The Ipswich Town Independent Supporters Trust has called on the club to cancel the controversial Academy Friend opt-out scheme and replace it with an opt-in system.
As reported yesterday, existing season ticket holders who pay for their seats via direct debit will be automatically be made Academy Friends at a cost of £10 a month unless they opt out, contrary to the information in their season ticket packs which in error said they needed to opt in.
In a statement the Trust said: "Ipswich Town 1st explicitly calls on the club to cancel any automatic payments to the Academy Friend scheme which have been made as part of the automatic renewal of season tickets.
"The statement that the club have released via TWTD states that there was a printing error that meant an ‘opt-in’ tick box was erroneously included on the form sent to season ticket holders that took advantage of the automatic renewal by direct debit system.
"Even if this is the case, the corresponding literature does not make any mention of this being something that will be applied automatically. There is no text in either the covering letter or the season ticket brochure that mentions anyone will be automatically opted in to this scheme.
"There are a number of mentions of the direct debit scheme, and they are always followed by an instruction that the season ticket holder need not do anything to continue their membership — when the reality is that if fans did nothing their direct will have increased by £120.
"We have already had complaints from some of our members, these include those who are unable to afford the extra £120, a family of four where even their children are being charged the £120 [each] and supporters who already are Academy Friends who are now going to be double charged unless they opt out — this doesn’t even include the numerous fans that are extremely angry with what can only be described as a ‘stealth tax’ being applied.
"We believe the club have no option but to cancel this scheme and revert to the opt-in scheme which is implied in the literature.”
Season ticket holders, who are officially informed of the requirement to opt out in their direct debit payment schedule, have until April 17th to notify the club if they wish to do so with the first payments due to go out on May 1st. Those who want to opt out can do so via seasonticketchange@itfc.co.uk.
Meanwhile, season ticket holders who have received their direct debit schedules are reporting that the postage on the envelopes containing them was underpaid, postal charges having risen on Monday. Town’s bulk mailings are carried out by a third party, who we understand were responsible for the error.