Season ticket renewal.

[curryman]

Having been subjected to a constant bombardment of messages from the marketing department of Wigan RLFC about the renewal of my season ticket (which I always renew), I finally decided today to send them the following message.

I have posted it on here for two reasons:-
1) in the hope that someone from the club will read this and act upon it and
2) to see if my experience is unique, or does this ring true for some of you as well?

I decided to unsubscribe from their e mail list.
There is a box that comes up to ask you why you are doing this, so this is what I said -

I am sick and tired of being harassed by you.
I love Wigan RLFC, but really, enough is enough.
The constant daily bombardment I get about renewing my season ticket is the worst I get from any business over anything.
I get mail, e-mail, text messages (last week from someone claiming to be Sam Tomkins) and phone calls.
Last week I spoke to someone on the phone and told them, yes, I would be renewing my ticket, but as they had phoned me in the middle of my tea and 3 months before I needed to do this, I was a bit peeved. I told them I did not like being hustled about this.
What happened?
A week later, at the same time, once more in the middle of my tea, I got another phone call about the same thing.
The same thing happened last season and every season I can remember.
Well I'll tell you AGAIN.
Yes, I will renew my season ticket.
But the new season does not start until February and it is still November today (and you have been bombarding me since the last season ended, the last season ticket game being at the end of September). So in fact, you have been badgering me about this for a third of a year in advance of when I actually need the ticket.
I am not very wealthy. I have Christmas ahead of me and in January I am going to Istanbul and then (separately) to Bilbao. I have to pay for all of that and then in February I will look at getting a new season ticket. Your one selling point is that I may not get the same seat, but, quite frankly, I am not that fussed. Its not like I am married to the seat or that the seat is in a prime location. The fact is, going by the consistently empty seats all around my seat, it is quite simple for the club to sell all of the seats around mine over the Winter period and they can then sell mine to me in late January and everyone will be happy.

You are not going to sell out between now and season kick off. The only reason why you would sell my seat is if you get spiteful and decide to teach me some kind of lesson. If you do that, I will not be that bothered because, like I say, where I sit is not particularly a prime location and it does not fill up with people unless we are playing St Helens or Leeds. Even then, it does not fill up if Sky TV decide to move the match to stupid o'clock on a Thursday night and you decide to bend over and agree to their demands without a second thought about me, the poor fan that you are currently hassling on a daily basis for cash. It doesn't bother me because there are plenty of other seats I can buy.

One thing that is certain, if you keep up this constant bombardment of me by all forms of communication other than pigeon, you are making it more and more likely that I will not renew my season ticket at all.


I point you to the RFL. Now, I am not a massive fan of that organisation. In fact I think it is run by a bunch of buffoons, for the benefit of another bunch of buffoons. However, the last time there was a Four Nations competition, I purchased the equivalent of a season ticket from the RFL. In fact I purchased two tickets for that tournament. This year, even though the RFL had my name on their database as a ticket purchaser, they did not harass me to buy tickets for the international series with New Zealand.

That is either very bad, from their point of view (probably from your point of view too), they didn't utilise their resources. Or it is very good as they did not intrude on my privacy. I tend towards the latter school of thought, so much so, in fact that when tickets come up for sale for the next Four Nations series, I am highly likely to buy them.

Why don't you do something positive to make me want to renew my season ticket months in advance?

Announce that you have signed a major player or give me an actual date when Sam Tomkins will actually play. When you send me a text message in November pretending to be him, reports say he will not be fit until the end of April. So what you are actually doing is asking me to buy a ticket to watch him six months in advance. Well, what I want to know is, is he going to be fit enough to play at all (or have you signed a pup)? I think back here to the last season he played for us, when he missed most games with injury and during which I checked every home game, asking if he was playing. I had a nine year old nephew who wanted to see him play, you see. Week after week you told me he was in the squad and week after week he failed to appear.

As you can see, I have a memory. I mean really, I've got the message. Do you think I will forget it within 24 hours, given I have been following this team for fifty years and I am fully aware that when one season ends, I have to buy a new ticket to follow that team for the next season?

As I said earlier, Christmas is coming. So why haven't you done something useful for that, like released a new shirt that I can buy for presents?

Other clubs have managed to do this, why haven't you?

[Owd Codger]

Surely, the 'block' message about renewing a season ticket should only go out to those who have not renewed their season ticket.

Or is that to difficult to do in this modern age of electronic technology?

I have to admit that it does get a bit annoying to have it coming on the screen every time you look at the club website!

[No straw damn us]

Surely, the 'block' message about renewing a season ticket should only go out to those who have not renewed their season ticket.

Or is that to difficult to do in this modern age of electronic technology?

I have to admit that it does get a bit annoying to have it coming on the screen every time you look at the club website!

It'll depend on the CRM Customer Relationship Management) software that the club uses. Some are far more flexible than others, but much more expensive and also require in depth training and maintenance.

[josie andrews]

I must be persona non grata then!

I have only received two calls since the end of last season, the second one was in reply to my request to the first one, to ring back at the end of November, which the lady duly did & just one or two emails.

I her told we, five family members, had all renewed our Season Tickets so her help & advice was no longer needed, which she duly thanked me & wished me a good day

[jao711]

We really do enjoy moaning on this board,don't we just.We moan about the coach,the players,recruitment,lack of trophies,being chased to renew season ticket,new replica shirts not on sale yet,IL won't buy us some world class players.For heavens sake cheer up ,you could be a Wakefield,Salford or Leigh supporter,now that's disappointment.Yes I am having a moan,about the moaners.I can't wait for next season. Smile darn you smile.

[curryman]

We really do enjoy moaning on this board,don't we just.We moan about the coach,the players,recruitment,lack of trophies,being chased to renew season ticket,new replica shirts not on sale yet,IL won't buy us some world class players.For heavens sake cheer up ,you could be a Wakefield,Salford or Leigh supporter,now that's disappointment.Yes I am having a moan,about the moaners.I can't wait for next season. Smile darn you smile.

I must admit that one of my nicknames is Moanasaurus.

[curryman]

I must be persona non grata then!

I have only received two calls since the end of last season, the second one was in reply to my request to the first one, to ring back at the end of November, which the lady duly did & just one or two emails.

I her told we, five family members, had all renewed our Season Tickets so her help & advice was no longer needed, which she duly thanked me & wished me a good day

I have had two calls in the last seven days. Even though I told them the first time I'd renew when I am ready and asked them to please stop cold calling, they phoned again yesterday.

[adiddy]

Well I'm in a completely different situation.....I had to contact Wigan to enquire about the season ticket! I hadn't heard anything from anyone, still haven't had my renewel pack yet lol!!
Neither experience is great!


Matt

[Wiganer Ted]

Not had an email, text or phone call to renew.
I waited until the renewal pack arrived and renewed the three seats around a week later.

I think Wigan's marketing is the best in RL by a very long way.

[Kittwazzer]

Smile darn you smile.

Because this old world is a great world after all! ????????????????