New Away Ticket Scheme

[Drummond]

The following is a post from the Chair of one of the supporters clubs. I'm not sure who else is aware of the new scheme and what it entails but please read below. It sounds bloody awful. (I have had permission to share it).

This is too important in my view not to be on the main board.


AWAY TICKET SCHEME UPDATE - FACTS

Today I’ve spoke with the person responsible for ticket management at Aston Villa. The details...

1200 away ticket scheme allocation.
Letters have only been sent out to those with season tickets that were in last seasons away scheme
£25 for existing members, of which there are 550 existing members.
£40 for any new members from this Friday (Who clearly haven’t been sent any details of this yet..!)
Villa have only casually verbally discussed this scheme with a few existing away scheme members. No consultation has yet been made other than that.
As a member of the scheme you get first opportunity to buy away match tickets on release dates.
You buy the tickets online in the usual manner or call the office.
It’s one ticket per member of the scheme.
You don’t actually have to purchase any away tickets through the season. There’s no minimum amount.
Until this morning people with no season ticket have been purchasing this membership online. How many have already been taken..? Will they be able to find the incorrectly purchased away memberships..? The info I received wasn’t a confirmation they would be able to.

Our phonecall lasted an hour. The opening of the conversation I was asked about what I thought the benefits of the scheme were. Clearly the benefits is an additional £28,000 approx to Villa, which was confirmed. That the away scheme members will be very happy. Especially those that join and only attend a handful of games at most. They will get first dibs at local derby tickets without even having to put the effort in. These benefits were confirmed, plus Villa will have a bit less admin.

I pointed out the various concerns from our own and other members. The obvious is that people can pay a small fee to not put in the support and jump ahead of the queue over fervent home and away supporters. I pointed out that it’s now a reward for paying an extra £40 instead of real support. I asked why we should now stump up an additional £40 on top of our season tickets to join a scheme that isn’t one that works on loyalty (the current scheme expects you to purchase a set number of away games)
I asked ‘do you really want to do this to raise only an extra £28k, yet alienate thousands of fans)

With some games only getting around 1500-2100 tickets, with Blues being 2100, is it fair that these 1200 get first dibs, leaving only 900, minus a Lions Club allocation. I think we’d be very naïve if we didn’t think nearly all the 1200 wouldn’t be buying Blues away tickets and some selling to mates.

I was informed Villa couldn’t continue the existing system because of GDPR regulations regarding holding of personal payment details. However, I pointed out I’d been informed from a reliable source this wasn’t the case. I also pointed out that I pay for things on PayPal and eBay with differing monthly amounts. Therefore, it is possible to electronically retain card details for payments. I pointed out that their electronic systems, for which they have been paying out a pricely sum to establish, could take a monthly payment billing cycle for the number of tickets purchased during that month. Just like eBay does for the variable auction fees you accrue. The answer to this wasn’t known.

I pointed out that Aston Villa should start thinking like a supporter and what their experience is. From the feedback I already have I understand members are seriously concerned and upset about this move. Some of us put much time, money and effort into our support already. We worked hard to get our current away criteria standing. Especially the last two seasons, despite being relegated. We still stood by Villa, even more so than before.

I pointed out that several times this last couple of seasons we seem to be kept in the dark about certain things and that we’ve had no info on this scheme, only chinese whispers and half baked info from people that don’t know much. I said none of my members knew anything. I was told letters had been sent out, but only to season ticket holders that were in the previous away scheme. Bearing in mind the £40 Membership is supposed to come on line this Friday I made clear that such notice was ridiculous and smacked of lack of planning and a rushed situation. Which it clearly is in my opinion. I do have to question this short/no notice. There’s been nothing on the website or Facebook, as I’m aware of. This scheme could have gone unnoticed and then nobody would question it. How come we’ve not been emailed..?

On a personal level, I would only join this scheme for personal gain, to be first in the ticket pecking order. However, I wholeheartedly disagree with it being a scheme where you can cherry pick and have no minimum game attendance as it does not reward loyalty. Therefore i won’t join this scheme. I have no issue with those that want to be members. I totally understand the personal benefit to those lucky people that manage to buy this membership. I came away from the phonecall knowing that this was a fait accompli and whatever valid points we had, my pleas to postpone this scheme fell on deaf ears. That’s the impression I vicariously got.

I feel I have lost touch with Villa over this and personally feel that the wishes of the majority of deserving supporters have been overlooked, with no consultation taken place and I feel I cannot represent Villa, if they are to steam ahead on this without proper thought for fans and robust consultation. Therefore, if this goes ahead I will no longer be able to carry out my role as a Lions Chairperson. This is the measure of what I believe to be a rushed and ill thought through scheme that is prejudicial to fans who have put in the support.

I’ll leave this for open discussion. Do you think this scheme is a good or bad idea..? What do you see as positives or negatives...? Your opinions and views are important. Please comment with your views, either for or against or ideas so that I can feed this back to Villa. Thank you. UTV

[Dominic22]

I am an away scheme member have have been for years. There are issues with the scheme and this year has highlighted some. i could not tell what money related to what game most of the time. At the start of last season for the first couple of games we would get an email to say how much money was debited and for what game. That stopped after 2 games and then lots of times there was no logical order to money coming out, usually due to allocations released for games at different times.

My son's ticket criteria changed mid-year i.e turned 18, my other son was 16, they ended up over-charging us for approx 13 games as they said the system did not allow for them to amend as too manually intensive so they turned all the tickets to adults for any game when it was over 18 irrespective of what the criteria was U16, U18, U21 etc.  I explained that in effect you are penalising the most loyal fans and surely it is not that difficult to either have a ticket system in place that does it or a list of those with tickets that could be affected there is only 550 members and not many of those would be have to be changed.

 As the plus of the scheme was pay and forget. i.e  I just gave them my debit card number and they took the money. I had told them of the issue in Nov but it was not sorted and by the time they came to sort they told me that they could do nothing as the games were closed off on the system and hte money paid to the other club so I could not get a refund.

I was not really concerned on the money, but in conversation it was clear that I was at fault in there view. I said you have confirmed dates of birth as we made it clear and gave proof. It seemed that the did not have a system in place for members where they could change the price category in relation to the age bracket for that game. I offered to meet with the head of ticketing or give ideas but in the end they gave me the away play-off game tickets as a gesture and closed it, which was fine but i would have preferred for them to sort it.  I get a feeling that this is one of the reasons for the changes but really a bit of for-thought mid last season or so would have made it easier and given time.

As there was only 550 of us I did not seem difficult to sort really but as with the previous year I think it is largely forgotten about and unfortunately the members taken a little for granted so it is always last minute. What is also a miss is that most of us stand with the same people away and have for years and so it becomes like your season ticket so they are friends with the new way I an not sure that will work as it will be allocated as you call not in the same order each time.

[amfy]

For me joining the away scheme has always been a non-starter because I cannot cope with money coming out of my account in such a random way.

I am sure I am like most fans in budgeting carefully for my season ticket and the aways I do attend, but the nature of not knowing when £20/30/40 even £50 odd (or double if they take 2 at once) could disappear from your account is just too financially precarious!

So - the idea of you buying in a priority window, that you have notice of, seems better to me. It would also allow you to clarify any concessions at the time of buying so you don't get issues like the above.

However - I'm retty sure this could be easily combined with a minimum number of games. I don't see the point of an away scheme with no minimum. The away scheme should be for the away hardcore. (which isn't me and I can barely secure an away ticket nowadays because there is such a solid set of regulars that have 'run away with it' - but thats fair - they made it theirs)

As for being around the same people all the time. I think they could probably still find a way to do this too, but I have the feeling that this can work out as badly for some people as it is good for others.  If I knew that I was stuck with the bloke behind us at Wycombe who threatened to throw Jane down the stairs for asking him not to all one of our players Karim El Poppodom, then I think my awaydays would be over!

[frank]

In the past, as a member of the Away Scheme you paid £25 a year and were sent a ticket for every away game automatically, but there was a limit to the amount of away tickets you could return. It wasn't worth joining unless you went to most away games. Under the new scheme, existing members pay £25 and from Friday this week any ST holder can join the scheme for £40. Tickets will no longer be sent out automatically: Away Scheme members have to order their tickets during a dedicated booking window and they can attend as many or as few games as they wish. If they choose to go to just one or two of the most popular games and none of the others they will still have priority over non-members who have been attending most away games for years. This is the issue that's provoking a lot of criticism on social media.

Another issue is that previously Away Scheme members paid no booking fee on top of their membership. For next season you discover in the small print that you pay 50p transaction fee and £1 "postage and fulfillment fee" per booking, so a new member who attended every away game would pay £40 + £34.50, as opposed to £25 last season.

[wittonwarrior]

Everything about this new scheme is flawed.

1.  Fleezing supporters for an extra £40 plus additional postage charges.
2. Moving away from rewarding the most regular away attendees.
3. Lions clubs with reduced opportunities to run trips
4. Potentially reducing the benefits of a season ticket.

Villa the Club need  to look at this properly, this is the most daft scheme they could have dreamt up overnight.

[eamonn]

Karim El Poppadom...is he our old player that's looked alright at this World Cup?

[Des Little]

It just seems like Villa the club we knew is changing every single day, and not for the better either.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

Of course, this isn't a desperate attempt at getting more money out of fans with the finances as they are is it?

[placeforparks]

there are details on the club website here - https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2018/06/27/become-an-away-season-ticket-member

it says you must be an 18/19 season ticket holder to be eligible for the scheme.

as has been said, being able to pick and choose games will be a benefit to fans in terms of keeping on top of outgoings and be able to sit out those games where we will invariably be fleeced by the home side, without being penalised.

my personal view is that following this club away is a massive commitment in terms of both finance and time - if you go to a set % of away games, your £25/40 should be refunded by the club.

[andrew08]

The other thing is, in its new format the scheme is too cheap. People would pay more than £40 to be guaranteed tickets for the geographically close games at Stoke, Albion, Blues, Forest and Derby. They should sell those games with coach travel and a bacon buttie at VP for £200, to a limit of say 100 people, if they just want to make money.

[wittonwarrior]

there are details on the club website here - https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2018/06/27/become-an-away-season-ticket-member

it says you must be an 18/19 season ticket holder to be eligible for the scheme.

as has been said, being able to pick and choose games will be a benefit to fans in terms of keeping on top of outgoings and be able to sit out those games where we will invariably be fleeced by the home side, without being penalised.

my personal view is that following this club away is a massive commitment in terms of both finance and time - if you go to a set % of away games, your £25/40 should be refunded by the club.

Unless I am missing something, nowhere is it stated open to season ticket holders only

[Lastfootstamper]

You are missing something

Supporters must have a 2018/19 season ticket to be eligible to join

[Lastfootstamper]

Although there's no clarification as to whether that applies just to new applicants, or existing members too.

[amfy]

Karim El Poppadom...is he our old player that's looked alright at this World Cup?

That's the one!

[Ads]

The new scheme doesnt look as good as the old one.

I enjoyed the benefit of spending £25 to not have the fuss of sorting tickets, but now I'm spending £25 to essentially have a higher priority over the 15+, who I could be amongst for free.

Renewed as I'm a sucker.