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TIL 1010

Ipswich Away Points Is A Lottery And Not A Guarantee.

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Website said you need 1400 to apply today 1350 tomorrow 1300 Tuesday and so on......

So armed with my 2050 points and my mates customer numbers with points ranging from 1500 to 2400 having failed with the website and being number 68 in the telephone queue off I went to Carrow Road arriving at midday to be told the away allocation had sold out.A sixty yard queue with people mainly after home tickets. Why oh why the panic with over a week to claim your seat ?

I was told that 1400 was not a guarantee of a ticket. This season we have far more people travelling away from last ( surprise surprise under Hughton ! ) so we have more people with a high points total I was told. I suggested that 1400 was too low and that if home sales had been put off for 2/3 days the away tickets could have been dealt with more fairly without distraction. No explanation was forthcoming other than postal distribution.

As far as dealing with home tickets today also, why make things more difficult as website,telephone or personal visit activates your season ticket with no postage or paper trail. That accounts for 22,000 plus 2,000 sent to Scum so it only leaves 3,000 to be processed in 10 days if they had waited until say Wednesday .

I have e-mailed David McNally expressing my concerns and observations and he replied promptly saying he will look into the matter and get back to me. It sounds as though this does not have his fingerprints on it and the problems were caused from within the ticket office.

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Seriously Tilly, that hasn''t been handled well at all. and to be honest it''s not like selling tickets for Glastonbury, is it?

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We don''t always agree on things Tilly but I can''t argue with anything you''ve written here.This away points Play-Off fiasco is ridiculous. Why oh why couldn''t the ticket office have staggered the distribution of the home and away tickets ?With the Portman Rd game coming up in less than a week clearly that should have priority. It would have made much more sense to have delayed the sale of home tickets until all the away tickets had been allocated and avoid the free-for-all scrum that caused the meltdown this morning.Also how can it be right that someone on the minimum required points can by pure luck get hold of a ticket when those who''ve done far more away games miss out ? A friend of mine has a staggering total of 2500 points and yet couldn''t get a ticket via the internet even when logging on at 10.00. Wouldn''t it have been better to have set a higher minimum for say the first four hours or so then tapered it down until the tickets had all gone ?I fell into the same trap as many others by clicking on the '' tickets '' link on the NCFC homepage. That was a mistake as far from facing a delay '' of less than 20 mins '' nothing had happened for over an hour. I was lucky in that my computer literate son was on hand and used another device to log on with the result that he got straight through and bought the tickets in minutes. If NCFC want us to use their computer system they shouldn''t put deserving supporters through so many hoops just to get served.

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For the first time this week I find myself agreeing with your moaning Smithy[:O]

 

Seems to have been handled badly in many different ways.

 

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The points based system should make this so easy to manage, but once again NCFC fail to apply logic. All they had to do was work out how many people have points equal to or less than the number of seats and make that the first cut-off. With 1500 points I assumed that a ticket would be guaranteed if I tried to purchase before the next deadline.

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Agree with all previous comments. It was a total farce selling home and away tickets on the same day and also agree that the bar was set too low for the away allocation. It is a lot worse for non Norwich residents and when you are faced with a telephone queue of 74 at premium rate and then switch to the net to find the browser closed and eventually to find all tickets sold.

Not a good day for admin at Carrow Road.

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What a shambles that was. Been a season tkt holder. Going home and away for years. Never seen anything like that before. They were really pushing the priority membership thing these last few weeks. So loads of them trying as well.

Also advertising that Gunn club beam back from the away leg. So in effect they were flogging three events on the same day.

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Did anyone actually get out of the queue yesterday in the online ticketing site as ifm yet to hear of anyone who did.

I don''t see why they didn''t just give season ticket holders until say Wednesday to secure their seat and then just sell whatever''s left and the non sth seats to members then. Surely would all be more manageable then?

I''m hoping they outsource the wembley tickets if ir comes to that to someone like ticketmaster or seetickets as it will be even more of a shambles if we do it

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this is pretty unbelievable. Surely the club''s computer system can calculate that if we''ve been given 2100 tickets ,what the corresponding away points should be to provide the top 2100 points earners a ticket, be it 2000+ or whatever it is.

Why the hell would they pitch it at 1400 if , lets say 3000 have that many points?!?......I''m guessing at this ,I''m taking the OP''s word for whats gone on.

I''ve got 2000+ points and I "think" I''ve got a ticket, but by the sounds of it purely more by luck than judgement.

I too went online via my Google Chrome engine and joined the queue, an hour and a hour later, still in the queue, went into the same canaries ticket website using an older internet explorer and seemingly got straight through to the ticket ordering section for Ipswich away.

I''[ve paid and have receivied an e-mail with my transaction reference number......but until I physically recieive the ticket through the postI''m counting no chickens at all.

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So someone else gets the chance to go, Not a bad thing! same old people always hogging the away allocation isn''t healthy.And yes i know you have been going for years and all that but the away support needs freshening up.

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they key is how many fans had 1400+ points?

For 2100 available tickets if its 3000 then I struggle to see the issue. Its no different to the home tickets in that demand outstrips supply and are sold on a first come first serve basis for those financially & time able to make the thresh-hold that some of us fans would love to meet.

If its c5000 people then the limit may be a little low; the club does not provide a guarantee for a ticket for any away fan (outside the away season ticket, did they get preference?) so fans need to learn to deal with a little disappointment once in a while

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"someone else gets a chance to go".......there''s been plenty of chances to go over the course of the season.....how many away games were actually sold out?!?.

whilst i agree that it shouldnt be a "closed shop".....surely you can see that this ,of all away games, the regular travellers ,who''ve been there all season should be rewarded.

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But that is exactly what it is becoming GLJ i''m sorry for anyone disappointed , i am pretty sure if the OP had been successful he wouldn''t give a fig about the fairness of the system i know i wouldn''t, If we reguarly take 2-3000 away there are going to be plenty with enough points and plenty disappointed. Good luck to whoever got a ticket make plenty of noise and do us all proud. OTBC

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but the regular travellers were prioritised and so were rewarded - it just didnt, and imo shouldnt, extend to a guaranteed ticket.

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well i have got a ticket ,I "think".....but can still sympathise with regular travellers who seemingly haven''t, if it could have been avoided by a simple "tweak" of where the club have pitched the top priority bracket in the points system.

as was earlier mentioned , it really does come down to how many fans (and the club surely knows this on their database) has 1400+ points, when 2100 tickets are available. In the absence of knowing that, I suppose it difficult to make any criticisms as yet.

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To be fair Ipswich see to have got their away leg allocation arrangements in better shape than ours :

SECOND-LEG Ticket Details

Town fans will be able to purchase one ticket per customer number for the match at Carrow Road. Tickets for this match will be strictly sold online only at www.itfcdirect.com. There will be no Planet Blue counter sales for this match.

The Club will be using a priority customer number entitlement for the away leg of the Play-Offs. This priority entitlement will be made available to Town fans who have bought advance match tickets for the most away matches throughout the 2014/15 season. This is a system which has been used for the previous match at Norwich City FC successfully already this season.

Fans receiving this priority entitlement will receive a letter detailing how to purchase their ticket early next week. Tickets priorities will then kick in for remaining tickets following this period.

Tickets for the semi-final second-leg at Carrow Road on Saturday 16th May will go on sale in the following priority order:

Priority Customer Numbers - Friday 8th May, 8.:00am

Platinum & Gold Card Holders - Saturday 9th May, 8.00am

Season Ticket Holders - Sunday 10th May, 8.00am

Silver Card Holders - Monday 11th May, 8.00am

General Sale - Tuesday 12th May, 8.00am

I''ve no idea what Platinum, Gold and Silver membership means but they do seem to have realised that regular away fans deserve first dibs. They''ve also been more sensible in not selling their home tickets at the same time.

Where we did better was offering access to tickets by online, phone or calling into the ticket office in person. They''re only selling them online which is bad news for anyone without a computer.

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[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]but the regular travellers were prioritised and so were rewarded - it just didnt, and imo shouldnt, extend to a guaranteed ticket.[/quote]

I would call 15 away games this season pretty regular unless you tell me otherwise.

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[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]but the regular travellers were prioritised and so were rewarded - it just didnt, and imo shouldnt, extend to a guaranteed ticket.[/quote]

So you think that our biggest away game in 30 years should be subject to a lottery for away tickets only giving you pot luck to obtain a ticket ?

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15 away game is fantastic support and certainly regular; well done and a credit to the club. Thank you.

However there are probably 50k+ customers for NCFC. Your (and those thousands like you) committment was recognised by the club by putting you in first, select 5-10% of people able to buy a ticket.

I genuinely commiserate with you for not getting a ticket, its something I have missed out on too; but I am struggling to see why you should be guaranteed a ticket ahead of those others in the 1400+ club or why the club should guarantee any person a ticket for all games? The clubs approach seems proportionate, recognises committement and allows opportunity to those people. As with city and an auto spot you missed out this time.

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[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]15 away game is fantastic support and certainly regular; well done and a credit to the club. Thank you.

However there are probably 50k+ customers for NCFC. Your (and those thousands like you) committment was recognised by the club by putting you in first, select 5-10% of people able to buy a ticket.

I genuinely commiserate with you for not getting a ticket, its something I have missed out on too; but I am struggling to see why you should be guaranteed a ticket ahead of those others in the 1400+ club or why the club should guarantee any person a ticket for all games? The clubs approach seems proportionate, recognises committement and allows opportunity to those people. As with city and an auto spot you missed out this time.[/quote]

without wanting to labour the point.....the issue here is the 1400 points that you mention.

someone who has been to 15 away games , I''m imagining would have considerably more than that?....high 1900''s or 2000''s??......so that is where the club should have pitched the first priority points bracket??

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[quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"] without wanting to labour the point.....the issue here is the 1400 points that you mention. someone who has been to 15 away games , I''m imagining would have considerably more than that?....high 1900''s or 2000''s??......so that is where the club should have pitched the first priority points bracket??[/quote]

Exactly. Nail on Head.

If you go back to the old stub system to get an Scum ticket you had to produce 10 stubs for the previous 12 months which relates to 500 points under the current set up plus the 1000 for being a season ticket holder = 1500 points.

I am mystified as to why for our biggest away game in 30 years the requirement has in fact dropped in comparison to the stubs by 100 points meaning 8 stubs not 10 would do this time around.

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All this guff and puff about points does my head in. Whoever brought these systems in have a lot to answer for spoiling football and dampening down the atmosphere at grounds.

To me the best away supporters are not the ones with the most points, milk tokens or silver bloody bottle tops anyway but the ones with the loudest voices!

How many times do we see away teams come here with a vociferous following and take the points or win the cup tie? It''s as good as a goal start. Think Vile in the league cup quarters a couple of years ago or Luton in the FA Cup ''shock''.

I''ve been put off going away as there are too many Norwich scarfers who sit on their hands for ninety minutes and fail to get behind the team in any way shape or form- ie actually SUPPORT the team in the true sense of the word.

Until the club realise it is proper support that counts away from home and not simply buying tickets to build up points and Green Shield stamps and using them as a boasting tool on forums like this we will continue to attract the wrong type of supporter away from home.

In fact I would be in favour of reverting back to the days where away games were sold on an open, first come first served basis.

Ok, the club have messed up with this away leg and there is no excusing that but it will probably give us a better mix of supporter at Portman Road, definitely making more noise and giving the boys the kind of SUPPORT they need to build a first leg lead. OTBC!

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