Kudos to the Gopher Ticket Office!

I just heard that all of the students that applied got tickets to the game (there may have been a glitch or two, but I'm guessing not many)- which I think is phenomenal. I really think they did a fantastic job of prioritizing tickets. As Snowman said, let the students go, and they did.

Beyond that, it was the point totals, which I completely respect. You need to show appreciation for your longtime fans. I'm not sure how other schools do this - but I'm glad it wasn't a 1st come 1st serve type of thing. They also got information out to people by 11am this morning, really fast turnaround.

As a person who did not receive tickets, I thought this way was very fair, and they took on a very difficult task and handled it very well. Our ticket office doesn't get enough props, so I wanted to give a shout out to them.

GopherLady said:

I just heard that all of the students that applied got tickets to the game (there may have been a glitch or two, but I'm guessing not many)- which I think is phenomenal. I really think they did a fantastic job of prioritizing tickets. As Snowman said, let the students go, and they did.

Beyond that, it was the point totals, which I completely respect.

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I have been totally unimpressed with the ticket office in my years of dealing with them, but it sounds like they got this one right. Well done. Hopefully there is more of that.

GopherJake said:

I have been totally unimpressed with the ticket office in my years of dealing with them, but it sounds like they got this one right. Well done. Hopefully there is more of that.

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I think a lot of that has to do with getting students that may not know a lot of information. Anytime I've dealt with one of the full time staff, they have been more than knowledgeable and helpful - I do hope you have more experiences like I have!

Like I posted on another thread, I just wish they wouldn't change our passwords every 90 days. Make it EASY for us to buy tickets.

Although, from another poster, I hear the ticket office is working on solving that problem (how about something as simple as NOT making us change them!)

GopherJack said:

Like I posted on another thread, I just wish they wouldn't change our passwords every 90 days. Make it EASY for us to buy tickets.

Although, from another poster, I hear the ticket office is working on solving that problem (how about something as simple as NOT making us change them!)

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In the TO's defense, it sounds like that issue is being caused by the U's IT security policies. Working in IT/IS myself, I can attest to the fact that all it takes is one hard-a** IT guy who prioritizes policy (90 day passwords reset) over logic (ticket holders don't work for the U or have access to any important info despite the fact that they technically have a U log-on for the purpose of purchasing tickets) to really make things painful for everyone.

GopherLady said:

I think a lot of that has to do with getting students that may not know a lot of information. Anytime I've dealt with one of the full time staff, they have been more than knowledgeable and helpful - I do hope you have more experiences like I have!

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Theyre helpful when you ask, but whoever came up with the idea on how to disburse student season football tix was really lacking in common sense

GopherLady said:

I think a lot of that has to do with getting students that may not know a lot of information. Anytime I've dealt with one of the full time staff, they have been more than knowledgeable and helpful - I do hope you have more experiences like I have!

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I'm not a student, but was treated like a number every time I called for years. Honestly, though, the past two years I have gotten much better service - the type of service I would expect from a program that put me and everyone else through the Monson years and had a shrinking season ticket base. As P.A. says on KFAN, I hope this is a trend and not a mirage.

gopherphan said:

Theyre helpful when you ask, but whoever came up with the idea on how to disburse student season football tix was really lacking in common sense

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Don't know about football, but that has been my issue. My seats would not improve even though the number of season tickets was shrinking. I told them 2 years ago I would not renew unless I improved. Voila! It shouldn't have to come to that.

They are reconfiguring seating coming up in men's b-ball. I hope they get it right and don't "corporatize" the entire building.

GopherJake said:

Don't know about football, but that has been my issue. My seats would not improve even though the number of season tickets was shrinking. I told them 2 years ago I would not renew unless I improved. Voila! It shouldn't have to come to that.

They are reconfiguring seating coming up in men's b-ball. I hope they get it right and don't "corporatize" the entire building.

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You have to realize that when season ticket holders shrink, it is usually those who have not held them for more than 5 years or corporations. These people leaving would not free up open seats for you to move in. And please dont be that guy who says, "if you dont upgrade me, I am not renewing" Nothing worse than having that attitude in life. The TO is not out to screw you over, so get over yourself.

To DLguy

DLguy said:

You have to realize that when season ticket holders shrink, it is usually those who have not held them for more than 5 years or corporations. These people leaving would not free up open seats for you to move in.

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Please don't make assumptions about my particular situation.

On three separate occasions over a period of 15 years we had people move into seats near us that were better than ours that had been ticket holders for fewer years. We asked all three of them if they had donated to the University or were alumni or staff. The answer to those questions was "no."

DLguy said:

And please dont be that guy who says, "if you dont upgrade me, I am not renewing" Nothing worse than having that attitude in life. The TO is not out to screw you over, so get over yourself.

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I never said they were out to "screw me over." I said their service was poor. There's a huge difference. I had tried several different tactics, none of which worked. What would you have me do? The fact was, I was going to drop my tickets if we didn't improve. I gave them a chance to change my mind and they did. It was not an idle threat.

In light of this, do you still have a problem with my view?

GopherJake, sorry if I get a little defensive. But have been apart of the renewal process in my time at the U and know first hand that it is done 100% fairly and people are upgraded if there is an upgrade available and they requested it. Upgrades are also a lot harder to do if there are more than 2 seats in your group. Anything over 2 is very tricky when trying to upgrade.

Many times each year people would call in complaining about how they didnt get upgraded. We would go back and look at their form and see that they did not check the box asking to be upgraded. Not saying that is you, but people forget to check that box a lot.

Just trying to shed a little light on the subject. The TO gets bashed a lot on this board, and I am just trying to shed some insight as to why people may have problems.

BTW, the TO does check this board and when problems are talked about, they try and come up with solutions right away for them.

Does Dr.Don ever get upgraded by the Beer Office when he buys a season ticket's worth of beer?

DLguy said:

GopherJake, sorry if I get a little defensive. ... Anything over 2 is very tricky when trying to upgrade.

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Thanks for the re-characterized reply.

No personal offense - and I don't want to start a pissing match - but if you work for the TO, your response to me (not this one, your original) was very unprofessional. Don't take it personally, but this is what I am talking about. Your immediate response was to blame me without the facts. If you don't work for the TO, then I don't know why you would defend them so much.

We have 2 seats and always have. In each of the above-mentioned three scenarios, they were also 2. We mentioned these on our apps and checked the appropriate boxes and called. Nothing happened until I threatened to drop my tickets. Lo and behold we have moved up twice and gotten personal service, including face-to-face meetings and viewings of options. I also will be big enough to admit my original post was a little over-the-top, in light of this, and for that, I apologize. I am actually quite happy with our location now - am afraid in 2 years it will likely change again.

I do appreciate what they have done for us the past 2-3 years and hope that kind of service continues. Including my donation, I pump a lot of $$ per year into the U. I could go to just as many games as I go to, getting better seats, for less $, using StubHub and/or Craig's list. (I often travel for work and have kids, so give away my seats when I can't go - because they can rarely be sold for anything, at least during the pre-season garbage schedule games.) I view the excess as a "donation" to my great state institution. All I've ever wanted was some appreciation and professional service.

Go Gophers! Sweet 16 or bust!!!!

No longer work there, been out of college a few years. I defend the TO because I worked there for 4 years while in college. With that experience, I know how everything works over there so I reply to threads like this to clear up issues. I am sure that in recent years, due to the economy, it has been easier to improve your seats. I do know that for awhile there was a very high renewal rate so improvements of seats were not easy, and the TO is not gonna move your seats unless it is a true upgrade.

GopherJake said:

Thanks for the re-characterized reply.

No personal offense - and I don't want to start a pissing match - but if you work for the TO, your response to me (not this one, your original) was very unprofessional. Don't take it personally, but this is what I am talking about. Your immediate response was to blame me without the facts. If you don't work for the TO, then I don't know why you would defend them so much.

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I'm pretty sure the statement was that "in his time at the U..." Which could be inferred that he is no longer a member of the GTO.

GoAUpher said:

In the TO's defense, it sounds like that issue is being caused by the U's IT security policies. Working in IT/IS myself, I can attest to the fact that all it takes is one hard-a** IT guy who prioritizes policy (90 day passwords reset) over logic (ticket holders don't work for the U or have access to any important info despite the fact that they technically have a U log-on for the purpose of purchasing tickets) to really make things painful for everyone.

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I work at the U, and we have to change our passwords for our main log-in (email, access to other services such as calender, internal websites, etc.) about once per year, which is much less than every 90 days. The 90 days rule seems way out of line with current U practice in non athletic web applications. Blaming University IT policy seems like a cop-out. Athletics probably has an antiquated system and hasn't been able to figure out how to make it work.

skoalvikings said:

I work at the U, and we have to change our passwords for our main log-in (email, access to other services such as calender, internal websites, etc.) about once per year, which is much less than every 90 days. The 90 days rule seems way out of line with current U practice in non athletic web applications. Blaming University IT policy seems like a cop-out. Athletics probably has an antiquated system and hasn't been able to figure out how to make it work.

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There are plenty of possible reasons why your password experience at the U is different. You're assuming that your log-in is subject to the rules/regs of the same IT dept. Over here at UW there are multiple IT groups. I'm sure the same is true at the U. Folks with your job description might also be subject to more relaxed password regs where the ticket system may be set up to a more strick default password requirement (which would be dumb if true given the users/information).

Ultimately it really isn't a cop out to "blame" IT. I work in IT/IS and this issue sounds like exactly what our teams are here to help with. If the athletic dept has an antiquated system that they "can't figure out" then its IT's job to help them/improve things. The only way the TO is at fault is if they know about the problem and never pursue a solution with IT.