Further to my previous post, I have now been able to buy my ticket - but what a palaver over something that should be so simple!!BostonWarrior wrote: ↑Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:08 pm Stupid Wigan ticketing system!!
I received the email to Season Ticket holders containing the link which enables you to buy your season ticket seat for the semi-final. Speaking to friends who have already bought theirs, I was told that the link takes you directly to your seat based on your email address and you just add it to your basket and pay. No seat selection is actually required.
Not for me, however!! I seem to be being ‘punished’ for having a season ticket seat that doesn’t have a season ticket seat holder on either side. The system won’t add my season ticket seat to the basket because it leaves a single empty seat on either side!!
It does, though, if I add the empty seat to my right, which would solve the situation. So, I did this but, of course, I only need one seat. So, I then tried to delete my own seat from the basket – this would still leave no single seat empty – but there was no way to do this.
I’ve telephoned the ticket office, but they don’t seem to fully understand what I’m talking about when I explained the situation and what I had tried to do.
I suggested to them that I could simply buy the ‘empty’ seat on my right, and that would solve the issue. They said, though, it would apparently count as an ‘extra seat’ – and because my own seat was still technically available for me – I couldn’t have the season ticket holder discount on that the empty seat next to me until my own season ticket seat is released after the ‘reserved’ period is over.
Finally, they suggested I visit the ticket office in person and they would look at it further, but I live 14 miles away and am only in Wigan nowadays on matchdays. What a way to treat a long-standing season ticket holder!!
Think I’ll watch it on the TV and save my admission and petrol money.
After my unsuccessful ‘phone call to the ticket office, I sent a 'Victor Meldrew-style’ complaint via the contact form on the Wigan website – and earlier this morning I've had a 'phone call from one of the admin ladies.
She was full of apologies that the Ticket Office didn't resolve the problem - apparently it is an easy procedure for them to do to manually override the ‘single seat left empty’ situation - and, whilst she was talking to me, she 'picked out the seat', took payment and has sent the ticket to me by email.
You’d think, though, it would be easier for the Wigan Ticket System to have a ‘cup-ticket’ system like other sports clubs have. It works in a similar way to the existing season-ticket ‘auto-renewal’. Season-Ticket holders are given the choice of ‘opting-in’ to automatically buying tickets for matches not covered by the season-ticket, and they receive them without the need to do anything at all. Payment is then taken by DD using the information the club already has stored in the ticket holder’s account.
If nothing else, though, they surely should enhance the current system to recognise season-ticket seats and exclude them from this ‘leaving a single seat empty’ rule for cup and play-off matches – the very catalyst, of course, that led to the problem I faced.
