Topic: FA cup tickets stolen.

[Paul Ando]

anyone with links have any idea when the statement will be made? or heard on the radio.


h i y h - at least one other person has mentioned this. where did you hear it. wouldnt betoo surprising what with all the hassle which they probably didnt expect, as well as the fact that they WILL be grassed up or done in if some fans find out

I just got an email of one of me mates, he said he heared it on the news this morning on his way to work

[Danny Boys Dad]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At last they have arrived....................

About bleedin time too I can no shut up moaning......

On a serious note I was really worried they would not come my lad has been looking forward to this for so long and I did not tell him that there might be a chance we won't have tickets.

All he keeps asking me is how many days to cup final Daddy
welling up now

Nice one 

[killer1971]

I work in service industry if a paying customer makes a purchase and we have it in stock
in order to be efficient I do not wait another 5 days to post it.

Generally speaking this is the litmus test for a good e-seller. I make dozens of e-purchases a year (DVD's, CD's, books etc.) and I'd say that 95% of sellers only charge the credit card at the point of dispatch. Unfortunately the Liverpool TO has put hundreds of people through the mill on this one by dispatching tickets up to seven days after the sale was recorded.
No amount of defence for the TO can possibly justify this unnecessary heartache.

[killer1971]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At last they have arrived....................

It was never in doubt
Chuffed for you & your son.

[magpie]

there's a post on RAOTL from a chap who's tickets were stolen who has said he's had had a call from the TO offering replacements. Possibly from the ballot?
is there anyone who's had a ticket stolen who could ring up and confirm this?

I'm still waiting for news about our three that were stolen but that sounds more hopeful.

[Joe Rogans Chin]

I just got an email of one of me mates, he said he heared it on the news this morning on his way to work

Lad in work said the same thing and another person has had an email of another mate.

to be honest sounds like Chinese whispers. Most likely city saying a reward has been offered for the tickets at 6am in the morning,  has turned into the tickets have been returned to Anfield.

[Big E]

I'm still waiting for news about our three that were stolen but that sounds more hopeful.

give 'em a call, they should tell u straight away. just ask them if they are replacing stolen tickets with ballot ones

i'm in the ballot btw, but just wanna know either way

[Jo S]

Right this is costing me a mint as I'm on me way to Crete Airport but just had a call off a contact to say the Ballot has at this stage been cancelled. This persons wife works in the TO & has never given duff info before. No idea how true it is but for what its worth I thought I'd post it. Liam, I'm a delighted for you...been keeping tabs all holiday.
See you in Cardiff mate

[willss]

give 'em a call, they should tell u straight away. just ask them if they are replacing stolen tickets with ballot ones

i'm in the ballot btw, but just wanna know either way

Agreed, please someone who's tickets have been stolen ring the TO.  They won't take calls off ballotees and we can't use our phones as we've been waiting 4days for a call.

[Walshy nMe®]

.

[Danny Boys Dad]

.

Sums it all up for me, well said that man.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Generally speaking this is the litmus test for a good e-seller. I make dozens of e-purchases a year (DVD's, CD's, books etc.) and I'd say that 95% of sellers only charge the credit card at the point of dispatch. Unfortunately the Liverpool TO has put hundreds of people through the mill on this one by dispatching tickets up to seven days after the sale was recorded.
No amount of defence for the TO can possibly justify this unnecessary heartache.

You're not comparing like with like though.  My company does the same, but the difference is that our demand is reasonably constant. The problem that the ticket office has is a fairly low level background demand with huge peaks at times like this.  This is always going to lead to resources being over-stretched for finals and the like.

If I was allocating the workload I'd probably do something similar to what the TO have done. ie. all staff manning the phones, windows, post box during the selling days (Mon-Thur), allocating the tickets and logging the sale.  Once this was complete I'd re-allocate the resources to start actually despatching the tickets.

[Anthony]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At last they have arrived....................

About bleedin time too I can now shut up moaning......

On a serious note I was really worried they would not come my lad has been looking forward to this for so long and I did not tell him that there might be a chance we won't have tickets.

All he keeps asking me is how many days to cup final Daddy
welling up now

Delighted to hear it though you should still take note of the following issues in case of any complaint.

1) Were they sent Special Delivery? If not you should get your £4 back.
2) When were they posted? If the Royal Mail hasn't done a next day delivery then the club should be able to claim the £4 back (and refund it to you).
3) If posted on Friday can the club confirm you won't be refused admission/arrested? (This would also suggest the tickets have been returned to the Royal Mail as opposed to the Club.

Gift Horses & Mouths I suppose but there does need to be a proper investigation into all aspects of this Ticket Sale.

[Sport Billy]

Liverpool FC have today released the following statement to update supporters following the theft of FA Cup final tickets last Friday. 
Chief Executive Rick Parry said this morning: "We now believe the number of Cup Final tickets stolen last Friday is closer to the one thousand mark. We still can't identify a precise figure, as tickets which should have been delivered on Monday at the latest, are for some reason, still being introduced into the Royal Mail system.
 
"We have decided that tickets which had originally being held back for a ballot of Fan Card holders will now be used to replace those stolen and we are confident the vast majority of supporters affected will be offered replacement tickets for the Final. Our ticket office staff will be contacting those fans this morning to say their tickets will be replaced.
 
"Obviously, those supporters who had applied for inclusion in the ballot will be disappointed, but we feel this is the best way to deal with a very difficult situation.
 
"We were disappointed with our initial allocation and the bottom line now is that one thousand fewer Liverpool fans will be able to watch their team in the FA Cup final. We are very unhappy that fans who have backed the team throughout the competition have been denied the right to attend the showpiece final through absolutely no fault of their own." 

[S24 LFC]

Just announced on the official site, ballet tickets are goin to replace the robbed ones. No ballot

[liamo3]

Right this is costing me a mint as I'm on me way to Crete Airport but just had a call off a contact to say the Ballot has at this stage been cancelled. This persons wife works in the TO & has never given duff info before. No idea how true it is but for what its worth I thought I'd post it. Liam, I'm a delighted for you...been keeping tabs all holiday.
See you in Cardiff mate

Was going to text yea but did not want to disturb the Tan
Thanks Jo
See yea there

[Jim Price]

Just announced on the official site, ballet tickets are goin to replace the robbed ones. No ballot

Loads of twats in tights and tutus, some fucking consolation that is.

[magpie]

Just announced on the official site, ballet tickets are goin to replace the robbed ones. No ballot

Yipppeeeeee!! I'll be running round Cardiff with a ticket (safely tucked away in my pocket!)

[IrishDave]

No ballot = No ticket for me 

Was the right thing to do though. See you all in Cardiff.

[killer1971]

You're not comparing like with like though.  My company does the same, but the difference is that our demand is reasonably constant. The problem that the ticket office has is a fairly low level background demand with huge peaks at times like this.  This is always going to lead to resources being over-stretched for finals and the like.

If I was allocating the workload I'd probably do something similar to what the TO have done. ie. all staff manning the phones, windows, post box during the selling days (Mon-Thur), allocating the tickets and logging the sale.  Once this was complete I'd re-allocate the resources to start actually despatching the tickets.

A fair comment, but shouldn't the resource (i.e. staff) be flexible enough to deal with such erratic demand, through overtime and additional bodies where necessary ?
We're all a little bit in the dark here because we don't know exactly how many postal applications they were dealling with.

I've learnt a valuable lesson myself as this was the first time I've had cup final tickets sent out to me, whereas in hindsight it would have been easier to make the 20 minute trip to the ground like I've done in the past.
The moment the special delivery option was mentioned there was a naive assumption that this meant they were 100% guaranteed to be delivered.

[Anthony]

Chief Executive Rick Parry said this morning: "We now believe the number of Cup Final tickets stolen last Friday is closer to the one thousand mark. We still can't identify a precise figure, as tickets which should have been delivered on Monday at the latest, are for some reason, still being introduced into the Royal Mail system.
 

He's either saying they haven't been posted yet or I can see a massive compensation claim by the club against the Royal Mail in the offing here.

Good call by Stretch Armstrong BTW

Don't work for Royal Mail so not exactly sure at what point the tracking starts - do they have to make the sorting centre to be registered first??? 

If true this would explain why the club couldn't differentiate between the tickets stolen from the van and those that the Royal Mail hadn't got round to scanning yet.

Comes back to the question - given the amount of money being spent by the Club with the Royal Mail why didn't they get a dedicated collection van and dedicated barcode scanning team??

[redchiz]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At last they have arrived....................

Nice one, Liam 

You and Sean will have to give an extra cheer each for me and Joey now, courtesy of this shambles. 

[CloudDog]

The Millennium Stadium have admitted their procedures and security is not good enough to stop people with the stolen tickets getting into the stadium.  They also confirm they are not in a position to stop 3,200 people fighting over 1,600 seats.  This is why they are not issuing duplicate tickets.  They have therefore, confirmed that stealing and touting works, and that they don't care about proper fans who pay their wages.

Hopefully, we'll win the thing and then snub the charity shield, either in terms of the game completely or selling no tickets, to hit them back where it hurts, in the pocket

[lfc84]

there wont even be 1600 officials on duty so how can they mange 3200 people figihting over 1600 seats.

Looking forawrd...i hope to god that wembly issues tickets with barcodes and that you have to scan the barcode to get in.

if that had been the case in cardiff then you can issue any number of duplicates and LITERALLY cancel the originals.

this happended in portugal at euro 2004 and worked perfectly. At some grounds i got scanned twice (permiter and turnstyle).

[ashley]

I have a room in Cardiff up for grabs.
Just want to cut my losses niw as I dont want to go to Cardiff without a ticket.
Room is for 2 people on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th Breakfast and free parking is included.
Room cost me £450
Thats all I want back and the change of name fee.

Text me on 07752407987 and I will get back to you.
Cheers Ashley.

[Danny Boys Dad]

Wembley has no answer to FA Cup ticket fiasco

Paul Kelso

Friday May 12, 2006
The Guardian


Despite promises that the new Wembley will be the best stadium in the world when it finally opens, the new ground will not be able to prevent a repeat of the ticket fiasco that threatens to ruin this weekend's FA Cup final for 1,600 Liverpool supporters.
The Millennium Stadium has been unable to reissue tickets stolen from a Post Office van outside Goodison Park because it does not have the technology to differentiate between the replacements and the originals. Wembley will be vulnerable to the same problems, as the cost of issuing security-coded tickets and turnstiles capable of scanning them is seen as prohibitive. Several Premiership clubs have such arrangements but with season ticket holders the cost is not so great.

A spokesman for Wembley said it was also hampered by having to issue tickets for large numbers of "one-off" events. "We are working on a number of solutions but ultimately we will not be able to guarantee that the same problem won't occur in the future," he said.
Meanwhile, with suspicions on Merseyside that the theft may have been an inside job, the Post Office chief executive Adam Crozier is the perfect man to head an investigation. His last job was in the same position at the FA.

[red number 9]

Liverpool FC have today released the following statement to update supporters following the theft of FA Cup final tickets last Friday. 
Chief Executive Rick Parry said this morning: "We now believe the number of Cup Final tickets stolen last Friday is closer to the one thousand mark. We still can't identify a precise figure, as tickets which should have been delivered on Monday at the latest, are for some reason, still being introduced into the Royal Mail system.

[/b]

Given that "stolen" tickets are now magically turning up albeit several days late (according to my mate who works for the post office, stolen envelopes have been getting reposted in boxes in Liverpool due to the mass public knowledge of stolen tickets), then some people who've been given replacements from the ballot may now get their originals dropping through the letter box as well.  Who'd know??

[Anthony]

Who'd know??

Hopefully the club when they check the Track and Trace - they probably won't bother though...

[Anthony]

Attendance 74,000

So how many ejections/arrests then?

This must not be forgotten - inquiries need to be held by almost every party involved so that this does not happen again.

But that's for later - In the meanwhile - YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

[gqP6w]

The attendance figure given in the ground was just over 71,000. Mind you in the first half there did seem to be a fight in block U1, don't know if it was over a ticket though.

[Walt]

The attendance figure given in the ground was just over 71,000. Mind you in the first half there did seem to be a fight in block U1, don't know if it was over a ticket though.

I did notice a congregation of stewards where the seperation of fans were in the lower stand

[fru]

I did enjoy the booing of the FA entourage today, shame it wasnt stripy jumper himself down there, he would have got it both barrels.

[ianrush79]

Didn't seem litre too many empty spaces around my seat yesterday. security outside wasn't the tightest either

[ttnbd]

Imagine the compensation claims on the lost entertainment thingy mentioned earlier on in one of the threads based on yesterdays games.

Someone be quick and get a claim in

[Anthony]

100 stolen FA Cup tickets seized

South Wales Police seized 100 stolen tickets for the FA Cup Final ahead of the match at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

They were from a batch of at least a 1,000 stolen from a Royal Mail van in Liverpool.

Three people were also arrested after 15 forged tickets were also found ahead of Saturday's match.

Match commander Chief Supt Bob Evans said the detection prevented overcrowding and potential injury.

He said: "The issue was made more complicated by a number of forged tickets also found in the possession of Liverpool supporters.

'Frustration'

"But all in all, we took a number of tickets out of circulation that were either stolen or forged. As a result of that, we probably avoided some serious overcrowding and potential injuries."

Liverpool won the final on penalties after a 3-3 draw with West Ham at the end of extra time.

South Wales Police reported a "successful" day, with a total of 17 arrests but no major incidents or disturbances.

A male fan located in the West Ham section of the ground died during the event. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death and no more details about him are currently available.

But speaking overall, Chief Supt Evans, said: "There was a great atmosphere in Cardiff today and the event, as always, went smoothly."

He said he understood the "frustration" in the run up to today's final as a result of the ticket theft.

But he added: "I am delighted however, that fans didn't let the issue spoil what turned out to be a very exciting and entertaining football match and a great day out."

The tickets were stolen from the Royal Mail van on 5 May.

Millennium Stadium managers refused to issue duplicate tickets because of safety concerns if too many supporters turned up with tickets.

Most fans who had been expecting tickets were eventually given them by Liverpool, who took them from an allocation set aside from a ballot of card-holding supporters.

Merseyside Police arrested a man in connecting with the theft on Thursday.

The 17 arrests made in Cardiff on Saturday related to public order offences, drunk and disorderly offences, theft, assault, criminal damage, a bail warrant, possession of cocaine, ticket touting and forgery.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/4769641.stm

100 tickets? That's a 10% success rate...

[lloydiethe1st]

Anymore on the West Ham fan that died?

[sirjames]

i got in...without a ticket.

[LFC on tour]

i got in...without a ticket.

wish id took the chance and gone now.

[sirjames]

there was 4 of us though mate and only i got in.

[courty61]

Anymore on the West Ham fan that died?

Aint heard about that- how did it happen? Do you know?