Sunday, August 05, 2007

Tottenham Hotspur's Ticket Office Disaster



Harry wants your tales of woe.


I want to add some comments from posters on here when I pursue the club on the whole ticketing issue.


The membership fees have increased and the quality of service has gone through the floor.
How much misery is 'our' club is causing it's customers?

'Zero' loyalty points. An online queuing system. Your credit card being debited for £0.00 because although you thought you'd been allowed to purchase - your 'application to do so' was in fact unsuccessful. The queues around the block at the Torino game. Been hung up on by staff over the telephone anyone?

Can anyone at WHL dispute the new system is a fiasco? No. of course not. But before we want answers I want your gripes. So fire away.

By the same token, if you think the new set up is an improvement do let us know how.


HH

75 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure if this happened to anyone else but i am absolutely furious with them. I was on the spurs website at 9.30am the day and time the arsenal tickets went on sale. I refreshed and refreshed until they became available and then i selected 2, assigned them both to mship numbers and entered all of my credit card details. I then clicked purchase and was waiting in that stupid F*ckin queue for 1 and half hours until eventually my session expired and i lost the tickets! Phoned up the ticket office F'in and blindin and was told nothing they could do.

Anonymous said...

I've tried to buy tickets twice and wasn't able to on either occasion. Totally pissed off with the whole bloody thing. These people want a reality check.

Anonymous said...

I pretty much agree with you HH. I was extremely lucky at the game because I joined the que just as it was tailing back to the Park Lane, then a Spurs staff bloke came along and asked if any of us had confirmation of our ticket purchases. Luckily we had the confirmation email and he told us to take that to the turnstyle and they would allow us in. All in all we only missed the first 4 minutes, but this does not distract from the fact that the whole event was a farce. SORT IT !!

Anonymous said...

My membership took almost 2 months to process, which cost me the chance to get arsenal tickets. I phoned them and they said they were having delays becasue of the new system blahblah and they couldnt tell me my membership no. because they hadnt dealt with my application yet. Therefore i couldnt book any tickets. Im confused because ive never had a problem with them before so why did they change the system? Plus i want to choose the exact place where i sit when im paying 36quid for a seat not have it selected for me by their computer.

Anonymous said...

Got back from the game yesterday about 15 minutes after the 2nd half started as I walked out, i was that p***** off.

After ordering tickets online and nothing having arrived, I thought I would get there early to ensure that everything went smoothly and so rolled up about 2 hours, yes 2 hours before k.o. When I arrived, I and hundreds (if not more) of other people were greeted by a queue which ran all the way down paxton road, turned the corner and all the way down the lenght of the high road up to the Mega Store. Quite early on it became clear that the queue was hardly movin and that we might not get in in time for ko. with about 45 mins to go and still standing on the hig street waiting to join the part of the queue which ran the length of Paxton, we were told by the police that the ko had een delayed by only 15mins and could not be delayed any more as 'the Italians would not be able to get home'.

Now by this point i was already burnt to a crisp and not feeling in the mood for anythin other than a pint and bed let alone a footy game but like the mugs we are we carried on regardless and could hear the teams coming out and the 1st goal goin in etc. The steward suddenly then after all this time started to tell everyone that we could now just go thru the turstiles by showing our confirmation letter off the net!!!!

when nearly 2hrs after getting there we finally reached the ticket window in Paxton where they had 1 computer to get peoples details up between 3 members of staff who were serving at the windows.

We then got into the stadium and when we showed the ticket to the steward he pointed out that our seats had all been taken and that we should sit in two other seats, but may have to move again if these seats became taken.

I was now furious at the complete mis-management of it all and just wanted to go home. I let a bit of steam out by expressing how unhappy i was tho three stewards standing in the gangway, all of whom agreed that it had all been terribly organised and said i should write in (to which I lauged).

I got to the seat after 30 mins had gone and sat there not interested in the game in the slightest now because the whole experience had been ruined and at half time me and my mate went over to the ticket office for a refund!

they looked at me as if i was mad which wasn't good at this point so i told them how they are fast becoming a laughing stock because they are so incapable. needless to say they wouldn't give me a refund even tho i explaind everything above. Those who had read my previous post will know how long i and others had been waiting for my season tickets (still not arrived) so i asked if there was any news on them. After checking thru the system she says, we've got no record of them!!!!! 'but the monies being taken from my account i say' ok i will look into it she says. I had now had enough and left the ticket office to the sounds of the gme being played inside.

The main thing that really upset me today was the ko only being delayed 15 mins with 1000 ppl still standing outside thru no fault of their own. it was as if the club were saying, 'we've got your money so were not bothered wether you see 5 or 50 mins of the game. the game kicked off at 2 for gods sake....are you telling me even delaying it an hour if needs be would have been a problem. If it had of been an evening game i could understand!!!!!!

Andrew

Anonymous said...

I couldn't see the point in queuing all the way round the stadium with 15 mins left, so bought two more tickets from the cash gate - no que there... I ordered my tickets by credit card, and have kept the new ones as proof of p. The guy on the gate said I should be able to get a refund as I never collected the original tickets. Please chase this up too. The whole thing was an absolute joke, fans were still arriving after half time!!!

Anonymous said...

Guys I work for an IT reseller to offer my beloved spurs an excellent piece of kit and the miserable so and so who is the IT manager for tottenham was a rude as you could ever be and he even admitted teething problems with the new technology well mr R you will face the raff of the fans now.

Anonymous said...

I took my family to the game on Saturday, the tickets were purchased via the new ticketing system on the day they were available for the north stand. I arrived in good time yesterday, only to find that my seats did not exist!!!

I spoke to the steward who summoned someone, this guy went to the ticket office and came back with four new seats. We promptly occupied these seats, after about half an hour somebody else with his family arrived and said he had just been given those seats because his seats did not exist.
The steward requested him to sit any of the seats in that row.
A short while later somebody who had purchased these seat via the system, requested me to move.

The guy who had arranged our new seats was called and went back to the ticket office, coming back he said only one person can be re-located, I refused and said that all four need to move.
We were re-located again in another block and in the shade.

We found out that there were several other people waiting re-location.

Come on Spurs sort it out, and lets have our old way of purchasing tickets back again

Anonymous said...

I tried to get tickets for the Arsenal match, waited until 9:30 and did the whole process but I kept getting sold out messages. After 2 hours I gave it up as a bad job. Then 3 days later I see a charge of £120 from Spurs on my credit card. No Aresnal tickets show up on my booking history. I have emailed and phoned the ticket office without reply so far, I still don't know whether I have the ticket or Spurs just want to charge me for looking at the website!

Anonymous said...

Its a total farce! Where do I start? Well getting tickets for the Everton game was more stressfull than having a gun to your head! We can now not book using a debit card unless it has a 'valid from date' which only 1 or 2 banks here use, I'm with HSBC and we don't have that on our cards.I then used my credit card to pay but as the system is such a mess I got charged for 2 seats!I then called the ticket office and after being in a que for 20mins(which costs yet more money) I managed to speak to a member of staff who was useless! She said she was going to refund me for the seat I did not want which was fine with me but...... its now been 3 weeks and there is still no sign of the refund and no sign of the ticket! After a few more calls I have got nowhere. So the plan is for me to go to the ticket office in person on the morning of the game which is nothing but hastle as I'm comming from Cardiff.I was at the Torino game and I feel so sorry for those people who were in that 123 mile que in that heat. The service we are getting is so bad and after paying £38 for my membership it feels like a kick in the sack!!!

Anonymous said...

so your saying that i in fact havent got sunderland away tickets as it say "£0.00 paid"?
can someone plaese reply to this, if this is correct, the ticket office will get an arsekicking 1st thing tomorrow morning

Collo

Anonymous said...

Tottenham are not going to change their operating practices for you so get over it ffs!

Anonymous said...

I was in that Torino queue. The whole thing was a complete farce. Why the hell did it take them until spot-on kick off at 2.15 to start letting people through with confirmation proof. Did they honestly think "30 secs to go, maybe this queue will suddenly vanish". Absolute morons. I honestly cannot comprehend what was going through their minds. I'm really pissed off at the club, very burnt and feel like shit. Sod 'em.

Harry Hotspur said...

3.55 - You really are some class of f**king idiot. Your attitude sucks so much I don't know where to start.

I'm awarding you 2nd Prize in the Virtual Village Idiot Award.

So far, the outright winner is the muppet that came on here a week or two ago and pronounced he didn't care about the system as he had a season ticket and he was fine.

Anonymous said...

I also booked an arsenal ticket but was told the payment system screwed up and i hadn't been allocated it.The next day they charge me £46 for said ticket, call them again, apparently I haven't got my ticket and I have to send them a bank statement before they'll refund it. I'm furious

Anonymous said...

also booked an arsenal ticket, which my card was charged for. The club insist they have no record of any of this and will not give me my ticket! To make matters worse they won't even refund my money untill I send them my bank statement! I'm FURIOUS with them. Oh and still no membership pack!!

Anonymous said...

I had problems ordering my Torino ticket about 2 days after the on-sale date the payment went through but I got no confirmation, so I phoned them up and they said that I didn't have any booked! I then phoned again and was told that I would need to book again- this didn't work so naturally I phoned once more and was told I already had two tickets booked from the first time I tried. What a carry on, was half expecting Sid James to jump out from behind my bed room door!!!

Anonymous said...

My money went out my account in may for my season ticket, I had no confirmation e-mail to say i had got my season ticket, only way i found i had got my season ticket is by checking my account. I am still waiting for my season ticket to arrive a wee before the season.

Anonymous said...

Harry

I admire your efforts, I really do and you should be applauded, but I think you're wasting your time on this one. Do you really think the club will take note of a handful of complaints letters? They do need to sharpen their service, because the comments on here really are appalling, but when all is said and done, they will do what THEY think best.

I've said it before, I'll say it again - build a bigger stadium! End of.

COYS

Anonymous said...

I had the same queing problem, and when i put my card details in nothing happened, but 2 tickets came trough yesterday!!?? I even phoned them and they said my booking didn't work? So very pleased to get the tickets but the system is an absolute disgrace for a multi million pound enterprise.

Anonymous said...

3.55, i agree with Harry, so you enjoy being dicked around in everything you do then, sounds like you dont mind waiting for a table at a restaurant for 3 hours, as that's the way the operate, without doubt the thickest comment i have see on any blog or website anywhere. We as fans and customers pay good money and deserve a good service, or a satisfactory one as a minimum. IDIOT

Frank said...

Yes, the online ticketing is a shambles. PLEASE PLEASE tell these people:

I tried to book 5 tickets in my regular block for the Derby game, but the system does not seem to realise that 3 seats in one row and 2 in the row in front/behind is perfectly acceptable. Instead, the ticketing computer just wanted to keep telling me that it could not find the sufficient number of seats together - I DON'T NEED THEM IN A STRAIGHT FUCKING LINE!!!!

With so many people pissed off a club statement would be nice wouldn't it.

Anonymous said...

No sure if this is happening to every one but i am still awaiting for my season ticket. Unable to get through on the phone as yet.Some-one is going to get an ear full when i do.

Frank said...

I might also add that the members pack is a fucking disgrace this year. I realise it's never fantastic, but a pin, a cd-rom and a DVD??? Not to mention the ridiculous amount of advertising bumf.

Thankfully I have a PC - if not I might be even more annoyed.

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to the multi-game ticket packages? I applied for one that included the Arse game and all I've seen or heard since was that message on the website saying confirmation emails would be sent out to all those who applied. This was on the Friday before the Arse tickets went on sale and still nothing! Also, do they relly have to keep sending us emails about all their new money making rackets(Family Season tickets, Fantasy Football etc)during a time when everyone knows we've all been ripped off royally for our basic memberships(an extra £15 quid to stay on a waiting list that I've been on for 3 years!!). What are the Spurs Trust doing about this, other than their usual, 'I'm alright jack pull up the rope' efforts? Surely with this amonut of money changing hands for such a shoddy service there must be a case for taking this out of the realm of just a football business issue and seeing what Trading Standards have to say?

Anonymous said...

Harry, when you are giving them grief please kick their arses over the Spurs TV fiasco. I have subscribed (and been a Member) for as long as it has been going. I had problems with the last game from South Africa and e-mailed them and got all the apologies and "it was a technical fault" - I eagerly logged on to see yesterday's match and nothing working again so I e-mailed them and I got a reply stating that the TV live was working fine and here is the link to it - the same link to the page that I was already viewing. I have an idea the "customer service" for Spurs TV is in in India - I asked for a telephone number for somebody to speak to - no reply thus no number. I am all for giving money to the Club but I do expect something back in return!!!!

Anonymous said...

I have problems getting tickets for the Everton game on the first on-sale day. Kept timing out on the credit card details section. Got them fine the 2nd day, not the area I wanted though! As for the Arsenal game, waiting 2 hours in Q from 9:30am, got through only for same to happen on credit card details. Emailed the ticket office and membership stillhaven't heard back. Emailed the Supports Trust and they said they had many complaints!

Can get Multi packages, they emailed about it a couple of weeks ago. Can get form off of the Spurs site but it a search to get it!

New systemis shocking, not being able to choose seat. Can't get seats near my mates who r season ticket holders.

Not suprised but the drop in standard of the service. The club have switched over to Tickmaster, who may be the biggest at what they do...but its prob cos they are the cheapest and worst! So no suprise the Club chose 'em!?!?!

Unknown said...

Is it unresonable for us fans to think we could enjoy a cold beer at half time? apparently the THFC bar staff seem to think so, which is why they provide us with warm bottles of Carlsberg at £3 a pop.

Unknown said...

why cant the bar staff realise that at half time, we may like to enjoy a COLD bottle of beer. Warm Carlsberg at £3 a pop is just taking the piss.

Anonymous said...

Harry, keep moaning about how unfair Tottenham have been to you.

* Hands Harry a tissues to wipe his tears *

They are not going to change it and you and a few more are in the minority. We can see that by the laughable amount of signups you got on your petition :D

If you don't like it, don't go.

There are thousands waiting on the list for season tickets so they can say "next!" and there is nothing you can do about it.

Finally, you need to calm down some. You seem to like to speak, but you don't like it when someone does not agree with you......censoring posts for example :)

Get over it, stick to posting You Tubes vids like a secretary. That way you save us the time who having to bother looking on You Tube :)

Harry Hotspur said...

You're right Dannyboy, but a small, brainless few at WHL have got my goat.

I'm no communist. I don't mind then making money out of my love for the team, but I refuse point blank to be jerked about to no good purpose.

If I could see any progress in this new system I would shut my mouth.

I personally think petitions are tedious. I'm not a petition kindda guy.

'Equal Rights For Gay Voles'
'Litter Free Birmingham Bridle-Paths'

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

THFC only just came shy of handing out KICK ME signs to their customers in the queue at the Torino game.

'A disgrace' is an overused phrase, but one that wholly applies to this situation.

We probably won't get anywhere, but I'll be damned if they don't hear my voice and feel a bit of the old Dunkirk spirit form the people that pay their wages.


Grrrrrrrrrrrr!
;)

Anonymous said...

Quote:

We probably won't get anywhere, but I'll be damned if they don't hear my voice

LOL, get a sandwich board and a rattle. Stand outside the game on match days and complain :)

twat!

Harry Hotspur said...

6.41

This whole issue is clearly too sophisticated for you.

Bless.

Censorship: What is it you want published that has not been?

I would say I reject about three comments a month.

Perhaps you would increase your chances of breaking out of the three by submitting something interesting?? Clever?? Funny??

Anonymous said...

I bought a ticket on 9th july, still hadn't received it by last monday. Tried emailing but all that happened was it got bounced back to me, also tried phoning all day monday only to be told to call back later, eventually got through 4pm tuesday to be told to call back frriday! Got through friday midday and was told to go to the ticket office on saturday 11.30am. Being that i live 2 hours away from The Lane i decided i may as well get there early. Thank god i did I walked straight up to the ticket office at around 10.30! a miracle considering within 20-30minutes there was a que heading up the high street!

I had 2 different groups of people sitting in front of me for the 2 halves. At half time 2 guys tried to get in to find their seat having only just managed to get into the game, only to be told by the steward "If you haven't got a ticket i can't show you to your seat" These guys explained the monumental cock-up including the bit about the email confirmation and fair play to them they even remembered the block, row and seat numbers. All the steward could say was"sorry mate its just turned into free-for-all today" All in all i'm really disheartened by the backwards step on ticket sales and aftersales service. Lets just hope these are teething problems. COYS

Anonymous said...

Just had the same experience on the ticketing front as every one else.
I despair when the club says use the internet and weve got extra phone lines as well and the internet ticket system drops your purchase(who would want their ticket purchase to be dropped) and the phone line doesnt put you in a queue it says call back later!!!!
I used the "contact us" email and whereas most sites we use have an auto response and well get back to you, Spurs response zero.
I think most would agree that Daniel Levy is a total professional running our club, I cant believe he would accept this useless service to the fans.
Go on Harry get stuck in.

Anonymous said...

I bought my tickets for the game ages ago had trouble actually getting on in the first place. Then to find I couldn't choose my seat was a piss take.

Short of that I got tickets on time and got in ok but the ground was half empty and I had the pleasure of watching the prepaid ticket que growing from 1pm out side its a piss take that you could go straight up and buy new tickets from the paxton but if you'd already paid you had to que for an hour!!

Jay Park Lane Yido

Anonymous said...

I knew you would react :)

At least everyone else can you see you are twat too :)

Thanks for publishing :)

Harry Hotspur said...

7.15 - Everyone can see alright...

Anonymous said...

Great site. I don't like Kick Me signs so I signed the petition and expect copies of your Dear Mr Barber letters to appear on here soon.

Gal.

Anonymous said...

At 9-45 on monday I thought I had bought 4 tkts for the Arsenal game but when I clicked purchase the whole transaction disappeared and by 1-30 when I got back on the site it was sold out.I phoned but could not get through.I have e-mailed and got exactly the reply I had expected----none
Yes I too had problems with the membership before the Everton game.I phoned to get my number and was told this had been e-mailed to me a week earlier but it had'nt.It came 2 days after in the post.
Yes membership has gone up and service standards which were never outstanding have declined

Anonymous said...

Good work Harry, any chance you could send all these comments onto the club? I hope so as all they have done is piss me about so far and the season has not started yet

Harry Hotspur said...

My plan is to put together just such a compilation for their pleasure.

Anonymous said...

I made it to the Torino game! But it was a hell of an effort.

First I tried to order on line, but couldn't be sure the new system would allocate us tickets together (i later learnt it does - though not necessarily where you requested - apparently if there aren't seats available together where you order it wil allocate you "the next best available"). So I tried to phone about 10 times. Every time I rang, having gone through the various menus I just got kicked off and told to try later - not evene put in a queue. So i decided to e-mail my order. No response after 24 hours, so in the end I went down in person. Long queue of very disgruntled people at the new office - all with different problems. Went in angry, but ended up feeling more sorry for the poor kids trying to run the office and deal with all these problems. They were clearly doing their best and were actually quite helpful. So we shouldn't take it out on them.

Hope you will pass all these stories on to the club. They really need to sort this out. They must have lost thousands from all the people who would have gone to Torino if they could. And they wil lose at lot more if they carry on like this. Given tioday's inflated TV revenues and transfer fees, surely they can see it makes sense to invest some of it in an e-ticketing system that works and enough staff to operate it properly?

Anonymous said...

Why the hell are people arguing over this topic? Spurs have obviously offered a sub standard service which needs to be rectified immediately. The attitude that because theres loads of fans waiting in the wings doesnt mean its ok!

Anonymous said...

Same story as everybody else fed up with ticket office telephone call waiting queue only to be cut off. When you do eventually get through unhelpful disinterested rude staff offer no help and even the ticket office manager Ian Murphy (ian.murphy@tottenhamhotspur.com) doesn't respond to your emails. Maybe the success on the pitch make senior management feel they can take supporters for granted. Start complaining to the chairman, whats the point in building a new stadium if nobody can buy a ticket or are we also going down the corporate route?

Anonymous said...

Hi All,

I bought my season ticket and filled out the form with a change of address details and having not received any postcard confirmation to say that my season ticket was ready for collection I went to the ticket office before the match.

I gave them my new address as a reference and tld them which block i used to sit in and they couldn't find me!

They hadn't processed my address change so when I gave my old address they found me.

Trouble was the season ticket packs don't fit through the gaps under the ticket office windows - great design - so they had yo come round to the back door to hand them out!

Bit disappointing really considering how much money they bring in you would have thought they could get someone half decent to sort this stuff out.

Anonymous said...

Totally off topic and very very cruel, but check out the link re: Ghaly for sale on Ebay!!! Thanks Paxton.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260146303439#description

COYS

Anonymous said...

I feel like I'm just re-iterating what others have said, however hopefully the more of us disgruntled fans speak out, the more chance of us being listened to by the club...

Yet another gripe about the Arsenal game - same old, started queing at nine thirty-ish for an age only to find out that once I FINALLY got into the ticket office, was stumped by the fact that there seemed to be lots of tickets available all over the stadium but apparently even 1 ticket is too many for this booking...

And why the hell can't we choose our seats anymore? Balls I say.

After faffing around on the website trying to see if the Spurs computers had or hadn't gone into meltdown decided to try and ring, only to find out that there aren't enough people working at the call centre to answer our calls.

Where's the extra £20 for membership ACTUALLY going other than towards Ghaly's wage packet for the next few weeks???

Anonymous said...

Harry do not even get me started on the f*ing ticket office. Same as a number of other comments - I went onto the website, picked my arsenal tickets, got to put in my credit details and then it just sent me into a que and that was that......I didnt get any tickets

I called the ticket office and was told that I was the only person with this problem and there was nothing I could do.

The online system was not to bad a couple of years of go.....so why change it?

What a bunch of muppets!!!

Anonymous said...

I queued for over an hour on Saturday for tickets that were ordered on the net and confirmed on the 9th July. No apologies when you phone up, and a miracle if you get through and not just discarded in that annoying loop. Can we not afford a waiting system?
Also assume Spurs will refund the postage as its obvious they did not post the tickets.
The final straw on Saturday was to be told if you had confirmation you could get in at the turnstiles. We all ran to the turnstiles to be told that was not the case and tempers flared with people shouting and children crying. I am surprised that vilence did not kick off. Is it too much to ask for someone to take control of what could have been a potentially dangerous situation with thousands of unhappy fans forced to queue for tickets they had paid for whilst the ticket windows were still being used to sell tickets on the day.
But then again why would Spurs care they already had my money

Anonymous said...

SO having had my cheque for £2828 cashed early June for 2 x season tickets and 2 x away season tickets , i await here , Monday 5th august , having phoned the ticket office constantly for 5 days and being told to "phone back later" when it is not so busy ! Course its going to be busy as near on every other supporter is having the same f'in problem . SO as i sit here , without either season ticket and without my tickets for saturdays game at Sunderland , it is a total mess and they know it . Did nobody think to run the new and old systems parallel for a period of time ? two months to sort out 25,000 tickets . Sending the tickets to a logistic company to sort it out ? and being charged £4.75 for every ticket in postage (how about putting them all in the same envelope ?)

Not a happy yiddo !!!

yidoyidoyido said...

i was at the spurs vs torino match and it took me 1 hour 50 minutes to get into the ground.I got in 10 minutes late and there will still people queing up.it was terrible.i had ordered my tickets on the monday and they was suppost to send them but said they had lready sent them out.when it got to thursday i rang up complaining and they said you will have to pick them up at the ground :@.So thats when it all started.Tottenham need to improve.before another shambles happens.

Anonymous said...

Not only did I have to go through the painstaking progress of booking all my tickets together at about 9:39am for five different members only to be kicked out at payment, made to wait 45 mins to get back into the site before I could re-order, by which time it was of course impossible to get 3 tickets together never mind 5. To add insult to injury my credit card has been credited to the sum of £311 for the 5 tickets I tried to order originally which I didn’t get, as well as for the 5 I did so that’s nearly £700 for 5 tickets! This was money was effectively “stolen” from a Tottenham Hotspur credit card as well! I have as advised by the ticket office emailed a copy of my statement to Spurs as apparently it was my duty to prove this had happened. I have done so but as yet have heard nothing back.

I really hope this is sorted out soon as I will find very hard to follow this club with the same passion and commitment if I know they steal from their own fans….

Anonymous said...

I'm lucky, I got 2 tickets for the Frenchies game but not without a few worries. Got on the site at 9.30 & got straight into my chosen section. Didn't realise I couldn't choose seats but got allocated 2 and accepted them. Went to checkout and noticed the seats weren't bad, (didn't understand the bit about having to allocate the second ticket to a member but fumbled through it) and made it to checkout. Entered my credit card details, hit Proceed (or whatever it said), got the "this might take a while" message and hung on. After 2 or 3 minutes got the "Enter your payment details" screen again, did so, got the "Please bloody wait" bit again, 2 or 3 minutes "Timeout - your reservations have been cleared" - bastards! Went back in couldn't find 2 seats together so went for just one only to be told "You've already got your quota you numpty" Quick check the credit card website - Yep, £91 pending, thank fork for that. Now where's me tickets? Ah arrived today - 7 days later. Think I'll get there early, not convinced I'm the only one who has bought these seats!

Anonymous said...

This is the first time I have been incensed enough to post on here, I was at Torino on Saturday, and have to admit that I got my tickets on time, and had good seats (although this was a complete fluke, as I obviously didn't choose them).

The scene at the ground though was a complete shambles. When I saw the queue I thought it was for the club shop, as it had spread all the way around to Park Lane. I bet they only started taking cash on the turnstiles so they could re-sell the seats bought by those who gave up and went home when they clearly were not going to make it in for kick off. The queue was nearly a mile long, so they gave an extra 15 minutes for everyone to get in. As if that was going to solve anything. The only person who caught the sharp end of my tongue though was the poor cow behind the counter at the bar, when I found out that even though kick-off was delayed, I still couldn't buy a £3 bottle of warm piss!

Failed to get tickets for Arsenal as well, my cousin was on the website for nearly two hours trying to book them for us, had the tickets allocated but then the page expired before he got confirmation. As if the situation wasn't bad enough before, now they have made it simpler by refusing to allow you to select your own seats, and they still can't get it right. Will they ever be able to actually successfully handle ticketing for a big match?

The trouble is it is not in their interest. They just want to make it easy for them to shift all the tickets at maximum profit, and have realised that they can treat us like shit, because too many of us are too loyal to the club to vote with our feet. Even if we did stay away, they would probably just see that as an opportunity to sell more corporate packages.

Unfortunately, all we can do is come on here and moan. I really don't think there is anything we can do about it, but will feel better if we all have the opportunity to let the club know that we are aware we are being treated like mugs, and are getting pissed off with it.

Anonymous said...

Had my season ticket for years, have one this season and never had any problems.

Then again, as long as I am fine I don't really care about anyone else.

Anonymous said...

Those of us who made the effort to get down to WHL ticket office to queue for tickets to the Scum game were given a right kick in the teeth when the ticket office didn't bother opening until 9.45am, giving those purchasing tickets using the, much more convenient, method of the internet and phone line a quarter of an hour head start on us.

I booked a day off work, queued since six o'bloody clock in the morning and still couldn't get tickets for south-lower, despite being no further back than about twentieth in the line. Still managed south-upper though, which was some solace.

I'm still raging that the useless bastards couldn't open the bloody ticket office on time, though.

Anonymous said...

Ok..looks like i am unique here. I have had no problems at all. Got my season ticket in good time, applied for Sunderland And Man U away. It did come up with £0.00 but i phoned the ticket office just to check and they said that as it was just an application thats what it will come up with as they will only take money when successful. Checked my loyalty points and they have been credited correctly. So no complaints but then i never went to the the torino game (i was on holiday!!) so i can't comment on what seems to be an obvious farce.

Anonymous said...

Ticketing operations at THFC, the word is 'shambolic'.

Missing loyalty points and wrong shirt aside (cheaper short-sleeved version received, rather than the long-sleeved option I ordered), my personal experience with regards the Torino game, only, was as follows:

4-July: ordered tickets online
28-July: someone else's tickets arrived in post; I contact ticket-office re. error.
30-July: hear nothing; try calling later on, but impossible to get through
31-July: hear nothing; try calling throughout day, get through on two occassions but staff chose to hang-up as soon as they hear there is a problem to resolve.
1-Aug: try calling on numerous occassions, but impossible to get through; Obtain ticket office manager's email address; Receive request to return tickets rec'd, but no apology or info. re. my tickets; I chase them again; Member of staff promises duplicates will be posted today (Wednesday)
2-Aug: duplicates not rec'd
3-Aug: duplicates not rec'd
4-Aug: match day and duplicates still not rec'd; spend two hours trying to contact ticket office, but they are not taking calls despite web-site saying its enquiry lines open 4-hours before kick-off; Travel to game without tickets; Confronted with a queue longer than Errol Flynn's... ; Security allow me to enter front of queue - big thank you to them; Transpires that Ticket Office operative had lied/'misled', as the duplicate tickets were never posted.

In summary, it was an underwhelming experience and one I will not be repeating; Next time there is a cock-up I will cancel the purchase (of whatever) and insist they refund.

Anonymous said...

I spent most of friday afternoon on the phone to the memebers office - not to the ticket ofiice - (because the line was closed due to 'experiencing an extremely high number of callers' - don't believe it for a minute - that line is closed when the y effing feel like it and that is that.
I booked two seats to take my 5yr old goddaughter to her first ever game - a friendly mind you - which I think is most likely the best0 way to start her off. but no. I am very suspicious that the club even send out 100% of tickets bought. (Becasue they don't just get up and after growing legs and walk away.) Imagine if you are saving postage on 10,000 of us poor fuckers whjo then have to show up and getr duplicates = why am I supporting this club. I called Friday pm - it being the last straw when I realsie dthat there were no tickets coming and obviously the game is tmw(I was driving someone to gatwick sat am so ther was gonna be no ttime for picking up tickets/duplicvates of tickets that were never sent more like. Anyway - after being hung up on, told completely differnet stories by each person that I speak to - I was then told that the manager was not available as he was in the ticket office. Ian Murphy - (Incase any more of you have complaints) Anyway the fact is I am being robbed by my own club and a company that I own TTNM.LSE. All I hear is 'no refund pollicy' well that is assuming they delivered what I bought. I am taking this one to the top gents and I suggest you do the same if you hve experienced similar woes now and in the past. I have very close connections at the telegraph, Evening Standard and also the FT - I have also left a message fore the mysterious Ian Murphy whom has yet to call me back - (right after I post this I am gonna cut and paste it and send it in with my membership number by email) to see if this will actually warrant a response. In the meantime how many of you booked seats but never got them or have had problems like this in the past? I am going on a factfinding missiion here so Harry I also need to know how many unique users you have in order to calculate the stats that I will personally ensure this shit is cut out once and for all. I missed the game - I never received the tickets I bought 1 month ago - I will not let this one go.

Anonymous said...

I really feel for you guys, as I am season ticket holder, and well that wasnt much to be desired as well !!

I think we paid for our tickets some months ago, and I have only just recevied my 'pack' so I wondering how much interest they have earned off of us season ticket holders already.

I really do fear for this new eticket thing, as I have decided not to auto-pay this year, because we were stitched up there as well, by them taking our money for tickets too far in advance for my liking.

And by the way Im a systems project manager and no way would i have let this bag of nails go live into the public domain before it was totally 'bug' free, teething problems ? My cockney arse !!!

Harry Hotspur said...

Michael Bulmer - Unique visitors for July reads at a little over 129,000...

Anonymous said...

I logged onto the website for Arsenal tickets as soon as it opened. How ridiculous is it to have an option to buy "0" tickets?!! I only wanted to get one ticket, and when I input this, it came back and said "try fewer tickets" Helpful! I got an allocated seat, then went through to payment, only to have "check basket" come back time and time again. I input the credit details 7 times, then got kicked out of the system and waited 2 hours to get through (interspersed with calls to the ticket office - which was a waste of time. I don't mind holding, as you know they would be extremely busy, but getting cut off each time is really damn rude!) The it came up as fully sold. 5 days later - a ticket arrived! Don't know how, didn't get an email confirmation, don't think it was the one I reserved - but grateful nevertheless! Go Harry!

Anonymous said...

So Harry thet are impressive stays. Any chance of a completely dedicated post asking how many of us mug fans didn't get tickets in the post that we booked nearly 1 month before the game? I have emialed this Ian Murphy guy now and will wait for the response. You'd think the club would actually give a shit about 'new' fans meaning my god daughter at 5 yrs old who's father is in fact a chelski fan - so my one shot aty making her spurs for life lookks to have evaporated - Thank you Tottenham Hotspur for the return of teh love that we all show you week in week out.

Anonymous said...

I note on the club's web site that the club are now deluding themselves into (or ticketmaster are pulling the wool over the eyes) believing it was all the result of disorganised supporters buying tickets late and arriving at the last minute. We arrived 90-minutes before kick off and the queue was half away around the stadium and 6 deep. The reason we didn't have tickets = the ticket office didn't send them to us when we bought them, three weeks in advance!!!

It is clear from the comments of this site that even those who purchased tickets in plenty of time were far from satisfied and unable to resolve any difficulties as the ticket office simply could not cope with (1) sales volumes (2) sorting out the number of problems they themselves had, in the main, generated.

I'm sure there is an element of truth in the club's statement, but WAKE UP, this ticket office is operationally far worse than the last.

Keep up the good work HH

Anonymous said...

Interesting aricle about the coming season, with a nice perspective on previous seasons.

http://www.sportingo.com/football/chelsea_arsenal_face_africa_cup/1001,4276

Anonymous said...

Jesus Christ.

Anonymous said...

To cut a long painful story short.
During first hour chaos for Everton bookings the system took 2 sets of tickets off my debit card with only one confirmation. Only knew this when bank statement came in. Three hours of hold ups on phone before helpful girl said "return the incorrect tickets when you get them for full refund" Wrong tickets plus correct tickets have still not arrived 3 weeks later!!! E mail to ticket office returned - address not valid! Hours more on to ticket office but phone constantly busy. I have today sent a registered letter to club which will probably be the basis of a complaint to trading standards. I hate to do this to something I love but it's just not acceptable!! (especially when club website says Everton ticket operations went smoothly) Anybody else thinking of going to trading standards?

Anonymous said...

Im a Platinum member for this One Hotspur joke.

I got sent a gold membership book, purely THFC's fault.This was sent a few weeks ago and I thought that was late. They ask me to go to WHL to exchange it. Hang on this aint my fault thfc, u f'ked up you shoud sort out the problem.
just got back from holiday to find no sunderland tickets sent. Amazing. Game kicks off noon saturday, so am i getting them ??? Do thfc care? seems not.. as most guys have posted on here, the people who work in that hell hole are not only below average at their jobs they have a bad attitude to the people who indirectly pay their wages thats us the punter.
I just spent 30 mins trying to tangle thru their sub standard phone system, being wrongly directed a few times when eventually getting thru' to be told that they are far to busy to speak to peasant like me and that I wud have to call back later.. like when later? noon? 4pm ? err give us a friggin clue u to++ers.. shambles is not the word for it they are worse. shower might be a good start. One guy on here is so right...they are now getting a half decent team on the field so probably feel they can treat us as they like cos'.. well cos' they can. Wonder if this not so pretty picture would amuse mr levy??? Any way we can shove a copy if this marvellous thread thru' his pigeon hole? doubt the idiots at mid management level will let it get anywhere near him eh ? maybe the Supporters trust is the way forward? they are quite loud and sort of effective arnt they ??

yours despondently platinum peasant

Anonymous said...

Michael Bulmer said...

Here Harry - Get a load of this -

I was serious yesterday when I said that I would like you to run one post regarding posted tickets to the Torino game - How many people bought tickets that never arrived and how many bought tickets and got them safely and with time spare etc so we can try and find a statistic. As I have mentioned I had one chance to get my little god daughter to a yid game - the father would never allow it but he is out of the country - she's lost now - Feckin Chelski - anyway here is what I just sent to the press office and the Currant bun - i'll save the real newspapers for later. WHat do you think about running that post mate? My work email is as follows michael.bulmer@exchange-handbook.co.uk Get in touch if you'd like some more details picture fo the little lamb to put up ect.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To - The Press Office

I wrote to you yesterday - Ian Murphy in fact - but as yet (and as expected) have had no response.

Let me now also point out the obvious - I am clearly not alone in my tale of woe - read this blog - I would have cut and paste the entire lot but I cannot afford the time to check for bad language which was also expressed by me when writing to one of the best spurs sites out there. http://harryhotspur.blogspot.com/2007/08/tottenham-hotspurs-ticket-office.html

I know that my tickets were never sent - along with many other loyal fans who bought their tickets well in advance. You will not get away with this - I am absolutely seething!

The fact is your inept performance at sending out tickets upon purchase has cost me the chance to ensure that my god daughter supports a real football club and not chelsea. If you do not refund my money immediately I will take you to the small claims court as you cannot 'not refund' on something you have never delivered. You never sent my tickets- I assume to save a few pence on postage and make me turn up early and from what I have read stand in queues half a mile long in 30 C witha five year old. Nice performance

I have the tape recorded conversation and transcripts with conflicting stories off of three of your employees from the members club. I have been hung up on, I have been told no I cannot speak to 'a manager' I have been told basically to like it or lump it. I will not be letting this one go.

To the Sun,

This was my mail from yesterday so you know a bit about the situation.


----- Original Message -----

From: "Michael Bulmer"
To: tickets@tottenhamhotspur.com
Subject: Ian Murphy - Urgent -
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 08:04:31 -0500


Ian,

I would hope (although I am not confident) that you'd have had a run down as to the events of your ticket office staff/members office staff - all with conflicting stories mind - (all also on tape mind) and realise that although the club in fact maintains a no refund policy you actually have to deliver the goods being bought for there to be a no refund policy.-

If you do not refund my money for the game sof this weekend that you never sent my tickets for I will take this one to the top. As someone that works in the financial industry I can assure you that as well as having all the 'right' contacts for a massive bad publicity campaign - I am also aware of my consumer rights.

Here is what I have just posted on Harry Hotspurs weblog


Michael Bulmer said...
I spent most of friday afternoon on the phone to the memebers office - not to the ticket ofiice - (because the line was closed due to 'experiencing an extremely high number of callers' - don't believe it for a minute - that line is closed when they effing feel like it and that is that.
I booked two seats to take my 5yr old goddaughter to her first ever game - a friendly mind you - which I think is most likely the best0 way to start her off. but no. I am very suspicious that the club even send out 100% of tickets bought. (Becasue they don't just get up and after growing legs and walk away.) Imagine if you are saving postage on 10,000 of us poor fuckers whjo then have to show up and get duplicates. Why am I supporting this club?
I called Friday pm - it being the last straw when I realsie dthat there were no tickets coming and obviously the game is tmw(I was driving someone to gatwick sat am so ther was gonna be no ttime for picking up tickets/duplicvates of tickets that were never sent more like. Anyway - after being hung up on, told completely differnet stories by each person that I speak to - I was then told that the manager was not available as he was in the ticket office. Ian Murphy - (Incase any more of you have complaints) Anyway the fact is I am being robbed by my own club and a company that I own TTNM.LSE. All I hear is 'no refund pollicy' well that is assuming they delivered what I bought. I am taking this one to the top gents and I suggest you do the same if you hve experienced similar woes now and in the past. I have very close connections at the telegraph, Evening Standard and also the FT - I have also left a message fore the mysterious Ian Murphy whom has yet to call me back - (right after I post this I am gonna cut and paste it and send it in with my membership number by email) to see if this will actually warrant a response. In the meantime how many of you booked seats but never got them or have had problems like this in the past? I am going on a factfinding missiion here so Harry I also need to know how many unique users you have in order to calculate the stats that I will personally ensure this shit is cut out once and for all. I missed the game - I never received the tickets I bought 1 month ago - I will not let this one go...
In conclusion I want a full refund and an apology for the lack of decency and professionalism showed by a comapny that turns over 70mil PA. The tranparency of the ticket office line being conveniently closed the day before a match says it all to me- the fact that Diana Smith, liane, another of your colleagues all had conflicting stories is something that I guess one of the red tops would like to get hold of and they pay me more than 50 quid for the tapes I assure you.. The fact that it was going to be my god daughters first ever live game would be another appealing factor for them I am sure.=



My number is 07***** ******

Home 0207 *** ****

Work 0207 *** ****

You have 24 hrs to respond - I suggest you have a measure in place to calm me down before you use any of those numbers

Fortunately I have some telephone management software which records calls so I will be prepared to let you make transcipts of the recordings - maybe you can serialise it into a comedy - I am in fact not laughing- neither is my God Daughter who had to be told that no she wasn't going to the game.. Then came the tears - she is very cute BTW pictures are available

My contact details are above - my mobile is not with me today.

Lets hope that I hear from them before I hear from you.

Best regards,

Michael Bulmer

Anonymous said...

Just double checking contact details for a complaint to the club and see they are advertising for a new ticket office supervisor!!!! Reckon the old one has quit. Anyone looking for a job? You could give us an inside view!

Anonymous said...

Go Harry!

Go Michael Bulmer!

Anonymous said...

Where is the Spurs Trust on this issue? They don't seem to be able to have any impact on anything. Hence I've not bothered to renew!
Seems to be a gap for a better organised pressure group. Up for it Harry? If Spurs stats are to be believed things may well get better on the pitch but off it could get a whole lot worse!

Anonymous said...

My relationship with the ticket office has been mixed.
Ordered tickets for Everton on 1st day of sale online and had no problems.
Recieved tickets last week only to find tickets belonging to 2 other people in the envelope.
For 3 days I tried to get through to the ticket office but message changes from "ticket office closed" to "all lines are busy" back to "ticket office closed" etc.
Eventually phoned membership and they said they'd put me through but I just got cut off. Eventually stuck the tickets in an envelope and sent them back. Just hope the poor buggers manage to get in.

Harry Hotspur said...

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