NHS Concert Tickets (Free but maybe not so free)

Okell

astra948 said:

... My only other question would be, is 2 days to accept them reasonable when I'm not in work and should they make some effort to allow me to accept them from outside of the NHS...  

How do you know that you can't use a non-NHS email address?

I know you said in your very first post that you understood that you had to apply through a NHS email address.  So have you checked with them to find out if your understanding is correct or not?

And even if it is, having once applied is there no way that you can update the email address so that future notifications go to your own private email address?

I don't think it's a question of whether or not 2 days is a reasonable period within which to accept the tickets.  Notwithstanding the admin fee the ballot is free - so you basically have to accept what you get.  There's an old saying "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth".

There's another old adage - "Theres no such thing as a free lunch".  I personally would only have taken part in this scheme in the knowledge that there would almost certainly be some strings attached.

Hoenir

Can you not have emails from this source auto forwarded to a personal email box. 

Loch_Lochy

Okell said:

Loch_Lochy said:

My only other question would be, is 2 days to accept them reasonable when I'm not in work and should they make some effort to allow me to accept them from outside of the NHS.  Neither of which are really money saving expert questions I think it is something I should take up with them.   

I work in the Scottish NHS. I can access my work emails on my own PC and through the Outlook app on my mobile. Surely you can do the same.

Can you?

I retired from the NHS 10 years ago - so maybe it's changed - but I'm pretty certain that my trust would not have allowed me to access work emails on my own laptop at home or on my own personal 'phone.

But I'm IT illiterate and don't even have a smartphone so I've absolutely no idea what may or may not pose data security risks these days

I most certainly can.

You do need to have 2 factor authentication set up. It's definitely allowed by my employer.

Okell

Loch_Lochy said:

Okell said:

Loch_Lochy said:

My only other question would be, is 2 days to accept them reasonable when I'm not in work and should they make some effort to allow me to accept them from outside of the NHS.  Neither of which are really money saving expert questions I think it is something I should take up with them.   

I work in the Scottish NHS. I can access my work emails on my own PC and through the Outlook app on my mobile. Surely you can do the same.

Can you?

I retired from the NHS 10 years ago - so maybe it's changed - but I'm pretty certain that my trust would not have allowed me to access work emails on my own laptop at home or on my own personal 'phone.

But I'm IT illiterate and don't even have a smartphone so I've absolutely no idea what may or may not pose data security risks these days

I most certainly can.

You do need to have 2 factor authentication set up. It's definitely allowed by my employer.

That makes sense.  Not sure that was a thing 10 years ago when I was still working

pinkshoes

photome said:

those seem perfectly reasonable terms to me

otherwise people could apply for tickets get them for free plus admin and then not use them which would not be fair

It’s also a privilege because you work for NHS so perfectly reasonable that they get sent to your work email

I disagree. 
48 hours is NOT a reasonable time frame for someone to accept the tickets given its quite normal for people to have 2 days off work each week, often consecutive days.

The OP should be able to point out that they tried to accept them within two WORKING days and should therefore get the tickets,  or at the very least the admin fee refunded.

powerful_Rogue

pinkshoes said:

photome said:

those seem perfectly reasonable terms to me

otherwise people could apply for tickets get them for free plus admin and then not use them which would not be fair

It’s also a privilege because you work for NHS so perfectly reasonable that they get sent to your work email

I disagree. 
48 hours is NOT a reasonable time frame for someone to accept the tickets given its quite normal for people to have 2 days off work each week, often consecutive days.

The OP should be able to point out that they tried to accept them within two WORKING days and should therefore get the tickets,  or at the very least the admin fee refunded.

I disagree.

OP agreed to this timeframe when they applied for the free tickets.

I daren't ask what you thoughts are if you don't answer the phone within 5 rings for certain competitions.

strawb_shortcake

The ballots we have through work, we have to confirm soon after, if the person drawn can no longer attend then they'll be allocated to someone else. 
No matter what plans you make to be available to attend sickness or other commitments can quickly change your availability 

electriccactus

pinkshoes said:

photome said:

those seem perfectly reasonable terms to me

otherwise people could apply for tickets get them for free plus admin and then not use them which would not be fair

It’s also a privilege because you work for NHS so perfectly reasonable that they get sent to your work email

I disagree. 
48 hours is NOT a reasonable time frame for someone to accept the tickets given its quite normal for people to have 2 days off work each week, often consecutive days.

The OP should be able to point out that they tried to accept them within two WORKING days and should therefore get the tickets,  or at the very least the admin fee refunded.

Then don't agree to it.

I imagine that these timescales are set by the entity supplying the tickets rather than some weird attempt to cash in on admin fees by whoever the OP has contracted with.

If I wanted to guess the organisers are trying to wait until the last possible minute before giving these tickets away, whilst also doing their best to ensure that the notice isn't so short that nobody can turn up.

GrubbyGirl_2

astra948 said:

As I wasn't in work I could accept the tickets for a few days.  When I went to accept the ticket,  I was then informed that the period for accepting them had expired and they had been put back in the ballot.   

You can login to NHS mail from any computer through a web browser so there was no reason why you couldn't accept them

born_again

As to time limit. These are usually short notice to fill event, as such they will only have a short period to accept the tickets. 
We can often get them offered on the day of the event. So have to be at work to pick your ticket up, or make a trip to get them if you were lucky to get some via someone on shift.