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Supporter Services Shambolic


LewisP

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Hi all, I’m more of a reader than a poster here but I felt compelled to voice my experience of supporter services/tickets and see what everyone else’s thoughts / experiences are.

So as you all know the Wigan game has a mates rates promotion whereby a friend of a ST holder can purchase a ticket for £10. The mate has to purchase the ticket themselves and cannot be done by the ST holder. Seems simple enough and a good way to encourage new fans attend.

My friend had made multiple calls to the advertised number to purchase the tickets but was on hold for over 30 minutes each time regardless of what time of day they called. On the 4th or 5th attempt they eventually got through after 20 minutes of so. (Online not an option as they also wanted to move my ST so we could all sit together)

She purchased the tickets for herself and 1 other and moved mine so we could all sit together. I received an email the same day to confirm my ST had moved.

She however did not receive any confirmation via email and no tickets arrived via email , post or any other format.

This was at the start of the month, over the last few weeks she has made multiple calls all of which have been on hold for over 30 minutes with no end in sight. She has sent multiple emails to supporter services all of which have been ignored and sent messages via twitter to the supporter liaison officer which have also been ignored. With the game approaching she is no closer to sorting out her tickets. Undoubtedly it was probably just a human error when inputting her email address but the whole fiasco has shown that the club despite its forward thinking approach to most things are a million miles off a reliable customer experience and extremely inept when it comes to ticketing and things of this nature.

For a club with aspirations of making the prem they need to sort out their dealings with customers , especially when it comes to new fans and tickets. Phone calls should not be left on hold for so long every time, emails should be answered and new fans should be excited about watching Bristol City. 

Right now she has no tickets, no confirmation & has every right to feel completely ignored.

Sorry for going on but feel almost embarrassed that I’ve invited her to game and she’s had a nightmare. How can any one get though on the phone during work hours unless they take a day off or set aside a whole hour. How can the phones be busy so often and why ask customers to email supporter services if nobody checks the emails. The liaison officer situation has been redundant for a while but they are supposed to be a line of contact.

What’s everyone else’s thoughts, experiences and opinions?

 

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Agree appalling . Like so many other large companys. They really dont get it . All they care about is getting their IT sorted so they can shaft us with adverts and  and sell our data to some other c***ty company that does the same. Watch out for the algorythms theyre comin for you then the robots will  knockin at the door because you aint playing the game . The human condition is being reconditioned .

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@LewisP

It’s funny you should mention this, I’m trying to find out if my season card has been found / handed in as it fell out of my pocket while vacating the stadium on Wednesday night! I emailed them this morning & waited most of the day & hadn’t even had an automated reply so I called this afternoon & despite moving from #12 to #4 in the queue the phone went dead after over half an hour on hold!

So I’ve fired off another email to them now & I’ve even sent one to that guy pretending to be the Supporters Liason Officer. Not holding my breath for a response & fully expecting to meet a record number of Bristol Sport staff as I get shoved from pillar to post while they all decide who’s going to take more money off me for me dropping my season card! I’m thoroughly looking forward to being greeted by all staff members with “open your jacket” as I get passed from one staff member to another!

I think it’s safe to say it’s a shower of shit & clearly shows how the demographic of us now being customers & not fans has fully taken hold, as long as they have our money, they no longer care!

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3 hours ago, LewisP said:

Hi all, I’m more of a reader than a poster here but I felt compelled to voice my experience of supporter services/tickets and see what everyone else’s thoughts / experiences are.

So as you all know the Wigan game has a mates rates promotion whereby a friend of a ST holder can purchase a ticket for £10. The mate has to purchase the ticket themselves and cannot be done by the ST holder. Seems simple enough and a good way to encourage new fans attend.

My friend had made multiple calls to the advertised number to purchase the tickets but was on hold for over 30 minutes each time regardless of what time of day they called. On the 4th or 5th attempt they eventually got through after 20 minutes of so. (Online not an option as they also wanted to move my ST so we could all sit together)

She purchased the tickets for herself and 1 other and moved mine so we could all sit together. I received an email the same day to confirm my ST had moved.

She however did not receive any confirmation via email and no tickets arrived via email , post or any other format.

This was at the start of the month, over the last few weeks she has made multiple calls all of which have been on hold for over 30 minutes with no end in sight. She has sent multiple emails to supporter services all of which have been ignored and sent messages via twitter to the supporter liaison officer which have also been ignored. With the game approaching she is no closer to sorting out her tickets. Undoubtedly it was probably just a human error when inputting her email address but the whole fiasco has shown that the club despite its forward thinking approach to most things are a million miles off a reliable customer experience and extremely inept when it comes to ticketing and things of this nature.

For a club with aspirations of making the prem they need to sort out their dealings with customers , especially when it comes to new fans and tickets. Phone calls should not be left on hold for so long every time, emails should be answered and new fans should be excited about watching Bristol City. 

Right now she has no tickets, no confirmation & has every right to feel completely ignored.

Sorry for going on but feel almost embarrassed that I’ve invited her to game and she’s had a nightmare. How can any one get though on the phone during work hours unless they take a day off or set aside a whole hour. How can the phones be busy so often and why ask customers to email supporter services if nobody checks the emails. The liaison officer situation has been redundant for a while but they are supposed to be a line of contact.

What’s everyone else’s thoughts, experiences and opinions?

 

Your tottaly right mate its a shambles

 

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Couldn’t agree with you more, @LewisP. I wanted to take my girlfriend to City for the Wigan game but have been locked out of the ticket portal as I forgot my password and an error message crops up when I try to reset it. 

I’ve emailed supporter services twice in the last week to report the issue and I’ve yet to get a response. When I called the them to speak to someone, I was told to email supporter services. I know of amateur clubs in the area that offer better service than this complete crock of shit.

Wouldn’t have happened in Beryl’s day, that’s for sure. 

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My experiences have been mixed. I only usually contact them to buy a ticket for my oldest son as he does not have a SC but does have a membership.

The website usually is a nightmare, so I call in, maybe a bit of a wait, sometimes a long wait but when I do get through they generally efficient.

The problem is the website, people are used to using technology in the main nowadays but that website is a nightmare.

Get that right and the call numbers will drop which will mean that those who do call get a better service.

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Sadly the same message keeps cropping up on here that the phone system is nowhere near fit for purpose 

As for contact I emailed supporters services a few weeks back when my direct debit wasn't taken on the correct day, I never heard anything from the club 

But would add its clear when people do get through the service provided is always very good 

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I phoned the ticket office today. The automated system advised me that I was 7th in the queue; after 25 minutes my call was answered. I received a very polite, helpful response and my problem was speedily dealt with. I wasn't delighted to have had to wait so long for my call to be answered but very satisfied with the outcome. This will be of absolutely no consolation to the OP but it does show that there is another side to the coin.

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4 hours ago, LewisP said:

Hi all, I’m more of a reader than a poster here but I felt compelled to voice my experience of supporter services/tickets and see what everyone else’s thoughts / experiences are.

So as you all know the Wigan game has a mates rates promotion whereby a friend of a ST holder can purchase a ticket for £10. The mate has to purchase the ticket themselves and cannot be done by the ST holder. Seems simple enough and a good way to encourage new fans attend.

My friend had made multiple calls to the advertised number to purchase the tickets but was on hold for over 30 minutes each time regardless of what time of day they called. On the 4th or 5th attempt they eventually got through after 20 minutes of so. (Online not an option as they also wanted to move my ST so we could all sit together)

She purchased the tickets for herself and 1 other and moved mine so we could all sit together. I received an email the same day to confirm my ST had moved.

She however did not receive any confirmation via email and no tickets arrived via email , post or any other format.

This was at the start of the month, over the last few weeks she has made multiple calls all of which have been on hold for over 30 minutes with no end in sight. She has sent multiple emails to supporter services all of which have been ignored and sent messages via twitter to the supporter liaison officer which have also been ignored. With the game approaching she is no closer to sorting out her tickets. Undoubtedly it was probably just a human error when inputting her email address but the whole fiasco has shown that the club despite its forward thinking approach to most things are a million miles off a reliable customer experience and extremely inept when it comes to ticketing and things of this nature.

For a club with aspirations of making the prem they need to sort out their dealings with customers , especially when it comes to new fans and tickets. Phone calls should not be left on hold for so long every time, emails should be answered and new fans should be excited about watching Bristol City. 

Right now she has no tickets, no confirmation & has every right to feel completely ignored.

Sorry for going on but feel almost embarrassed that I’ve invited her to game and she’s had a nightmare. How can any one get though on the phone during work hours unless they take a day off or set aside a whole hour. How can the phones be busy so often and why ask customers to email supporter services if nobody checks the emails. The liaison officer situation has been redundant for a while but they are supposed to be a line of contact.

What’s everyone else’s thoughts, experiences and opinions?

 

Post more ffs. No one on here bites much or anything

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Phone queues have been awful recently, they really need to get some more staff on.

I know they believe (wish) that u can do everything online but it's not the case in reality and / or not the preference of a lot of folk

I'd imagine they're losing a fair amount of custom at the point where you're told you are 15th in the queue 

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1 minute ago, Bernard Lerring said:

Phone queues have been awful recently, they really need to get some more staff on.

I know they believe (wish) that u can do everything online but it's not the case in reality and / or not the preference of a lot of folk

I'd imagine they're losing a fair amount of custom at the point where you're told you are 15th in the queue 

And not when they can’t even respond to emails! Even an automated system to advise that your enquiry will be dealt with within 24 or 48 hours, just ignored! For a multi-million pound business it’s pretty poor ‘customer service’!

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5 hours ago, LewisP said:

Hi all, I’m more of a reader than a poster here but I felt compelled to voice my experience of supporter services/tickets and see what everyone else’s thoughts / experiences are.

So as you all know the Wigan game has a mates rates promotion whereby a friend of a ST holder can purchase a ticket for £10. The mate has to purchase the ticket themselves and cannot be done by the ST holder. Seems simple enough and a good way to encourage new fans attend.

My friend had made multiple calls to the advertised number to purchase the tickets but was on hold for over 30 minutes each time regardless of what time of day they called. On the 4th or 5th attempt they eventually got through after 20 minutes of so. (Online not an option as they also wanted to move my ST so we could all sit together)

She purchased the tickets for herself and 1 other and moved mine so we could all sit together. I received an email the same day to confirm my ST had moved.

She however did not receive any confirmation via email and no tickets arrived via email , post or any other format.

This was at the start of the month, over the last few weeks she has made multiple calls all of which have been on hold for over 30 minutes with no end in sight. She has sent multiple emails to supporter services all of which have been ignored and sent messages via twitter to the supporter liaison officer which have also been ignored. With the game approaching she is no closer to sorting out her tickets. Undoubtedly it was probably just a human error when inputting her email address but the whole fiasco has shown that the club despite its forward thinking approach to most things are a million miles off a reliable customer experience and extremely inept when it comes to ticketing and things of this nature.

For a club with aspirations of making the prem they need to sort out their dealings with customers , especially when it comes to new fans and tickets. Phone calls should not be left on hold for so long every time, emails should be answered and new fans should be excited about watching Bristol City. 

Right now she has no tickets, no confirmation & has every right to feel completely ignored.

Sorry for going on but feel almost embarrassed that I’ve invited her to game and she’s had a nightmare. How can any one get though on the phone during work hours unless they take a day off or set aside a whole hour. How can the phones be busy so often and why ask customers to email supporter services if nobody checks the emails. The liaison officer situation has been redundant for a while but they are supposed to be a line of contact.

What’s everyone else’s thoughts, experiences and opinions?

 

@LewisP

Although I have 3 season cards. I often buy other tickets for family. The emailed tickets always go into my spam/junk mail box; and I have to send them from there into my inbox.

I'm betting 100% that's where your friends tickets are.

The supporter services are well aware of this, and drew my attention to it in the past. Even though I've marked the email address as not junk; they still get sent there.

Good luck.

 

 

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11 hours ago, Tipps69 said:

@LewisP

It’s funny you should mention this, I’m trying to find out if my season card has been found / handed in as it fell out of my pocket while vacating the stadium on Wednesday night! I emailed them this morning & waited most of the day & hadn’t even had an automated reply so I called this afternoon & despite moving from #12 to #4 in the queue the phone went dead after over half an hour on hold!

So I’ve fired off another email to them now & I’ve even sent one to that guy pretending to be the Supporters Liason Officer. Not holding my breath for a response & fully expecting to meet a record number of Bristol Sport staff as I get shoved from pillar to post while they all decide who’s going to take more money off me for me dropping my season card! I’m thoroughly looking forward to being greeted by all staff members with “open your jacket” as I get passed from one staff member to another!

I think it’s safe to say it’s a shower of shit & clearly shows how the demographic of us now being customers & not fans has fully taken hold, as long as they have our money, they no longer care!

If you need to know if they have found your ST card ring the shop rather than Supporter Services. You will get through and that is where they keep any found cards. I recovered my bank debit card from the shop after it was handed in.

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1 hour ago, richwwtk said:

If you need to know if they have found your ST card ring the shop rather than Supporter Services. You will get through and that is where they keep any found cards. I recovered my bank debit card from the shop after it was handed in.

There was no option for the shop on the list of numbers when I called, that’s why I ended up trying supporters services.

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Sounds like a lot of people have had similar experiences and it’s clearly something the club need to address.

The worst part is that if she doesn’t get any answer today then she has no proof of any tickets and no idea how she will get them sorted. Only proof she has is the £20 deducted from her bank account.

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Sorry to sound pedantic but after waiting more than 10 minutes on the phone....she had the code why didnt she do it on line. Self print tickets come through within a couple of minutes.

As an aside, has the money been debited from her account ? If not the transaction never went through, thus no tickets.

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51 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

Sorry to sound pedantic but after waiting more than 10 minutes on the phone....she had the code why didnt she do it on line. Self print tickets come through within a couple of minutes.

As an aside, has the money been debited from her account ? If not the transaction never went through, thus no tickets.

The OP specifically says (para 3) why online wasn’t an option.

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2 hours ago, LewisP said:

Sounds like a lot of people have had similar experiences and it’s clearly something the club need to address.

The worst part is that if she doesn’t get any answer today then she has no proof of any tickets and no idea how she will get them sorted. Only proof she has is the £20 deducted from her bank account.

As someone has said before, has she checked her junk (ooh err!) 

Every time I have bought/moved/added tickets via the phone, I’ve had them emailed over within minutes. 

It’s also possible, of course, that her email address was misheard and that’s why she’s not had anything at all. 

I’m sure there’s a valid explanation, because I’ve always found their service to be excellent. 
 

 

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19 hours ago, LewisP said:

Hi all, I’m more of a reader than a poster here but I felt compelled to voice my experience of supporter services/tickets and see what everyone else’s thoughts / experiences are.

So as you all know the Wigan game has a mates rates promotion whereby a friend of a ST holder can purchase a ticket for £10. The mate has to purchase the ticket themselves and cannot be done by the ST holder. Seems simple enough and a good way to encourage new fans attend.

My friend had made multiple calls to the advertised number to purchase the tickets but was on hold for over 30 minutes each time regardless of what time of day they called. On the 4th or 5th attempt they eventually got through after 20 minutes of so. (Online not an option as they also wanted to move my ST so we could all sit together)

She purchased the tickets for herself and 1 other and moved mine so we could all sit together. I received an email the same day to confirm my ST had moved.

She however did not receive any confirmation via email and no tickets arrived via email , post or any other format.

This was at the start of the month, over the last few weeks she has made multiple calls all of which have been on hold for over 30 minutes with no end in sight. She has sent multiple emails to supporter services all of which have been ignored and sent messages via twitter to the supporter liaison officer which have also been ignored. With the game approaching she is no closer to sorting out her tickets. Undoubtedly it was probably just a human error when inputting her email address but the whole fiasco has shown that the club despite its forward thinking approach to most things are a million miles off a reliable customer experience and extremely inept when it comes to ticketing and things of this nature.

For a club with aspirations of making the prem they need to sort out their dealings with customers , especially when it comes to new fans and tickets. Phone calls should not be left on hold for so long every time, emails should be answered and new fans should be excited about watching Bristol City. 

Right now she has no tickets, no confirmation & has every right to feel completely ignored.

Sorry for going on but feel almost embarrassed that I’ve invited her to game and she’s had a nightmare. How can any one get though on the phone during work hours unless they take a day off or set aside a whole hour. How can the phones be busy so often and why ask customers to email supporter services if nobody checks the emails. The liaison officer situation has been redundant for a while but they are supposed to be a line of contact.

What’s everyone else’s thoughts, experiences and opinions?

 

The confirmation email will have ended up in her junk folder. 
Everything from the City does, annoyingly.

Standard piss poor communication though!

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I'd e-mail Jon Lansdown, Mark Ashton and the lesser spotted SLO. The more noise people make that service isn't up to scratch, the more likely something will be done about it.

It does seem hit and miss the level of service you get. I bought my Wigan tickets before the mates rates offer came out, and they happily refunded me and let me book the tickets again.

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31 minutes ago, bcfcshorey said:

I'd e-mail Jon Lansdown, Mark Ashton and the lesser spotted SLO. The more noise people make that service isn't up to scratch, the more likely something will be done about it.

It does seem hit and miss the level of service you get. I bought my Wigan tickets before the mates rates offer came out, and they happily refunded me and let me book the tickets again.

Me too which I was really impressed with. I think I waited around five minutes before the call was answered so I must have rang at the right time. It was a bit less impressive to be told that I couldn't buy their tickets over the phone and my friends would have to sign up on the website and buy them using my code. When I said that my friends were in their 90s, former season ticket holders who'd left Bristol and now come back once a season for a game, and definitely couldn't negotiate the online labyrinth I was told to create an account in a different name with a different email address to buy them with. Obviously it was really good of them to refund the tickets and I understand that they can make a few quid from getting everyone to sign up to the website and harvesting their details for third parties but it was a bit surreal.

I definitely preferred the old method for the mates rates!

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This morning she rang at 9am.

First call; still shut. 
Second call; nobody available, but please leave a message, ......”message inbox full, you cannot leave a message” call ends (you can’t make this up)

Third call: you are 3rd in the queue. Only waited 7 minutes so nothing major. She explained the situation about how she had not been able to get through previously, how she had emailed many times and been ignored. No apology given but told “the person who reads the emails has been on holiday and when the got back they had over 100” 

man on the phone asked for lots of information but couldn’t find any record of her purchase, and would she like to buy some now. She pleaded she had already had the money leave her bank and gave him more information. After going back and forth the man on the phone eventually managed to find her booking and as expected the problem was as we already suspected due to her name being spelt wrong which is why she never received the tickets via email.

he emailed them over straight away and she can now attend game. 
A spelling mistake was always the most likely issue as I previously mentioned she has a commonly misspelt name . The biggest issue overall tho is how difficult it was to find a resolution . The phone lines should be better manned, the email accounts should also be better dealt with and not ignored and the SLO who I can see have been on Twitter should also be more active. A stadium that can can hold 27,000 “customers” but only one person checking emails and only a few more on the phones by the sounds of it. 

overall from her perspective a very poor experience. Obviously if there is ever a next time her details are all correct and therefore should be a more more straight forward experience but this is certainly highlighted a few issues that many others have experienced. 
 

Hopefully an emphatic win will restore her faith in the club! ;D

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8 minutes ago, LewisP said:

This morning she rang at 9am.

First call; still shut. 
Second call; nobody available, but please leave a message, ......”message inbox full, you cannot leave a message” call ends (you can’t make this up)

Third call: you are 3rd in the queue. Only waited 7 minutes so nothing major. She explained the situation about how she had not been able to get through previously, how she had emailed many times and been ignored. No apology given but told “the person who reads the emails has been on holiday and when the got back they had over 100” 

man on the phone asked for lots of information but couldn’t find any record of her purchase, and would she like to buy some now. She pleaded she had already had the money leave her bank and gave him more information. After going back and forth the man on the phone eventually managed to find her booking and as expected the problem was as we already suspected due to her name being spelt wrong which is why she never received the tickets via email.

he emailed them over straight away and she can now attend game. 
A spelling mistake was always the most likely issue as I previously mentioned she has a commonly misspelt name . The biggest issue overall tho is how difficult it was to find a resolution . The phone lines should be better manned, the email accounts should also be better dealt with and not ignored and the SLO who I can see have been on Twitter should also be more active. A stadium that can can hold 27,000 “customers” but only one person checking emails and only a few more on the phones by the sounds of it. 

overall from her perspective a very poor experience. Obviously if there is ever a next time her details are all correct and therefore should be a more more straight forward experience but this is certainly highlighted a few issues that many others have experienced. 
 

Hopefully an emphatic win will restore her faith in the club! ;D

If it’s a commonly misspelt surname, then surely she should be used to making it very, specifically clear..?! 
 

I agree that it’s not great that she couldn’t resolve it more easily, but I’ve honestly never had these issues when trying to call them. 
 

Of course everyone should expect good service, but out of regular crowds of over 20+k, the odd bad experience hardly makes the whole supporter services/ticketing department a shambles - especially when people with problematic names, who are used to encountering problems, aren’t very clear on that point. 
 

Still, I hope she enjoys the game. 

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Last week I tried to book hospitality tickets for the West Brom game in Feb. Couldn't remember my supporter ID so fired off an email to all and sundry and received a prompt reply from Ryan our SLO. Then had a problem with my password so emailed Ryan who in turn passed the query on. All sorted within 24 hours and all booked. Cannot complain one iota at treatment received. Further did receive a couple of automated emails saying query received and normally takes 3 days to respond, however Ryan and the others responded very quickly. Well impressed TBH.

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7 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

If it’s a commonly misspelt surname, then surely she should be used to making it very, specifically clear..?! 
 

I agree that it’s not great that she couldn’t resolve it more easily, but I’ve honestly never had these issues when trying to call them. 
 

Of course everyone should expect good service, but out of regular crowds of over 20+k, the odd bad experience hardly makes the whole supporter services/ticketing department a shambles - especially when people with problematic names, who are used to encountering problems, aren’t very clear on that point. 
 

Still, I hope she enjoys the game. 

To be fair BBS3, my partner also has a commonly misspelled name, and is used to making it very specifically extra clear. Even asking people to read it back to her sometimes still doesn't work! Goodness knows how.

It's an easy mistake to make on the part of whoever took the call but it should definitely be way more straightforward to solve than the experience they've had.

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