The General C. Krulak Thread XVI

[pauliewalnuts]

The booking charge is a   bit of a pisstake.

Charging 1.50 for the right to buy a ticket. I really don't get the concept behind that.  Maybe a third party selling tickets for an event but not for a club selling its own tickets.

Villa are after all a business, how much does it cost to pay the ticket office worker to process the order? the cost of the envelope, postage etc... £1.50 isnt unreasonable if you ask me

Mark

I'd have thought those costs would be factored into the cost of the ticket - see also the cost of paying the players, the thousands of highly paid staff (just for Villadawg, that one) etc etc.

I sell my products to my customers. The cost of my staff is factored into the price the customer pays. I don't then charge them more on top as a processing charge.

This isn't a rant about Villa in particular, it's a moan about transaction fees in general.

[VillaAlways]

The booking charge is a   bit of a pisstake.

Charging 1.50 for the right to buy a ticket. I really don't get the concept behind that.  Maybe a third party selling tickets for an event but not for a club selling its own tickets.

Villa are after all a business, how much does it cost to pay the ticket office worker to process the order? the cost of the envelope, postage etc... £1.50 isnt unreasonable if you ask me

Mark

I'm getting charged £2

[pauliewalnuts]

The booking charge is a   bit of a pisstake.

Charging 1.50 for the right to buy a ticket. I really don't get the concept behind that.  Maybe a third party selling tickets for an event but not for a club selling its own tickets.

Villa are after all a business, how much does it cost to pay the ticket office worker to process the order? the cost of the envelope, postage etc... £1.50 isnt unreasonable if you ask me

Mark

I'm getting charged £2

Did you book it online or over the phone?

[MarkM]

The booking charge is a   bit of a pisstake.

Charging 1.50 for the right to buy a ticket. I really don't get the concept behind that.  Maybe a third party selling tickets for an event but not for a club selling its own tickets.

Villa are after all a business, how much does it cost to pay the ticket office worker to process the order? the cost of the envelope, postage etc... £1.50 isnt unreasonable if you ask me

Mark

I'd have thought those costs would be factored into the cost of the ticket - see also the cost of paying the players, the thousands of highly paid staff (just for Villadawg, that one) etc etc.

I sell my products to my customers. The cost of my staff is factored into the price the customer pays. I don't then charge them more on top as a processing charge.

This isn't a rant about Villa in particular, it's a moan about transaction fees in general.

But I bet you would charge a delivery charge if you have to deliver? how much is a first class stamp, about 40p plus the envelope? and the charge for paying with debit / credit card.

It is still cheaper for me than traveling [outside of match day] to VP to get a ticket

[pauliewalnuts]

The booking charge is a   bit of a pisstake.

Charging 1.50 for the right to buy a ticket. I really don't get the concept behind that.  Maybe a third party selling tickets for an event but not for a club selling its own tickets.

Villa are after all a business, how much does it cost to pay the ticket office worker to process the order? the cost of the envelope, postage etc... £1.50 isnt unreasonable if you ask me

Mark

I'd have thought those costs would be factored into the cost of the ticket - see also the cost of paying the players, the thousands of highly paid staff (just for Villadawg, that one) etc etc.

I sell my products to my customers. The cost of my staff is factored into the price the customer pays. I don't then charge them more on top as a processing charge.

This isn't a rant about Villa in particular, it's a moan about transaction fees in general.

But I bet you would charge a delivery charge if you have to deliver? how much is a first class stamp, about 40p plus the envelope? and the charge for paying with debit / credit card.

It is still cheaper for me than traveling [outside of match day] to VP to get a ticket

It's a lot less than £2, and there is no charge for paying with debit card, but there is still a transaction fee.

Like i said, I understand it more if the whole thing is contracted out to an external company - that's how they make their money - but not when you're getting charged it when you phone them up to order it, and the ticket gets posted to you by the club.

[VillaAlways]

The booking charge is a   bit of a pisstake.

Charging 1.50 for the right to buy a ticket. I really don't get the concept behind that.  Maybe a third party selling tickets for an event but not for a club selling its own tickets.

Villa are after all a business, how much does it cost to pay the ticket office worker to process the order? the cost of the envelope, postage etc... £1.50 isnt unreasonable if you ask me

Mark

I'm getting charged £2

Did you book it online or over the phone?

I've done both.Yes thinking about it it's £1.50 on phone and £2 online

[pauliewalnuts]

I've done both.Yes thinking about it it's £1.50 on phone and £2 online

£2 for phone now, as well.

[cdbearsfan]

General,

can we have a trophy room please? Seems silly to have a guided tour and not be able to show off replicas off the silverware we have collected.

[Legion]

General, a few years ago we did have a trophy cabinet. Why do we not have one now?

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

This thread has evolved somewhat from my previous comment to the General.

Just to clear one or two things up, As I stated in my original point to the General, my friends are by no stretch of the imagination 'regulars' to Villa Park they'll go when it is cheaper or work permits them to go, I invariably badger them into going most of the time. If I get them tickets for the game they'll go. If they have to go on the evening of the game, collect tickets, queue up etc they'll not bother - it's too much hassle.

I understood the reasons why I wasn't permitted to purchase tickets yesterday for Wednesdays game, however with the ticket office so quiet and the lack of interest in the game on Wednesday I would have thought the club  would have been lassooing people into the ticket office instead of turning them away.

It's no problem to me, I have my season ticket seat, it just means 6 people who are floating supporters now feel that they'll not bother to go because the club can't be bothered to sell them a ticket in advance - not too much to ask when stood outside the ticket office I feel.

[ckrulak]

General Krulak here:

1.  Tickets:  I completely understand your frustration!  As a matter of fact, I agree with you!  We should NEVER find ourselves turning away a Fan who wants to buy a ticket when we have the people available to process the tickets.  I will look into this and see what the problems was.  Sometimes technology gets in the way of common sense...ie. the system is only set up for certain tickets.  I don't know if this was the case but will alert Nicky Keye to the issue.

2.  VillaSubmariner:  You make some good points but the overall premise doesn't hold water in my opinion.  The kit issue, as an example, has NOTHING to do with the Club...it has to do with faulting sewing/weave with the shirt.  NOTHING could be done by the Club to make it better.  The sponsor issue is also NOT something that I would lay at the feet of the Club.  It takes TWO sides to sign a contract and it was done as quickly as we could get it to happen.  As it turned out, the timing made no difference to the kit.  We can debate the Manager issue all we want...I just know what I know...and what I have passed on this site.  No need to report anything else.  As for the "P's"...pretty hard to have a Plan "B" in your pocket for the kit issue or a Manager that drops his letter 5 days before the start of the season.  The fact that Randy immediately got on the plane back to the UK and was moving forward in Manager search from day one is pretty good in my humble opinion.  Would we have rather had things not happen...absolutely!!

3.  I am not sure how much value there is in continuing to harp on what happened this summer.  We have a new Manager, we have a new season that we need to focus on and get moving in the right direction.  GH has some hard decisions to make in the next few weeks...and we need to get behind him.  I can tell you that Randy is behind him and will be behind him come the next window.

4.  We do have a trophy cabinet and, more importantly, we are having a new one built right now.  Randy had replica cups made and they will have a place of honor in the new cabinet. 

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

Thank you General.

[Somniloquism]

General Krulak here:

2.  VillaSubmariner:  You make some good points but the overall premise doesn't hold water in my opinion.  The kit issue, as an example, has NOTHING to do with the Club...it has to do with faulting sewing/weave with the shirt.  NOTHING could be done by the Club to make it better.  The sponsor issue is also NOT something that I would lay at the feet of the Club.  It takes TWO sides to sign a contract and it was done as quickly as we could get it to happen.  As it turned out, the timing made no difference to the kit.  We can debate the Manager issue all we want...I just know what I know...and what I have passed on this site.  No need to report anything else.  As for the "P's"...pretty hard to have a Plan "B" in your pocket for the kit issue or a Manager that drops his letter 5 days before the start of the season.  The fact that Randy immediately got on the plane back to the UK and was moving forward in Manager search from day one is pretty good in my humble opinion.  Would we have rather had things not happen...absolutely!!

General, just picking up on this point. Forgetting the current issues, does that mean we were always going to be well into Sept before we had our kit delivered this season no matter what? If so and other clubs from the same manufacturer get theirs in June and July we need to definitely look at our contract with Nike. The August holiday periods are a big window to sell the kits, especially as they only have a less then 12 month lifecycle and we seem to miss this the last few seasons with Nike.

[Tony Boucher]

Please don't tell me to phone the ticket number either, it costs a bloody fortune to listen to God knows how many minutes worth of ticket offers and availability.

It's a freephone number.

[Risso]

General Krulak here:

1.  Tickets:  I completely understand your frustration!  As a matter of fact, I agree with you!  We should NEVER find ourselves turning away a Fan who wants to buy a ticket when we have the people available to process the tickets.  I will look into this and see what the problems was.  Sometimes technology gets in the way of common sense...ie. the system is only set up for certain tickets.  I don't know if this was the case but will alert Nicky Keye to the issue.

2.  VillaSubmariner:  You make some good points but the overall premise doesn't hold water in my opinion.  The kit issue, as an example, has NOTHING to do with the Club...it has to do with faulting sewing/weave with the shirt.  NOTHING could be done by the Club to make it better.  The sponsor issue is also NOT something that I would lay at the feet of the Club.  It takes TWO sides to sign a contract and it was done as quickly as we could get it to happen.  As it turned out, the timing made no difference to the kit.  We can debate the Manager issue all we want...I just know what I know...and what I have passed on this site.  No need to report anything else.  As for the "P's"...pretty hard to have a Plan "B" in your pocket for the kit issue or a Manager that drops his letter 5 days before the start of the season.  The fact that Randy immediately got on the plane back to the UK and was moving forward in Manager search from day one is pretty good in my humble opinion.  Would we have rather had things not happen...absolutely!!

3.  I am not sure how much value there is in continuing to harp on what happened this summer.  We have a new Manager, we have a new season that we need to focus on and get moving in the right direction.  GH has some hard decisions to make in the next few weeks...and we need to get behind him.  I can tell you that Randy is behind him and will be behind him come the next window.

4.  We do have a trophy cabinet and, more importantly, we are having a new one built right now.  Randy had replica cups made and they will have a place of honor in the new cabinet. 

General

I agree that we need to draw a line under what has happened this summer, and look forward to moving forward under GH, who I think will do well for us.

What would you and the board consider to be a reasonable season given the events of the summer?  Do you (as a fan) think that we can still push the top 4, or is it a case of giving GH time to assess what's what at the club, maybe do a deal or two this winter, but leaving he real business to next summer when he can have a proper revamp?  Would you be happy with a season of consolidation, or do you think that GH will be able to get the team up and firing to do better than that?