Thetownend.com

I almost felt guilty beginning to draft a message about this in the MTD after such a superb result so seeing as it’s becoming an increasingly frustrating occurrence, let’s give it its own thread… call me a miserable bastard, but Reg would approve I’m sure and we are in his section  ;)

The club really need to communicate with the fans on this now - matchday staff are bearing the brunt of this with fans queuing up to have a go at stewards outside the Don Rogers earlier. I felt sorry for the poor bloke walking one of the queues.

Let’s have a proper explanation as to what is going wrong and a timeline for resolution - ‘legacy issues’ doesn’t quite cut it at this point when we had plenty of packed crowds under the previous regime with minor issues upon entry.

There’s a real risk of a scenario soon whereby we’ve got a sell out in a stand but ticketless fans are able to gain access by sharing a single screenshot on their phone - the codes haven’t worked all season for one off purchases and they were keeping a tally on paper this evening!

Without a doubt this is going to put some people (casual walk ups in particular) off returning in the short term so I’m sure some communication, via official channels rather than a paywalled adver column will go a long way.

We have some Trust bods on here I believe, who will hopefully put some polite pressure on the club.

Moan over!

It is a huge safety issue. a screenshot and in you walk. what's more annoying is a 1 second glance by the steward and then he has to swipe the turnstile with his card. if you are going to do that just open up the big doors and let multiple staff look and let you in.

isn't this app code a relatively new thing for this season instead of cards. if so how can they blame the old regime

Theres definitely something broken when an 8k crowd causes major issues (although people do tend to turn up later for evening kick offs). I bought a ticket tonight at the ground; previous games Ive bought online but tonight was a bit 'last minute' (Ive always printed mine out, don't trust the phone scan and get weird messages when trying to download the file)
Anyway...
Main observations;
1 - the windows selling the tickets were marked ' Advance sales', which isnt what they are
2 - the process of buying a ticket was so sloooow. Mainly bcs the guy wanted my name and address to look me up on a database. Then selected my ticket, then took payment, then printed the ticket out. In the old days the tickets were already printed out, so they just took payment and handed you a ticket. About 5x quicker per customer.

I got to the ground at 735 tonight and got in at 755. Not great to miss the first 10 minutes!
This has never been an issue until this season, perhaps codes on phones is running before they can walk. I ended up never even having my ticket checked they were just desperately scanning a master key card on the turnstile to get people in, as apparently the machines cannot read season tickets on phones!

I got to the ground at 7.15. In the DRS with a pie and a pint by 7.20.

I went in the TE in the end, took all of 39 seconds  :)

my physical season ticket came up as expired - it isn't though

Has it been like that since the season started?
For a midweek game would normally be in the DRS for about 7.
Bit later last night at around 7.30 and still missed the first 7 or 8 mins.
Looked even worse for those trying to get into the Arkells.

I have my season ticket in my Apple wallet (never did get a physical one) and after the latest iOS update, the ticket came up as expired. Didn't get to scan it last night to see if it still worked, but will potentially be an issue on Saturday.

Did just make it into the ground before kick off - not that being late would have meant missing anything!

Mine via the iPhone came up expired, so did 2 others I was with who were using the cards.

I thought Power was dodgy, but Clem sold season tickets, then cancelled them once the half season ticket were on sale and ran off back to Australia!

He’ll be back next month, you can collar him then on his next walkabout.

it was the same for my match day ticket. Bought about 4 pm and expired by 7.15.

When entering the town end of appeared to me that they were in the process of changing the turnstiles to self scans which should be a lot easier once in operation, like everyone else last night was scanned in by a steward with a master card.  Did feel sorry for Don Rogers ticket holders, virtually queued back to the magic roundabout ten minutes before kick off.

Must have been lucky because I got a Bradford programme with last nights 👍 was queuing at about 7.15 halfway across the fairly firm ground behind the DR. Got a quick beer just before the 7.30 bar closure. What troubles me and in fairness I didn’t see the entry carnage behind me is the queuing process when that piece of ground becomes a bog, as it will.

My ST wasnt scanned for the TE, just flagged me in on inspection saying the machines needed to be caliberated.

I have a physical card for season tickets. Yesterday the ticket scanner turned red and told the operator it had expired.
This happened to 6 out of 6 of us. And the guy in front who used his phone.

This may explain yesterday's shambles. But having said that, it worked up to last night and queues have still been long in previous games. Does getting crowd of nearly 9k really explain it?
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Ticketing has been a shambles at times this season. Match day 2 Windows were open, none of the regular hatches.

not all of this is the current regimes fault I know.

I know we are skint, but  it needs looking at

Sounds like there has ben some sort of software fuck up, and having just spent half an hour whilst my PC had a mental breakdown after an 'update' I do wonder whether something similar has happened here?

I guess that delaying the kick of for 15mins would mean a ream of paperwork to fill fao the EFL for afterwards.

Not really a solution to the underlying problem though.

I wonder if it was case of the system not being setup to cope with the half season tickets?
Or maybe it was, with the result that full ST's were locked out.

The club do not see it as an issue with the scanners. They say its the cards.

are they going to issue new ones then?

just need to tell us what we need to do.

https://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/news/2021/september/portsmouth-football-club-statement/

This is something Portsmouth put out early season after similar troubles - something similar from STFC would be well received.

Well whatever it is the ball is in the clubs court to sort it.

This absolutely isn't just an issue with season ticket cards at all. I've been using matchday tickets downloaded to google pay all season and I almost died of shock last night when the scanner read it correctly straight away. First time all season.

The scanners in the DRS have failed to read the QR code on my phone or the barcode on my card at any game so far this season. That sounds more like an issue with the scanners to me.

I completely agree. My understanding is that some of the cards barcodes are scratching; effectively rendering them not scannable. Otherwise the issue is fully with the scanners. Looking at the queues last night it was obvious that the scanners were not working hence staff keeping numbers via paper log. We have rarely had queues so bad. Plus this rule is open to duplicate entries, for example a group of x4 could all enter with the same screenshot of x1 paying individuals ticket on there mobile phones.

there's 2 issues from last night

- scanner not scanning (normal)
- scanning fine but computer says no, expired (abnormal)

I assume the second will be addressed

The scanners are a failure. The club need to address it ASAP. It'll be awful once we see the usual flooding behind the DRS with queues tailing into that quagmire.

And if we're in the running we'll be breaking 10k home fans in the run in, I would think based on attendances so far.

Re the QR codes, I was at Blackpool Pleasure beach a month or so ago and to get on any rides had to scan the codes. At almost every bloody scanner it was a right palava to get the QR code scanned and I had to have the brightness turned right up. Could it be for the QR code to be scanned your brightness on your phone may need adjusting?

It sounds like a right fucking pain to get into the CG at the moment, I'm going to try and get down for the Walsall game on the 18th, what is the easiest way to get a ticket and into the ground at the moment then?

Admittedly, they are a different type of scanner there , but I didn’t have any trouble with the GWR ticket QR code being read from my phone at the train station on Saturday.

They get 72k into the Mercedes Benz Stadium here quite rapidly using QR code scanners and mobile phones (no printing allowed).  It is also a cashless stadium (they do have machines to deposit cash into though, onto a card/phone, it just avoids the servers having to handle any cash and change).

They do not have turnstiles in the walls like UK grounds though, they have a long row of the basic revolving ones with scanners before you get to the entrance of the ground itself, sort of surrounding the entrances.  Allows hundreds to be processed at the same time.  Very effective and manned by a limited crew for those who do struggle. They also have metal scanners prior to that, and it all moves rather quite smoothly vs. my experiences of getting into the CG even before technology was introduced.

Easiest way to get a ticket - online (which in my experience is extremely simple)
Easiest way to get into the ground (dig a tunnel). Seriously though, there isn’t one other than get there as early as possible - certainly by 14:30.

Thanks for the feedback. I usually like to get into the ground as close to kick off as possible but given this information I think I'll make the exception and get in early.

Nothing to do with brightness, tried that.  The code is being read but isn't working.

 It feels like a software or system admin issue to me, as a load of season tickets and match day passes suddenly said "expired".  If it wasn't being read then it would say "invalid" or just ignore it

they really need to get something released before Saturday to show that they have a plan to either fix it or help people get in quicker.

anyone with a twitter fancy nudging the official account?

A few of my lot had their season tickets “expired” last night. It was a shambles and has been since the start of the season tbh. I can’t imagine it’ll be much different this coming Saturday however we then have a 3 week gap until the next home game, surely they can sort something out in that time!!! It needs sorting before the winter weather really kicks in, we were on the grass outside the DRS & I almost tripped on a tree root (as I couldn’t see it) & then the leafs were covering the curb! I dread to think what could happen especially with the elder folk (no offence intended with that comment).

What ??, All 4,000 of them ??.  Besides, didn't they issue them anyway !!.

We had the same issue in the Arkells - we have cards and the scanner read them and the message “expired” came up - steward with master let us in. We were there early,  and in our seats by 7 or soon after, but with work many people may have less flexibility with the time on a Tuesday evening. Some around us got in after kick off and said it was very crowded outside .
It ought to be being sorted soon.
On Saturdays, people need to realise they have t9 leave the pub at 2.15 rather than 2.45!

This isn't the issue with google pay on my phone working once out of about 7 goes this season. Googlepay automatically turns the brightness right up when you open the ticket.

I cant even get Google Pay working to download the ticket. Have always printed it out, never had any issues with a printed copy (other than helping to destroy the planet, obviously)

I had a similar issue initially but I forwarded the email containing the link from my main email account to a separate gmail account that I have. I was then able to dowload it to Google Pay OK.  Not that it works with the CG scanners at the moment, though!

I can't seem to get google pay working either so just did a screenshot and saved it in my favourites. This is something the new owners have introduced though- i guess the scanning technology is the same in terms of card and phone image. i wonder if power went round with some wire snippers on leaving day

Statement now on website.

Sent from my SM-A125F

Maybe I’m missing something but there’s a pretty simple solution to this, issue everyone with paper tickets with tearable stubs until you know it’s fixed. You don’t trial fixes on supporters on match days FFS as it’s a recipe for disaster as we’ve seen. You can test the system in parallel when fixes are made by letting the turnstiles operator scan the torn stub without inconveniencing supporters if there’s an issue. Not rocket science and as with everything sometimes you just need to go back to basics!

Or people get to the game a bit earlier? It's not like it isn't happening every week.  I know and plan to get in a little bit earlier than I normally would have, not rocket science.

Trains, traffic, jobs, bars including the clubs own make that completely unrealistic. It’s not on supporters to adjust their match day experience to accommodate the clubs shortcomings!

I can't see it being fixed by Saturday, so unless people do something different then they will get in late.  I'm sure the VAST majority could make it into the ground earlier.  Agreed the club need to sort it out but I will take resposibility for myself getting into the ground on time, its not that difficult.

So it’s on the club to do something different, this has been happening all season so it’s time for a plan B not trialling fixes all the time!

Good to see some communication on this at last - fingers crossed it will be sorted by the new year.

Expecting fans to be in the ground an hour before though is laughable, but I understand the need to try to encourage this.

I never said it wasn't on the club to sort out, all i said is people can take resposibility for themselves getting into the ground on time.  If you don't then its your own fucking fault.

No it’s still the club’s fault & they need to pull out all the stops for a solution on Saturday to get people in quickly. There’s nothing to do in the ground before kick off, the food and drink is still awful so of course people won’t want to waste an hour milling around in the concourse!

Yeah good luck with that attitude, an hour is a bit much and not what I said.

Well I will make a small adjustment to get into the ground before the game starts and you wait for a miracle for it to be all resolved by Saturday.

Then more fool you, the club need to show a clear effort to improve things on Saturday and hopefully they will!

Get over yourself, the club are working hard on it. It doubt it will get fixed, how is making sure I get into the ground before the game starts making me a fool, ha

Then don't fucking go? The club have literally said in a statement it could take a couple of weeks so are asking people to help if they can, obviously if people can't then i get that but if it's simply because you don't want to then i have no sympathy for anyone stuck in a long line Saturday

The issue has been a joke this year you can't get away from that but now we have a detailed statement giving a time frame and what actions can be taken i am not sure what people expect. 

I have to travel a fair distance for home games. I will just leave a bit earlier and stroll a bit faster through the bus station. No biggie.

Fuck me you can still criticise the club you know, this has been going on all season and it’s taken them until yesterday to finally acknowledge itx, it’s the new ownerships first major fuck up. There’s plenty of things they could have done as a temporary measure to improve the situation but they haven’t, so I stand by my opinion on Saturday they need to make an effort to try and improve the situation and have a plan B. Simply kicking the can down the road saying it’s likely to be the same on Saturday is piss poor.

bus wanker!

even if you are right.

the important thing is they are aware, acknowledged and are trying to fix.

it is a bit frustrating as nobody wants to be sat/stood in a cold concourse (+ covid) longer than they need to but let's give them a chance to fix it

oh and the loudspeakers in drs.

after the minutes silence you could hear everything perfectly, once people start chatting then you can't hear a bloody thing !

I guess it needs replacing. I wouldn't have it top of my list of things to do given it's been like that for donkeys

I got in no trouble on Tuesday, don't know what people are moaning about.

I have criticised them in the post you have responded to. The statement literally tells you they are doing something about it. They are giving you a temporary solution and said they will have extra staff on Saturday, they have told you that there is an ongoing issue for a couple of weeks and pre-empted it just in case so giving people a solution. You have decided you can't be fucked and want to moan about it and to be fair are just being awkward for the sake of it

If we are in the same position in a few weeks after this then 100 percent i totally get it but just being awkward for the sake of it with this one

what were the queues like today?

got there early and was in at 2:25 - no queue.

the 'expired card' issue has been resolved too

No issues in Arkells at 2.20 today. Straight in with all 3 of our groups QR codes scanned fine

Much smoother at 14:40; although digital tickets still weren’t scanning from what I could see (clearly worked for some by the posts above and shorter queues!)

Fair play to the club on the quick improvement from Tuesday.

My Season Ticket card for the DRS scanned successfully today for the first time this season  :)

the moment i saw the arkell queues from turnstile to townend i walked straight into the legends lounge- showed my ticket and walked straight in. pleased to hear things improved for others

Normal level of queues today and ST scanned again

Straight in Saturday, but had a regular paper ticket.

Paper ticket 1 in 1, phone code is about 1 in 8.

ST Card in Town End,  not scanned but only took a few minutes to get in at 2.45pm.