bluegirldanielle wrote:
I can understand them being pissed off with poor seats however it sounds as though a complaint to the club will rectify the problem, as mikkey has experienced. If these people don't want to make a complaint to the club but rather sit back & bitch & moan to their friends, then the club is none the wiser & the members issues will not be addressed. ...........
No - the key problem is the membership department. They are OK as long as you just re-new - there are always problems when something has to be changed. I have experienced it several times over the years.
And in regard to this years improved seating - we had to threaten to pull our membership and the ones of the extended family (7 premium seat gold SC memberships) before any action was taken!
Last year we had bought the new premium seating early December and were contacted only at the end of February (!!) to be advised that they could only offer level 4 at the MCG etc. When I asked if I would get a refund because we stayed in our old seats at the G ("standard" reserved) - there was a lot of uhm and ahm, and then they said they would send a voucher for the Carlton shop. The voucher never arrived.
The problem here is that the Club seems not interested in members who actually are long-term and buy the expensive memberships and spend money. We are a family of 3 (1 kid) and pay over thousand dollar just in memberships plus we go to at least 2 of the more expensive functions like B&F / Guernsey presentation etc. every year - so that’s another grant plus merchandise etc.
The guy mentioned in above post (SC member since 1974) used to take the whole family i.e. 5 SC Gold reserved seats memberships - and as he said "the club has no interest in me" - i.e. nobody rang to find out why he did not re-new his membership.
I could go on and on - but I am of the strong opinion that the membership department is under-resourced and does not have the technology it needs (they can not lock in seats when you do it over the phone – except if you just re-new existing). It also should not take 2-3 month to get back regarding seating requests and a smart club would look after premium members who pay a multiple amount of the base membership and also are more likely to spend money on functions etc.
All I can say is that if this is reflecting just remotely to how corporate’s and/or sponsors are treated - then I am not surprised that they are struggling to get the corporate seats filled and sponsorship deals signed.
This important area of the club (how you treat people who actually contribute with money) is IMHO neglected and the one area I am really unhappy with the Board.