Replacement football season ticket- extortionate costs!

rochey17

I have carelessly lost my football season ticket for my local football league club.

I was extremely disappointed about this as the 315 pound cost is a lot of money to me and its my main leisure activity.

However, as its a service rather than a product that I have paid for I thought I would be able to get a replacement book for a small admin charge. But it transpires that as I don't have insurance cover for it I may have to pay a pro rata fee which could be about 200 pounds. I really can't afford this and it seems wholly unreasonable, I was not offered insurance in the first place. Anyone got advice on where I can go with this?

whatmichaelsays

If a club has electronic ticketing, they usually replace the cards (and deactivate the old one) for an admin fee.

If your club still uses an old "book" of tickets, it's more problematic. There is no way for the club to prevent the old book being used (other than by checking the serial number of every ticket on matchday) so it's very rare for any club to issue a new one. If they did, there would be lots of unscrupulous fans "loosing" their season ticket book.

Ultimately, I dare say that the T&Cs of the ticket state that you are fully responsible for your ticket at all times and that, in their eyes, will be the end of it.

As for insurance, it may be covered by your home and contents insurance - I've never heard of a sports club offering 'season ticket insurance'.

mattyprice4004

OK, so what if you lied to the club, told them you'd lost it and gave it to your mate? How do they know you've not done that?

It's unreasonable to expect them to replace the ticket, yes it'd be nice if they did - but they don't have to.

It's not extortion, just a lesson to not lose it in the first place. I've done similar - just have to suck it up and move on.

Guardsman

My rugby season ticket entitles me to sit on the numbered seat that corresponds with the number on the season ticket.
I paid by Visa and also provided the club with a contact address.
Surely if two people tried to claim that seat it would not take much effort to find out who the rightful owner was.

System

I lost my city one 15 years ago. It cost me £50 to get a new one. When I turned up someone else was sat in my seat. I called the steward and he was chucked out. It's not hard to prove who should be sat there.

OP what club is this as it sounds a very harsh policy

ThumbRemote

The OP has said it's a football league club, so there's a good chance it's a standing ticket, or not restricted to a particular seat.

The club could ask the turnstile staff to keep an eye out for it, if you know the serial number. Is that an option?

bill55bill

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

OK, so what if you lied to the club, told them you'd lost it and gave it to your mate? How do they know you've not done that?

It's unreasonable to expect them to replace the ticket, yes it'd be nice if they did - but they don't have to.

It's not extortion, just a lesson to not lose it in the first place. I've done similar - just have to suck it up and move on.

LOL, utter tosh.

I suppose when you lose a driving licence that's it as well?

You just get a condescending letter through the door telling you to be more careful in future, sorry we can't help you....

bill55bill

rochey17 wrote: »

I have carelessly lost my football season ticket for my local football league club.

I was extremely disappointed about this as the 315 pound cost is a lot of money to me and its my main leisure activity.

However, as its a service rather than a product that I have paid for I thought I would be able to get a replacement book for a small admin charge. But it transpires that as I don't have insurance cover for it I may have to pay a pro rata fee which could be about 200 pounds. I really can't afford this and it seems wholly unreasonable, I was not offered insurance in the first place. Anyone got advice on where I can go with this?

I would check the conditions that came with the ticket, asking you to pay pro-rata to replace it is ridiculous. I lost mine at Chelsea once and get charged £10 to have a new one issued. What if you'd lost it day 1 of the season? What if you had got mugged on the way to the ground? They'd charge you 100% for a new one?
Change teams if they aren't reasonable.... :rotfl:

Nukumai

goater78 wrote: »

OP what club is this as it sounds a very harsh policy

Agreed. I have season tickets at the mighty Fulham FC, and here's the club policy on lost season tickets (issued as cards) :

Lost Season Ticket cards should be reported immediately to the Ticket Office. Replacement cards will cost £5 unless a Crime Reference Number can be given to verify the theft of the card.

I'm assuming that the re-issuance of paper tickets is more of a logistical burden, but this (loss of season tickets) must be an issue that has been around for decades, so its not as if the clubs are unable to cope. A moderate fee would be fair, but pro-rating...?!

whatmichaelsays

I've had a season ticket at Leeds Rhinos and, before they moved to a electronic card system, it was you and you alone who were responsible for the ticket. If you lost it, you replaced it.

The club moved to electronic turnstyles several years ago and the process is similar to the Fulham policy.

Nilrem

Nukumai wrote: »

Agreed. I have season tickets at the mighty Fulham FC, and here's the club policy on lost season tickets (issued as cards) :

Lost Season Ticket cards should be reported immediately to the Ticket Office. Replacement cards will cost £5 unless a Crime Reference Number can be given to verify the theft of the card.

I'm assuming that the re-issuance of paper tickets is more of a logistical burden, but this (loss of season tickets) must be an issue that has been around for decades, so its not as if the clubs are unable to cope. A moderate fee would be fair, but pro-rating...?!

I suspect the issue is, that paper tickets are pretty much impossible to cancel, as it would require the staff on the gates to have a list of "lost" tickets and compare every single incoming ticket against that list.

It's relatively easy to do if it's an electronic ticket of some kind (magstrip/chip etc), as it can be checked in a fraction of a second by the computer that checks it is valid and not expired/forged, but for paper ones it requires humans to check every one of thousands, at a time when there is a lot of pressure to deal with the queues in a timely manner.


Re the earlier comment about driving licences.
They are easy to cancel/check - they have a serial number and a central DB, and only a fairly limited number are checked every day ( usually under circumstances where it doesn't matter if it takes a few minutes for each check to be completed), and that's before you consider the way the new licences have a picture of the licence holder on them to assist in ID'ing the legitimate holder.
Not to mention the Licence costs about 40% of it's new cost to replace when lost/stolen.