VIP supporters club...sorry, I mean 'Club Red' !!

[joteddyred]

There were some articles on the OS, but they were all some time after ST's went on sale.

The one that pissed me off is the removal of the discount in the club shop. Whilst none of the ST literature said you'd get this discount, it didn't state you wouldn't which I reckon they should have done given it was an existing benefit.

This is my main gripe.  All my 7 year old wanted for his birthday last month was Swindon Town related stuff.  I went down to the club shop on behalf of various family members and purchased a goalkeepers kit, tracksuit and some other bits and bobs.  Not a cheap venture I can assure you, but I received no discount as I'm only a season ticket holder.  However If I was a club Red member I would have received a £5 voucher for every £50 spent (10% in other words).  On the basis my family holds four season tickets between us, which obviously generates the club a fair bit of money, I find this extremely unfair.

The article on the OS around benefits available to Season Ticket holders is dated 15 July, which is a good couple of months after ours were purchased!

[RobertT]

I may be off the mark here, but it would seem some people blindly fill in forms and hand over money without checking details.  The season ticket offer this year, pegged at a low price, listed all the benefits you could get.  The list may have been less than when season tickets were £300-£400, but it was clear.  A second offer was availble, which listed some benefits.

If people are stupid enough to buy things without checking the details, tough bloody luck.  My car insurance used to include Legal Cover and a free replacement car, I took a cheaper renewal and no longer have these - I checked the details and was happy to pay less and get less.

If they put the price of a season ticket up by £40 lets say, and we got the discounts etc, I'd go back to match day purchasing of tickets.

I know I'll offend people, but too many people expect to be spoon fed and too readily complain when their own perception of something turns out to be wrong.  Each new season tickets purchase is exactly that, check the fucking offer on the table.

I could see the problem if it was advertised falsely, but it wasn't.  At one point in the past you got several rounds of cup games included, should we all complain because this years doesn't include that but we remember mnay years ago it did?

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Whilst I think it's a bit annoying that people who shelled out £200-£300 on a season ticket don't get discount in the club shop and people who only paid £20 do (i'm talking about non ST holders here) it's not really a major concern for me. For me buying an ST was so that I had a ticket and reserved seat for every home game. I wasn't really fussed about the potential perks other than priority ticketing. I am however miffed that ST holders have to pay an extra £20 on top of the price of their ST to get these perks when someone who say only goes to 10 or so games a season can pay £20 and get the perks. They should be offered to ST holders with no extra cost IMO so I can see why people may be a bit pissed off.

[Simon Pieman]

The thing is, if you look at the application form it states there will be membership schemes with those benefits launched in June.

[joteddyred]

If people are stupid enough to buy things without checking the details, tough bloody luck.  My car insurance used to include Legal Cover and a free replacement car, I took a cheaper renewal and no longer have these - I checked the details and was happy to pay less and get less.

I fall into this category because I didn't bother reading all the details.  However, even if I had I wouldn't not have bought a season ticket because of it.  Doesn't mean that I can't be pissed off that when spending in excess of £100 in the club shop I didn't get any discount!

[Simon Pieman]

I wonder if the club should have just raised prices by 10% and kept the discount.

[deltaincline]

I may be off the mark here, but it would seem some people blindly fill in forms and hand over money without checking details.  The season ticket offer this year, pegged at a low price, listed all the benefits you could get.  The list may have been less than when season tickets were £300-£400, but it was clear.  A second offer was availble, which listed some benefits.

If people are stupid enough to buy things without checking the details, tough bloody luck.

Well said, Rob.

We all know where we fucking stand now.


 

[jonny72]

The thing is, if you look at the application form it states there will be membership schemes with those benefits launched in June.

Except the application form doesn't state there will be a separate charge for the membership scheme for ST holders, if anything it gives the impression that it's included with a ST. On the left it lists the membership scheme as a "key highlight" of the ST offering and on the right you could read it that it's a ST benefit as well.

I wouldn't go as far as calling it false advertising but it wasn't clear at the time what they were doing. The fact that quite a few people are upset to one degree or another over it shows they did something wrong and blaming it on people's stupidity doesn't cut it.

[Simon Pieman]

It's all a fuss over nothing, will 500 season ticket holders even go to watch it? Doubtful. Have people sending the ridiculous moany emails gone to collect their tickets to be told they're all gone? Doubtful.

And a bit of perspective about the discount shit please, we're the 7th cheapest club in the football league for top-price season tickets. That's your discount whether you like it or not. Frankly that makes things a load better value than the £4.50 saved if I bought a shirt in the club shop and got a measly 10% discount. If money is really that tight then you don't need a football shirt. Honest.

[STFC_Gazza]

I am however miffed that ST holders have to pay an extra £20 on top of the price of their ST to get these perks when someone who say only goes to 10 or so games a season can pay £20 and get the perks. 

This arguement IMO doesn't really weigh up.

The long and short of it is, as I said before, people get season tickets cheaper now and lose the perks so perhaps there should be a 2 tier system like below for next season.

If I worked at the club and the marketing side next season I would try to get the club  to be clear and have a different season ticket structure and scrap the club red thing.

FOR EXAMPLE THE CLUB COULD OFFER........

SEASON TICKET - £199.00 TOWN END, FOR ALL LEAGUE MATCHES, FREE RESERVE HOME GAMES
SEASON TICKET PLUS - £229.00 TOWN END, FOR ALL LEAGUE MATCHES, MONEY OFF CLUB SHOP, FREE RESERVE HOME GAMES etc etc.

Your paying £30.00 (if not more depending when you got your 09/10 ticket) less this year than last if you got £199.00 seaon ticket so I dont see the issue really. People are bitching they got a £199.00 for a season ticket and dont get a discount in the club shop, jesus wept, on the flip side if the minimum season ticket was £279.00 and you got a discount in the club shop people would bitch saying that the season ticket was too expensive irrespective of any perks. People would quickly forget the club shop discount is the season ticket price went up and say the board are ripping us off, fuck that I aint going, I am going back to the townend as its cheaper etc etc etc.

[Bogus Dave]

Si Pie and gazza have summed it up perfectly. Stop bloody whinging

[luckyluke699]

It's all a fuss over nothing, will 500 season ticket holders even go to watch it? Doubtful. Have people sending the ridiculous moany emails gone to collect their tickets to be told they're all gone? Doubtful.

And a bit of perspective about the discount shit please, we're the 7th cheapest club in the football league for top-price season tickets...

I picked up 2 tickets yesterday for the Samsung thing, which were officially tickets number 7 and 8. If 492 more people try to sort tickets out for that by closing time Tuesday, I will be very shocked indeed! Don't see it happening myself...  

Season tickets = super cheap! How we don't have 10,000 ST holders is beyond me. I don't think we even managed to sell out on the 1,000 tickets for £199 (£8.65 per game) deal did we?

The club red is a new venture, and of course it's going to take the club a while to get the benefits right, to make it more attractive but I think they're slowly going along the right lines with the evenings with DannyW etc. As for the "one red" thing, think of it like a Tesco club card. Swindon want to build up their database of potential fans and this is by far the best way!

[The_Plagiarist]

Our season tickets are the 4th cheapest in the 92. Get a grip!

Pay the extra £20 if you want all these amazing discounts you can't live without. Season ticket holders aren't that fucking special, they're just people who pay up front because it works out cheaper, thats why I got one anyway.

I don't expect the club to treat me as a superfan because I had £199 available in May.

[THE FLASH]

Our season tickets are the 4th cheapest in the 92. Get a grip!

Pay the extra £20 if you want all these amazing discounts you can't live without. Season ticket holders aren't that fucking special, they're just people who pay up front because it works out cheaper, thats why I got one anyway.

I don't expect the club to treat me as a superfan because I had £199 available in May.

I want them to treat me as a Superfan because i went to Stockport and Walsall and they both got called off because of Snow..

[Arriba]

Our season tickets are the 4th cheapest in the 92. Get a grip!

Pay the extra £20 if you want all these amazing discounts you can't live without. Season ticket holders aren't that fucking special, they're just people who pay up front because it works out cheaper, thats why I got one anyway.

I don't expect the club to treat me as a superfan because I had £199 available in May.

i agree with this completely.

unfortunately some season ticket holders at clubs all over the country get superiority complexes and think they are the most important fans around.
when i had a season ticket it was exactly for the reasons you gave.