Monday, March 26, 2007

Searching For Answers--And I Got Some


No doubt--the venom spewing by fans over The Season Ticket Delivery by Our Washington Nationals has reached the point of being a mini-crisis. But, despite all that, FEDEX has promised to deliver the Majority of Season Ticket Packages by Monday, today--March 26th. Although, some fans will receive their tickets by Wednesday. (Someone posted that his FedEx Tracking number said Friday) That word comes from The Washington Nationals, themselves. I know, because I asked them the question--DIRECTLY. Team Officials also told me some began to receive their packages over the past weekend.


Happily, I can report, My Section 320 Season Ticket package came today, at 12 Noon. The African Queen signed for the package. The FedEx employee told her the Alexandria, Virginia Sorting Facility was inundated with the Ticket Packages. And, in fact, FedEx had extra trucks out on the street, just to handle the massive load, throughout the DC AREA.

But, I know that word alone is not going to please some. So, once again, I reached out, in an attempt to find some real answers from Our Washington Nationals. All my questions were answered, directly and right away. And, you can bet I touched on all the rumor mongering written on some of the chat boards. The half truths and baseless comments, that turned out to be just that--FALSE.

So, here we go. And, you can decide however you wish. But, I made the effort to get some responses. The Nationals personally got in touch with me over the matter.

(SBF) My first question was to find out want went wrong in the process to get The Season Tickets Delivered to fans at their homes?

The response: Nationals Officials told me they "were VERY UNHAPPY about how their vendors treated the team and their customers" over the Season Ticket Printing Process and Delivery. In fact, "We (The Nationals) always shared whatever information we were given, right away...in an effort to be responsive to our customer. In retrospect, too often in the past week, we were not given straight info."

The Nationals believing their straightforwardness on the issue to fans, hurt their relationship with their customers (SBF).

(SBF) Now, some are rumoring that because their FedEX delivery confirmation number is coming from RFK, the Season Ticket Holder will receive cheaper Tickets.com printed generic tickets than the higher quality Perforated Tickets from the Canada Operation. And, for some reason, these folks believe their prepaid parking at RFK will not be included, in their package?

(The Nationals) "The Tickets (being delivered by FedEx) are full, attractive printed versions (in fact Opening Day, and especially, Last Game Ever at RFK, are particularly attractive). Parking should be included (if you ordered Season Ticket Parking)."

No one ordering a Season Ticket package will receive cheaper computer generated tickets (SBF). That's a fact, according to The Nationals.

(SBF) Finally, I asked about the swirling rumor bringing your own food into RFK Stadium for 2007. I know, right now, there is a major concern from fans about a post on The BallparkGuys Chat room about that fan claiming The Nationals WILL NOT ALLOW Food and Water into RFK for 2007. It has touched off a firestorm on the blogs. Someone even asked Barry Svrluga yesterday in his Nationals Journal to find out the answer. I know that "OFFICIALLY" outside food is not allowed, but has been OK'd for the first two seasons as long as fans are not bringing coolers, gigantic packages, etc. What's the rule for 2007?

(The Nationals) "There's no change to the food policy or enforcement levels from past practice."

What has been allowed into RFK Stadium for 2005 & 2006 will continue for 2007 (SBF).

Those were all the Official Comments and Responses.

I understand that some are still upset, when it comes to dividing up their season tickets to their group holders, and about trading in seats for games they may not attend the first week of the season. Its very unfortunate. But, as I stated before, something went wrong, The Nationals admit that and are making the effort to appease everyone, as quickly as possible.

That's all I have to say further on the topic of Season Ticket Deliveries.



By the way: The Package is attractive. Although 2007 Season Tickets do not come in the Heavy Cardboard Printed Box, as the previous two seasons. The Opening Day Ticket is HUGE!! And, there is a special "Baseball's Farewell To RFK STADIUM" Closing Day Ticket. The Cardboard Printed Binder has Fireworks on the cover with The Nationals Logo on the bottom.

I would have liked to see the continuing practice of a Season Ticket Holder Special Pin, that was included in 2005 & 2006, but that seems to have gone by the wayside. Too bad. I liked the pin series, especially for the last season at RFK. Although all Full Season Ticket Holders will receive a Complimentary 2007 Washington Nationals Yearbook.

13 comments:

JayB said...

Got Mine today!

FedEx Lable says all you need to know about the New Nats...."Economy Box"....If that is not the watch word for 2007 I do not know what is!

Thanks SBF, for doing what you can to keep information flowing....Not sure why Nats can not do this without your help.

JD said...

Thanks for your work on this! FYI - FedEx left my tickets at my door today! 3/26). Personally I am glad they did not require a signature, but that's just me.

Side note- I guess it shocks me a bit FedEx is making a big deal out of how many deliveries they have. The Redskins prob have 3 to 4 times the # of season ticket holders and they ship via an overnight carrier. (I think DHL last year)

Oh well. Go Nats!!

JayB said...

Jamie,

I think what Fed Ex is saying is that for the $ the Nats paid (Economy Box), Fed Ex is not going out of their way...the Nats paid a cheap rate which allowed Fed Ex to get them to us as time allowed. That is why the dates keep slipping....NATS! you get what you pay for.....send some of the $30-40 Mil you are reported to be saving from on this years roster compared to 2006.

Chris Needham said...

Meanwhile...

I'm still waiting for my email confirmation.

Anonymous said...

It is HORRIBLE and DEPLORABLE that the Nats ticket office told me three different dates when tickets were going to be mailed out ALL of them FALSE! Then the deliver some tickets on the weekend and some tickets today and maybe some tickets on Wednesday...this is a wrteched example of the attention paid to every day details by SK. He should fire the whole ticket office and refund everyone their $20 shipping charge!

Brandon said...

Get this...Fed Ex tracking this morning said my tix were on the truck. Then at 6:20 pm they abruptly decided to make a "delivery exception." My tix are now to be delivered no later than APRIL 6!!!!

Now it is FedEx, not the Nats, to blame for this crap. What a laughing stock. I'm on my way to the Alexandria sorting facility to pick up the tickets. I'm sure I'll see a few of you over there. I'm in a '63 Senators cap. Say hi if you see me.

Brandon said...

Also, a previous commenter said that the Redskins use DHL to ship their tickets. Don't you find that odd, given that the Redskins play at FedEx field?

Anonymous said...

SBF -- Thanks for your research. I haven't received my season tix, but at least I can look forward to keeping cool with the water bottle I freeze!

Anonymous said...

SBF,

Thanks for the investigative work. I can confirm that, despite the fact that my ticket delivery is listed as originating at RFK, I did indeed get the nice card stock season tickets today. I also received my parking passes.

One other question that I have just emailed my ticket rep about is whether parking passes can be exchanged along with the tickets if there's a game in my 20-game plan that I can't attend. Something tells me that I might have to eat the cost of that parking pass. If I find out otherwise, I'll post another message here.

Anonymous said...

The Lerners are cheap. Our group of business people have used FedEx for years and the delivery has been great. If the Lerners are going to use "economy" class (Fedex version of bulk rate mailing)to deliver our season tickets, don't blame FedEx. Economy class has a 10 day delivery window! Our group still has not received our 2 Diamond box and 8 MVP seats!

DJDave said...

Our tix arrived, but no parking pass.

Looks like I'm in for a bit of a pain in the tail.

JD said...

Got my tickets last night. Parking included but a warning, the parking passes are cheap and flimsy. As long as they get me in I'll be fine I guess but they are easier to damage.

Oh - No MP3 player was in the package. I emailed the Nat's this AM. Here is response:

James, thanks for your inquiry and we apologize for any convenience.

With regard to the MP3 player, we've recently ordered and received the MP3 players state side, they are in route to RFK Stadium and we’ll look to send notification when on site on how/when we intend to deliver to our season ticket holders.

Thanks for your continued support and patience as a Nationals season ticket holder

Sincerely,

Washington Nationals Ticket Sales & Service Department

Pledge Your Allegiance.

abby's dad said...

Ours arrived Monday AM, but the packaging was crushed.

Enough about the tickets... Now onto the big question...

What are we doing for opening day? Section 320 needs to start off the season big. We are ready to go!!!
Abby has been asking about the Noise Boys :) She is ready to get going with the new chants.