By 6PM North Stand Kiosks Had More Serving Staff Than Customers

[Lord Bracknell]

Btw if there was 26,007 bums on seats today I am a dutchman

Has standing now been officially authorised?

Kapper IN !

 

[swindonseagull]

£4.60 for 2 bottles of coke.......................2 for £2 in tesco....guess where I got mine before the game.??.
and always have some grub from the Chinese chippy by Brighton station....£1.90 sausage and chips....

I ain't paying stadium prices.

 

[Guinness Boy]

My experience in WSU today with catering, please can i have a chicken balti pie, guy serving grabs a chicken & ham so i point out to him the next pie along was what i wanted (it actually turned out to be a chicken & chorizo but very nice it was indeed) I then asked for a snickers for my mate and was handed a steak & ale pie (classic) - service time was very poor!

Walk in to WSU concourse at about 1.55 with my 6 year old. Queue behind ONE person. After 5 minutes of inactivity look for other queue. Bloke on till next door can't activate it with his card. He is being "helped" by a girl of about 17 who's special power is staring in to middle distance ignoring everything. Go to next till. After another two minutes serving one person a pie and a beer get served. Bloke gives me a Bovril instead of a hot dog despite the fact it's clearly for a 6 year old. Then he can't work out the difference in price. The hot dog bread is so hard Stuart Broad could open the bowling with it. Cue me taking out the sausage and feeding it to 6 year old to the amusement of a few old faces. The pie has been overheated to buggery. It's like it spent time in Sellafield. Poor Jo.

At 2.15 my 6 year old urgently wants to go to his seat. He had an absolute blast but never wants another hot dog again. This time they lost out on another pint for me. In the future if I take the lad I'll eat and drink in town first.

 

[fat old seagull]

What's the thinking behind that decision?

Yes the thinking, it appears to be consistent with much else regarding the clubs catering setup, not much thinking at all. And having until very recently been supportive of Paul Barber I am beginning to have my doubts. The answer to everything in a successful business is not necessary to overcharge. The writings on the wall lets hope someone up there can decipher it !

 

[Lincoln Imp]

£4.60 for 2 bottles of coke.......................2 for £2 in tesco....guess where I got mine before the game.??.
and always have some grub from the Chinese chippy by Brighton station....£1.90 sausage and chips....

I ain't paying stadium prices.

It gets worse. I hear solid reports of a group of long-standing 1901 customers doing a deal with a local eaterie which involves them... parking their cars, having a very pleasant lunch, being driven to the ground, picked up after the match and presumably having post-game refreshment before leaving calmly for home... all for a price vastly less than that at the Amex.

It's all right at a big Metropolitan club - if you p off 2,000 supporters you just send out for replacements. In most other places it's different. Martin Perry once said that the great majority of 1901 business customers were from small enterprises; people spending their own money. Treat them badly and you'll quickly lose them.

This might not trouble Paul Barber too much. If he can shave a heap of short term bucks off the bottom line he'll regard it as job done.

 

[Djmiles]

What's the thinking behind that decision?

Not sure. Even the stewards on the door aren't sure why.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

People with things to do because of bank holiday or shocking weather?

 

[Pinkie Brown]

All sounds familiar. I have been eating and drinking pre match up the Swan so far this season, due to being a "customer" who doesn't have to tollerate lousy service and overpriced food. As I was running a bit late today, I went straight into the North Stand to grab some food and a pint - Bad choice.

After a painfully slow moving queue, I attempted to order a Steak & Ale Pie plus a Harveys. Hardly re-inventing the wheel when it comes to requesting something at the kiosks. The Girl looked totally bemused. I requested again. She returned with a vegetarian Pie. I re-requested a steak and ale pie, to eventually be told they had run out. (2.30pm) Only Balti left. "Okay, I will have the Balti" I then reminded the girl about the Harveys - She returned with another pie?!

Eventually I ended up with a pint of Harveys to accompany the pie. I attempted to pay. Ah, the saga continues......

I had a balance of £4.77 on my card this morning. I topped up another £10 at home before I left. When I attempted to pay, the balance on the reader was showing....£4.77?! The girl didn't know what to do. She walked away, stared at the pie rack, then returned and asked the person behind me what they wanted! I walked off.......

Altogether a crap experience. The only plus, it was on the house courtesy of Sodexo. Do I have a guilty conscience? Nah. The Sodexo Staff at the kiosk in the NE corner looked totally lost. No sign of any supervision anywhere.

I'd say you couldn't make it up, but reading this thread plus talking to friends who had similar issues, you probably could. It goes without saying, I'll be up The Swan next Week.

 

[desprateseagull]

the inner concourses seem to be very unwelcoming places - more like a factory, than a footty ground, with exposed pipes etc..

get some colour in there, at least- or some BIG photos of BHA legends, on the walls1

 

[Gazwag]

SEEMED a bigger QUEUE for the TRAIN at 515 today

On both sides, mainly due to the game being won at 80 minutes and loads left early, and then they only put on 4 coaches for the 5pm Ore train

 

[Gazwag]

I had a balance of £4.77 on my card this morning. I topped up another £10 at home before I left. When I attempted to pay, the balance on the reader was showing....£4.77?! The girl didn't know what to do. She walked away, stared at the pie rack, then returned and asked the person behind me what they wanted! I walked off.......

when you top up manually you have to leave your card on the reader for up to 20 seconds for the balance to update, auto top up works a treat

 

[melias shoes]

The queues might have been shorter, but the service was incredibly slow - not through a shortage of staff, but because some of them simply didn't know what they were doing. Why did it take two whole minutes to identify the pump that was labelled "Harveys Wild Hop", only then to go and fetch a glass to pour it into - and then to return to the wrong pump and have to start again? And then for it to turn out that the barrel was empty? So start again, with the customer (the guy in front of me) having to choose what he wanted. "I'll have to have the ordinary", he said. "Ok" ... pause for action ... "Sorry. There's no Hophead" ... puzzled groan from customer ... "I meant ordinary Harveys" ... "Oh" ... and, finally, a beer is poured.

 

[TheJasperCo]

I eat at home either side of the match. It's a football match not a restaurant, refreshments are too pricey now. Like at cinemas nowadays where it's like 6 quid for a small portion of popcorn.

 

[Pinkie Brown]

when you top up manually you have to leave your card on the reader for up to 20 seconds for the balance to update, auto top up works a treat

I think my card was on the machine nearer one minute and 20 seconds. Had a look earlier and the £10 I added this morning is showing. Oh well.....

 

[trueblue]

I eat at home either side of the match. It's a football match not a restaurant, refreshments are too pricey now. Like at cinemas nowadays where it's like 6 quid for a small portion of popcorn.

Compared to a cinema, The Amex is fantastic value. Can't say I have a problem with the prices really - at least not for beer and pies. It's a football ground after all, not a supermarket. But the service and choice in some parts of the stadium leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

the inner concourses seem to be very unwelcoming places - more like a factory, than a footty ground, with exposed pipes etc..

get some colour in there, at least- or some BIG photos of BHA legends, on the walls1

Where's the money in that?

The club's marketing is desperately unsophisticated. They seem to think that marketing consists of selling things at the maximum price they can get away with. That's not marketing, it's market-trading.

 

[Harry H]

Kids on two quid an hour.
What do you expect?

 

[portlock seagull]

Kids on two quid an hour.
What do you expect?

Nonsense. If were true I'd still expect club to employ component staff and if that meant paying a bit more then so be it. Charge enough. I deal with mds of sodexco regularly - not the biggest caterer in world without being good. Maybe not great. Maybe club made mistake. But it's all about profit. And like clubs they're expert at sweating assets. Football fans are most loyal customers on the planet. Majority put up and shut up. Healthy profits being made week in week out despite the moaning each week. Not enough people are hard up or fed up for things to change and the majority people still only turn up to watch football rather than eat and drink! Don't forget that important point!

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

FFP. Its a simple formula really, if we didn't jack up prices and reduce costs, we couldn't have afforded to sign Keith Andrews. That's got to be worth all this inconvenience, surely?

 

[TSB]

Nice to see there's still a thread for all the grumpy old men tonight, even after a comfy 2-0 win.
Good to keep them all together in one place.