticket.

Brendan Connolly
7 Posted 23/05/2010 at 21:01:28

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Similar experience here. My 22 year old son has had a season ticket with me in the Upper Gwladys for the last 15 years. My 10 year old has now decided he would like to come with us. Of course as he's only ten, his seat needs to be near us, so before the end of the season I rang the club to explain the situation and ask could they help. I was told I woluld have to ring at 8am on Monday 10 May.
At the last game of the season I was chatting with other people and the guy in fron of us told us he wasn't renewing his sons ticket and offered to sort things for us.
I thanked him, but said I'd ring at 8am the following day and sort it.

I duly rang the following day to be told that this time was for people who wanted to move seats only and I'd been given wrong information originally. The correct time was 10 am on Saturday 22nd May.
I explained that the guy in front of us was not renewing and that he'd offered to sort it for us and if I'd been given the correct info, I'd have taken him up on his offer. I said I understood that they could not give me his contact details, but asked would they be kind enough to contact him and ask him to contact me. They said they couldn't because of 'privacy rules'.

On Wednesday I again rang to explain the situation, and see if they could be flexible. I was told about the oprn day on Saturday and it was suggested that I might want to go to the ground. I explained that it wasn't really convenient and asked if I could phone? "Of course" was the reply.

So 10am yesterday arrives and I call bang on the dot. I'm position 3 in the queue......until another message comes on that the ticket office is closed. I immediately ring back....... position 10 in the queue.
Eventually get to speak to somebody only to be told there are no phone applications today. I explain everything again..... no joy.
The guy in the ticket office told me they had only ben told there were no phone applications the day before.
So I jump in the car and fly to Goodison.

Fortunately all ended well and we got a suitable seat, but no thanks to the club.

To be fair, when I got to the ground everything was well organised, but they really don't help themselves at times

Keith Glazzard
8 Posted 24/05/2010 at 00:09:05

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Thank you Brendan - I no longer regard you as that bastard in the queue ahead of me.

I was sure in my own mind that yesterday was in the diary for good reason, and you have confirmed that.

And wouldn't you think they should have moved heaven and earth to acquire a ten year old season ticket holder? Or perhaps they turn away hundreds of similar requests every day. God knows!

Art Jones
9 Posted 24/05/2010 at 07:35:42

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I have osteoarthritis in my knees which is worsening as I get older. Towards the end of last season, I was having greater difficulty in accessing my seat which is actually in a very good spot in the Park End, so I've decided to move to an easier accessed spot. I too was told I could ring on Saturday morning and would be able to do this over the phone, only to be told after being in queue position 10 that I'd have to ring back on Monday morning... I wonder what awaits me when I get through?

Keith Glazzard
10 Posted 24/05/2010 at 10:16:42

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All's well that ends well I suppose, and I hope that Art did as well as I did this morning — the brother will have to put up with my running commentary on refereeing incompetence next season as I have the seat next to him.

But really, couldn't all this have been avoided with a simple 'Please don't ring ticket sales until Monday morning' somewhere on the OS?

Thanks again for your comments.

ps: The partner was pleased too, though we were both even happier about the 'small step for a woman' but a huge step for her this morning.

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