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Post by akos2021 on Aug 13, 2021 6:57:48 GMT
Has anyone heard from the box office following the disaster that was opening day?
The silence seems incredibly loud, especially considering they said they'd follow up with people who made it in yet not everyone who made it had a ticket that worked and therefore registered. Let alone those people that gave up.
Personally the whole experience put a real sour taste in my mouth after the excitement of returning to football.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2021 11:57:16 GMT
Has anyone heard from the box office following the disaster that was opening day? The silence seems incredibly loud, especially considering they said they'd follow up with people who made it in yet not everyone who made it had a ticket that worked and therefore registered. Let alone those people that gave up. Personally the whole experience put a real sour taste in my mouth after the excitement of returning to football. While I can understand the frustrations and anger at things not going well at the entry to the ground for this first league match I also have a lot of sympathy and understanding for all clubs who were basically left on their own to establish entry procedures at short notice partly thanks to the ever changing regulations of Boris and Co. It is also to be considered that the UK unlike the rest of Europe are not employing a full common Covid Certificate process which works extremely well and highly efficiently with entry to such events taking less than 10 seconds for people to to be checked - and an error rate of well below 1%. While some will want a immediate and probably deserved apology I would prefer to see those in charge working on the solution to ensure there is no repeat and then to start making detailed announcements rather than an open apology or witch hunt with no indication of what action has been taken. I also have not too much sympathy with those fans who expected everything to work perfectly and turned up at their usual short notice pre kick-off time. Try getting into London through Heathrow and spend hours at border control and then miss the match as a result!
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Post by rickyqpr on Aug 13, 2021 13:44:01 GMT
Sorry Champion but I am completely with Akos on this one. I have copied my previous report below, on the appalling situation that I witnessed last Saturday. You had to be there...... Many of us were venturing out for the first time post Covid - certainly to a crowded situation and the club completely f****d it up. If they had deployed adequate stewards outside, placed the sodding scarf merchants inside and had more than one window to sort out thousands of random issues, then perhaps the total lack of social distancing or face masks may not have been as perilous. The technology failed, had it been properly tested? And it was Millwall of all visitors. I cannot of course say for sure that the QPR melee was to blame, but my son this week contracted Covid, something that we badly needed to avoid in our family. Especially, after eighteen months of shielding He has had both jabs (as have we all) but is still pretty rough. I agree that an apology without a statement about actions can be meaningless, but at least it would be a start. You may not be aware that the turnstiles completely failed at 2.50, some in my group had been outside for 40 minutes at that time. Two gave up. You can understand why I cannot extend your sympathy to the club in the circumstances.
My Report:- First up, it was great to be back in the stadium watching live QPR football. Things have been so positive that I suppose we were overdue a downer. Lee Hoos said in his recent interview that we had to all accept digital media, it is the future and we all have to get on board. I think it was the one and only time that he irritated me in the interview - a substantial part of the QPR support is celebrating their senior years. Not all wish to embrace apps on their old phones, and that position needs to be respected. So the least that our club could do was be prepared - after all they had 18 moths to prepare for the brave new world.. I opted out of the brave new digital world for our 3 season tickets, instead opting for the continued use of our plastic credit cards. We were warned to get there early so we did - about 2.15. It seems the biggest problem was on Ellerslie Road - where we sit in R block. We queued and it moved quite quickly, but when we went to use the first of our cards the turnstile declined - 'contact a steward'. This meant that we had to back out from the queue - not easy - then even harder, look for a steward. We were offered several free scarfs but no stewards. Those giving out the scarfs had no system, so they just offered the same people over and over again. There were more on scarfs than there were stewards! We were then directed to another long queue of declined tickets. This ran up to a single cubicle - the queue hardly moved. It was also clear that the ticket failures were very random, renewed tickets, electronic tickets, mobile apps or credit cards. Two of ours worked the third didn't. Once the card had been attended to, we had to join a third queue to re-enter. By this stage the queue for normal entry extended way beyond Loftus Road. Several in our group only made it into the ground by 3.20, two gave up and went home. It was a total shambles and such a shame for our big day back. I didn't get on board Lee.......
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2021 8:43:22 GMT
Ricky very sorry to hear about your son but there is obviously more behind this than just a system blurb at the entry gates.
Your points are valid but I also know for example that in many hospitality and leisure industries many staff shortages are a major issue - staff not wanting to return as stewards for example due to doubts about Covid so it is not just a case of throwing more people at a problem.
In addition the extra push in the UK for "freedom" with lack of social distancing or face masks, unlimited crowd sizes plus anti vacers will come home to roost.
While I am very sorry re your son and for those who suffered last week I still have to think there are many other major factors beyond the control of any football club as well as the fact that there will be teething problems as crowds return. My point being that the club is not solely responsible for the effects of what is happening in the UK.
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Post by rickyqpr on Aug 14, 2021 10:52:34 GMT
Ricky very sorry to hear about your son but there is obviously more behind this than just a system blurb at the entry gates. Your points are valid but I also know for example that in many hospitality and leisure industries many staff shortages are a major issue - staff not wanting to return as stewards for example due to doubts about Covid so it is not just a case of throwing more people at a problem. In addition the extra push in the UK for "freedom" with lack of social distancing or face masks, unlimited crowd sizes plus anti vacers will come home to roost. While I am very sorry re your son and for those who suffered last week I still have to think there are many other major factors beyond the control of any football club as well as the fact that there will be teething problems as crowds return. My point being that the club is not solely responsible for the effects of what is happening in the UK. All valid points, and you will be aware that I am a staunch supporter of the club and the current management, however, in my view, this is a binary issue. It was the club who decided to implement a new digital system for this season. It was the club who failed to highlight the intended changes adequately - many did not realise that you had to opt out. It was the club who failed to activate many of the plastic opt out cards. It was the club who would have been aware of the availability of stewards and how to position them - and for that matter the manpower and proximity of issuing the gifts. It was the club's job to road test the system and then provide just one window for the consequential problems Why not wait one season? What is the rush? It was almost a full house, it was a high security game, there was pent up demand and renewed enthusiasm. They had not operated a full matchday for 18 months, it was foolhardy - and unnecessarily perilous. Because of the above failures - followed by a subsequent technology failure, that the melee turned into an even more congested than usual panic as 3pm approached. There remains an awful lot wrong outside of football to work through, but when the club gets it that wrong they need to hold their hands up IMHO.
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Post by rickyqpr on Aug 15, 2021 9:20:29 GMT
Isolating now again so we will miss the Barnsley game, but every cloud - the club will have longer to fix it before our next trip.
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