If You Are A Concerned Thistle Fan You Should Read

[MMCF]

You may need some time to read this. It is a story that has taken some time to resolve. Now that it has reached a form of closure I think that it is important that you know, if you we not already aware of what you are dealing with an a supporter of Partick Thistle.

 

I am not going to hide behind handles here so I will tell you straight off the bat that my name in Paul Dorrian. I am a Season Ticket holder and have been since 1995. I sit in Seat 96 in Row S. I am a Silver Level member of the Centary Fund, joining through the pervious Jags Trust fund. I attended the meeting which led to the amalgamation of the two funds and voted for the motion. I have a Soccer Saver account with the Dunfermline Building Society. Some of you may recall when I did a little selfish writing for Lianne's .net site and that I also contributed a number of Match Reports for the same. In short I am a Joe Jags fan who does what he can and supports the Board where I believe that it is in the best interests of the club.

 

I also regularly buy a 50/50 half time draw ticket from the same lady on the concourse, almost every game. And that's really where this story begins. On the 15th April 2010 i attended the Ayr Utd game. It was unusual in that my regular partner in things Red and Yellow was stuck in Egypt courtsey of an Icelandic volcano. And my brother-in-law had suffered a serious fall in London two days earlier and it was a last minute thing in arriving at the game. But I still managed to buy my two 50/50 half time draw tickets. What was even more unusual was that on that day I actually won, first prize. I mentioned the amazing result to Derek and Chic who sit to my right in Row S. I went to the main door at full time and was told to phone Firhill on the Monday to register my claim. I went of to our usual corner of the 'Shoe and bought our small Jags Unit gathered there a little gold stuff from Orkney. I went home and on the Monday I phoned Firhill and gave my details over the phone as requested. And then I waited.

 

I took my eye off the ball during the months of May and June. My brother in law did not recover from his injuries and passed away in May. We had a quite horrible holiday and it was not until I cam home to my new Season Ticket that it dawned on me that I had heard no word about the Half Time draw win. On 25th July I wrote to Partick Thistle to enquire what had happened to the prize. There was no response. On the 8th of August I sent the club an email again asking about the result of the half time draw. On the 19th August I sent a email to the Chair of the Jags Trust outlining the situation. He replied immediately but he was hampered by the fact that he was in fact out of the country at that time. But at least someone had replied. On the 25th Ausust I received an email from Mr Prentice at the club asking if I had any reply to the enquiry about the half time draw that "you may have won". I responded that I had not heard anything. More silence.

 

On 13th September I wrote again to the Chair of the Jags Trust informing him that if he could make no progress on my account than I would ask for the matter to be officially investigated. Essentially I would contact the police and ask them to look into a potential fraud at the football club. At around the same time I had been contacted by a significant member of our Thistle community on another matter. He was horrified by the lack of response from the club resolved to make further enquiries. Between these two the matter has been quckly resolved. Today in a flurry of communications I have been informed that I will receive a cheque in the post by the end of the week. This explanation in essence amounted to three lines from Mr Prentice citing the drawbacks of a skeleton staff and that things sometimes overlooked. My understanding unofficially is that there was some resistance to the pressure from those working on my behalf, that blame was shifted onto junior inexperienced members of staff, that there was some doubt as whether I had contacted Firhill in the first place. In short I was left with the distinct impression that nobody really wanted to stand up and take responsibility for this shambles. Put another way by one more eloquent than I, it's official Partick Thistle (The Board of?) cannot even run a raffle.

 

In conclusion I ask you all to carefully consider whom do you trust to run your club? I am not the first to have been shabbliy treated by those currently charged with the running of the club. I would like to think that I would be the last. But that may be a most optomistic view. Rather I feel that the money, when it arrives, will go into that Soccer Saver account against a day, which I fear is not long off, when it will take more than £180 to ensure that there is still a team in Red and Yellow playing in Glasgow for us to support.

 

Bank your money folks. We, the supporters, are going to need it.

 

Fly the Flag. Save the Jags

 

Paul Dorrian

The Monday Morning Centre Forward

[Willjag]

I can't believe we still pay this guy! And not surprised to hear that a Board Member is hinting at a Jags fan being dishonest. A quick check of the accounts should have shown that the money hadn't been paid unless of course the Financial Director isn't up to that job? Shambolic.

 

Anyway, glad you got it resolved Paul. Here's hoping the cheque aint a rubber one!

[The Incredible Adam Spark]

blame was shifted onto junior inexperienced members of staff

Surprise, surprise. I've heard this is Prentice's favourite way of deflecting blame from his door.

 

Here's a tip if you're reading this Eddie - quit whining about about the "skeleton staff" and pull your finger out your arse to help them.

[Munkey]

I'm glad you got the matter resolved sir, but sadly unsurprised by the whole thing.

How many 50/50 prizes go unclaimed you reckon?

 

And I'm sorry to hear about your brother in Law.

[jaf]

Shocking treatment of any customer but a loyal one like yourself, it really just beggars belief.

 

Commiserations to you for having your experience of being a customer of Partick Thistle ruined in this way.

 

And congratulations to whoever sorted this out for you, and shame on those who didn't but claim a wage to do so.

 

I think the previous posters advice to EP, may be a few words too long.

[thistledome]

Stuff me. It's bad enough that the team is a Shambles and no wonder if that's how the Firhill Admin treat their loyal fans. It's maybe time that there is a Complete Clearout at Firhill and that means the whole lot of you!

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Should be shocked at reading of this but the more shocking thing is I'm not surprised.

 

 

 

Sorry to hear about your brother in law, Paul.

[falklandal1]

You may need some time to read this. It is a story that has taken some time to resolve. Now that it has reached a form of closure I think that it is important that you know, if you we not already aware of what you are dealing with an a supporter of Partick Thistle.

 

I am not going to hide behind handles here so I will tell you straight off the bat that my name in Paul Dorrian. I am a Season Ticket holder and have been since 1995. I sit in Seat 96 in Row S. I am a Silver Level member of the Centary Fund, joining through the pervious Jags Trust fund. I attended the meeting which led to the amalgamation of the two funds and voted for the motion. I have a Soccer Saver account with the Dunfermline Building Society. Some of you may recall when I did a little selfish writing for Lianne's .net site and that I also contributed a number of Match Reports for the same. In short I am a Joe Jags fan who does what he can and supports the Board where I believe that it is in the best interests of the club.

 

I also regularly buy a 50/50 half time draw ticket from the same lady on the concourse, almost every game. And that's really where this story begins. On the 15th April 2010 i attended the Ayr Utd game. It was unusual in that my regular partner in things Red and Yellow was stuck in Egypt courtsey of an Icelandic volcano. And my brother-in-law had suffered a serious fall in London two days earlier and it was a last minute thing in arriving at the game. But I still managed to buy my two 50/50 half time draw tickets. What was even more unusual was that on that day I actually won, first prize. I mentioned the amazing result to Derek and Chic who sit to my right in Row S. I went to the main door at full time and was told to phone Firhill on the Monday to register my claim. I went of to our usual corner of the 'Shoe and bought our small Jags Unit gathered there a little gold stuff from Orkney. I went home and on the Monday I phoned Firhill and gave my details over the phone as requested. And then I waited.

 

I took my eye off the ball during the months of May and June. My brother in law did not recover from his injuries and passed away in May. We had a quite horrible holiday and it was not until I cam home to my new Season Ticket that it dawned on me that I had heard no word about the Half Time draw win. On 25th July I wrote to Partick Thistle to enquire what had happened to the prize. There was no response. On the 8th of August I sent the club an email again asking about the result of the half time draw. On the 19th August I sent a email to the Chair of the Jags Trust outlining the situation. He replied immediately but he was hampered by the fact that he was in fact out of the country at that time. But at least someone had replied. On the 25th Ausust I received an email from Mr Prentice at the club asking if I had any reply to the enquiry about the half time draw that "you may have won". I responded that I had not heard anything. More silence.

 

On 13th September I wrote again to the Chair of the Jags Trust informing him that if he could make no progress on my account than I would ask for the matter to be officially investigated. Essentially I would contact the police and ask them to look into a potential fraud at the football club. At around the same time I had been contacted by a significant member of our Thistle community on another matter. He was horrified by the lack of response from the club resolved to make further enquiries. Between these two the matter has been quckly resolved. Today in a flurry of communications I have been informed that I will receive a cheque in the post by the end of the week. This explanation in essence amounted to three lines from Mr Prentice citing the drawbacks of a skeleton staff and that things sometimes overlooked. My understanding unofficially is that there was some resistance to the pressure from those working on my behalf, that blame was shifted onto junior inexperienced members of staff, that there was some doubt as whether I had contacted Firhill in the first place. In short I was left with the distinct impression that nobody really wanted to stand up and take responsibility for this shambles. Put another way by one more eloquent than I, it's official Partick Thistle (The Board of?) cannot even run a raffle.

 

In conclusion I ask you all to carefully consider whom do you trust to run your club? I am not the first to have been shabbliy treated by those currently charged with the running of the club. I would like to think that I would be the last. But that may be a most optomistic view. Rather I feel that the money, when it arrives, will go into that Soccer Saver account against a day, which I fear is not long off, when it will take more than £180 to ensure that there is still a team in Red and Yellow playing in Glasgow for us to support.

 

Bank your money folks. We, the supporters, are going to need it.

 

Fly the Flag. Save the Jags

 

Paul Dorrian

The Monday Morning Centre Forward

 

many years ago i was involved in player sponsorship,it was anything but plain sailing trying to get hold of the jersey,i have decided against repeating the experience since,you end up getting the feeling that once you pay they lose interest

[yoda-jag]

Should be shocked at reading of this but the more shocking thing is I'm not surprised.

 

 

 

Sorry to hear about your brother in law, Paul.

[Hot Shot]

Paul

Ok then - when are you going to offer to take on the responsibility of

running the 50/50 draw since you think you could do so much better ?

I look forward to hearing

Allan Cowan

[stolenscone]

I should point out that the matter was resolved relatively quickly (holidays aside) once the Trust involved itself. While I did not encounter much of the resistance that Paul refers to, and Paul's previous attempts to resolve this were not denied to me, I have no reason to doubt what he says as true.

 

The bottom line here is one of very basic customer service, which no company in the service industry can survive long without. The supporters' association is there in part to assist with this sort of problem, and bridge any gap between the supporters and the Club, but clearly something has gone very wrong when the circumstances outlined by Paul come to pass.

 

It would be easy enough to write this off as an unfortunate isolated event, but anectodal evidence suggests otherwise. At a time when the Club badly needs bums on seats, it seems perverse not to get the small stuff right, and to drive folk away as a consequence.

 

It's true that a few areas of customer service have improved at the Club over the last few years, but many more seem to have deteriorated beyond anything that you would credibly expect. For me, that's all part of the fundamental breakdown in the relationship between the board of the Club and the supporters. It needs fixing without delay, or we'll reach a critical mass of outrage and disinterest and the Club will die, whether that be in a bang or a whimper.

 

Everyone has a role to play in fixing this, from the top down. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

 

Meantime, I'm glad that Paul got his cheque, but saddened that the whole process has left such a bad taste in the mouth.

 

David

[Vom Itorium]

I mentioned in a thread elsewhere how I thought that over the last few years things seemed to have finally looked to be starting to become more professional at Firhill. Like everything, it seems that this was only a short-term thing as we now look to be back in the position where amateur hour has returned even though the club likes to pretend otherwise.

 

This is just one of many horror stories you hear these days. It looks to me as though apathy has not only set in amongst the fans but also amongst those 'Thistle-minded' custodians who are there to secure the future of the Club. It is time to step aside Gentlemen. A bowling club somewhere awaits...

[Dr.D]

How difficult is it to collect all the income from a 50/50 draw and after 2 hours have the winnings laid aside in the Office to be collected after the game? Do these idiots expect say a visiting fan or even a distant supporter to "Come back on Monday " Puts you off buying any such tickets or to be in the least way supportive of these incompetants.

[GrantB]

The saddest thing about Paul's story is that I'm not surprised and shocked by it.

 

A terrible way to treat a loyal fan and one of many reasons why I question handing over a single penny of my money to these clowns.

[Barney Rubble]

Reading MMCF's treatment by the custodians of our club made me dig out this week's Sunday Times Culture supplement. It ran a story on the ridiculous prices being charged by bands and non-entities for meet-and-greet at gigs, and the general lack of uptake by punters. the concluding paragraph caught my eye. It runs as follows:

 

Still there is a fine line between giving fans who can afford it a better gig experience and caring more about the money than the music. 'When you start caring more about the money, you're just ripping people off. And once fans feel they've been ripped off, they won't go back again. It's when your standard tickets stop selling that you're really in trouble.'

 

Sound familiar?

[Rid Skwerr]

How difficult is it to collect all the income from a 50/50 draw and after 2 hours have the winnings laid aside in the Office to be collected after the game? Do these idiots expect say a visiting fan or even a distant supporter to "Come back on Monday " Puts you off buying any such tickets or to be in the least way supportive of these incompetants.

 

In the Golden Days of the 800 Club, it used to be collected, counted, reconciled against tickets sold, and half the takings put in an envelope BEFORE HALF-TIME for collection by the winner there and then, all done by amateur volunteers, not "Club Professionals".

 

The current arrangements are typical of the reverse progress we can see all around under this Board's tenure.

[thomas]

Sad state of affairs for a jags fan to be treated like a piece of shit on their shoe.

 

Annoying thing is that these morons know that week in week out we will follow the thistle 'over land and see' as we are loyal to the name, the club and our love will never die, and we will keep giving these morons our hard earned cash, but the sad thing is they wont respect or acknowledge us for this.

 

Im reaching the stage that im embarrassed to be a jags fan due to the way the club is ran, but will be proud to be a wearer of the colours,

[Collins Out!]

Paul, I used to give you a hard time for your MMCF posts on .net, and I apologise for that.

What you have described shows that those in charge of the club have utterly lost the plot and need to go.

 

Hughes - bean counter that you are, Cowan and Prentice please go now. NOW.

[kni]

The only way the Board will change is if we are taken over, possibly after going into administration.

[hamiltonjag]

Truly gut-wrenching.

[yoda-jag]

How difficult is it to collect all the income from a 50/50 draw and after 2 hours have the winnings laid aside in the Office to be collected after the game? Do these idiots expect say a visiting fan or even a distant supporter to "Come back on Monday " Puts you off buying any such tickets or to be in the least way supportive of these incompetants.

 

Spot On.

 

 

Its a fkng shambles.

 

The 50/50 draw, the way the club is being run (into the ground), the team on the park, the manager, you name it, everything about the club is shockingly bad.

 

 

 

Im reaching the stage that im embarrassed to be a jags fan due to the way the club is ran

 

^^^This^^^

[Big Welshy]

Sorry to hear about your loss, mate.

[stillresigned]

As a few other people have already said. the really sad thing is that I am not for one minute surprised.

[Milo]

Paul, I can barely imagine what it must have been like having to deal such penny-pinching, insect-minded bureaucracy while still coping with the death of a close member of your family; and yet your post is a model of calm and restraint. I feel sure that you will have the inner strength to recover from your loss. You have my best wishes.