Rocky the King
When I penned the first part of this blog Cup Final tickets – what price loyalty?, I never imagined that there would be a follow up. Anyway I am sure that the experience that I am about to recount will have been replayed thousands of times by other fans. The reason for writing this article is perhaps to get answers from Arsenal Football Club (a statement from the Box Office would be nice). I feel sad that this article will reconfirm how some aspects of Arsenal Football Club, a major multi-million pound company, treats the majority of its customers. If the major companies on the FTSE 100 treated its main consumer base like Arsenal do, then the share price would plummet like a stone. Oh wait… we have an owner of this club who apparently has interests in Arsenal Internet/Broadband and was paid a cool three million for “consultancy advice”. I don’t know what area this was to do with, but if it was related to the Arsenal Communications/ticketing services as currently is, I consider the services not fit for purpose and in that case this payment by the club did not merit value for money.
90 minute Timeline
Having previously registered online in good time, I received notification of a successful status on 7th May for one of my Gold memberships. Fair enough, a ballot was held, and I got lucky. The next date was 11th May. A telephone line and website booking were the options available. Arsenal have been in many finals. It plays a fixture once a week, it spends close to £50 million in its accounts under “other” expenditure which is related to running aspects of the stadium and box office services, so what could go wrong?
11th May
10:32am I rang 0844 2773625 – I received a BT message saying the number was unobtainable.
10:33am Redial x five to hear the same message followed finally by an engaged tone.
10:40am I decided to try the website.
11:08am The blue bar telling me of my position in the Online Box Office queue finally lets me in… Phew!
11:10am After logging in and selecting “find tickets for Arsenal v Aston Villa”, I am presented with an infographic of Wembley stadium. To choose my seat. What could be simpler???
11:26am After clicking on every lower East Stand block behind the goal, I start to try the upper tiers. The refresh rate is enough to try the patient of a saint. Airlines and major ticketing organisations (StubHub) can issue seat numbers and allow you to change them. Arsenal however decide to let you play “pass the digital packets” and when the music stops hope that you are seated on a chair.
12:15pm After repeated timeouts, and error messages I find a seat - WHOOPEE! Row 29, all I need to do is submit my payment details and it’s done! 40 minutes to navigate two web pages.
12:35pm I am losing the will to live. The cost of my ticket is £70 and the number of times that I have been unable to click the box “I have read the terms and conditions” followed by more long time outs is well exceeding five tries. I decide to change my strategy. Tick this box first then insert the card details…
DONE! OK I am on the home strait. I click the “confirm purchase” button, mindful of warnings on other purchase sites that repeated debiting of a card can occur if you confirm more than once, I wait with my breath held. The screen changes to “processing” then it also times out. The banner on this screen states “DO NOT REFRESH OR PRESS THE BACK BUTTON or this transaction will be interrupted or cancelled.” What do I do now???
12:45pm I download and install a completely different browser (Google Chrome) and whilst waiting I decide that either Arsenal Broadband or Microsoft just can’t hack it… (There’s a joke in there somewhere)
BRAINWAVE!!! I copy and paste the Internet Explorer “URL” from the original transaction into the Chrome’s menu bar. Miraculously I am transferred back to the online box office without having to watch that wretched blue queue bar again. I log in and search for my basket.
OH NO IT’S EMPTY!… WAAAAH!
Ok don’t panic, back to the Wembley Infographic, choose the same block and cross my fingers. I then receive a message that I have two tickets in my basket and I must remove one of the offending items.
I utter one of the commonest obscenities known to fans. VERY LOUDLY!!!
12:55pm Having removed the duplicate, I book a seat, and receive confirmation of a single payment by e-mail, not the £350 in duplicate fees I had feared. SUCCESS!
To obtain this one ticket took the time of one game of football. Unfortunately it is now five rows higher in the upper tiers, so note to myself to bring binoculars! Uncanny eh? 90 minutes of frustration, I have aged at least two years in that time. Is it any wonder there are no “friends and family” surveys for many aspects of Arsenal Football Club services. Not wishing to tar all of the Arsenal commercial services with the same brush, I just despair that yet again Arsenal Football Club are not customer focused. They take their ordinary fans for granted, and exploit every opportunity to make more money out of you all. The price of Gold these days is clearly devalued.
For example I used the Arsenal ticket exchange for the first time recently and found out that I cannot get my hands on my cash for the Category A fixture, a sum of £144 (after admin fees are deducted!), until after the end of the season. This is not right! Any other major company would be reprimanded for not informing its clients of this arrangement in advance. Nowhere is it in the t’s & c’s. What if I had been waiting months for my money??? I bet if I was a Platinum member, this would never happen. A message to Ivan Gazidis, don’t collect your bonus this year, for your club’s customer service is amateurish and poor. Unfair? Well I dare you to put out customer surveys to test my allegations.
The services provided to ordinary Gold members is way below what should be expected for the price that we pay. Look at the quality of food, the absence of a dining option on match days, the changing of fixture dates on a whim. Well I have had enough. I am walking away. I shall not renew my two memberships. My 16 year love affair buying Season Tickets from Arsenal Football Club is over. I cannot become a silver member so I shall remain a life member of the Arsenal Supporter’s Trust and join a supporters club for the odd match ticket from time to time and become an armchair fan via Sky and BT.
