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Scouse Hibee
20-07-2019, 01:26 PM
Lots of folk being sent to ticket office a mixture of phones, print at home and paper tickets not scanning. All three types in front of us failed. Our paper tickets worked fine. (West Stand Soth End) Turnstiles 11/12

Hibby70
20-07-2019, 01:27 PM
Turnstile scanner at 13/14 failed. Steward had to scan.

BlackSheep
20-07-2019, 01:36 PM
Great... I didn’t print as I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt!!! Both west stand turnstiles tho...?

SteveHFC
20-07-2019, 01:37 PM
What a shambles.

B.H.F.C
20-07-2019, 01:44 PM
4 turnstiles open for the whole of the east.

Anything to do with Hibs, tickets and service is an absolute joke.

ShadesLongThrow
20-07-2019, 01:45 PM
The iPhone X is too big for the barcode to be recognised in the scanner! You’ve got to wonder if there was any testing done on different devices. Fortunately it’s not exactly busy. I can count 48 away fans.

Eyrie
20-07-2019, 01:58 PM
Eventually just waved straight through with no ticket check.

we are hibs
20-07-2019, 02:00 PM
Everytime hibs do something like this it ends in a complete farce. You think these things would be checked

hibee62
20-07-2019, 02:02 PM
No stewards to advise at the east, means people walk past the queues only to find a dead end. 4 turnstiles open with the queues barely moving and fire exits opened up with stewards on the doors, those queues are much faster than a traditional turnstile...

Chorley Hibee
20-07-2019, 02:09 PM
It's a real bugbear of mine that we consistently make attending a football match in this country as difficult as we possibly can.

4 queues it took me to finally gain admittance today, and in that time I watched 3 other guys decide they had something better to do with their time.

Well done Hibs!

grunt
20-07-2019, 02:11 PM
From KP

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_7KiMTXsAAHYuk?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

Jones28
20-07-2019, 04:15 PM
From KP

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_7KiMTXsAAHYuk?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

Who the **** makes these decisions?

eastcoasthibby
20-07-2019, 04:40 PM
Waiting for the excuse from Hibs regards what happened with the ticketing today ...as instead of making it easier it was the opposite ! Not a good start ...wonder how many players wages were spent on bringing this system in ? 😋

Malthibby
20-07-2019, 04:44 PM
The East was a total shambles with 4 turnstiles open initially.
A really good way to turn the atmosphere negative; wholly avoidable so it would be nice if the club could explain why earth it was done?

Carheenlea
20-07-2019, 05:13 PM
Got in to West Lower without any fuss with phone (once I placed it in correct slot)

DTS
20-07-2019, 05:39 PM
An absolute shambles as per when hibs change things with tickets, my phone didn’t work and was then advised by the steward to speak with the supervisor at the disabled entrance who refused to let her colleague manning that door just scan the tickets and let us in after having ignored us for five minutes. Her amazing advice was then, “well there’s no issues for anyone else, go to the back of the line and try a different turnstile” so we had queued for 5 mins and then had a 5/10 min wait with the supervisor and then had to join the back of the line again. Thankfully expected this and showed up at 2:15, got in just as the players finished warming up so about 2:45.

malcolm
20-07-2019, 06:20 PM
Did anyone get the new style fast ticket - with the QR code - to scan. I had the ticket in my apple wallet but it did nothing and I was told to join the ticket office queue .. luckily I checked the ticketmaster email with the links and it had a pdf copy of a ‘normal’ ticket attached the bar code in that scanned which saved me a wait in a long queue. Poor communication all round and little sign that any proper testing had been beforehand assuming that the new codes were supposed to work, or any briefing to stewards.

I really don’t want my season ticket card to be replaced in the future with a dodgy digital approach!

GreenCastle
20-07-2019, 06:25 PM
I got the QR code to scan through Apple Wallet but had no idea you had to turn your phone upwards to do it.

Not sure how bigger iPhones will manage though ??!

It was a shambles today with the Q at the East - Hibs need to have someone who can help with any issues outside - a basic steward / supervisor often is pretty useless.

Scanning the phone is pretty good but Hibs should maybe put some diagrams up to show folk how to do it properly.

DTS
20-07-2019, 06:29 PM
I got the QR code to scan through Apple Wallet but had no idea you had to turn your phone upwards to do it.

Not sure how bigger iPhones will manage though ??!

It was a shambles today with the Q at the East - Hibs need to have someone who can help with any issues outside - a basic steward / supervisor often is pretty useless.

Scanning the phone is pretty good but Hibs should maybe put some diagrams up to show folk how to do it properly.

How do you mean upwards? I have an iPhone XS Max and tried scanning it with like the screen facing up was that wrong? Ended up at a turnstile where a girl just scanned it

hfc rd
20-07-2019, 06:41 PM
Who the **** makes these decisions?


Hopefully the fans rep can answer this.

I managed to get in with my mate no problem but the queues were absolutely horrendous! Some folk were getting told to make their way to the ticket office in order to collect paper tickets and potential to be stuck in two long queues.

Surely these new scanners would have been tried and tested to avoid a potential major problem like the one today. Hopefully they are sorted before Tuesday night.

smack
20-07-2019, 07:29 PM
I’d suggest operator error is causing most of the problems. I used a ticket in my apple wallet today with no problems although I do agree that some pictures showing what to do would help those less comfortable with modern technology

snedzuk
20-07-2019, 07:58 PM
Got in to West Lower without any fuss with phone (once I placed it in correct slot)

Bet that steward still hasn't sat down.

Radium
20-07-2019, 08:18 PM
Had my ticket in my apple wallet. It scanned first time on my state of art 5s in the East.

Opening the turnstiles late didn’t help




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

malcolm
20-07-2019, 08:32 PM
I’d suggest operator error is causing most of the problems. I used a ticket in my apple wallet today with no problems although I do agree that some pictures showing what to do would help those less comfortable with modern technology

Just as well I’m not sensitive i might think you were patronising.:wink: It ought not to be rocket science nor do I expect discomfort with new technology since scanning is how the turnstiles have worked for ages. You stick your phone into the reader slot I don’t think I need a picture for that.

I could scan a barcode in the same scanner using my phone that a few minutes earlier would not recognise the QR code on my phone. That suggests the scanner was not working at that point in time, the error is not that of the ‘operator’ but that of the provider in not explaining any limitations of the new scannable code or there is somewhere else to stick it.

Perhaps I’m old fashioned but I never went looking for another hole so if so not so much a picture I need but an explanation of how and where to slide it in. :greengrin

Scorrie
20-07-2019, 08:36 PM
Ended up getting my e-ticket scanned manually by a couple of stewards in the west. Was probably the quickest way of getting in as there were quite long queues elsewhere

green with envy
20-07-2019, 09:31 PM
There was indeed a problem getting in the east around 15/20 before KO but it was sorted when the mobile scanners were put in place and then it was a breeze to enter the stadium. I was one of the last in and was sitting in my seat in time for the start. Sometimes you have to give credit for the improvise instead of moaning. Eh?

Eyrie
20-07-2019, 10:10 PM
There was indeed a problem getting in the east around 15/20 before KO but it was sorted when the mobile scanners were put in place and then it was a breeze to enter the stadium. I was one of the last in and was sitting in my seat in time for the start. Sometimes you have to give credit for the improvise instead of moaning. Eh?

The improvision in the West eventually meant just being waved through by a steward five minutes before kick off. Probably broke all sorts of regulations but at least it meant most people were in on time.

The bigger issue is why the turnstiles weren't working. The queues were bad enough for Alloa with a crowd of just 5544 - imagine what it will be like if the problem isn't sorted by the time we play St Mirren in front of 15000?

Fortunately there are two weeks to sort things out, but there are also two games in that time. Anyone confident the problems will be sorted for Tuesday?

green with envy
20-07-2019, 10:12 PM
The improvision in the West eventually meant just being waved through by a steward five minutes before kick off. Probably broke all sorts of regulations but at least it meant most people were in on time.

The bigger issue is why the turnstiles weren't working. The queues were bad enough for Alloa with a crowd of just 5544 - imagine what it will be like if the problem isn't sorted by the time we play St Mirren in front of 15000?

Fortunately there are two weeks to sort things out, but there are also two games in that time. Anyone confident the problems will be sorted for Tuesday?

I'm sure all will be fine for the Abroath game on Tuesday. 👍

GreenCastle
20-07-2019, 10:54 PM
How do you mean upwards? I have an iPhone XS Max and tried scanning it with like the screen facing up was that wrong? Ended up at a turnstile where a girl just scanned it

Needs to be vertical - basically nearly need to inset the phone at an angle.

A picture would help folk.

Phil MaGlass
21-07-2019, 04:58 AM
Luckily I dont trust modern technology, same as flying, when I fly I download the code thing AND the booking form, so if one doesnae work I still have the other. Modern tech sucks, always problems.

Scouse Hibee
21-07-2019, 07:48 AM
I’d suggest operator error is causing most of the problems. I used a ticket in my apple wallet today with no problems although I do agree that some pictures showing what to do would help those less comfortable with modern technology

No chance, it was the technology causing the issues yesterday not the people trying to use it. I observed several tickets being offered to the scanner correctly yet access was denied. I had no problems either but definitely there was issues not the fault of the end user.

GreenCastle
21-07-2019, 07:56 AM
I feel the worse part is when s fan queues and then doesn’t get in for some reason and the steward says go to ticket office.

If you are in the East Stand this means about a 10/15 min delay possibly.

There should be a better way of offering customer help at each stand.

JohnM1875
21-07-2019, 08:29 AM
Was a total shambles getting in yesterday.

Supposed to be a competitive league cup game.

Didn't have turnstiles open or even have the board displaying the team names and time.

Scouse Hibee
21-07-2019, 08:37 AM
Was a total shambles getting in yesterday.

Supposed to be a competitive league cup game.

Didn't have turnstiles open or even have the board displaying the team names and time.

The scoreboard was being worked on by a guy on a ladder right until KO so obviously broken, just another thing that’s didn’t work yesterday.

007
21-07-2019, 09:04 AM
I feel the worse part is when s fan queues and then doesn’t get in for some reason and the steward says go to ticket office.

If you are in the East Stand this means about a 10/15 min delay possibly.

There should be a better way of offering customer help at each stand.

Some stewards have the handheld scanners but there are maybe not enough of them.

There should be at least 2 stewards for every 2 pairs of turnstiles, checking bags and helping with tickets (just 1 at the East as bags get checked before reaching turnstile). Anyone having problems, the steward can have a quick try with the ticket, if it still doesn't work the steward then directs them to the steward at the fire exit. All stewards at fire exits should have a handheld scanner.

Totally agree, getting sent to the ticket office is a shocker. What if it had been a parent and young child and 1 has got in and the 2nd ticket hadn't worked?

GreenCastle
21-07-2019, 10:55 AM
The scoreboard was being worked on by a guy on a ladder right until KO so obviously broken, just another thing that’s didn’t work yesterday.

It was amateur yesterday. I’ve had better fan experience at Spartans.

Fan experience..

I saw several tourists attend first game.

Long queues to enter stadium.
Scoreboard obviously not tested before yesterday.
Food still the same unhealthy and very priced crap.
Couldn’t hear a word from back of East about announcements as the PA system is so useless.
Seagulls - ridiculous amount of them - can we get some plastic hawks for the top of the stands / encourage folk not to drop their rubbish.??!

JXM73
21-07-2019, 12:47 PM
Google pay worked no bother, was expecting it to fail lol

Keith_M
21-07-2019, 04:15 PM
What's wrong with paper tickets and human beings checking them at the turnstyles.

Or even just paying CASH at a turnstyle?

Bristolhibby
21-07-2019, 04:25 PM
Luckily I dont trust modern technology, same as flying, when I fly I download the code thing AND the booking form, so if one doesnae work I still have the other. Modern tech sucks, always problems.

This. It’s crazy but I always have both.

What happens if you dropped your phone and smashed the screen?

J

Jamesie
21-07-2019, 04:42 PM
Google pay worked no bother, was expecting it to fail lol

Took a few attempts before my ticket (stored in Google Pay on a Huawei P30 Pro) would scan, even with brightness turned to full. Probably about 25 seconds or so in all.

Jamesie
21-07-2019, 04:44 PM
Seagulls - ridiculous amount of them - can we get some plastic hawks for the top of the stands / encourage folk not to drop their rubbish.??!

We were wondering how the seagulls know to rock up in the second half, generally towards the end of the game. The only logical conclusion we could reach was that they have spotters positioned on buildings outside the ground to let the others know when people are starting to leave. The other option would be that they read the scoreboard but obviously they didn't have that option yesterday.

Hibby70
21-07-2019, 06:38 PM
We were wondering how the seagulls know to rock up in the second half, generally towards the end of the game. The only logical conclusion we could reach was that they have spotters positioned on buildings outside the ground to let the others know when people are starting to leave. The other option would be that they read the scoreboard but obviously they didn't have that option yesterday.

Spotters?? Is it the CCS - Capital City Seagulls?

Lancs Harp
21-07-2019, 06:49 PM
What's wrong with paper tickets and human beings checking them at the turnstyles.

Or even just paying CASH at a turnstyle?

Keith come on its 2019. Man landed on the Moon 50 years ago :wink: modern turnstyles dont accept cash its all electronic and its never going to turn back. Its about 20 times quicker getting into the ground, prevents the old fraud of handing your cash over and jumping the turnstyle (we all know where the money went) It just needs initial problems ironing out, i sure there were similar problems 100 years ago when turnstyles were introduced. Embrace the change mate it isnt going away.

Power
21-07-2019, 06:50 PM
Hopefully the fans rep can answer this.

I managed to get in with my mate no problem but the queues were absolutely horrendous! Some folk were getting told to make their way to the ticket office in order to collect paper tickets and potential to be stuck in two long queues.

Surely these new scanners would have been tried and tested to avoid a potential major problem like the one today. Hopefully they are sorted before Tuesday night.

If it works perfectly it would be great but when it goes wrong on a number of levels yesterday is the result.

It’s on my pad to flag a number of things yesterday and the overall roll out of the new ticketing partnership. It’s something that will be great but hasn’t landed smoothly.

The matchday experience is being looked at in a heightened focus at the moment and I’ve no doubt this will improve vastly on several points after review - I would love more testing on different process and approaches to ensure everything has been covered to an inch of its life to obtain success (ie. does the ST discount work? What’s the ticket journey now in it’s full steps, practising more on the tech etc). Mistakes and errors happen, it’s part of life, but I really hope they aren’t repeated and learnt from.

I’ll update everyone at the end of the month but I’m here to help any time.

Hibbyradge
21-07-2019, 06:52 PM
It worked fine for me.

Mind you, after an hour I was almost wishing it hadn't! :greengrin

millarco
21-07-2019, 09:01 PM
To provide a bit more context and information from the club's perspective:

The new system, when fully installed and settled in, will be a significant improvement on what we had before. The last installation was six years ago, and technology has obviously developed a long way since then.

We had persistant issues with the scanners over the last couple of seasons - not massive failures but constant niggles that impacted on supporters. Some of this was user error - scanning and not pushing, print at home tickets with insufficient ink quality to be scanned, crumpled tickets etc. Some of this was down to the scanners - through age they become less accurate, so it took supporters longer to get in and some struggled to get in at all. It was also difficult to offer effective resolution at the turnstiles, resulting in the need for supporters to go back to the Ticket Office for a resolution.

We've improved the situation with regards to the signal for hand scanners, allowing us to have more effective on-site resolution. This means fans will be able to go to a specific resolution point(s) at each stand in the first instance where a steward supervisor will assess the reason for the no-entry. Supporters will only need to go back to the Ticket Office if the steward is unable to resolve the issue. These resolution points will be clearly sign-posted in due course.

The new scanners will also get supporters in quicker than before - more accurate reading of the tickets so fewer issues to resolve in the first place.

Mobile ticketing is also a significant step forward - football clubs across the UK are playing catch-up to other industries in this regard, but would expect it to be commonplace across the top leagues in Scotland and England before long. It'll be easy for supporters to purchase, download and scan tickets, without the need for ticket office/pod queues or print at home. In time we hope to get season ticket cards onto mobile devices - they are a bit more complicated than individual match tickets but it is doable. A lot of the enquiries at the Ticket Office on a matchday relate to STHs and print-at-home supporters looking for reprints for forgotten tickets, so mobile ticketing should cut that down.

We tested the new scanners at a couple of turnstiles for a couple of games towards the end of last season, and saw the impact described above. Due to time constraints we couldn't have all turnstile scanners replaced in time for Saturday, so have a plan in place to phase them in over the next two weeks so we're at full capability for St Mirren.

A 5-6k crowd was anticipated for these two games, and we had enough turnstiles in place to cope with that, with additional hand-held scanners as a contingency should there be a late walk-up (both in terms of tickets purchased and fans reaching the ground) or in the event of scanner failures. The turnstiles were tested and were fine on Saturday morning, but encountered a significant fault around half 2 which wiped the majority offline. That clearly put a strain on the situation and led to big queues. In the end all supporters were in the ground for 5 past 3, but the queues were obviously unacceptable and not what we wanted - the lessons from Saturday will carry into Tuesday, so we should see an improved situation then.

We had six experienced staff members from Ticketmaster and the company who installed the system on site on Saturday, and they will be there for the next three matches too to support the implementation, and we had a briefing with steward supervisors on Saturday morning (and will do so again pre-Arbroath).

Clearly Saturday's situation wasn't the experience we want supporters to face, but I'm confident that once the teething problems have been resolved we'll see a much more efficient entry system in place. A bit of short-term pain for long-term gain.

Things like turnstile signage, online info-videos etc are good suggestions and will come in time. There'll be a few new things to come up through mobile ticketing that we'll need to adjust and tweak, but I'm sure once the club, stewards and supporters are more familiar with the processes we'll be able to see the benefits.

hibbysam
21-07-2019, 09:10 PM
Slightly away from the scanners but can anyone give a reasonable answer as to why the big silver gate at the South-East corner isn’t open pre game for all non cat A games? It was open after the game yesterday but not pre game. I’m guessing it’s half to do with the check point at the top of the hill for bag checks etc but that only had one steward, couldn’t have been hard to put one more steward facing the other direction.

millarco
21-07-2019, 09:13 PM
Slightly away from the scanners but can anyone give a reasonable answer as to why the big silver gate at the South-East corner isn’t open pre game for all non cat A games? It was open after the game yesterday but not pre game. I’m guessing it’s half to do with the check point at the top of the hill for bag checks etc but that only had one steward, couldn’t have been hard to put one more steward facing the other direction.

It was open pre-match, or at least was when I was there around half 1/quarter to 2. Was maybe just shut over but unlocked.

Scouse Hibee
22-07-2019, 06:34 PM
To provide a bit more context and information from the club's perspective:

The new system, when fully installed and settled in, will be a significant improvement on what we had before. The last installation was six years ago, and technology has obviously developed a long way since then.

We had persistant issues with the scanners over the last couple of seasons - not massive failures but constant niggles that impacted on supporters. Some of this was user error - scanning and not pushing, print at home tickets with insufficient ink quality to be scanned, crumpled tickets etc. Some of this was down to the scanners - through age they become less accurate, so it took supporters longer to get in and some struggled to get in at all. It was also difficult to offer effective resolution at the turnstiles, resulting in the need for supporters to go back to the Ticket Office for a resolution.

We've improved the situation with regards to the signal for hand scanners, allowing us to have more effective on-site resolution. This means fans will be able to go to a specific resolution point(s) at each stand in the first instance where a steward supervisor will assess the reason for the no-entry. Supporters will only need to go back to the Ticket Office if the steward is unable to resolve the issue. These resolution points will be clearly sign-posted in due course.

The new scanners will also get supporters in quicker than before - more accurate reading of the tickets so fewer issues to resolve in the first place.

Mobile ticketing is also a significant step forward - football clubs across the UK are playing catch-up to other industries in this regard, but would expect it to be commonplace across the top leagues in Scotland and England before long. It'll be easy for supporters to purchase, download and scan tickets, without the need for ticket office/pod queues or print at home. In time we hope to get season ticket cards onto mobile devices - they are a bit more complicated than individual match tickets but it is doable. A lot of the enquiries at the Ticket Office on a matchday relate to STHs and print-at-home supporters looking for reprints for forgotten tickets, so mobile ticketing should cut that down.

We tested the new scanners at a couple of turnstiles for a couple of games towards the end of last season, and saw the impact described above. Due to time constraints we couldn't have all turnstile scanners replaced in time for Saturday, so have a plan in place to phase them in over the next two weeks so we're at full capability for St Mirren.

A 5-6k crowd was anticipated for these two games, and we had enough turnstiles in place to cope with that, with additional hand-held scanners as a contingency should there be a late walk-up (both in terms of tickets purchased and fans reaching the ground) or in the event of scanner failures. The turnstiles were tested and were fine on Saturday morning, but encountered a significant fault around half 2 which wiped the majority offline. That clearly put a strain on the situation and led to big queues. In the end all supporters were in the ground for 5 past 3, but the queues were obviously unacceptable and not what we wanted - the lessons from Saturday will carry into Tuesday, so we should see an improved situation then.

We had six experienced staff members from Ticketmaster and the company who installed the system on site on Saturday, and they will be there for the next three matches too to support the implementation, and we had a briefing with steward supervisors on Saturday morning (and will do so again pre-Arbroath).

Clearly Saturday's situation wasn't the experience we want supporters to face, but I'm confident that once the teething problems have been resolved we'll see a much more efficient entry system in place. A bit of short-term pain for long-term gain.

Things like turnstile signage, online info-videos etc are good suggestions and will come in time. There'll be a few new things to come up through mobile ticketing that we'll need to adjust and tweak, but I'm sure once the club, stewards and supporters are more familiar with the processes we'll be able to see the benefits.

Thanks for the update, hopefully all fans can expect a smooth entry on Tuesday night.

Blaster
24-07-2019, 10:55 AM
Not sure why only 1 turnstile out of the 4 for the west upper (FF end) was open last night. The west lower at the same end had 2 out the 4 open and had queues too until they used the exit door to scan manually

Arrived at 7.20 and took nearly 20 mins to get in. Felt sorry for the steward. She was getting verbals. Hardly her fault

Antifa Hibs
24-07-2019, 10:58 AM
Anyone else find the new scanners extremely slow? From when the person infront of you scans there ticket to when the 'GO' message cleared took a good few seconds. Going to be fun and games at the St Mirren game!!

Onceinawhile
24-07-2019, 11:07 AM
Anyone else find the new scanners extremely slow? From when the person infront of you scans there ticket to when the 'GO' message cleared took a good few seconds. Going to be fun and games at the St Mirren game!!

I'm sure I saw it mentioned that the lag will be fixed, or decreased anyway.

I'd imagine the Newcastle game will see an improvement on last night and then hopefully the St Mirren game will be an improvement on that. Then we should be roughly where we were last season.

I'll be heading round a wee bit earlier than usual on game day though!

wookie70
24-07-2019, 11:12 AM
Not sure why only 1 turnstile out of the 4 for the west upper (FF end) was open last night. The west lower at the same end had 2 out the 4 open and had queues too until they used the exit door to scan manually

Arrived at 7.20 and took nearly 20 mins to get in. Felt sorry for the steward. She was getting verbals. Hardly her fault

The stewards don't help themselves. Spent 5 minutes in a queue and on getting nearly to the front was told this was a queue for phones not tickets and the whole lot of us had to shuffle to the back of the next queue. My tickets had a QR code and the chap next to me the usual barcodes, my ones had bar codes on Saturday and I followed the same routine in printing. Ticketing has been very poor since LD took charge. She has been brilliant for many things but this is a basic and I would have been very pee'd off if I had missed the first goal last night.

The eticketing isn't much better. I wanted a package for adult and child and tried repeatedly to get tickets in a central section of the East. It gave me no's 3 and 4 which is right at the FF end of the East. I eventually gave up and just went with the tickets offered and went all 1980s by sitting at the 18 yard line the way Hibs were shooting both halves. Yet again we are promised improvements and it has made things worse.

Oscar T Grouch
24-07-2019, 11:18 AM
I checked the slot with my phone (iPhone XS Max) and it didn't fit, this system is in place for the foreseeable future and phone screens aren't getting smaller. It seems strange to install a system that cannot take all mobile phones.

matty_f
24-07-2019, 11:30 AM
We were through quicker than it took to scan my old card last season, using the ticket on my phone last night.

Conj
24-07-2019, 11:37 AM
Also doesn't help if they tell people to turn up early to give plenty of time to get in then don't open the gates on time. Saturday was about 10 past 2 before they were open and last night was after 7

GreenCastle
24-07-2019, 11:43 AM
To provide a bit more context and information from the club's perspective:

The new system, when fully installed and settled in, will be a significant improvement on what we had before. The last installation was six years ago, and technology has obviously developed a long way since then.

We had persistant issues with the scanners over the last couple of seasons - not massive failures but constant niggles that impacted on supporters. Some of this was user error - scanning and not pushing, print at home tickets with insufficient ink quality to be scanned, crumpled tickets etc. Some of this was down to the scanners - through age they become less accurate, so it took supporters longer to get in and some struggled to get in at all. It was also difficult to offer effective resolution at the turnstiles, resulting in the need for supporters to go back to the Ticket Office for a resolution.

We've improved the situation with regards to the signal for hand scanners, allowing us to have more effective on-site resolution. This means fans will be able to go to a specific resolution point(s) at each stand in the first instance where a steward supervisor will assess the reason for the no-entry. Supporters will only need to go back to the Ticket Office if the steward is unable to resolve the issue. These resolution points will be clearly sign-posted in due course.

The new scanners will also get supporters in quicker than before - more accurate reading of the tickets so fewer issues to resolve in the first place.

Mobile ticketing is also a significant step forward - football clubs across the UK are playing catch-up to other industries in this regard, but would expect it to be commonplace across the top leagues in Scotland and England before long. It'll be easy for supporters to purchase, download and scan tickets, without the need for ticket office/pod queues or print at home. In time we hope to get season ticket cards onto mobile devices - they are a bit more complicated than individual match tickets but it is doable. A lot of the enquiries at the Ticket Office on a matchday relate to STHs and print-at-home supporters looking for reprints for forgotten tickets, so mobile ticketing should cut that down.

We tested the new scanners at a couple of turnstiles for a couple of games towards the end of last season, and saw the impact described above. Due to time constraints we couldn't have all turnstile scanners replaced in time for Saturday, so have a plan in place to phase them in over the next two weeks so we're at full capability for St Mirren.

A 5-6k crowd was anticipated for these two games, and we had enough turnstiles in place to cope with that, with additional hand-held scanners as a contingency should there be a late walk-up (both in terms of tickets purchased and fans reaching the ground) or in the event of scanner failures. The turnstiles were tested and were fine on Saturday morning, but encountered a significant fault around half 2 which wiped the majority offline. That clearly put a strain on the situation and led to big queues. In the end all supporters were in the ground for 5 past 3, but the queues were obviously unacceptable and not what we wanted - the lessons from Saturday will carry into Tuesday, so we should see an improved situation then.

We had six experienced staff members from Ticketmaster and the company who installed the system on site on Saturday, and they will be there for the next three matches too to support the implementation, and we had a briefing with steward supervisors on Saturday morning (and will do so again pre-Arbroath).

Clearly Saturday's situation wasn't the experience we want supporters to face, but I'm confident that once the teething problems have been resolved we'll see a much more efficient entry system in place. A bit of short-term pain for long-term gain.

Things like turnstile signage, online info-videos etc are good suggestions and will come in time. There'll be a few new things to come up through mobile ticketing that we'll need to adjust and tweak, but I'm sure once the club, stewards and supporters are more familiar with the processes we'll be able to see the benefits.

Thanks for detailed update.

I went earlier last night and was in the West compared to usual East and still a queue of 25 people in front of me.

The queue with hand held scanner was much quicker than the turnstile - that's a slight concern.

It was better than Alloa in the East but maybe once all the turnstiles are open it will be quicker? But then the crowd will be double so maybe not?

I noticed some posters near turnstiles but something more visible needs to be done as the stewards were getting the grief and they weren't even in the wrong.

Maybe something clear about what phones work / don't work and a diagram showing how to scan phones.

overdrive
24-07-2019, 11:45 AM
It is horrendous. A few of the stewards were saying it was the worst scanning system they’ve come across. The woman in front of me scanned, it said “Go” but didn’t release the turnstile.

I’ll be turning up an hour early from now on as I don’t trust it.

hibbyfraelibby
24-07-2019, 04:45 PM
I checked the slot with my phone (iPhone XS Max) and it didn't fit, this system is in place for the foreseeable future and phone screens aren't getting smaller. It seems strange to install a system that cannot take all mobile phones.

Apple fanboy...get a Sammy

Jay
24-07-2019, 04:59 PM
I scanned my ticket and the machine beeped, the turnstile wouldnt move so the guy shook it and told me to try again. I scanned my ticket, no beep but the turnstile moved. I wondered if it was more to do with the turnstiles than the actual machine, maybe have to click in place or something?

Aim Here
24-07-2019, 05:02 PM
To me, it seemed as though the system QR code reader couldn't cope with the variety of print-at-home and mobile-screen tickets that the punters brought along with them, contrary to the assertions on the Hibs website (and no doubt the contractors who installed the rotten thing). Those of us who got our paper tickets from Hibs themselves seemed to get in just fine, but almost everyone ahead of me in the queue with homemade paper tickets would go in, wave the paper about for ages with no joy, and have to come out of the queue to talk to the stewards, slowing everyone down. It didn't help that Hibs decided to close 3/4 of the turnstiles and run with a skeleton crew.

I'm guessing Hibs fell for a sales pitch and trusted a shiny-toothed salesman to demonstrate their system in ideal conditions, instead of actually doing some sort of real-world test by trying out tickets from every printer (scrunched up in a jacket pocket for a couple of hours, obviously) and every mobile device that the Hibs ticket crew had access to first.

Scouse Hibee
24-07-2019, 05:09 PM
To me, it seemed as though the system QR code reader couldn't cope with the variety of print-at-home and mobile-screen tickets that the punters brought along with them, contrary to the assertions on the Hibs website (and no doubt the contractors who installed the rotten thing). Those of us who got our paper tickets from Hibs themselves seemed to get in just fine, but almost everyone ahead of me in the queue with homemade paper tickets would go in, wave the paper about for ages with no joy, and have to come out of the queue to talk to the stewards, slowing everyone down. It didn't help that Hibs decided to close 3/4 of the turnstiles and run with a skeleton crew.

I'm guessing Hibs fell for a sales pitch and trusted a shiny-toothed salesman to demonstrate their system in ideal conditions, instead of actually doing some sort of real-world test by trying out tickets from every printer (scrunched up in a jacket pocket for a couple of hours, obviously) and every mobile device that the Hibs ticket crew had access to first.


At most airports you scan your printed at home boarding passes by holding them face down on a plate of glass, maybe that's a better way and holding under a scanner at possibly an angle leaves too much margin for a reading error?

Aritch
24-07-2019, 05:14 PM
I've found that my phone screen works so, so much better than a print at home ticket.

There's almost no reason to actually print out tickets. The only reason I can imagine is being worried that your phone battery might die, that's it!

overdrive
24-07-2019, 05:26 PM
I've found that my phone screen works so, so much better than a print at home ticket.

There's almost no reason to actually print out tickets. The only reason I can imagine is being worried that your phone battery might die, that's it!

I’d imagine a few of our older fans don’t have smart phones. My dad didn’t until the last couple of months.

Hibs90
24-07-2019, 05:35 PM
Just as bad last night.

Its going to be a mess all season.

Aritch
24-07-2019, 05:36 PM
I’d imagine a few of our older fans don’t have smart phones. My dad didn’t until the last couple of months.

As you say, though, your dad does have one now. My parents are both in their late 70s and have smart phones. I'm guessing as a percentage of attendees, people without smart phones are certainly in the minority.

And if the issue is familiarity/comfort with using tech, I'm also guessing printing is not much easier for them.

At least the ticket office still offers a paper solution in any case.

Scouse Hibee
24-07-2019, 05:40 PM
Surely the next phase has to be a card that you can add games to online or over the phone as opposed to printing at all.

hibbyfraelibby
24-07-2019, 05:40 PM
I’d imagine a few of our older fans don’t have smart phones. My dad didn’t until the last couple of months.

Chances are if the dont have a smart phond they dont have a pc or laptop to book their ticket on line in the first place

Hermit Crab
24-07-2019, 05:46 PM
I was in the East last night and quite few people had issues getting in, plus there was only 3, maybe 4 turnstiles open.

Radium
24-07-2019, 05:46 PM
4 of us with tickets in Apple Wallet got in without issue. No comfort for those that didn’t.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Blaster
24-07-2019, 05:49 PM
4 of us with tickets in Apple Wallet got in without issue. No comfort for those that didn’t.


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5 in our group. 2 used apple wallet, 3 printed at home. All were fine. The issue for us was only 1 out of 4 turnstiles open

DTS
24-07-2019, 05:50 PM
This may sound stupid but someone made a comment about the way the screen was facing on the iPhone, I’ve got an XS Max which struggled to fit but those with iPhones who it worked for did you have it facing up the way or down facing the ground? Ended up just getting scanned by someone standing in a turnstile. Will be using my season ticket card at all times only using the phone season ticket option(when available) as a back up option

danhibees1875
24-07-2019, 05:53 PM
Surely the next phase has to be a card that you can add games to online or over the phone as opposed to printing at all.

Or an app - which seems to be the way things are going towards. (With a card option for those who don't have smartphones)

I've always thought a Hibernian app which encompasses everything; fixtures, news, interviews, highlights, pre-paid tickets etc would a winner for the club. I'm not aware of any other club doing it though so there's maybe a reason for it being a bad idea.

Callum7
24-07-2019, 05:57 PM
4 of us with tickets in Apple Wallet got in without issue. No comfort for those that didn’t.


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Can you add season tickets to apple wallet?

HappyAsHellas
24-07-2019, 06:51 PM
I just scanned my season ticket (last 2 years) on a barcode app and it worked fine (Samsung) so I think the new ones will still support that being enabled.

BoomtownHibees
24-07-2019, 07:20 PM
This may sound stupid but someone made a comment about the way the screen was facing on the iPhone, I’ve got an XS Max which struggled to fit but those with iPhones who it worked for did you have it facing up the way or down facing the ground? Ended up just getting scanned by someone standing in a turnstile. Will be using my season ticket card at all times only using the phone season ticket option(when available) as a back up option

I had to use mine with the code facing up but the bottom end of my phone in first and then hold it at an angle for the scanner to read it

Radium
24-07-2019, 07:28 PM
This may sound stupid but someone made a comment about the way the screen was facing on the iPhone, I’ve got an XS Max which struggled to fit but those with iPhones who it worked for did you have it facing up the way or down facing the ground? Ended up just getting scanned by someone standing in a turnstile. Will be using my season ticket card at all times only using the phone season ticket option(when available) as a back up option

Facing up on 5s

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190724/97a263e5a36ae8c8dd5f63a1d49ce9cb.jpg




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Radium
24-07-2019, 07:33 PM
Can you add season tickets to apple wallet?

Colin Millar mentions in his update that it is doable but not as straightforward as single tickets. Club are looking at it


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surreyhibbie
24-07-2019, 08:24 PM
Glad I bought old fashioned tickets at the ticket office yesterday - no problems at all!

A bit of a queue on Saturday but again no big deal.

Would definitely seem easier to download to a phone though. Hope it gets sorted before we get some decent sized crowds.