Cricket Ticket Sales Score A Duck

I went to my first cricket match in 40 years last week. Well, not a proper cricket match- a Twenty20 game which has none of the cat-and-mouse excitement (for which, read 'boredom', unless you're very keen) of first class cricket but is an edge-of-your-seat hit-and-run event.

So the game was fun. But. What was disappointing was the Hampshire Rosebowl's sales set-up. Although we wanted to book well in advance and the date was known well ahead, it was only a month before that it finally went on sale Even a week before, the ticket office were uncertain about exactly when we would be allowed to buy tickets. This is not the way to sell tickets. Always have the Action available when you stimulate the Desire.

Then there's the website. Try to buy tickets by clicking on a specific game and you are still sent to a general online booking page which you then have to click to book tickets for your chosen game. Did whoever designed it actually try to use it?

Perhaps you'd prefer to book by phone. So you call the (premium rate) number given on the website, which I did four times during their opening hours, and only ever got a pre-recorded message directing me to, you guessed it, the website.

Do these people want to sell tickets?

Race For Life

I’m proud to say that my wife Julia and daughter Becky recently completed a Race For Life. They ran/walked the three mile course in Winchester in support of Cancer Research and in memory of our brother-in-law Richard Knott who died from cancer at the end of last year. Between them, they raised nearly £300 and had an enjoyable day, albeit tinged with sadness. It was moving to see so many people with signs on their backs naming the person they were running for. Cancer touches so many lives. Julia is still welcoming donations at justgiving.co.uk/julialewis Also running were my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law and Richard’s daughters.

Say No To 0870

If I phone you up to buy something from you, is it good customer service to make me listen to an advertisement and to charge me at a premium rate for the privilege? Obviously not, yet that’s exactly what Airmiles did when I phoned their 0870 number to book some Eurostar tickets (which you can’t do online). If they want to sell me a credit card, that’s fine but they should do it on a freefone number. After holding for a couple of minutes, I decided to go to saynoto0870.com to get the lower cost number local exchange number which incidentally is 01925 866000.

I started getting my Tesco Clubcard points converted to Airmiles because they seemed like better value and so it has proved. I booked flights to Paris because Eurostar was too expensive. For just over 2500 miles, I saved £150 on flights. This values the Airmiles at 6p each. For every £2.50 in Clubcard vouchers, you get 60 miles or £3.60 at the rate I got, so that is good value unless you use up all your extra value in 0870 charges.