BCFC: Refund Delays

19 Nov 2021 | 8 comments

The Trust recently held its Annual General Meeting where one of the subjects discussed was the matter of season ticket refunds due to fans for the Stoke and Bournemouth games following the stand closures. Dispiritingly, a poll of members at the meeting showed that over half had not yet received a refund  despite the club promising several weeks ago that they were being processed. There was dissatisfaction too that clarification was still outstanding regarding the question of compensation for members who had been transferred to less valuable seats during the stand closure period.

The discussion that followed highlighted the anger of members and a number of service failures from the club around this. These included emails not being answered or even acknowledged, long waits when ringing the ticket office to discuss, call backs not returned, and for those eventually getting through a vague promise that the refunds were still being worked on without any idea of when they would be paid.

The discussion chimed with the feedback the Trust had received from a number of fans in response to our article last month on “The Stadium Saga”. What all of these responses highlighted was that there is a feeling from many fans of being taken for granted by the club, with a proportion suggesting that they were considering not renewing their season tickets next season due to the clubs handling of the refunds and the poor quality of customer service. This is something that should seriously concern the club.

The Trust is aware of some of the challenges the club is facing having to relocate fans and issue refunds using a system that was not designed for that purpose. Nevertheless, it is often service recovery that marks a company out when handling disruption and the club has not covered itself in glory here by any stretch of the imagination.

We have contacted the senior management at the club and advised them of our concerns, suggesting that more information is required by fans regarding the ongoing issue. The club has been open in discussing the issues and has explained that it will be issuing a further statement soon.

We will continue to communicate with the club to help get this issue resolved, and hopefully this will go some way to defusing the situation before it becomes toxic for a number of fans.

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8 Comments

  1. Jonno

    Whilst I agree refunds should have been processed and paid by the middle of September I can not 7nderstand why supporters feel they are due compensation for sitting in a lesser value seat. They accepted the alternative seat, if they weren’t happy Surely they should have refused the alternative seat at the time. I know a number of supporters who refused seats in the Paddock and were offered alternatives.

    • Linda Magner

      It was a case of watching the match or not. I pay for Club Class which I choose my seat for my ability. the seats I have been given are up in the heavens where I have had to struggle to get to.
      I pay for my programme in Club Class in my higher fees for the seat but had to purchase them again as there was no provision to give them to us. The disparity of the seat prices and the seats we got in my mind is worse than not having a friend

    • PETER T

      I refused 3 seats in the Paddock for the Bournemouth game and asked for a refund (by e mail). I have not receved a reply and have not received a refund.

  2. Stan Davies

    When the club contacted me about not being successful the stoke ballot I emailed the ticket office and marketing to tell them not to send any tickets until my season ticket seat was available. I am still awaiting a reply. The tickets that they repeatedly sent to me were of a lower value every time and no word of compensation for this. ( My season ticket is in Club class)
    Disgusting treatment of customers.

  3. Sausage n Egg

    And these people are running a business? That very fact in itself is part of the reason we are where we are. No wonder the atmosphere is dwindling along with the crowds… I have just seen the new kit as well and as well as incompetent and idiotic you can add colour blindness

  4. A Blue in the Gulf

    After five years of gross incompetence in numerous areas why is anyone surprised that the powers that be have made a dog’s dinner of this as well?
    They have turned the club into a laughing stock and an ideal example of how not to run a business.
    One can only pray that a time will quickly come when the owners tire of pretending that they have any interest in the club or it’s supporters and move on

  5. A Blue in the Gulf

    Why is anyone surprised at the way the refunds are being handled?
    It is completely in line with the way that the Blues owners have managed everything in the last five years.

  6. Les

    The clubs going down the pan we the luck the villa had with two billionaires come in and buy us out, one billionaire would do anyone but these Chinese as I’ve said it going to rack and ruin

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