I renewed my season tickets on the Arsenal website at the end of May. Unlike previous years where I sent my renewal forms through the post I decided this time to renew online. I logged in using one of my membership numbers and added the details for a second season ticket. I paid and duly received an email confirming that payment had been received. All good, or so I thought. The email that I received only listed one membership number – the one that I used to log into the membership section of the Arsenal site.

Then in July, like many others, I received a few emails from the club confirming that payment had been received. My emails only listed one of my season tickets – my primary membership number. I called the box office to ask about this and they said that the emails shouldn't have been sent out but that everything ‘should’ be fine.

With the season approaching at the beginning of August I logged onto the membership site once again, first with one season ticket number and then with the second one. On both occasions a message appeared telling me that I had no memberships. After a cold sweat I called the box office once again. This time I was told that the site was having problems, again. The box office passed me to what sounded like a call centre who, like before, confirmed that payment had been received for both my season tickets, but added that the seats were not registered as sold. The very helpful person told me that she didn’t know why this was and suggested that I speak to the box office. I called them again but they said the same thing. To be fair to them they tried to answer my questions but sounded as confused as I was about the mess.

I duly went down to the box office on the North Bridge where I was told that payment had been received. The box office though couldn’t confirm if the cards had been activated though. While I was there, another season ticket holder with a similar problem had come up to check that everything was ok.

I would have expected the club to have in place a fully, simple and integrated online system that doesn’t crash and where I don’t need a separate log-in and password for Arsenal TV Online. It is simple for other businesses, why is it so complicated for Arsenal?

Ed’s note – I was near the stadium by chance yesterday evening, at about 7.30pm. Noticed one of the box office staff returning to the stadium with a carrier bag (presumably with food/drink?) from the local shops in Gillespie Road. Maybe be there’s a bit of overtime going at the moment? Wonder why that could be?!