Author Topic: The great PTS swindle (Read 7159 times)

Rushian · « **on:** January 10, 2004, 12:27:29 am »

Members of the PTS have this week found large envelope's dropping through their letter box from Liverpool FC. Was this to be a reward for loyalty? Was it to be a thank you for supporting the club and putting up with inadequate phone lines in an attempt to get tickets? Was it announcement that PTS sales would resume from the ticket office windows?

No it was an announcement that from the Portsmouth game PTS tickets would be available online. Surely a major step forward for the club and the fans you'd think? Another option enabling you to buy tickets after all. Well yes until you read the small print.

There would be a transaction charge of £2.70 per online booking and on top of this a charge of £2.70 per ticket. Yep that's £5.40 a ticket if you're buying a single ticket.

Many PTS members use the scheme as a surrogate season ticket due to the massive ST queue which doesn't move from season to season (mysteriously so - according to acturial insurance statistics more ST holders die per season than STs are given up - and this of course excludes fans voluntarily giving up STs, which in light of recent performances and the current cost is hardly a small number).

As PTS members they are already charged approximately £40 as a membership fee to cover admin costs . Asking in effect £5.40 extra for your ticket if you apply just for yourself is ridiculous.

Cost of a season ticket on the Kop = £445
Cost of 19 PTS tickets on the Kop = £482 + £40 membership + £102.60 in charges = £624.40

So PTS members cough up around £180 extra and that's without the benefits of being able to apply for away tickets or guaranteed tickets for our first home tie in the League and FA Cups and in Europe.

There's an easy way around this some have said - boycott the PTS online and apply using the usual methods. If no one uses the service the club will drop it. This is too simplistic.

Fans feel compelled to use the fastest possible method for getting tickets as no one knows how the tickets are distributed between online/phone/postal and which receives preference. Basically fans do not trust the ticket office to handle the distribution equitably (and who can blame them with the farce over Man City away or the hoardes of specialist travel company coaches at this years Man Utd game not seen for any other match at Anfield).

This online charge comes on top of a telephone system that for the majority of the season has taken 14 seconds to tell you that the lines are engaged and to ring again. Stories abound of phone bills inflated by £20-25 in an attempt to buy tickets for just one game.

The cheapest method of buying PTS tickets was of course straight from a ticket office window. This option vanished at the start of the season. So much for choice and options.

Gerard Houllier said in his eloquent speech at the AGM this week: "We want our fans to be close to us, to be with us. We see them as supporters, not as customers. That is why this club will always retain a human dimension."

Fine words by the custodian of the team but words that those running the club off the field would appear to disregard. Customers are exactly what PTS members have become.

So what is it to be, Priority members or Priority to be ripped off members?

Spartacus. · « **Reply #1 on:** January 10, 2004, 12:40:48 am »

You can only be taken advantage of if you let people take advantage, I personally wouldn’t join such a club but that’s very easy for me to say considering I have a season ticket and my fan card.

Rushian · « **Reply #2 on:** January 10, 2004, 12:50:32 am »

But that's part of the problem Christine - many of those currently in the scheme wanted nothing to do with it but with PTS hovering up such a large percentage of general sale tickets they felt compelled into joining.

Spartacus. · « **Reply #3 on:** January 10, 2004, 12:54:04 am »

But isn’t it like a vicious circle? If they drop out someone will take their place so they have to play the game, the club have them over a barrel on this one, unless everyone was to boycott it.

Roger · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2004, 12:56:32 am »

Well argued post. Boils down to supply and demand though. I wont use the online route myself. Seems odd time to bring in scheme when peak demand has gone for the matches. Knee jerk new sheme idea maybe at some accountants whim?

Rushian · « **Reply #5 on:** January 10, 2004, 01:06:22 am »

The PTS has been knee jerk from day one when it was introduced at 10 days notice halfway through a season. Fan consultancy? Nowhere to be seen.

Rashid · « **Reply #6 on:** January 10, 2004, 02:27:43 am »

Quote from: Rushian on January 10, 2004, 01:06:22 am

The PTS has been knee jerk from day one when it was introduced at 10 days notice halfway through a season. Fan consultancy? Nowhere to be seen.

Noone gives a fuck about the fans...Steve that article needs to be sent to Parry...shit on the pitch, shit on the fans....LFC Motto circa 2003.

AdamL · « **Reply #7 on:** January 10, 2004, 04:08:00 am »

Quote from: Rashid on January 10, 2004, 02:27:43 am

Noone gives a fuck about the fans...Steve that article needs to be sent to Parry...shit on the pitch, shit on the fans....LFC Motto circa 2003.

hear hear... having already shelled out over £50 in phone bill, plus £42 of money i really havent got just to be on the fuckin pts scheme, i feel the latest news is simply an attempt to try and take more of my money from me.

send that article to parry and moores. see how much they really care for us. especially for a student like me tryin to live on £300 a month!!

Mottman · « **Reply #8 on:** January 10, 2004, 08:01:09 am »

Steve,

Have you put this out on any other sites?

Rashid · « **Reply #9 on:** January 10, 2004, 11:53:00 am »

Quote from: Ad. on January 10, 2004, 04:08:00 am

hear hear... having already shelled out over £50 in phone bill, plus £42 of money i really havent got just to be on the fuckin pts scheme, i feel the latest news is simply an attempt to try and take more of my money from me.

send that article to parry and moores. see how much they really care for us. especially for a student like me tryin to live on £300 a month!!

I am skint too, I am told to pay about £10 in admin fees for buying online. This after paying £42 for the fucking Scheme which is a one way ticket to paying a hefty phone bill! All for the 'right' to buy tickets! Disgrace.

redger · « **Reply #10 on:** January 10, 2004, 02:20:55 pm »

Agree wholeheartedly with the post.Before the PTS, done postals all the time and never got knocked back but felt I had to join it once I read the bumph and seen that 5,000 tickets were going to be lost from the general sale.
Being from belfast tho it lets us book flights in advance knowing that we are 99.9% certain of getting tickets,and as anyone who books Easyjet flights knows the earlieryou book the cheaper it is and in some cases you can be talking of difference's of £100/150.I am not trying to make a case for the club but you can see why people who have to book flights etc. are only too willing to pay the surcharge because make on mistake that's what it is.
It would be interesting to see how many use it for just one or two games(and we all know which games they are don't we).For those who use it that way £40 +£20 or£30 on phone calls makes it cheaper than buying off a tout,
thats why there should some kind of loyality built into the scheme.
But for the reasons above that is why no one will ever be able to get a complete boycott of the scheme,IT IS A RIPOFF and anyone with half a brain can see that,but if you what to get to the match then you use every available method and LFC know that only too well.

IrishRed · « **Reply #11 on:** January 12, 2004, 01:24:59 pm »

my family are on the pts since day one. we joined simply as a way of having better access to tickets. for all the games that we have applied for through the pts, to my memory we have never got tickets only once or twice.

however this does come at a price. not only the financial costs as highlighted above, but the fact it can take hours to get through. there has been at least a couple of occassions where i have been literally on the phone ALL day in order to get tickets.

pts launch days now see me having to take a day off or burden my Mum with having to phone for tickets. i won't do postal as like the immediate knowledge of having a ticket or not. today was the fastest i have ever got through for tickets - took me just over 1hr for the man city game.

i think the costs involved with the online purchasing are a disgrace - simply a way of fleecing us even more. i support LFC's interest in generating cash - of course we have to do it in order to challenge - but i don't agree with it by targeting those who go to the games.

as mentioned above - there should be loyalty shown towards those who travel the length and breadth of the country following our team. loyalty should be shown to those that use the pts for more than just 2 or 3 times a season. don't get me wrong - i know there is financial constraints on people - my family have the same problem but why should someone roll up for the mancs or everton for their 1 game a season jaunt whilst others who scrimp and save to go to a few games lose out.

Rushian · « **Reply #12 on:** January 12, 2004, 07:12:01 pm »

Just spotted this on TLW by RedVespa:

Last week I was talking to a mate on sunday night about everton tickets and told him there were some left on the P T S so he spent 4 and 3/4hrs on the phone on monday but as most of you already know who buy tickets his call never got answered (typical) so on monday night i told him i would meet him at the ground on tuesday morning as i had a few things to clear up with the ticket office myself.

Tuesday morning we arrive at the window here is the conversation:

MATE: got any tickets for everton left love
Stupid Twat at counter: yes quite a few
M: can i have one im on the P T S
ST: NO they are only on sale by phone
M: but i phoned for 4 3/4 hrs yesterday and you lot never answered
ST: you couldnt have but anyway i can sell you one only if you phone up
M: its a joke this !!

Then he takes out his mobile phone and rings the office number guess wot ?the phone beside ST rings

M: hi ya its me at the window can i have an everton please
ST:yes sir wots your priorty number
M: here (and holds his card up to the window for her to see)
ST: how will you be paying sir
M: credit card
ST: wots your number
M: here (holds that card up to the window)

all this time im stood watching this in disbelief

ST: ok sir your tickets will be in the post
M: cant you just give me them here to save on the postage
ST: no sir im not allowed to do that

and then she put the phone down and smiled at him

Guess wot his tickets arrived next morning !!!
God help us if we ever get sucessfull again HOW ON EARTH WILL ANYONE EVER GET A TICKET

Roger · « **Reply #13 on:** January 12, 2004, 07:25:14 pm »

Thats a wind up.

Rushian · « **Reply #14 on:** January 12, 2004, 07:34:09 pm »

not necessarily:

1) They aren't allowed to sell through the windows
2) They have to post the tickets

Roger · « **Reply #15 on:** January 12, 2004, 08:05:10 pm »

Quote

and then she put the phone down and smiled at him

it may have happened but not in the way portrayed in that post. IMHO

Col · « **Reply #16 on:** January 12, 2004, 09:09:47 pm »

redger · « **Reply #17 on:** January 12, 2004, 11:10:53 pm »

that doesn't surprise me in the slightest,honest to god,it doesn't.

Walshy nMe® · « **Reply #18 on:** January 13, 2004, 06:44:20 pm »

FFS - this is a joke. I got the envelope - but just couldn't belive it.

Make you wanna boycott the games (can YOU all boycott so i can have an easier, and cheaper, chance of getting a ticket?

)

Thanks

Rushian · « **Reply #19 on:** January 13, 2004, 11:18:28 pm »

not even had the envelope yet!