Sorry, this is a little long winded... We've had season tickets since 2001. We started with four Category I seats close to the Revs bench and as our kids have grown up and moved out, we have downsized to 2 seats. Also with the limits on the exchange policy decided to move to category 3 so that missing a game wasn't as big a deal. Well last night our kids (and a friend) wanted to go on Saturday. I called our representative and asked if it was possible to get 5 seats together (or at least 3 more close to our 2 seats). I was told there was no way to trade our 2 tickets in to get 5 together because it would be "confusing." He also suggested that it would be easier to go get our 3 additional seats through Ticketmaster via my account manager so I could print the tickets and I would still get the STH discount. When I did that, there were only single seats available in our section (and the adjacent 2 sections). I found it hard to believe that this game was selling so well so I called him back. He said that was because they had given away a large number of tickets to area first responders (nice idea). In addition, the tickets he had access to were the same Ticketmaster was showing. I ended up buying five new seats with the intention of selling our 2 season tickets on Craiglist. When I went back to Ticketmaster (not though the Revs web site) to see the retail price of our seats, I was amazed to see lots of available tickets including three tickets next to our season tickets. I think the Revs could do a lot better for their season ticket holders. 1) Make the exchange program easier (no need to physically send in tickets) 2) Make the exchange program more generous (how about an unlimited number of exchanges) 3) Create a way for STH to more easily trade-in for for a larger groups of tickets 4) Give STHs access to all of Ticketmaster's ticket at our discount
He hasn't been on here in 2.5 weeks and has posted in nearly 2 months. Hopefully he comes back, I think his involvement and participation on this forum can only help improve things for fans and STHs.
My guess is, when he put together his list of improvement ideas, and found out how many Kraft would actually allow him to implement (much like Nicol's list of 20 South Americans), he went running back to Colorado...
Yeah, I guess the original post is one of those "little things" that make it easy for people to do business with you. If it becomes too much of a hassle to buy more tickets and have the people sit together, eventually people will give up and do something else with their time and money. Do you think they even realize this over at Patriot Place?
I dropped my season tickets years ago over this exact issue. I pointed out to my rep at the time that every other club was offering this - He effectively responded "whatever."
This one actually has a good reason behind it. Having invalidated tickets floating around that look legitimate is just inviting ticket fraud. Even if the ticketholder had no bad intention, someone could spot them in the trash, pick them up and scalp 'em. By asking you to return them, they're basically asking for them to be disposed of properly.
Yes, but at the inconvenience of their customer. Is the risk a small % of pre-paid season tickets *may* be scalped worth annoying paying customers enough to be a factor (certainly not the only, but one) in non-renewal? Not for me. I agree with the original poster that mailing physical tickets is a pain in the ass. For the patriots, maybe its an appropriate policy mainly because the demand significantly outweighs supply. However, for the revs that's overkill IMO and not worth the cost to acquire a new revs STH. Good example where the Krafts need to adapt their policy based on market conditions which are considerably less favorable to them than the patriots. If a certain amount of fraud happens, that's part of your annual risk assessment. You accept it as the cost of doing business. I actually think it could benefit the revs if a STH scalps their extras - it means more butts in seats, resulting in more people to spend money on concessions and merchandise. For a STH that doesn't go and doesn't sell or transfer their tickets that's lost potential revenue.
The tickets have barcodes that they use to check their validity. They can't just mark the codes as invalid once the tickets are exchanged?
They can ... I think what rkupp is saying is that someone could find the invalidated tickets, sell them (even for $5) to someone, who then gets to the stadium and finds out the tickets aren't any good.
Addressing an envelope, dropping the tickets in, slapping on a stamp and dropping it in the mailbox. Big p.i.t.a. Why not do the responsible thing before it becomes a problem? Whatever the level of demand, it's not a good idea for a team to have perfectly legitimate looking tickets that aren't valid in circulation. The person who buys a bogus ticket, gets turned away by the scanner and has to get help at the box office isn't going to be rather p.o.'ed knowing that the Revs could have pulled that ticket from circulation but didn't (whether the Revs comped them a ticket or not)? This is actually a scalping-friendly policy. It helps maintain confidence in the resale market by pulling bogus tickets out of circulation. Right. And I'm not even saying that it's likely to happen much at all, but, by having this policy, the Revs are actually doing the responsible thing.
I think the sentiment is that it is more akin to dropping a $100 bill in an envelope and hoping everything gets process correctly and you get what you're hoping for in return (by mail) in good faith. Also: in time. I know I get all paranoid renewing my passport this way, but that's a little more extreme. Kevin D.
I've exchanged tickets and not needed to send the original ticket in. Mind, it was for games already played. They still wanted to follow the procedure, but I asked if I could keep the ticket because one of my kids likes to collect the tickets (with players' pictures). I think they would not have accommodated my request to keep the ticket if it was for a future game, for the reasons rkupp states.
That was Bob Kraft telling you to F-OFF Soccah Fan...Remember when the fast food places had just ONE way to make burgers..then Burger King had that commercial..."Hold the pickle. Hold the lettuce..special orders don't upset us"... Not in the Kraft world. Service means, grab the money while it's still wet..!