Football Ticket Ordering - As usual a complete mess

[J187Money]

So went online to renew my tickets just now...

Tickets - no problem. Although not sure why my 6 tickets were split up in 3 pairs of 3. Just strange.

Parking passes - no problem. Ordered an extra for the Puyol family. Still can't figure out why player's family don't get access to Blue parking passes.

Donations - unreal. So they have buttons all over the place to make sure you donate, but when you click them you are brought to the 2013-2014 Pledge Year donation page, where it isn't clear at all that your donations are connected to your seat purchase at all. It was always made clear in prior years. Very confusing to the user and I'm sure I'll get some letter saying "you didn't make your seat donation, but thanks for the $600 donation to UCONN Athletics."

Simple things that they just can't get right. Last year, they instituted a payment plan (which is SOOOOOOOO smart) over a 3 month period. And of course when they did it, they neglected to charge me for the donation. When I called the school in December to make an unrelated donation they said I had not paid my seat donation.

This year, no payment plan (not an issue for me but probably an issue for many - and if you are trying to grow the season ticket base you need to be as flexible as possible regardless of who is on the schedule). And they screw up the flow for collecting the donations.

For a school with an engineering / technology department the size that it is, the digital properties of the school are abysmal. Granted, they are making improvements, but there is a long way to go.

(not that I'm one to make campaign promises, but this is just one of the things I will be making a lot of noise about if I end up on the Alumni BoD)

 

[CTMike]

Thanks for the heads up/reminder to pay for my tix...

 

[Waquoit]

I didn't think it was that tough.

 

[uconndennis]

Couldn't agree more. The process is not as simple as it should be...and eliminating the payment plan seems like a poor idea. I give a $500 donation for my seats and after I went through it all, I get the email receipt which basically says..."Thanks for the $500, you pledged $1000 and you know have an outstanding balance of $500, pay up"

No idea why they tried to hit me up twice, I called The Foundation and they cleared it up in minutes. They said I wasnt the only one, so pay attention to your donation/pledge statement to make sure they arent waiting on more cash than you intended

 

[CTMike]

I do think that not offering a payment plan is a mistake.

 

[epark88]

I do think that not offering a payment plan is a mistake.

Agreed - I'm currently on a plan; I got grandfathered in somehow. Without it, I'd be scuffling along with ESPN3 for another year.

I don't see why a lack of upfront money should prevent willing fans from buying season tix. In the present environment, you'd think that the ticket office would be amenable to anyone and everyone wanting to spend their money on UConn Football.

Then again, this is UConn Marketing/PR we're dealing with...

 

[zls44]

So went online to renew my tickets just now...

Tickets - no problem. Although not sure why my 6 tickets were split up in 3 pairs of 3.

Did you get three extra tickets?

 

[J187Money]

Did you get three extra tickets?

Nice catch. 3 pairs of 2.

 

[uconnric]

There is a person in the ticket office who can clear things up for you. Her name is Helen Waite.

 

[Skiblets]

Ticket office has been and continues to be a complete mess. Write two checks - one for the ticket one for the donation. No payment plan this year. Very user unfriendly on line interface. Plus a 50% success rate for them and my parking passes. Always an issue. Should be outsourced.

 

[J187Money]

I didn't think it was that tough.

It's not tough. The whole process took me two minutes. UNTIL I find out months later that they didn't apply my seat donation and then I'll have to spend multiple phone calls to the Foundation straightening it out.

That wasn't my point. From a design perspective, it is atrocious. And I don't think it says anything on the School of Engineering's website about "come to UCONN and we can show you how to make poorly designed products"...

http://admissions.uconn.edu/content/schools-colleges/engr

 

[Doggie Style]

The online process sucks! I just call and make my donation over the phone then call the ticket office and do it that way. They have screwed up several times and always fix it but the mistakes shouldn't happen in the first place! One year I almost declared a "holy war" when they sent me Red parking passes then told me that there was nothing that could be done because all the others were gone. It got fixed, but what the heck is wrong up there, it seems to always be something. BTW, I called to inquire as to what the Mich tix process would be for those who wanted to buy more. The kid who answered the phone was very nice and was going to get me an answer and call me back. That was a month and a half ago and I'm still waiting for my phone call..... Every time I have to deal with these clowns, I find it easier to understand why we are in the AAC.

 

[ZackB05]

Although the online ticket process is a bit scattered, I feel like its not that bad. I've done it for the past 6 years online and only had one issue(they charged my 1,600 donation twice!). Literally takes 5 minutes to complete.I do agree getting rid of the payment plan was a bad idea. What was the point of doing it for one year?

 

[hthusky74]

I had no problem ordering my tix and paying my donation online. I printed out the confirmations and the emails and all looks correct. I do wish that they still had the installment plan as it made it a lot easier to handle the bill.

 

[Srqhusky]

I do think that not offering a payment plan is a mistake.

yes making payments is the American way.

 

[J187Money]

yes making payments is the American way.

The Knicks do it. Spread the payment over 9 months if you want with no fee. Clearly they don't want to lose people that don't have all the cash upfront. But who cares if we sell tickets anyway.

 

[J187Money]

I had no problem ordering my tix and paying my donation online. I printed out the confirmations and the emails and all looks correct. I do wish that they still had the installment plan as it made it a lot easier to handle the bill.

Drive Payment Pledge Balance
------------------------- ------------ ------------ ------------
The UConn Club 2013-2014 $600.00 $600.00 $0.00
Pledge Year (HUSKY
DIRECTOR)

This was in my email. Nowhere does it say seat donation. Will see if it gets applied properly.

 

[Waquoit]

Drive Payment Pledge Balance
------------------------- ------------ ------------ ------------
The UConn Club 2013-2014 $600.00 $600.00 $0.00
Pledge Year (HUSKY
DIRECTOR)

This was in my email. Nowhere does it say seat donation. Will see if it gets applied properly.

So nothing has actually gone wrong yet, you just started this thread as a preemptive whine? Oh-kay.

 

[J187Money]

So nothing has actually gone wrong yet, you just started this thread as a preemptive whine? Oh-kay.

Like I'm the only one that preemptively whines on this board.

I'm trying to make a serious point about the quality of the University's web properties. Last year I did have a problem with my seat donation and it took 2 phone calls to clear it up. The only reason I even realized it was that I went to the website to make a donation on my pledge (over and above my seat donation) on 12/28 and the "donations" portion of the Uconnhuskies.com website was down. The website told me to go over to the Foundation page and make a donation there. BUT, there was nowhere on the Foundation website for me to enter in my Athletics account number to make sure that my pledge would get applied appropriately. Further, I also donate regularly to SCSU and you can do so on a recurring monthly basis (which of course you can't do at UCONN).

My overall point - although this is an athletics board - is that for UCONN to be considered first class it needs to be first class in ALL things. And the little things matter. The reality is that when a die-hard wants to pay for something he will find a way. But for the average guy - make it complicated and he will just go to stubhub or not go at all.

And yes - I'm ranting. But it was the same thing with Ticket Transfer. We were years behind many other schools. And then we did it for Football this year. Yay. But for some reason they couldn't get it up for Hoops until 1/3rd of the way through the season - and you KNOW that season ticket holders want to dump their non-conference seats. It is obvious to me that nobody actually goes and tries to USE what they build, to see if it is actually solving the needs of the fans. The school actually educates people in product management. No excuse for it to be this way.