Ticket Line 2

Question: `Were there problems with the ticket line on Friday? I spent 35 minutes from 3.30 - 4.05 repeatedly phoning and pressing `2` to buy tickets - only for the line to go dead each time. So at 4.48 I phoned again and pressed `1` - and then waited for 30 minutes and 55 seconds before giving up. During this time, I kept getting the message that I was `moving up the queue` - but I clearly wasn't. As a result, thanks to the fickleness of an 11 year old, my son had gone off the idea by Saturday morning. Two seats left empty which should have been filled, £30+ the club lost out on. I know there have been questions along these lines before - but really it's very poor to have a ticket line failing on the day before a match`.

Answer: `The club are not aware of any problems with the lines into the ticket office. We certainly did a high volume of calls on Friday, which suggests there were no major problems with the lines. Also, Friday afternoon is a peak period, and unfortunately you do have to be patient at this time.

It is worth noting for future reference, you can purchase tickets online up to half an hour before kick-off.`

NEW QUESTION
Dear Mr Insider: don't worry, I shan't be setting up a running argument, this is the last note. Two things: firstly you can't book the family stand online, so I have to use the phone. Secondly, if the phones were working properly, the club urgently needs more people answering them, if only on the day before a match. I'm not saying a new full time person, I'm saying one or two extra people on the ticketline the day before each home match. I appreciate the need for patience but do you really think holding for longer than half an hour is reasonable? If the ticket line has a high volume of calls, surely it needs more help to stop people - like me - ringing off? I have had long delays before, but not half an hour.
Please accept this in the spirit in which I write, not carping on at the club, but identifying a problem and hopefully offering a solution.

I did take your original query in the spirit it was meant - and I also take this one in that spirit too. No offence was meant, and I apologise if it didn't come across that way.

The problems you mention are ones we are aware of - and have been for sometime. The main problem is that the ticket office does a huge amount of business on a Friday and Saturday morning before a match.

However if we employ more staff they will not be sat around with little to do for the rest of the week. It's also difficult to find people who only wish to work Friday and/or Saturday; equally we only have a certain number of terminals from which to sell tickets from - therefore additional staff and additional terminals would be required.

I appreciate many fans wish to buy their tickets late, but then they have to appreciate that the club's telephone resources (like all football clubs at busy periods) can be overstretched - and hence the request for patience. I will pass on your comments to the ticket office, but please be assured this is not an issue we are unaware of.