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UM Ticket Office stupidity

ssvir

ssvir

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I have a friend that has had season tickets with me forever and didn't renew last year b/c he was doing a lot of traveling.

He decided this past weekend he wants back in so called the ticket office to get season tickets again next to my group.

Unfortunately, someone has already bought single game tickets in those seats he wanted for the USF game. The other 7 games those seats are available.

He told the ticket office just sell me the season tickets for those seats and exclude the USF game b/c buying the remaining individual game tickets instead of the season tickets is $500 more per ticket.

The ticket office director said no can do - it would be too difficult to override the system. All they would have to do is purchase the other 7 games in those seats and then adjust the price back to the season ticket price. Nope, that would make too much sense.

This is reason #256 why our attendance blows.
 
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1. Your friend dun goofed.
2. Most people who work with computers and/or technical systems don't have a very deep understanding of how they actually operate under the hood. Hence the frustrating amount of rigidity one tends to encounter when seeking a good or service that's "off-menu".
 
simplycanes said:
I am not really feeling this one as a "ticket office" problem.
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So you think its perfectly logical to choose not to sell a season ticket excluding the one game they already sold in favor of taking their chances to sell individual game tickets?

They would have been getting a full season ticket sale AND getting to keep the USF single game they already sold.

You sound like a perfect employee for the ticket office.
 
simplycanes said:
I am not really feeling this one as a "ticket office" problem.
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This is a customer experience issue. For a program that has issues with attendance, they should make some effort. Move the single buyer to similar or better seats and sell a season ticket package to the returning customer. It doesn’t move the needle financially for UM but creates some good will.

I’ll volunteer to give up receiving emails and calls that my account exec makes to me begging for money or suite purchases so they can spend it to solve the issue above.
 
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ssvir said:
So you think its perfectly logical to choose not to sell a season ticket excluding the one game they already sold in favor of taking their chances to sell individual game tickets?

They would have been getting a full season ticket sale AND getting to keep the USF single game they already sold.

You sound like a perfect employee for the ticket office.
Click to expand...

I have had plenty of issues with how UM does things, and I am very sorry you can't sit with "your friend," but so let's talk about this like adults.

I think it's logical to pay attention to the published schedule for things, like when single game seats go on sale. If you thought enough of your location to sit there for a whole season, it's pretty likely someone else will too, even for one game.

Also, part of being a grown-up is accepting things that are just not going to change because you will them. UM doesn't print paper tickets anymore, it's all electronic. They aren't going to re-do the entire coding of their game day system because "your friend" decided he now wants season tickets. That would be more expensive than what they'd gain in revenue.
 
MiamisMoperiestMopes said:
This is a customer experience issue. For a program that has issues with attendance, they should make some effort. Move the single buyer to similar or better seats and sell a season ticket package to the returning customer. It doesn’t move the needle financially for UM but creates some good will.

I’ll volunteer to give up receiving emails and calls that my account exec makes to me begging for money or suite purchases so they can spend it to solve the issue above.
Click to expand...
Exactly my issue with the ticket office. The ticket office director should at least say “let me look into it”. Take that issue to the top as in the AD and ask why can’t this be resolved.
Would seem to be something which might help his future. He would be looked at as “problem solver” amongst other things vs lazy.
That said the friend did mess up.
 
Can they sell him season tix for the whole slate and just move him for the USF game? That seems like something that should be plausible.

That's pretty stupid to basically say no since someone bought a single game that the rest of the games in those seats are now stuck in the single game column too.

It really seems like an easy work around on paper.
 
MiamisMoperiestMopes said:
This is a customer experience issue. For a program that has issues with attendance, they should make some effort. Move the single buyer to similar or better seats and sell a season ticket package to the returning customer. It doesn’t move the needle financially for UM but creates some good will.

I’ll volunteer to give up receiving emails and calls that my account exec makes to me begging for money or suite purchases so they can spend it to solve the issue above.
Click to expand...

That's trading once customer service issue for another. There's endless iterations of this, so how about the "friend" just buys season tickets somewhere in the very near proximity which are virtually guaranteed to be available and doesn't f--ck up next season. Everybody lives.
 
S.CarolinaCane said:
I wouldn't do it either if I worked the ticket office.

Seems like everyone wants a 'favor' these days.
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At the same time I’ll bet the ticket office and UM fundraising teams talk about making connections and deepening the relationships with customer/donors as well. They probably want their arpu or similar metrics to rise.
 
simplycanes said:
That's trading once customer service issue for another. There's endless iterations of this, so how about the "friend" just buys season tickets somewhere in the very near proximity which are virtually guaranteed to be available and doesn't f--ck up next season. Everybody lives.
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Call to Customer A: hey we need to move you to a better seat. for your trouble we’ll send you a $20 gift card to be used at the stadium.

Call to customer B: what credit card do you want to use to purchase your season tickets?
 
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ssvir said:
I have a friend that has had season tickets with me forever and didn't renew last year b/c he was doing a lot of traveling.

He decided this past weekend he wants back in so called the ticket office to get season tickets again next to my group.

Unfortunately, someone has already bought single game tickets in those seats he wanted for the USF game. The other 7 games those seats are available.

He told the ticket office just sell me the season tickets for those seats and exclude the USF game b/c buying the remaining individual game tickets instead of the season tickets is $500 more per ticket.

The ticket office director said no can do - it would be too difficult to override the system. All they would have to do is purchase the other 7 games in those seats and then adjust the price back to the season ticket price. Nope, that would make too much sense.

This is reason #256 why our attendance blows.
Click to expand...

The other alternative would be to move the people who bought the USF tix. Which I’m sure would not be hard to do.
 
ssvir said:
I have a friend that has had season tickets with me forever and didn't renew last year b/c he was doing a lot of traveling.

He decided this past weekend he wants back in so called the ticket office to get season tickets again next to my group.

Unfortunately, someone has already bought single game tickets in those seats he wanted for the USF game. The other 7 games those seats are available.

He told the ticket office just sell me the season tickets for those seats and exclude the USF game b/c buying the remaining individual game tickets instead of the season tickets is $500 more per ticket.

The ticket office director said no can do - it would be too difficult to override the system. All they would have to do is purchase the other 7 games in those seats and then adjust the price back to the season ticket price. Nope, that would make too much sense.

This is reason #256 why our attendance blows.
Click to expand...
Sorry Cry Me A River GIF by Offline Granny!
 
Definitely a situation where the ticketing system isn't intuitive and the compromise sounds like your current situation. They are betting on the potential of them selling those seats individually for more as well. Sorry boss.
 
it’s the most incompetent athletic department in the country and has been for 20 years.

Had high hopes for rad because he came from a big boy program…. Boy was I wrong

Mom and pop shop that hasn’t adapted to change
 
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