The Occasional Visitor (Seat Unique and alternatives)

[PeterGet]

I live in London and only rarely get up to matches. Apart from a couple matches a year, I'm strictly an "armchair" fan. I have in the past got tickets off this forum and purchased tickets from the club itself.

Due to the understandable increase in demand and the £35 cost of the membership, I decided to "treat" myself to Seat Unique tickets to the Crystal Palace game. I have paid £150 for this ticket, which on the face of it sounds INSANE. However if you add the cost of the membership, the ticket itself, a program and a £10 food voucher. The price is not actually awful.

Unfortunately the match has now been moved and Seat Unique will not allow you to cancel your ticket. I've had to re-arrange my train ticket, which cost an extra £40. To add insult to injury, Seat Unique have now dynamically priced the tickets to £125 each!

At £190 per ticket, this has now become the most expensive visit to Everton EVER (I wish I'd gone big on Oasis now!)

I cannot be the only person in this position...

What other options does the Occasional visitor have?

I know Everton need to be more professional, but should the club be checking for "fair practice"?

 

[Rita_Poon]

I'm gonna go out on a limb.

It sounds like a statutory rights issue re game alterations. I'd go so far as to say, it'd be worth checking your right to a refund within the allocated time.

I'm also gonna say, with 9 out of 20 sides in the league involved in European football of some sort this season, that it was always a risk picking one of their league games at BMD on the likelihood it'd be moved for tv or travel or whatever. On typing this, it'd show me up very typically that the 3pm Saturday leeds home game will end up shifted to a Thursday night game to adjust for the FA cup weekend or similar.

Damned if you do, damned... etc.

Good luck.

 

[James Patrick]

I'm gonna go out on a limb.

It sounds like a statutory rights issue re game alterations. I'd go so far as to say, it'd be worth checking your right to a refund within the allocated time.

I'm also gonna say, with 9 out of 20 sides in the league involved in European football of some sort this season, that it was always a risk picking one of their league games at BMD on the likelihood it'd be moved for tv or travel or whatever. On typing this, it'd show me up very typically that the 3pm Saturday leeds home game will end up shifted to a Thursday night game to adjust for the FA cup weekend or similar.

Damned if you do, damned... etc.

Good luck.

FA Cup 4th Round is 14th Feb so won't affect any league games.

 

[Rita_Poon]

FA Cup 4th Round is 14th Feb so won't affect any league games.

There's also no possibility of a Thursday night league game, but, for exasperated examples sake, it was worth sugar coating the European competing sides element.

 

[Simo]

FA Cup 4th Round is 14th Feb so won't affect any league games.

Hopefully nothing moves the Leeds game. Already booked hotel!

FWIW, it's a logistical nightmare, but to add my two penneth, im booking hotel's in advance on a Flexi rate, costs more but it's the name of the game now tbh.

With TV broadcasting seemingly pushing the boundaries to the limit as to when they declare a game is to be televised, rail fares are already excessive

 

[PeterGet]

I'm gonna go out on a limb.

It sounds like a statutory rights issue re game alterations. I'd go so far as to say, it'd be worth checking your right to a refund within the allocated time.

I'm also gonna say, with 9 out of 20 sides in the league involved in European football of some sort this season, that it was always a risk picking one of their league games at BMD on the likelihood it'd be moved for tv or travel or whatever. On typing this, it'd show me up very typically that the 3pm Saturday leeds home game will end up shifted to a Thursday night game to adjust for the FA cup weekend or similar.

Damned if you do, damned... etc.

Good luck.

I guess I should have checked the risk of booking it… As another poster has mentioned, you do get screwed a bit on the rail if you wait! The double whammy of dynamic pricing and change of date was a bit tough to take

 

[SJB]

Hopefully nothing moves the Leeds game. Already booked hotel!

Champions League matches the week before so I don't think Sky put a match on the Friday night that week but it might be at risk of being moved to the Monday night to mirror our game at their place. Sky/BT love moving Leeds fixtures around.

 

[chippy1722]

I live in London and only rarely get up to matches. Apart from a couple matches a year, I'm strictly an "armchair" fan. I have in the past got tickets off this forum and purchased tickets from the club itself.

Due to the understandable increase in demand and the £35 cost of the membership, I decided to "treat" myself to Seat Unique tickets to the Crystal Palace game. I have paid £150 for this ticket, which on the face of it sounds INSANE. However if you add the cost of the membership, the ticket itself, a program and a £10 food voucher. The price is not actually awful.

Unfortunately the match has now been moved and Seat Unique will not allow you to cancel your ticket. I've had to re-arrange my train ticket, which cost an extra £40. To add insult to injury, Seat Unique have now dynamically priced the tickets to £125 each!

At £190 per ticket, this has now become the most expensive visit to Everton EVER (I wish I'd gone big on Oasis now!)

I cannot be the only person in this position...

What other options does the Occasional visitor have?

I know Everton need to be more professional, but should the club be checking for "fair practice"?

I think the fact that club are keeping seats back for the extortionate Seat Unique, shows what matters to the most.

 

[Timbucktoo]

I live in London and only rarely get up to matches. Apart from a couple matches a year, I'm strictly an "armchair" fan. I have in the past got tickets off this forum and purchased tickets from the club itself.

Due to the understandable increase in demand and the £35 cost of the membership, I decided to "treat" myself to Seat Unique tickets to the Crystal Palace game. I have paid £150 for this ticket, which on the face of it sounds INSANE. However if you add the cost of the membership, the ticket itself, a program and a £10 food voucher. The price is not actually awful.

Unfortunately the match has now been moved and Seat Unique will not allow you to cancel your ticket. I've had to re-arrange my train ticket, which cost an extra £40. To add insult to injury, Seat Unique have now dynamically priced the tickets to £125 each!

At £190 per ticket, this has now become the most expensive visit to Everton EVER (I wish I'd gone big on Oasis now!)

I cannot be the only person in this position...

What other options does the Occasional visitor have?

I know Everton need to be more professional, but should the club be checking for "fair practice"?

Even though the price has dropped since you bought your ticket, I think its not a bad price to pay to ensure you have your seat on match day and a chance to experience the match at the new stadium. Having to book extra travel if you`re not a local can be a pain with KO dates and times open to change at short notice. I like to have a couple of days free if I book a game just so if it gets moved to a Sunday or a late KO Saturday I can cover both options by staying over and travelling early going over and late coming back.
All you can do when planning ahead is try and get all your bases covered, but there was a game, a good while ago now, that was moved from Saturday to Sunday due to some protest in town, and when the protest got cancelled the game was moved back to Saturday at very short notice, so even if the tv is not involved you can still get mucked about.

 

[Drico]

I've priced in a TV date move for my Seat Unique "experience" next February. I'll wait to book flights until the TV fixtures are confirmed. I don't know how rail in the UK works, but booking a flight on Ryanair or Aer Lingus or whoever isn't going to be fantastically more expensive a month or five weeks out from the game. I think this is more of an issue with the state of the privatised UK rail system than Seat Unique, to be honest.

 

[Eggs]

….with the constant shifting of dates for TV, surely when this happens tickets purchased ahead of the change should be subject to full refund.

 

[HappyJack]

I think the fact that club are keeping seats back for the extortionate Seat Unique, shows what matters to the most.

Yeah and charging fans 60 quid for memberships which dont get you a ticket is scandalous. Everton in the community.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

Don't book tickets until after TV is confirmed.

Palace was always likely to be moved.

Even if you book direct with Everton, they wouldn't refund your tickets.

 

[pejic]

I have put off buying a membership until the buzz dies down a bit. Are tickets ever likely to go to general sale?
If I have a membership, can I buy just the one ticket?
If my son comes along too, he would have to buy his own membership?

 

[GrandOldTeam]

I think the fact that club are keeping seats back for the extortionate Seat Unique, shows what matters to the most.

It's important to have an allocation of tickets for fans to book with certainty.

Loads of clubs in the league have an allocation with SeatUnique for that purpose.

I don't like it, but if I didn't have a season ticket - I'd rather use SeatUnique for a couple of mid week games, than pay and hope in a lottery.