I've got a Delta Airlines flight pack here for your Andrew. Its got eye covers, ear plugs, some socks and slippers. I've already had the after shave and tooth paste. At least he wont be able to hear or see the crap thats coming and his feet will be cozy.

Sorry if I sound a bit thick but do I understand from the statement that junior season ticket holders will not recieve a ticket, however, they can use the tickets in the booklet they have already been issued to gain direct admission to the ground (without a 'match ticket')

Thats how I read it.

and I, but then I wont have any skreykin kids when they can't get in
(no offence meant to any skreykin kids reading this post)

I am honestly not trying to "have a pop". I don't have a season ticket for obvious reasons. But it was this phrase in the release that made me wonder:

"We have had no control whatsoever with the ongoing ticket fiasco".

If not, why not? Is there a clause in the contract for compensation for non-performance? At the very least to reimburse for the cost of mailing out the alternative.

This may be all being done behind the scenes but why not tell us about it and give us confidence that the management are handling this in a professional manner?

They also do not give any reason for the delay, nor name and shame the offending firm, nor get the offending firm to make a written statement of apology. Something along the lines of:

" we understand that the performance of our company, XYZ Ltd has fallen below our contractual obligations, and we would like to apologise to the fans and management of Leigh Centurions RLC for the inconvenience and expense caused. The delay has been caused by "x", but this has now been addressed and we look forward to providing an excellent standard of service to the club for years to come..."

Its about time Leigh punched above its weight and not get pushed around so much..

On a positive note I do applaud the sensible step of not taking any chances with the next games tickets - if you are mailing out once, no more expensive to do it this way..

mapleyther

When the club are trynig to forge a better relationship with LSV, its perhaps not best to slate them on the official website.

Its like having a new girlfriend and tip toeing around the relationship in the early days. You dont want to wade in and get slapped do you, but at the same time you want to make sure you make a mark so you can still have a bit of free reign to go out once in a while and get p1ssed with the lads.

If they had posted the firms name wouldnt some have seen this as a chance of having a go at them NOT being professional because they named them? Its not as if they were a 'local' firm that anyone would use as they appear to be a specialist one.
Damned if you do damned if you dont.

quite possibly! But the way I also suggested a more collaborative approach where the vendor could be asked to "volunteer" an apology.

As for it being a local firm - I don't think that matters. For it to be publicised that you are not keeping your commitments can hardly be a good advert, particularly to other clubs who may be looking for their services.

As for not upsetting LSV, I suppose its all part and parcel of the give and take of business..it certainly should at least provide a small bargaining chip though..

Here's the full story, or at least the edited highlights.

Back in November the club were ready to submit their regular order to kalamazoo for the season ticket books. This just happened to be mentioned in passing at a weekly meeting with LSV.

LSV told LC that there was no need to order these, as the ticket system they were going to use would do all the season tickets etc.

As has been well documented, the ticket system installation did not go smoothly or according to plan.

LSV then made the decision to go down the swipe card route with season tickets, and from then on in, we were plagued with problems. Firstly the seating plan fiasco which went on forever, and I'm not 100% certain has been fully reconciled.

This lead to the decision of unreserved seating which the vast majority of fans who wanted seating requested.

Then it transpired that the "ticket package" aspect of the software had not been included in the package purchased by LSV. The club picked up the tab for this (around £1,000), which also cost us a good couple of weeks.

Then we learned that because the decision to go down the swipe card route had been taken, the existing ticket printers could not be adapted to print on cards, and thus a dedicated set of ticket prnters would be needed, at a cost of circa £7,000.

Club hadn't budgeted for this, and LSV wouldn't pay either, so the cards have to be printed off site, by the ticket system providers. They assured us that we would be up and running by Whitehaven game. They then told us late on Friday afternoon that this wouldn't be possible, and that leads us to yesterday and today, whereby we have put together the mailshot.

All information that has been passed to supporters about season tickets, has been done so in good faith (ie. second week in January, due in in a fortnight etc.)

Now for those amongst us who feel the need to aportion blame, not that it's at all helpful or constructive, from my perspective, here are the main errors.

Error 1 - Club - November 2008, the club listened to LSV, and did not submit the order to kalamazoo.

Error 2 - LSV - Having told the club that the ticket system would do everything, they did not include the "ticket package" software aspect in their purchase.

Error 3 - LSV - Decision was made to go down swipe card route without thought to the costings of hardware etc.

Error 4 - Ticket service provider - Twice gave us a date that we would be up and running, and failed to meet it.

Ah well lets hope everyone recieves theirs.

I foresee a big line outside the ticket office Sunday, time for a dodgy curry Sat night Andy

Well done to the club on acting so swiftly on this issue - I know from experience that the swipe card companies tend to treat the smaller clubs like crap and only give you the time of day if you've got 20,000+ season ticket holders.

Well done for acting swiftly? You are having a laugh,they could not have dragged their feet more if they had tried.This is the first explanation of the ongoing ticket fiasco we have had,if the club was a little more forthcoming with information it might get a better reaction from people.Once again I find myself shaking my head in utter amazement at the amateur inefficiencies of the club but also I feel its par for the course at LRLFC.

Well, I'm happy. I don't have to re-arrange work to go to the ticket office in the day PLUS I get a Moscow ticket for free too - I assumed I'd have to pay for the cup game.

Yes there is a longer term problem (no swipe cards at the moment), but at least the club acknowledge this and seem to be working towards making it right