Jamie Pollard statement regarding ticket scanning process during home opener

[agrabes]

I honestly think a lot of these comments about Pollard being "backhanded" are over the top. He literally said they failed and provided a terrible customer service experience. If that's not enough for you, then I think that's more of a reflection on you than on him.

That said - the main thing I don't understand (and this was on the CW/Blum podcast as well) are the comments that people are showing up last minute and could have avoided the problem if we didn't want to drink that last beer before coming in. For years I've always left the lots about 30 minutes before kickoff, reached the gate 15-20 minutes before kickoff, and entered the stands to catch the last few minutes of the pregame show and see the team run on. I'm not sure why anyone should plan otherwise, unless they want to make sure they get to see the full pregame show from the band. That's not coming in last minute - that's coming in at a normal time. If tons of people showed up at the gate 5 minutes before kickoff, yeah that's last minute but that isn't what happened. There shouldn't be an expectation that people need to be in the stands 30 minutes or more before kickoff.

I won't be able to make the Iowa game but for the next home game I guess I'll have to plan to leave the lots an hour before kickoff if I want to see the start of the game.

 

[Peter]

We need to figure how to make this problem exclusively affect Iowa fans next week.

 

[KnappShack]

It might not be an improvement to you, but I guarantee the AD didn't just change it for the hell of it.

#1 Ticketmaster may not have given them a choice
#2 They may have gotten financial incentives to go this direction
#3 It will cut down on fraud...which is something they hate having to deal with
#4 This in the long run will cut down on the number of people they need at gates that they're struggling to hire
#5 This isn't some special Iowa State thing...this is damn near everywhere at large facilities

So if it's not a benefit to the paying customer we should just embrace the change.

This goes for any business. Customers should just be cool with change even if it impacts the experience and doesn't result in lower costs.

Cool.

 

[KnappShack]

Take a 10 year old along, they have it figured out.

We must've had an extraordinary number of drunk 10 year olds yesterday

 

[IcSyU]

So if it's not a benefit to the paying customer we should just embrace the change.

This goes for any business. Customers should just be cool with change even if it impacts the experience and doesn't result in lower costs.

Cool.

"But we've always done it this way" is a motto of failing businesses. You have the option to not do business with Iowa State. One of their terms at this point in time is you have to follow their ticketing procedures. Not every customer had a poor experience. Did a lot? Yes. Will they be making changes this week to try to alleviate that? Yes. Will the system get better over time? Absolutely.

 

[Cloneman89]

This is same disaster that happened for parking passes. Inept planning, lack of IT expertise and failed customer service. Implementation is not ISU strong suit. Mockery of School of Science and TECHNOLOGY!

 

[CycloneErik]

This is same disaster that happened for parking passes. Inept planning, lack of IT expertise and failed customer service. Implementation is not ISU strong suit. Mockery of School of Science and TECHNOLOGY!

Yeah, that has nothing to do with implementing things on the athletic business side. They're just dealing through vendors over there, bro.

 

[Pope]

Time to lighten the mood. Below is the best TV shot from the game. With the horrible heat, Campbell had to get them off the field before they fried!

 

[Trice]

I honestly think a lot of these comments about Pollard being "backhanded" are over the top. He literally said they failed and provided a terrible customer service experience. If that's not enough for you, then I think that's more of a reflection on you than on him.

That said - the main thing I don't understand (and this was on the CW/Blum podcast as well) are the comments that people are showing up last minute and could have avoided the problem if we didn't want to drink that last beer before coming in. For years I've always left the lots about 30 minutes before kickoff, reached the gate 15-20 minutes before kickoff, and entered the stands to catch the last few minutes of the pregame show and see the team run on. I'm not sure why anyone should plan otherwise, unless they want to make sure they get to see the full pregame show from the band. That's not coming in last minute - that's coming in at a normal time. If tons of people showed up at the gate 5 minutes before kickoff, yeah that's last minute but that isn't what happened. There shouldn't be an expectation that people need to be in the stands 30 minutes or more before kickoff.

I won't be able to make the Iowa game but for the next home game I guess I'll have to plan to leave the lots an hour before kickoff if I want to see the start of the game.

This whole ticketing debacle argument tends to fixate on "getting in by kickoff," and no doubt that's huge for most people. But the broader point is that no matter when you arrive in line, you ought to be able to get through that line in a reasonable time of, I don't know, ten minutes max?

Our tailgating/departure schedule is pretty similar to yours, about a half hour prior to kickoff. Sometimes we miss that by a few minutes, and if I miss kickoff I certainly don't blame the ticket staff or athletic department for that. But that's not what Saturday was, and it's a real disservice to portray it that way.

 

[3TrueFans]

View attachment 116290
Nice seats huh?

lol, that's horrendous.

 

[Pope]

This whole ticketing debacle argument tends to fixate on "getting in by kickoff," and no doubt that's huge for most people. But the broader point is that no matter when you arrive in line, you ought to be able to get through that line in a reasonable time of, I don't know, ten minutes max?

Our tailgating/departure schedule is pretty similar to yours, about a half hour prior to kickoff. Sometimes we miss that by a few minutes, and if I miss kickoff I certainly don't blame the ticket staff or athletic department for that. But that's not what Saturday was, and it's a real disservice to portray it that way.

You make a reasonable point. But when a huge change is being introduced for the first time, I also think it's unreasonable to expect the normal amount of time for entering the stadium.

 

[keepngoal]

You make a reasonable point. But when a huge change is being introduced for the first time, I also think it's unreasonable to expect the normal amount of time for entering the stadium.

it wasn't introduced for the first time.

 

[Trice]

I don't really care if they say sorry for the poor customer service or not. If they haven't properly identified the issues, and that explanation indicates they haven't, then it isn't going to get any better. I don't want an apology. I want the problem fixed.

I've been as hard on them as you have, but I'd advise against reading too much into Pollard's email. Surely it was put together on the fly as an acknowledgement of the problem, a (not great) attempt to explain it, and a promise to do better. Standard PR stuff. I wouldn't expect a five-point plan for improvement next week on a holiday Sunday less than 24 hours after the incident.

See what they come up with over the next couple of days. Kind of like how they say the safest restaurant to eat in is the one that just got busted by the health department, my bet is they'll overcompensate this week and things will go fine.

 

[Trice]

You make a reasonable point. But when a huge change is being introduced for the first time, I also think it's unreasonable to expect the normal amount of time for entering the stadium.

It wasn't a huge change introduced for the first time. We've been doing mobile ticketing for three full seasons now. I don't consider switching from a human scanner to a kiosk to be a huge change.

 

[8bitnes]

Time to lighten the mood. Below is the best TV shot from the game. With the horrible heat, Campbell had to get them off the field before they fried!

View attachment 116292

get them a NIL deal with fareway or hyvee

 

[BCClone]

No, the turnstile will let you scan multiple and then let that many in once you’re done.

The process we had on the south was, have the ticket pulled up on the phone, hold it to the phone, the turnstile turned, as soon as the next ticket was slid up, the turnstile turned, it was a second or two at best for each of us to go through. I have no idea what the turnstiles were doing if they took 5-10 seconds just to turn after scanning.

 

[BCClone]

We need to figure how to make this problem exclusively affect Iowa fans next week.

Make people do a simple math problem to get in.

 

[Pope]

It wasn't a huge change introduced for the first time. We've been doing mobile ticketing for three full seasons now. I don't consider switching from a human scanner to a kiosk to be a huge change.

I thought switching from humans scanning your digital ticket to self-serve kiosks with turnstiles was a pretty big change, but I guess we disagree on that.

 

[besserheimerphat]

1. Imagine upgrading the locks on your front door resulting in your spouse being unable to enter your home for 30+ minutes on a 95 degree day.

2. Now imagine instead of just apologizing and working on the locks, you instead say "unfortunately, the combination of your arrival time, my inability to help you understand the technology, and the excessive heat, came together to create a perfect storm of a poor home entry experience."

They'd be willing to forgive you for #1, but #2 would result in divorce or murder.

Of course your wife would be upset. But tell me you wouldn't also say "OMG I showed you how the lock works like 10 times! What did you do wrong?"

 

[Trice]

I thought switching from humans scanning your digital ticket to self-serve kiosks with turnstiles was a pretty big change, but I guess we disagree on that.

Not that it's no change at all, but it just isn't that big of a deal. It's just a very slightly different method of scanning. If you'd told me that on the first game I might wait in line for 15 minutes instead of 10 (which is still a 50% increase), I'd shrug and say that sucks but life goes on. But an hour or more is positively insane.

And even if the new system fails in a worst-case scenario, it should take maybe 15 minutes of the line piling up and not moving to fall back on the backup plan - roll out more kiosks, revert back to humans with handheld scanners, whatever. That it got so bad they just had to throw the doors open is a real indictment of the entire planning process.