Ticketing

[tbounce]

Now that the majority of the Stoke tickets have been sold I was wondering what people's views were on the "new" ticketing system. My experience was that it was significantly worse than last year. I applied online during the members sale but the site was constantly busy. I got through eventually but there were only restricted view seats left.

I decided to try on the general sale today and, as there was no online sale, I had to use the infamous LFC phone system. I finally got through at 09:35 having been on the phone constantly since the ticket office opened and performing the tedious laborious process of dial hang up re dial etc. When I got through there were no unrestricted view tickets beside one another alrhough I did manage to get 2 unrestricted tickets quite close to (although not beside) one another.

Surely there has to be a better way than this!

One positive change I will commend the club for is that a person now answers the phone when you reach the front of the queue, rather than "please press 1 now to speak to an operator". I got cut off a few times last season as a result of that which was infuriating having spent a long period of time attempting to get through!

Would be grateful for other's views on the matter.

[Marineboy]

I'm sympathetic to your situation but its a difficult problem. There is always going to be a queue whether on the phone or on line, some people will get through straight away, others like you (and me whenever I've had to use ticket lines) always seem to have to keep trying and end up with a limited choice of tickets.

Better luck next time.

[Van Halen]

I have been a member for years, the problem is always demand being huge and supply limited. Try buying on-line if you have access to a computer. I went on line for the Stoke game and got in eventually. I purchased the tickets for the Lower Centenary, the system hung and eventually decided to ask me for my credit card details, slowly and painfully the system just hung and finally confirmed my purchase. I wasn't able to check confirmation until later on in the afternoon in "purchase history" that the transaction had actally taken place. The major difference this year is that the LFC IT team claim they have more capacity and servers to deal with larger demand. So for the old PTS members it was a case of competing with 5,000 to 10,000 PTS members, that shot up to a "free for all" against Stoke with 50,000 people going on line.
There is no improvement IMO, the ticketing arrangements for LFC are a joke, always have been. They had 480,000 ticket applications for the Barcelona game in 2007!

[dom9]

I have been a member for years, the problem is always demand being huge and supply limited. Try buying on-line if you have access to a computer. I went on line for the Stoke game and got in eventually. I purchased the tickets for the Lower Centenary, the system hung and eventually decided to ask me for my credit card details, slowly and painfully the system just hung and finally confirmed my purchase. I wasn't able to check confirmation until later on in the afternoon in "purchase history" that the transaction had actally taken place. The major difference this year is that the LFC IT team claim they have more capacity and servers to deal with larger demand. So for the old PTS members it was a case of competing with 5,000 to 10,000 PTS members, that shot up to a "free for all" against Stoke with 50,000 people going on line.
There is no improvement IMO, the ticketing arrangements for LFC are a joke, always have been. They had 480,000 ticket applications for the Barcelona game in 2007!

Is that 480,000 people, or the total number of calls to helpline / hits on the website (I suspect it's the latter due to people redialling / refreshing).

[Craig_H]

Now that the majority of the Stoke tickets have been sold I was wondering what people's views were on the "new" ticketing system. My experience was that it was significantly worse than last year. I applied online during the members sale but the site was constantly busy. I got through eventually but there were only restricted view seats left.

I decided to try on the general sale today and, as there was no online sale, I had to use the infamous LFC phone system. I finally got through at 09:35 having been on the phone constantly since the ticket office opened and performing the tedious laborious process of dial hang up re dial etc. When I got through there were no unrestricted view tickets beside one another alrhough I did manage to get 2 unrestricted tickets quite close to (although not beside) one another.

Surely there has to be a better way than this!

One positive change I will commend the club for is that a person now answers the phone when you reach the front of the queue, rather than "please press 1 now to speak to an operator". I got cut off a few times last season as a result of that which was infuriating having spent a long period of time attempting to get through!

Would be grateful for other's views on the matter.

That's fantastic going. If only i'd got through by 9:35am all those times i've been on constant redial.

It was usually between 11am and 1pm before i'd get through. 9:35am is something to be pleased about, believe me.

As for the member's online sale, i logged in at about 10:20am on the day at about the third attempt and there were still tickets left on the online sale a good hour or so later.

In my experience, this new system seems much better and easier.

[Craig_H]

I have been a member for years, the problem is always demand being huge and supply limited. Try buying on-line if you have access to a computer. I went on line for the Stoke game and got in eventually. I purchased the tickets for the Lower Centenary, the system hung and eventually decided to ask me for my credit card details, slowly and painfully the system just hung and finally confirmed my purchase. I wasn't able to check confirmation until later on in the afternoon in "purchase history" that the transaction had actally taken place. The major difference this year is that the LFC IT team claim they have more capacity and servers to deal with larger demand. So for the old PTS members it was a case of competing with 5,000 to 10,000 PTS members, that shot up to a "free for all" against Stoke with 50,000 people going on line.
There is no improvement IMO, the ticketing arrangements for LFC are a joke, always have been. They had 480,000 ticket applications for the Barcelona game in 2007!

You should get a confirmation email sent to you within minutes of making an online ticket purchase. No need to wait to check your purchase history.

[Van Halen]

You should get a confirmation email sent to you within minutes of making an online ticket purchase. No need to wait to check your purchase history.

If only Craig, there was no confirmation, nothing at all!

[Van Halen]

Is that 480,000 people, or the total number of calls to helpline / hits on the website (I suspect it's the latter due to people redialling / refreshing).

In the Echo they said that they could have sold 480,000 tickets for that one game regardless of method of enquiry i.e phone/written request/internet/hospitality/local supporters branches/foreign supporters branches, etc etc

[Craig_H]

If only Craig, there was no confirmation, nothing at all!

Hmm. That's strange mate. Are all your details registered with the club? Email address etc? I've always had a confirmation email within a few minutes of ordering tickets online.