Richard_Cadette
The Realist
I mentioned in an earlier thread about the poor view I had at Colchester on Saturday due to the Police Control Room being situation right next to the upper rows in the away stand. The view I had meant that the corner flag, and around 20 yards of the left touchline (as I was looking at it) were out of my sight line - unless I leant over the person in the row in front of me and strained my neck 90 degrees to the left!!
Consdering this is a brand new ground, I thought the design of this was completely thoughtless. That said, if they were selling tickets in this area, they should have been marked as 'Restricted View' and charged out at a lesser price, rather than the £22 I handed over for each ticket.
Anyway, I rang Colchester yesterday morning to raise this issue with them, and they were, to put it mildly, extremely unhelpful. They said we only deemed the view to be 'slightly restriced' and therefore, not a problem. I pointed out that, despite the definition of slightly, it doesn't matter how much is restricted, if I pay to watch an entire game, I should get that!!
They suggested I contact Southend as it was their problem - so I did. The staff in our ticket office were bemused by Colchester's reaction, but they were extremely helpful, and said they would speak to Colchester, check out the information they received from thejm, and come back to me.
Low and behold, I had a call at around 5.30 last night from Matthew, the ticket office manager. He was extremely apologetic about the situation, and despite having the same conversation as I did with Colchester, felt it only right to offer me a full refund for the tickets in question. I declined his kind offer, and said that was not necessary, and it certainly should not be OUR club that is responsible for paying for Colchesters inadequacies.
I guess the point I wanted to make is that again, Southend have gone out of their way to be helpful, and try and assisrt the fans where possible, and the level of customer service they showed yesterday was absolutely first rate, and I took the time to email the club this morning to thank them for their excellent work.
If only other clubs were able to reach such heights of customer service!
Consdering this is a brand new ground, I thought the design of this was completely thoughtless. That said, if they were selling tickets in this area, they should have been marked as 'Restricted View' and charged out at a lesser price, rather than the £22 I handed over for each ticket.
Anyway, I rang Colchester yesterday morning to raise this issue with them, and they were, to put it mildly, extremely unhelpful. They said we only deemed the view to be 'slightly restriced' and therefore, not a problem. I pointed out that, despite the definition of slightly, it doesn't matter how much is restricted, if I pay to watch an entire game, I should get that!!
They suggested I contact Southend as it was their problem - so I did. The staff in our ticket office were bemused by Colchester's reaction, but they were extremely helpful, and said they would speak to Colchester, check out the information they received from thejm, and come back to me.
Low and behold, I had a call at around 5.30 last night from Matthew, the ticket office manager. He was extremely apologetic about the situation, and despite having the same conversation as I did with Colchester, felt it only right to offer me a full refund for the tickets in question. I declined his kind offer, and said that was not necessary, and it certainly should not be OUR club that is responsible for paying for Colchesters inadequacies.
I guess the point I wanted to make is that again, Southend have gone out of their way to be helpful, and try and assisrt the fans where possible, and the level of customer service they showed yesterday was absolutely first rate, and I took the time to email the club this morning to thank them for their excellent work.
If only other clubs were able to reach such heights of customer service!
