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Villa Ticket refunds : UPDATED 23/01/17 - Timescale extended (Merged)

Bristol Rob

By Bristol Rob
in Football Chat

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Harry

Harry

Posted
Posted
28 minutes ago, AdamB said:

Hi Rob,

We said all along that a) if the game was postponed due to Cup progress and b) a new date was fixed up, we would alert supporters to the refund process, which we did last Thursday across all our digital channels (website, Twitter and Facebook). I'm sorry you missed it. 

The reason for the short deadline was because we wanted to ensure we had the maximum number of tickets ready for member sales to begin on Monday morning. It hasn't been easy for this game as we've attempted to recognise loyalty throughout the sales process. 

The ticket fulfilment process has now begun, so I'm afraid we won't be able to extend the refund period. However, I do take on board your feedback and will factor it in should we have a situation of this nature again. 

Regards

Adam

Sorry Adam, and excuse my French, but this is a tosh reply! 

You posted on the official site at 12pm on Thursday that refunds could only be sought until 5pm on Friday - and only by phone. So you gave supporters 13 hours in which to notice your announcement and make the call. 

Whereas in your previous messages you claimed "Supporters will be offered a refund if they are unable to attend the rearranged game". 

No word of that being a 13 hour window and if you missed the announcement, tough. 

And what the dickens does "I take on board your feedback and will factor it in should we have a situation of this nature again" mean? Firstly, this situation is the first time I've come across it in 30 years of following City, and secondly, the bloke wasn't giving you "feedback", he was saying your process is gumpf and he wants his money back, as promised. 

Sorry Adam, your response is utter tosh. Especially considering there are still 36 days until the match. It's not like it's next bloody week and you need to rush this through!! Shocking customer service. 

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Aaron-Bcfc

Aaron-Bcfc

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Bristol Rob said:

Turns out, the last day for getting a refund was last Friday.

Not this they thought it prudent to make this a news story or tweet the info (that I saw anyway)

There are stories up about how to buy tickets but nothing about the cut off date for claiming a refund. 

I will be moaning about this until a proper explanation is offered.

@AdamB and our invisible other SLO?

 

I said at the time it was an absolute joke giving fans just 24 hours to get a refund, with the game 6 bloody weeks away. For the usual away game they wouldn't have even gone on sale until 2/3 weeks later.

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reddoc

reddoc

Posted
Posted
42 minutes ago, AdamB said:

Hi Rob,

We said all along that a) if the game was postponed due to Cup progress and b) a new date was fixed up, we would alert supporters to the refund process, which we did last Thursday across all our digital channels (website, Twitter and Facebook). I'm sorry you missed it. 

The reason for the short deadline was because we wanted to ensure we had the maximum number of tickets ready for member sales to begin on Monday morning. It hasn't been easy for this game as we've attempted to recognise loyalty throughout the sales process. 

The ticket fulfilment process has now begun, so I'm afraid we won't be able to extend the refund period. However, I do take on board your feedback and will factor it in should we have a situation of this nature again. 

Regards

Adam

Can I ask, the one website I checked was the one I bought the tickets off, ie Bristol Sport. Couldn't spot anything on there about refunds, did I miss it?

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Aaron-Bcfc

Aaron-Bcfc

Posted
Posted
41 minutes ago, AdamB said:

Yes, I accept this point. We also have to get that balance correct between emailing enough or emailing too much and risk people blocking our mails. 

For important, short timescale periods like this, I think it's a valid point and one I'll pass back to the Supporter Services team. 

Adam

Why did fans get 1 day to refund when the game was 6 weeks away? When any other away game wouldn't have even gone on sale for another few weeks? Could've gave people 1/2 weeks to refund and there would've been no issues whatsoever. The Newcastle game is closer and you're not scrambling to get those tickets out.

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Flagon

Flagon

Posted
Posted

I've got two tickets but one of us may not be able to go due to work. I think the refund time was way too short considering the game is some way off still. I see this has been explained by Adam above so that it could work with the loyalty arrangements, but I think the loyalty arrangements could have been moved a day or two to allow those with work commitments time to sort out whether or not they could go. I'm still ok for going myself but I didn't see the announcement until Friday evening so it would have been too late for me.

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Davefevs

Davefevs

Posted
Posted

I also think that the terms of the refund period should've been part of the original sale, knowing that the game might need to be re-arranged.

I had to cancel my ticket, but that was only an £18 wheelchair / Carer, because I can't take Joe to brum and back on a school night.  I'd be very upset if I'd lost £70/80 or whatever.  I got my money back, but a bit lucky I tweeted a member of staff to see if I could change my ticket from wheelchair/Carer to adult only prior to Monday.

I think that such a short refund period and the pre-notification of this period would struggke to stand up....caveat - I'm no legal expert.

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reddoc

reddoc

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

I knew all about the refund timings and procedures and I didn't even want to get a refund. 

You cant blame the club for missing the details when it did go out on all of their media. This isn't their media. 

I'm sure people will buy them off you. 

I'd take one extra if you want to sell. 

Just a shame we've not all got as much time as you appear to during the day, to trawl through 'media outlets' trying to discover what we do to get a refund.

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ChippenhamRed

ChippenhamRed

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Flagon said:

I've got two tickets but one of us may not be able to go due to work. I think the refund time was way too short considering the game is some way off still. I see this has been explained by Adam above so that it could work with the loyalty arrangements, but I think the loyalty arrangements could have been moved a day or two to allow those with work commitments time to sort out whether or not they could go. I'm still ok for going myself but I didn't see the announcement until Friday evening so it would have been too late for me.

Agree it does seem unnecessarily rushed. The game is 5 weeks away! Member sales were deferred until Monday while they sorted out a new date, so I don't see why they couldn't have pushed that out further to allow a more reasonable time for refunds.

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Bar BS3

Bar BS3

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, reddoc said:

Just a shame we've not all got as much time as you appear to during the day, to trawl through 'media outlets' trying to discover what we do to get a refund.

I think the point was that I didn't, because it wasn't something that bothered me, but I still saw all about it. 

I do agree that it was an unnecessarily short time window to get a refund for a game that is 6 weeks away. 

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Bristol Rob

Bristol Rob

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The general principles of use the small claims element of proceedings are;

Have I been genuinely wronged?

Can I afford the process?

Is it worth it?

In answer to the first two point, I can say 'yes' with some confidence, is it a yes to point 3. Probably not, but if it cleans up the process going forward, it might well be worth it.

I'll consider my options.

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Frenchay Red

Frenchay Red

Posted
Posted

Not sure I can make it on the rearranged date, and was amazed to learn today that I have missed the narrow window of opportunity for a refund.

Ridiculous really. I've been rather busy looking after my wife who has just come out of hospital. I imagined that we would have a few days to sort this out, not less than 24 hours. Crazy.

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Bristol Rob

Bristol Rob

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Appears my most sensible option is to offer the club mediation before making my moan official.

Happy to do that.

My bigger concern is that finding a mutually agreeable slot might mean that the club will have ready passed ticket revenue on to Villa so any further action would be at a cost  (possibly) to Bristol Sport rather than something easily resolved now.

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ChippenhamRed

ChippenhamRed

Posted
Posted
25 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

Still not happy about this.

I see no reason why the club couldn't recognise their mistake here, extend the refund period for a few more days, and make more tickets available. There are probably people who want to buy tickets who've missed out while there are others stuck with tickets they can't use - everyone wins.

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Bristol Rob

Bristol Rob

Posted
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Posted
7 minutes ago, ChippenhamRed said:

I see no reason why the club couldn't recognise their mistake here, extend the refund period for a few more days, and make more tickets available. There are probably people who want to buy tickets who've missed out while there are others stuck with tickets they can't use - everyone wins.

Hopefully they will. The refund window was far too short.

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TV Tom

TV Tom

Posted
Posted

It does seem crazy that there will potentially be people with tickets that don't want them and people without tickets that do want them, I've got a couple and now won't be able to make it but know plenty of people who will take them off me although that's not the point here, it was a ridiculously short time to claim a refund for a game 5 weeks away and how anyone can come on here to try and justify it is insulting, take your management hat off Adam and smell the coffee, us fans are suffering enough at the moment without the need for this incompetence 

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Bristol Rob

Bristol Rob

Posted
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It's been suggested the attempting a chargeback under section 75 of the consumer credit act might enable people to claim a refund, based on the way the club failed to advise their customer base directly of a change in match date and provide clear refund instructions.

Given that the club has email details of those who purchased tickets, there is an argument that this is the medium they should have used to inform people of the changes.

I'm waiting on further info.

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cider-manc

cider-manc

Posted
Posted

I honestly don't see why an extra refund window can't be put in and the general sale pushed back a week.

Also... just a thought. Can we not have a sub forum for unwanted ticket sales for all games? A place where tickets can be sold for face value (or less). I'm guessing it might need the clubs blessing?  I realise it would very rarely be required (how often do we actually sell out...) but it could prove quite useful.

 

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