I awoke to quite a disturbing tale on the local radio this morning. A Reds fan called Nick (didn’t catch his surname) had befallen a disaster. His good lady had been doing the washing, and he’d left his season ticket in his coat – the washing machine did it’s evil deed, and left him with an unidentifiable sticky mulch. Argh! Being a calm, collected individual, Nick contacted Forest, who told him to pop down to the ground at his convenience to get it sorted.
He did this very thing, he was issued with a temporary ticket – and all was well with the world. Until he got a phone call, which said something like “I’m sorry sir, your old ticket is not verifiable, so we can’t give you a new ticket – you will need to purchase another, or claim on your household insurance.” Because there is no verifiable ID number or detail on the ticket (unsurprisingly, it’s been through a washing machine!) Forest would not issue a new one, because apparently “this process has been abused in the past.”
Now as a season ticket holder, I know that Forest gather my name, address and other details when I buy it – I know also they assign me a patron code – this means, since they sell me the ticket as a non-transferrable item, that if I were to lose it, they have all the information they need to be able to reissue it. I think charging an admin fee would be okay, but to downright refuse is horrendous – and a really shoddy example of the ‘customer’ service Forest exhibit at times. In this case too, they could just ask the chaps dad, who owns the season ticket next to him.
Football clubs irritate me on this score, I don’t know if Forest are worse than others – obviously I have more experience of Forest and therefore see more instances – but because we’re ‘fans’ and have very high loyalty it seems than our beloved club see this as an excuse to treat us like shit, because they know we’ll come back for more – whether it’s putting prices up after relegations/failure to get promotion, or refusing to supply a new season ticket for this poor chap who has had a mishap.
Sort it out Forest – this is disgraceful.
Filed under: News
Couldn’t agree more. It’s absolutley ridiculous that the club isn’t able to (or in this case won’t) re-issue a season ticket if it’s damaged. They have the proof of it’s existence in their hands, and could easily replace it IF they wanted to.
It’s about time the club started to look at alternative and better methods of issuing season tickets if this shabby scenraio is commonplace. Lets look at using credit card style cards which can withstand a wash or two in the machine and if they were lost could be cancelled and the club could charge an admin fee to issue a new one.
In their defence, Forest always state on their season ticket purchase forms that they will not replace lost/damaged tickets and you should make sure it’s on your household insurance…. so they are keeping to their side of the deal, albeit in very jobsworth manner.
If people have been abusing the system to claim someone’s season ticket and then sit on one of the (many) spare seats in the ground how would else would they stop it? How many people would they have to employ to check that everyone in the ground was sat on the correct seat?
Perhaps if they were more forward thinking they could issue electronic entry – whether it be a swipe/smartcard or barcode – then any ‘lost’ or ‘damaged’ ones could be deactivated.
In this instance, the fact that the chap has the remains of a season ticket should be sufficient for them to issue a replacement without all this palava.
It’s about time Forest, and football in general, actually treated their supporters with something other than contempt.
lol – Forest issuing electric swipe card style entry! The main stand will be rejuvinated before THAT happens!!
The fella is unlucky (or perhaps the victim of a conspiracy by his missus) and you would have thought a bit of common sense would go a long way towards solving the matter. Why, for instance, could they not ask him for a form of ID such as driving licence or passport. Surely this is a simple and effecting method of avoiding people claim against others season tickets and go and sit in an empty seat?
Or is that too simple perchance?
Forest and common sense, eh? Whatever next!
I suppose the club have a point, but they should be working to fix this loophole because ultimately if an accident befalls someone genuinely, they shouldn’t be footing the cost – whether it be by paying themselves or losing their insurance no claims – for the dishonest few. I can’t believe there are THAT many people trying that scam!
I still think some new fangled technology is the way forward
Im sure that they easily could have replaced the ticket… but to them its much more fun to refuse, gain some more profit, and watch that guy suffer.
Big Liverpool, Bolton Fan
Highlights how football clubs at the top have become to greedy. Common sense has gone out of window.
Sad thing is, we’re not a football club at the top anymore!