Melbourne membership - service? HA!

[Charlie]

Guess what, folks? I'm either forking out $38 for two seats for the Geelong game, or not going.

There's a restricted allocation for the cheer squad of only 118. I won't be getting one of those, because they're a) all taken, and b) even if some become available, I have to go into the city either Wednesday or Thursday when my parents are away and I have school. Even if it were possible to do so, I wouldn't want to risk it because if none come up, I'd have left it too late to get one of those wonderful $19 seats!

What makes this even more of a farce is that my mum e-mailed the Melbourne office last week about tickets. They didn't even reply, so I didn't know until I rang five minutes ago of the problem.

THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Effectively, my membership is now worth only four games to me. It would have been cheaper now to pay for GA tickets at each game. How hard could it be TO RETURN AN E-MAIL!!!! People say that I don't give Morwood a chance, but what sort of operation is he running???

I'm so close to telling this club to stick its incompetence up its ass.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by robbieando
Charlie, by any chance did you ring up the club this week to book the ticket, or did you book when we all got the email and got a phone call from the club this say you missed out.

My mum e-mailed last week. I think that was about a week after the mail-out. It was ME who rang THEM, not the other way around. I was - thankfully - sick of waiting to find out what was going on.

If last week too late, fair enough... I can cop that on the chin. However my problem is more that there was no reply to the e-mail.

I've rung up and booked the 2 tickets. It means that my membership has become a donation to the club rather than a good value deal... but what can you do? The thing is, if my normal, non cheer squad membership doesn't cover it... what is the actual value in a membership for anyone? Especially considering that we played at Optus last week; many would have missed out on that game too.

I managed to mildly express my unhappiness to them - would have liked to scream into the phone but that wouldn't get me anywhere. They HAVE to adopt a backs-to-the-wall mentality if they want to hold onto what members are still left here. Until they get more games, stuff-ups like this can single-handedly defeat the purpose of buying their product. They MUST have an attitude of doing the most they possibly can with whatever games are at their disposal. Not even communicating with the fans is NOT the way to do that!

[robbieando]

Re: Melbourne membership - service? HA!

Charlie the Cheer Squad tickets were available as first in best dressed, so if you left it until last week to contact the Melbourne office to book a ticket with us, the chances of getting one of the 118 tickets available to the 160 people wanting tickets to the match were slim.

As for not replying to you, yes that is wrong, but its not the fault of Morwood or the office if the Cats charge Swans members extra to book seats at Skilled Stadium, its the same for every away club. As for the lack of tickets thats down to the fact the capacity there is only 22,000, thanks to the building of the new Grandstand.

[anne]

Charlie,
An email from the club came on 24/6/04 saying they had 400 tickets at $19.53 each. I initially wasn't going to attend as I resented the extra charge on top of my membership(as well as the $75 scarf). My husband refuses to go. But I eventually gave in and rang up 2 days ago and booked 2 tickets for my mother and me. I know we have been given a raw deal this year but let's hope it is as bad as it will get and things will improve next year. And at least the 400 seats are all together so we will be amongst our own. Let's hope it doesn't rain.

[robbieando]

Originally posted by Charlie
My mum e-mailed last week. I think that was about a week after the mail-out. It was ME who rang THEM, not the other way around. I was - thankfully - sick of waiting to find out what was going on

If last week too late, fair enough... I can cop that on the chin. However my problem is more that there was no reply to the e-mail.

The email was sent out of the 8th of June, so more than likely you did leave it too late to get one of the available tickets. Not contacting you is wrong

I've rung up and booked the 2 tickets. It means that my membership has become a donation to the club rather than a good value deal... but what can you do? The thing is, if my normal, non cheer squad membership doesn't cover it... what is the actual value in a membership for anyone? Especially considering that we played at Optus last week; many would have missed out on that game too.

Charlie, every Swans member outside the Cheer Squad has to pay the $18 to get a seat. The only way to get into the ground and not pay extra is to line up early on the Sunday morning and hope to get out of the 2000 GA Standing tickets that the Cats are holding back. Tony Morwood has expressed to myself and others that the paying extra at Skilled Stadium was in his words "a big wank", however there is nothing he or the Swans as a club can do, its the decision of the Cats themselves.

[Charlie]

Ok Rob.

Doesn't excuse the simple fact that a) they've failed to reply, through negligence, oversight, technical difficulties, whatever. That is a failure of customer service... something so much more important when you've got a relatively low value product already. And b), they have essentially given people who can't get to the city no choice but to pay the$19. They don't HAVE to pass all tickets over the counter. They could do it by mail, they could arrange for pick-up at the match... my $38 worth of tickets will be coming by mail (that I will be making sure of). The tickets that I thought I paid for last year are not only already taken by others, but can only be collected in St Kilda Rd.

[robbieando]

Charlie, I just rang the Melbourne office to make sure of my ticket (after hearing what happened to you, I'm not taking any chances), when I asked how I supposed to collect these tickets I was given two options

a) Collect it from the office in St Kilda Rd

or

b) Have it sent to me by mail

I took option b

[Charlie]

Interesting little alteration to this story!

Mum just got home and checked her sent items folder. The e-mail? Sent on the 13th of June!

Now, that's five days after the mail-out. First, I struggle to believe that there were 118 tickets sold that quickly. But that's not as important as my second point. The club has had 25 days to inform me that I did not have tickets.

This is ridiculous. When I buy a membership, it's on the understanding that I'm buying tickets for 5 games. False advertising. Poor customer service. Continued disregard for the one thing we want; more games.

Great.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by robbieando
Charlie, I just rang the Melbourne office to make sure of my ticket (after hearing what happened to you, I'm not taking any chances), when I asked how I supposed to collect these tickets I was given two options

a) Collect it from the office in St Kilda Rd

or

b) Have it sent to me by mail

I took option b

I was told that if I wanted to wait in the hope of getting a ticket, I would have to go into St Kilda road.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

No offence Charlie, but I managed to get in with the Cheer Squad allocation, as did the regulars who help out with the banner at each match.

Naturally it was first in, best dressed. But Denise was on to this well over a month ago and was even organising things when I spoke to her about it at the Essendon.

Again, no offence mate. But if somebody like Peter Greg or myself from Sydney (who go to every match, thus have 10 zillion away tickets to think about buying) can be pro-active enough to think about this well over 2 months in advance, somebody who never stops squealing about us only having 5 matches in Victoria all year should be thinking about this sort of thing a little earlier than 2 weeks before the game.

Agreed, the situation where you have to pick up tickets at the QBE Office in Melbourne is far from ideal. Cher from across the road in the ground even apparently had to do it. But a little better planning on your part would have led to far less angst.

It is nice to realise that people who DO wish to help with the banner etc etc do get prioritised in something.

We need more people like Tony Morwood Charlie. Don't scare him off when he is only in his first season.

JF

[Nico]

Robbie,

I intend, as always at Geelong, to get there early and lob into the standing room. Is that still how it works given I have a Swans membership? I know they have stupidly reduced the amount of standing room to sardine proportions. And they want to keep it as their home ground, when it seems unless you are a Geelong supporter you are discriminated against.

Just as an aside my brother, who is an AFL Swans member was refused entry under that ticket a few years back because they didn't have a section for AFL members. Very obscure. Mind you he did get in when he threw a genuine wobbly. Wonder how he will go this year.

[Charlie]

That's a low blow, JF, and you bloody well know it.

You KNOW my dad. You KNOW how bad his legs are. When he gets home from work, he is buggered. All he can do is sit in his chair and rest.

I don't drive, Jules. How exactly am I supposed to get to banner making? Hmm?? No offence? What crap, Julian. I'll remember that next time you want someone to help you when your trying to run a cheer squad on your own in Adelaide.

See my above post. The e-mail was sent on the 13th of June. If that was too late, FINE!!! But send an e-mail back to tell me so.

And I'm getting seriously sick of people telling me how the sun shines out of Tony Morwood. He's done jack all.

If you want to be a sycophantic drone, Julian, go for it. Me? I think this will be my last year of giving money away to the club as if were a charity. You know I can get into five times as many matches with an AFL membership, for the same price? You can have your cheer squad, if that's your attitude.

[Nico]

Charlie, I feel much the same about the VALUE of a Membership Ticket in Melbourne. When next season comes around I will be retired so an AFL Membership seems a lot more value, given that my 2 boys can now pay for their own club membership if they wish, but their situations are such that they can hardly get to a game.

[DST]

Originally posted by Charlie
Interesting little alteration to this story!

Mum just got home and checked her sent items folder. The e-mail? Sent on the 13th of June!

Now, that's five days after the mail-out. First, I struggle to believe that there were 118 tickets sold that quickly. But that's not as important as my second point. The club has had 25 days to inform me that I did not have tickets.

This is ridiculous. When I buy a membership, it's on the understanding that I'm buying tickets for 5 games. False advertising. Poor customer service. Continued disregard for the one thing we want; more games.

Great.

Charlie, when you buy a membership in Melbourne you have no entitlement to any game in Melbourne outside of what the general public have.

Unfortunately the Swans have no control over the grounds in Victoria to provide seats to any of our supporters who have purchased a membership, you are just going to get over it and plan to get a ticket (and pay more) like evertone else.

DST

[Charlie]

So, DST, if I have no entitlements to a ticket, what do I pay a membership for?

Because I was certainly under the impression that I payed in order to get into matches. I can tell you this - I didn't pay $70 (including cheer squad membership) for a hat and a bumper sticker.

As I said, false advertising.

I'll get over it... but I'll remember it, too. A membership is a service that I expect to get good value for, not a donation.