Wednesday night, the wait is over, the Champions of the Premiership are in town, anticipation is building, 3 Pompey starved months have passed, the season is but 4 days old….
Hang on a minute, the season is 4 days old!
So why the hell didn’t my season ticket arrive in time? Pompey gratefully extracted £580 out of my bank account before May was out, plus a small booking fee of course, I paid early this year to get it out of the way and not have to worry out early-bird deadlines, after all I’ve sat in the same seat for 10 years now, except for one year 3 years ago where Pompey sold it after I missed a deadline by 3 days after ringing in advance to explain a unforeseen situation.
Still that is all in the past, Pompey are an established Premiership club now with aspirations for Europe, they will have ironed out all the problems with tickets by now surely?
Like hell they have!
After countless efforts in trying to ring the ticket office and listening to the message that “all season tickets should have arrived by Monday 13th” and then heard the same 4 goals be screamed into my ear by an over excited Sam Matterface, I find myself as high as 41st in the queue! All this whilst being reassured that my call is important to the club, too bloody right at 10p a minute!
There are probably many of you who received your tickets in ample time who think I am having an idle rant, but after giving up on any hope of getting through on the ‘phone, I took a half day off work and made the trip from my home in Gosport to Fratton park to get my ticket myself. On arrival at Pompey’s new ticket office, I was pleasantly surprised to have about 25 others in the same predicament to chat to, all this whilst queuing in the pouring rain at the new al fresco ticket windows.
Now then, Pompey are blaming postal strikes for unforeseen delays in tickets arriving to absolutely everyone, if this is the case why did all of my mates receive theirs? And come to think of it, why was my ticket still in the ticket office, not even in an envelope and not lost in a sorting office?
Because Pompey once again forget who the lifeblood of the club is, we are taken for granted and treated with contempt in many cases, I got my ticket without an apology or explanation and was supposed to take it with grace, or Pompey know that unlike other businesses where, you paid £580 in advance and were shoddily treated, you would say “stuff this, I want my money back” and go elsewhere, no, Pompey are all to aware of the fact that “elsewhere” is watching that team up the road, or Southern league stuff at Privett park.
Pompey, you may play Premiership football, but trust me, your fans relations are still somewhere in the Conference south.
Feel free to reply to my open letter Pompey, I won’t hold my breath!
Share this article
