| [Blog] Hanging on the Telephone... (Is Bad for Your Wealth) Written by phil_blue_moor on Friday, 4th Feb 2011 12:04 It seems a long time ago now, but last week I saw Ipswich play at the Emirates, and for the second game in succession against the Premier league challengers, the boys played with everything that seems to have been missing for so long. Namely passion, passing, sadly not much possession. So, after that great excitement, I feel a real party pooper to have to have a moan. But as my Ipswich-supporting mates will delight in telling you, it is what I do best. So here goes with my gripe. As I'm sure you're aware, for the second leg, Arsenal sold tickets for £10 & £20. I though, along with many others paid a lot more than that, in my case three times as much as the face value of my £10 ticket. A whopping £30 in total, of which almost £20 was for unsuccessful phone calls. I was one of the thousands who jammed the phone lines on the Friday the remaining tickets went on general sale. After over seventy attempts, on both mobile and home phone (plus the beginnings of an RSI injury), I finally got in the queue. A while later I managed to get the two tickets I needed just before they sold out. I was ecstatic. The morning after the game, my online phone bill arrived. It seemed a lot higher than usual. I was just about to blame the wife, when I saw page after page of calls to an 0844 number. Eventually I realised they were all calls to the Ipswich Town ticket office, but why were there all these charges for calls which never actually got connected? So, I wrote to the club, and the response was, that basically 'the software the club now uses does terminate calls when demand is high, to try to reduce the charges to supporters'. Well, in all the years I've rung the club on busy days, I have never encountered charges anywhere near that. Before the current system came in, you got an engaged tone and therefore weren't charged. I was charged 17p per call (which adds up) from Talk Talk, BT charge 5p per call (but hey, who uses them these days?). When the current system came in a few years, I spoke to ticket office manager John Ford, and explained that I felt this was just fleecing supporters by stealth. It seems, I have been proven right, and I suspect there are thousands of other fans who will/have received shockingly high phone bills. It seems to me that the club has got this wrong, and whilst they may claim the 'club doesn't make huge profits from the service', then it seems to me even worse that the cost of paying for the system comes from the call income. I also find it very discouraging that the club and its suppliers have seen fit to put in an extra system which charges you for the privilege of not being successful. Where else would this kind of service be allowed, especially when there is no indication that you are being charged for the call? And why can we not just have the engaged tone when lines are busy. As I said at the top, it is a moan, but something I think fans should be made aware of. The bigger picture is that Arsenal gave Ipswich fans fantastic value, and got a 60,000 sell-out crowd by generously pricing the game at a level that was very affordable for most fans, and they should be commended for this. Ticket pricing is a subject for another day, but it was nice to see a Premier League club not fleecing our away fans. It's just a shame that our club didn't feel the same way when selling on Arsenal's generosity. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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