- Aug 8, 2005
- 26,542
- Thread starter
- #201
Paul Barber email to 1901 members:
Firstly, I want to apologise for the very late arrival of your tickets and passes. This is totally unacceptable. Whilst it is entirely the club’s responsibility to ensure your tickets and passes arrive on time at the start of a new season – and I can fully understand your anger towards the club and our staff for the delays in them reaching you – I also want to explain in a little bit of detail the circumstances that led to the uncertainty and inconvenience you have suffered this past week or so.
As I explained to the 1901 Club members that wrote to me (and Paul Rogers) earlier this week, it has long been the policy of most football clubs to distribute seasonal tickets and passes as close to the first home match as possible. Quite frankly, from years of experience, this is because there is a high incidence of loss during the summer if they are dispatched earlier. For reasons I can’t fully explain, we do not see anything like the same levels of loss once the season is underway!
Our distribution timetable had your packs being assembled and ready for dispatch during the week commencing 1st August – well ahead of our opening home league game on Friday 12th August and, at the time of planning, also allowing more than enough time for the prospect of a home tie in The EFL Cup on Tuesday 9th August or Wednesday 10th August. In normal circumstances, we would expect the packs to take less than 48 hours to reach you from the point of dispatch.
The club uses Cedar, one of the country’s largest specialist suppliers of sports industry packaging and mailing, to distribute your 1901 Club packs. Cedar works with a large number of football clubs and other sporting bodies. They are highly experienced, well regarded, and the distribution of seasonal packs is a stock-in-trade. In this case, all elements of your new membership pack were with Cedar on time. Unfortunately, however, the packs were not distributed within the time period we had specified.
On Monday 8th August we were told by Cedar that some of our 1901 Club packs had been mailed by first-class post on Thursday 4th August, and that the remaining packs had been sent by 1st class post on Friday 5th August. While very unhappy at this later than anticipated distribution of your packs, and the lack of an earlier warning of the packs' later than expected dispatch, we would have still expected the vast majority, if not all, of the packs to be delivered to 1901 Club members in time for Tuesday evening.
Regardless, and in good faith, we used the information provided to us to explain the situation as we understood it, and to allay your fears in the email correspondence and phone calls we had with some members early this week. I am of course aware that the email responses were also subsequently used on message boards and other forms of social media to inform others and to get the message across to a much wider audience. However, it turns out there was a bigger problem.
We were furious to discover from our further investigations that, contrary to what we had been previously told by Cedar, none of the 1901 Club packs had left our supplier until Monday 8th August. Aside from the mis-information we had received, this was quite clearly an unacceptably narrow window for delivery (with our first home game on Tuesday 9th August) and this led to totally unnecessary anxiety and inconvenience for many of our 1901 Club members for which, again, we apologise profusely.
In the event, Royal Mail did well to still get packs in to the hands of as many 1901 members as they did – and, despite these unacceptable issues and the rail disruption, we still had 1,100 of our 1901 Club members in the stadium for the Colchester game (this compares to 1,606 members attending against Newport and 1,420 members attending against Cheltenham, in the same competition in previous seasons). Thank you for your support and determination to get to the game.
With regard to the presentation boxes themselves, they have served two purposes: firstly, they were designed as a response to previous feedback from 1901 Club members who did not like passes being distributed in plain jiffy bags and wanted to receive their passes in more prestigious packaging to reflect 1901 Club membership; and, secondly, because the boxes provided an effective and practical solution for us to send one secure package to members who receive multiple passes.
As a small gesture to underline our apology, and that of our supplier Cedar, for the inconvenience you have suffered this week, we are arranging for each 1901 Club member, to get a catering voucher (to enjoy a drink and something to eat at a future match) and a £10 retail voucher (for use in the club’s stadium store) for every seat you hold. Prior to the match with Brentford on the 10th September, we will reach out to you with full details on receiving and redemption of these vouchers. You will be able to use them at any point during this season.
We will also be adding a further two weeks to our own timetable for future time critical distributions. This should ensure that our supporters do not suffer any inconvenience even when for whatever reason our processes do not follow a carefully designed plan.
Finally, while writing, I also wanted to address the removal of free half time tea and coffee for 1901 Club members.
Please be assured that this was not a decision taken after your renewal. Neither was there any attempt to be “sneaky” or to mislead anyone. Somewhat ironically, this particular gesture was added (and paid for by our former caterers, Azure) after your initial decision to become a 1901 Club member back in 2010/11. And, following Azure's departure for poor service levels, the club decided to maintain the half time tea and coffee provision at its own expense as a further gesture to 1901 Club members.
In the period leading up to your renewal, 1901 Club members were asked to complete a survey, the link to which can be seen below. The aim was to gather information for our 1901 Club renewal strategy and to assess what members consider to be the most important elements of the 1901 Club experience.
1901 Club Survey
We used this information, together with the huge volume of anecdotal feedback received by Paul Rogers and his team over a five-year period, to help us structure a package that retained the most important and valued benefits, kept your renewal costs as low as possible, not least establishing a fixed price regardless of the division we play in during the new five-year term, and which also gave us some scope to continue to invest in the quality of our 1901 Club lounges.
The provision of tea and coffee was, alongside access to pre-season friendly matches, the lowest ranked elements of the previous 1901 Club experience and, therefore, help us to achieve the key objectives for renewals as detailed above, these elements were discontinued. The benefits you do receive as a 1901 Club member were fully articulated on our renewal website ahead of you committing to renewal. These have not changed in any way.
Finally, we did not list the removal of tea and coffee in the same way as the removal of friendly matches because unlike friendlies it was never a contractual benefit offered by the club at any point in the previous term. I accept, however, that for the avoidance of any doubt, we could have made this clearer to you. Please accept our apologies if this omission has created any confusion or ill-feeling. It was certainly not intended.
Thank you for your support and commitment to the club – and, in particular, for your patience this past couple of weeks. What with delays to your tickets and passes arriving and the various transport issues, I do appreciate it’s been a very frustrating time. I do hope you now enjoy the season ahead.
Firstly, I want to apologise for the very late arrival of your tickets and passes. This is totally unacceptable. Whilst it is entirely the club’s responsibility to ensure your tickets and passes arrive on time at the start of a new season – and I can fully understand your anger towards the club and our staff for the delays in them reaching you – I also want to explain in a little bit of detail the circumstances that led to the uncertainty and inconvenience you have suffered this past week or so.
As I explained to the 1901 Club members that wrote to me (and Paul Rogers) earlier this week, it has long been the policy of most football clubs to distribute seasonal tickets and passes as close to the first home match as possible. Quite frankly, from years of experience, this is because there is a high incidence of loss during the summer if they are dispatched earlier. For reasons I can’t fully explain, we do not see anything like the same levels of loss once the season is underway!
Our distribution timetable had your packs being assembled and ready for dispatch during the week commencing 1st August – well ahead of our opening home league game on Friday 12th August and, at the time of planning, also allowing more than enough time for the prospect of a home tie in The EFL Cup on Tuesday 9th August or Wednesday 10th August. In normal circumstances, we would expect the packs to take less than 48 hours to reach you from the point of dispatch.
The club uses Cedar, one of the country’s largest specialist suppliers of sports industry packaging and mailing, to distribute your 1901 Club packs. Cedar works with a large number of football clubs and other sporting bodies. They are highly experienced, well regarded, and the distribution of seasonal packs is a stock-in-trade. In this case, all elements of your new membership pack were with Cedar on time. Unfortunately, however, the packs were not distributed within the time period we had specified.
On Monday 8th August we were told by Cedar that some of our 1901 Club packs had been mailed by first-class post on Thursday 4th August, and that the remaining packs had been sent by 1st class post on Friday 5th August. While very unhappy at this later than anticipated distribution of your packs, and the lack of an earlier warning of the packs' later than expected dispatch, we would have still expected the vast majority, if not all, of the packs to be delivered to 1901 Club members in time for Tuesday evening.
Regardless, and in good faith, we used the information provided to us to explain the situation as we understood it, and to allay your fears in the email correspondence and phone calls we had with some members early this week. I am of course aware that the email responses were also subsequently used on message boards and other forms of social media to inform others and to get the message across to a much wider audience. However, it turns out there was a bigger problem.
We were furious to discover from our further investigations that, contrary to what we had been previously told by Cedar, none of the 1901 Club packs had left our supplier until Monday 8th August. Aside from the mis-information we had received, this was quite clearly an unacceptably narrow window for delivery (with our first home game on Tuesday 9th August) and this led to totally unnecessary anxiety and inconvenience for many of our 1901 Club members for which, again, we apologise profusely.
In the event, Royal Mail did well to still get packs in to the hands of as many 1901 members as they did – and, despite these unacceptable issues and the rail disruption, we still had 1,100 of our 1901 Club members in the stadium for the Colchester game (this compares to 1,606 members attending against Newport and 1,420 members attending against Cheltenham, in the same competition in previous seasons). Thank you for your support and determination to get to the game.
With regard to the presentation boxes themselves, they have served two purposes: firstly, they were designed as a response to previous feedback from 1901 Club members who did not like passes being distributed in plain jiffy bags and wanted to receive their passes in more prestigious packaging to reflect 1901 Club membership; and, secondly, because the boxes provided an effective and practical solution for us to send one secure package to members who receive multiple passes.
As a small gesture to underline our apology, and that of our supplier Cedar, for the inconvenience you have suffered this week, we are arranging for each 1901 Club member, to get a catering voucher (to enjoy a drink and something to eat at a future match) and a £10 retail voucher (for use in the club’s stadium store) for every seat you hold. Prior to the match with Brentford on the 10th September, we will reach out to you with full details on receiving and redemption of these vouchers. You will be able to use them at any point during this season.
We will also be adding a further two weeks to our own timetable for future time critical distributions. This should ensure that our supporters do not suffer any inconvenience even when for whatever reason our processes do not follow a carefully designed plan.
Finally, while writing, I also wanted to address the removal of free half time tea and coffee for 1901 Club members.
Please be assured that this was not a decision taken after your renewal. Neither was there any attempt to be “sneaky” or to mislead anyone. Somewhat ironically, this particular gesture was added (and paid for by our former caterers, Azure) after your initial decision to become a 1901 Club member back in 2010/11. And, following Azure's departure for poor service levels, the club decided to maintain the half time tea and coffee provision at its own expense as a further gesture to 1901 Club members.
In the period leading up to your renewal, 1901 Club members were asked to complete a survey, the link to which can be seen below. The aim was to gather information for our 1901 Club renewal strategy and to assess what members consider to be the most important elements of the 1901 Club experience.
1901 Club Survey
We used this information, together with the huge volume of anecdotal feedback received by Paul Rogers and his team over a five-year period, to help us structure a package that retained the most important and valued benefits, kept your renewal costs as low as possible, not least establishing a fixed price regardless of the division we play in during the new five-year term, and which also gave us some scope to continue to invest in the quality of our 1901 Club lounges.
The provision of tea and coffee was, alongside access to pre-season friendly matches, the lowest ranked elements of the previous 1901 Club experience and, therefore, help us to achieve the key objectives for renewals as detailed above, these elements were discontinued. The benefits you do receive as a 1901 Club member were fully articulated on our renewal website ahead of you committing to renewal. These have not changed in any way.
Finally, we did not list the removal of tea and coffee in the same way as the removal of friendly matches because unlike friendlies it was never a contractual benefit offered by the club at any point in the previous term. I accept, however, that for the avoidance of any doubt, we could have made this clearer to you. Please accept our apologies if this omission has created any confusion or ill-feeling. It was certainly not intended.
Thank you for your support and commitment to the club – and, in particular, for your patience this past couple of weeks. What with delays to your tickets and passes arriving and the various transport issues, I do appreciate it’s been a very frustrating time. I do hope you now enjoy the season ahead.
