It's a grumble!.... - South Stand ticket move & press box

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Im fully with you on this because ive been sat In my current seat in family stand for 16yrs & I wouldn't want to move. because it is the routine & the familiarity. this really shouldve been discussed 4/6 weeks ago & then discussed the options where you like to go, because premier league would've sent a letter in week preceding the Ipswich game. knowing how barring freak results we were promoted. so its terrible planning
 
sheff_blade90 said:
Im fully with you on this because ive been sat In my current seat in family stand for 16yrs & I wouldn't want to move. because it is the routine & the familiarity. this really shouldve been discussed 4/6 weeks ago & then discussed the options where you like to go, because premier league would've sent a letter in week preceding the Ipswich game. knowing how barring freak results we were promoted. so its terrible planning
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Suspect it would've taken more than a week or 4 to know exactly what seats would be lost. So well after the sale finished.

They should offer fans moved a 'first choice' if any new tier is built as the plan currently is.
 
Deano said:
Very annoying for you - but not sure what else the club could do. They clearly have no option but to remove your seats.

For what it’s worth, I think the Bramall Lane end upper tier is the best view in the ground - although I’ve only been near the Westfield corner rather than in it. There are a number of steep steps though so you may need to look into that for your Uncle.
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Westfield Upper is great but a lot of steps...I also love Bramall Lane Upper, it has a great view but I could only find ones in the South Stand when I was looking for season tickets..on a serious note MAYBE WE COULD SWAP ?
 
Deadbat said:
Before the thread police jump on this as a thread about tickets and thus may not be the right place to be; I wanted to put it here so it gets a wider audience as would welcome some advice.

There is probably very little I can do about this but wanted to see what others thought before I proceed.

Basically I have sat at the back of the South Stand for a good 10 years now and have great seats - I was lucky to get them from some other people who stopped going but told me - so moved from the Kop.

Today, I got a letter (which I will attach) from the club basically saying my (mine and my uncles) seats do not exist anymore. They have had to get rid of them to extend the press box at the back of the stand due to the demands of the premier league. I am guessing this will affect probably 100 or so seats, as there is a row behind me nearer the press box (very back row) and also maybe 50 seats on that one and 50 on ours.

They have said they have had to re-locate me. They have not rang me, asked to speak about what my options are. They have sent me a letter saying we have been moved to the Upper Tier in the Westfield Stand in the corner. They claim these are excellent seats and have moved all our section together to keep with the community spirit.

The letter then goes on to offer me recompsense in terms of the difference between the two prices and a voucher for £50 for the shop (what my 75 year old Uncle would want from the Shop I am not sure!). As an aside my uncle has recently been diagnosed with cancer and is battling that - so no idea in terms of additional steps he has to climb to get in the Westfield corner

To say I am angry is an understatment. In affect I have lost great seats I have had for a long time and will never have them again. I meet other people in that stand pre game and half time and I would not be able to do that anymore. Yes, I understand the situation but to me they have not even tried to have any dialogue with us - just sent a letter as if to say tough get on with it.

They have said I can discuss other seats available but have said there is basically nothing suitable in the stand we were in (in affect they have sold them all - the better seats) so we are left with vastly inferior seats in another stand - so no longer side on view which is what I like - it's not about the money really - although simply knocking off the small price difference - they said they will pay this back in due course - is not really enough compensation.

I am not going to go all silly and talk about trades description act etc but this is frankly appalling customer service. At best they should have contated us and asked us to go and discuss us with the ticket office manager or someone at the club and allowed us to look at other seats - they have simply bunged us somewhere else. They say we can discuss seats but there will be sod all left now.

I have attached the letter but wonder what other peoples thoughts would be a) if it happened to them b) what they would do about it

End of rant. Sorry know most people may think its a small thing and say at least you are still going but I wonder how others would feel if they were moved seats and stands. It has annoyed me - takes us all this time to get back to the top flight; I buy my seats/season tickets and then basically what I believe I have bought has now radically changed.
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This is really wanky. Not neccesarily that you've had to move, but the manner in which the club have dealt with it. They knew the infrastracuture changes were coming. They knew people would have to be moved. They should have resolved the issue with all ticket holders in advance of making the changes, and even if they didn't do that, they should be bending over backwards now. Good customer service can make up for stuff like this, but looks like they've not considered you (and others) at all. Feel for you!
 
Not much the club could have done about it.

I guess it wouldn’t have hurt getting the fans affected to the lane the other day when Wilder Sharp and McCabe we’re doing the presser for new sponsor. Bit of grub, chat & a thank you for your support etc etc here’s a years season ticket free on us and you have first refusal on seats in South Stand when they’re next available.

I remember McCabe was ringing fans a few years back pleading with us to renew season tickets so for those affected it would have been nice to here directly from the top, in person, about this.
 
Champagneblade said:
You have my sympathy. I would have been just as annoyed. I used to sit bang on the half way line in the old John Street.

Given how few seats are impacted it wouldn't have killed them to ring all those whose seats were being replaced and set aside a couple of mornings for meetings or walk in discussions.

Beyond that, timing would have been a factor. By the time promotion was confirmed, seats had been on sale a while.

I do wonder if at this point, knowing the impact on the seats potentially, whether they could have frozen sales and given you a better choice.

Even better, before season tickets were on sale at all, they could have written to you advising that possible promotion would see your seat move and then giving you first dibs on the available, non-allocated seats anywhere in the ground or giving you the option to wait and see if any occupied ones didn't renew, but at least the risk would be yours. If we don't go up, then you stay where you were.

It's not as if they only knew these requirements upon promotion. They would have known or been able to find out in advance.
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Actually they didn’t. Obviously they could have had an educated guess at what needed doing, but the premier league representatives only inspected the ground and told us specifically what we need to do a couple of weeks after the season ended.
 
Thatsfootie said:
Glad to say this has been dealt with satisfactorily by the club staff and I now have another seat in Tony Currie or South Stand. Mr Bettis' letter could perhaps have been better drafted to explain matters more fully -the way things were seemed unapologetically final.
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Excellent news. Really pleased for you, Thatsfootie Hope you enjoy making new friends around you next season.

Deadbat said:
Ticket office been in contact after I sent a 4 page letter/e mail to Bettis, McCarthy and co. Ringing me back tomorrow as we kept missing each other as I was in work. Hoping I can go down all being well Friday or Monday to meet and discuss.
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Good luck DB. Hope you get sorted.
 
We felt similarly despondent when they went from Armand de Brignac to Ruinart Blanc de Blancs in our VIP Box.
Still, it was rather good of them to get Joël Robuchon to prepare our pre-match, half-time and post match meals for the season.
 
Think they are creating 120 new seats at the front , be a shit view but beggers cant be choosers 😂
 

Deadbat said:
Ticket office been in contact after I sent a 4 page letter/e mail to Bettis, McCarthy and co. Ringing me back tomorrow as we kept missing each other as I was in work. Hoping I can go down all being well Friday or Monday to meet and discuss.
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Find out which rows have been affected and let me know please, via PM if you prefer. Ta mate
 
Deadbat said:
Ticket office been in contact after I sent a 4 page letter/e mail to Bettis, McCarthy and co. Ringing me back tomorrow as we kept missing each other as I was in work. Hoping I can go down all being well Friday or Monday to meet and discuss.
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Only 4?

You're losing your touch mate ;)
 
I hope you get a nice comfy seat in the directors box, for all the hard work you do on the reports, and hopefully your sat next to Roy.

Keep us updated
 
BLADES1988 said:
The Westfield is a cracking view, but steep as flip, There’s plenty of stairs involved though I’d say a good 3 flights, then the ascent to the seats. Perfectly fine for very mobile folk but be a bit of a mission for anyone with mobility issues week in week out.

Give em some shit and plaster it all over social media and I’m sure they will miraculously find you a seat or two. Surely not every single seat is sold out in the south stand? Obviously I’ll stand corrected about something im sure! Hope you get summat sorted though.
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I prefer the wessy corner personally, but that's just me, me and my brother now sit on there, and atleast you can get served at half-time and you don't have to paddle in piss when you go to the bog!!
 
LS16Blade said:
Sympathies, Deadbat.
...Dead men don't need season tickets...
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+1 for the Half Man Half Biscuit reference :)



Deadbat said:
Ticket office been in contact after I sent a 4 page letter/e mail to Bettis, McCarthy and co. Ringing me back tomorrow as we kept missing each other as I was in work. Hoping I can go down all being well Friday or Monday to meet and discuss.
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4 pages? Did you copy in your School Report Part 1 - Board thread?! Hope everything gets sorted for you - your reports are a great read for an expat who can't get to the games.
 
Balham Blade said:
+1 for the Half Man Half Biscuit reference :)





4 pages? Did you copy in your School Report Part 1 - Board thread?! Hope everything gets sorted for you - your reports are a great read for an expat who can't get to the games.
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The first item on the agenda will be " Before we get to your seat please explain how you arrived at a score of 'merely a C for the Board' " You may have identified the real reason why 100 people were inconvenienced. :D
 
Update on this...wont share everything as some of it would be unfair as it was a face to face meeting with the ticket office manager I had this afternoon after work. She was very up front and honest and did field everything I said. I will say she did not try and hide from what I had questioned and agreed they could have handled things better. She seemed genuine in realising they have upset a lot of loyal fans and seemed to want to try and help come up witb solutions moving forward.

She and many of the club officials have seen this thread as she mentioned seeing the outcry etc!!! So she and others may read but wanted to share a brief update as think it it important other fans know options and how they are dealing with it.

After she wanted to dicuss it with me in the reception area not in private (I know!) She allowed me in her office and we had a chat over my letter.

She said that the club had an inkling that it could happen but could not scaremonger fans and had to wait to see. I did ask why other ticket holder had not been moved (if new ones or shorter term ones) but she said all South Stand central/good seats are not new season ticket holders.

I did ask what would happen next season if we went down and they had a press box of 200 seats for 10 local hacks for United V Luton in a Tuesday night? I asked if if would be given these seats. She just said the changes will be permanent to the press box. She talked about the South Stand being extende further out.

I tried not to go down the financial angle as that would have looked like I was just after a free ticket etc but wanted to be clear my gripe was very much about how we were told. Both the ticket officer manager and the other chap who showed us seats agreed it was poor how they have told us and lessons to be learned. They both took time out and spent a lot of time talking to me and showing me seats. They were decent and up front.

Basically I have been offered 2 seats about a third of the way across on the South Stand (kop end). They are ok and row OO but inferior and not central. All other seats left are single seats in the South Stand. I had a look in the corner and good views but worried about number of steps for my Uncle and sightlines as it is a long way from the Kop goal. They have agreed to keep me 2 in both areas open for now until I decide early next week. I'd like my Uncle to have a look but he is not clever at the moment with chemo so I will have to choose and get his ire when he goes!

I went and looked around - ground is a mess. So much work to be done. Underneath the South Stand there is lots of building work to extend media stuff for after games and the corner office block is having work done to create areas for viewing for interntional TV etc. The pitch is not there as it is being relaid. There has been several seats taken out of the lower tier - they have still not been told about the away fans and whether they need to find an additional 100 or so seats somewhere in the gound as the lower tier technically is not enough but they are hoping common sense prevails.

She was ok in terms of fielding my anger and agreed with a lot of what I said and said they have handled it badly. Still as I said we've lost our seat forever. She kind of said yeah I understand why I would be so annoyed also.

She just kept apologising but it should have been others facing me (and any others) really I felt. They should have invited us all in to a meeting and given us few dates to go in well before me ranting and having to get a meeting with the club.

After she gave me the different seat options she I asked f I still wanted to meet Bettis and McCarthy and I said 'Yes please me and my Uncle still want to meet them!' She is setting that up as I want to talk to them about how they have handled it. Be a hassle for me to go but more of hassle for them to have to meet with me and explain why they did it like they did. Maybe I should just accept my new seats and skulk off and leave it but I would like further conversations around future seat optons given to those 150 or so displaced etc and them to explain why they relayed the news as they did in terms of timeframes and the written letter format with the lack of options presented.

I really did not want to make it about money but the fact there has been no offer of anything really to compensate (even an executive box for a game or something - they should be really going out of their way to give us something to make us feel special for litereally moving us from the best seats in the ground in my opinion, for good) would at least show how sorry they are but they have still just offered nothing really just a lot of sorrys but hey ho.

I am not going to change it. I have to move - I have had my rant. I will probably take the South Stand ones offered and see how it goes with option to maybe move to the corner if I dont like them - as these are tickets sold match by match.

Sorry to rant this week - it did really annoy me. I have calmed down now. It's just a seat and I will still be there (apart from Palace - I am at a wedding so may not make it!) but I aint going to change it. I do want to have a further chat with those higher up the chain to ascertain some better reasons why we were told as it was and how it was handled just so they can be more answerable and hopefully learn from it.

If any one affected wants to PM me I can share a bit more that may help.
 
Deadbat said:
Update on this...wont share everything as some of it would be unfair as it was a face to face meeting with the ticket office manager I had this afternoon after work. She was very up front and honest and did field everything I said. I will say she did not try and hide from what I had questioned and agreed they could have handled things better. She seemed genuine in realising they have upset a lot of loyal fans and seemed to want to try and help come up witb solutions moving forward.

She and many of the club officials have seen this thread as she mentioned seeing the outcry etc!!! So she and others may read but wanted to share a brief update as think it it important other fans know options and how they are dealing with it.

After she wanted to dicuss it with me in the reception area not in private (I know!) She allowed me in her office and we had a chat over my letter.

She said that the club had an inkling that it could happen but could not scaremonger fans and had to wait to see. I did ask why other ticket holder had not been moved (if new ones or shorter term ones) but she said all South Stand central/good seats are not new season ticket holders.

I did ask what would happen next season if we went down and they had a press box of 200 seats for 10 local hacks for United V Luton in a Tuesday night? I asked if if would be given these seats. She just said the changes will be permanent to the press box. She talked about the South Stand being extende further out.

I tried not to go down the financial angle as that would have looked like I was just after a free ticket etc but wanted to be clear my gripe was very much about how we were told. Both the ticket officer manager and the other chap who showed us seats agreed it was poor how they have told us and lessons to be learned. They both took time out and spent a lot of time talking to me and showing me seats. They were decent and up front.

Basically I have been offered 2 seats about a third of the way across on the South Stand (kop end). They are ok and row OO but inferior and not central. All other seats left are single seats in the South Stand. I had a look in the corner and good views but worried about number of steps for my Uncle and sightlines as it is a long way from the Kop goal. They have agreed to keep me 2 in both areas open for now until I decide early next week. I'd like my Uncle to have a look but he is not clever at the moment with chemo so I will have to choose and get his ire when he goes!

I went and looked around - ground is a mess. So much work to be done. Underneath the South Stand there is lots of building work to extend media stuff for after games and the corner office block is having work done to create areas for viewing for interntional TV etc. The pitch is not there as it is being relaid. There has been several seats taken out of the lower tier - they have still not been told about the away fans and whether they need to find an additional 100 or so seats somewhere in the gound as the lower tier technically is not enough but they are hoping common sense prevails.

She was ok in terms of fielding my anger and agreed with a lot of what I said and said they have handled it badly. Still as I said we've lost our seat forever. She kind of said yeah I understand why I would be so annoyed also.

She just kept apologising but it should have been others facing me (and any others) really I felt. They should have invited us all in to a meeting and given us few dates to go in well before me ranting and having to get a meeting with the club.

After she gave me the different seat options she I asked f I still wanted to meet Bettis and McCarthy and I said 'Yes please me and my Uncle still want to meet them!' She is setting that up as I want to talk to them about how they have handled it. Be a hassle for me to go but more of hassle for them to have to meet with me and explain why they did it like they did. Maybe I should just accept my new seats and skulk off and leave it but I would like further conversations around future seat optons given to those 150 or so displaced etc and them to explain why they relayed the news as they did in terms of timeframes and the written letter format with the lack of options presented.

I really did not want to make it about money but the fact there has been no offer of anything really to compensate (even an executive box for a game or something - they should be really going out of their way to give us something to make us feel special for litereally moving us from the best seats in the ground in my opinion, for good) would at least show how sorry they are but they have still just offered nothing really just a lot of sorrys but hey ho.

I am not going to change it. I have to move - I have had my rant. I will probably take the South Stand ones offered and see how it goes with option to maybe move to the corner if I dont like them - as these are tickets sold match by match.

Sorry to rant this week - it did really annoy me. I have calmed down now. It's just a seat and I will still be there (apart from Palace - I am at a wedding so may not make it!) but I aint going to change it. I do want to have a further chat with those higher up the chain to ascertain some better reasons why we were told as it was and how it was handled just so they can be more answerable and hopefully learn from it.

If any one affected wants to PM me I can share a bit more that may help.
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I'm not affected by this, but commend you for actually digging in and meeting people.

It's important that someone does because it's absolutely a huge deal, and I would be one of those that just seethes quietly from his new seat in the Westfield corner haha

I do feel like the club has taken a step backwards with its social media/public relations stuff, it's been an unfamiliar feeling these past few years but I am finding myself a bit pissed off with the club with all this season ticket moves/unavailability/membership/loyalty points for friendlies at Northampton business.
 
Deadbat, glad you followed through on this and I am pleased United staff met you face to face. I know this will be of no consolation to you but if United see how loyal fans can be treated better and be listened to then you have done us all a favour, but I know this does not improve you and your uncles position. UTB
 

For all your contribution to the club, this website and others, and of course us grateful fans the club should allocate your new seats in the press box with the best view of the game so that you can continue with your fantastic match reports.
 
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