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1-866 FAU Owls problem

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I agree with Marcus on this one. When I called to order my Kentucky tickets, I kept getting a recorded message telling me to leave a message. I wanted to buy tickets. I finaly got a human after calling a few times. Then it went well.


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/faublog/

Home > FAU Sports

Off the hook
By Marcus Nelson | Tuesday, August 28, 2007, 09:57 PM



The Palm Beach Post I-team was in high gear on Tuesday with some real investigative journalism. Since we are including phone numbers on how to order tickets in our fact boxes for our football preview which comes out Thursday, I sent in the number for ordering tickets which is - say it with me FAU fans ?1-866-FAU-OWLS.? It?s the number that is on the television and radio commercials and every piece of promotional material given out.

There?s only one problem.

The editors on the sports desk dialed the number multiple times on Monday and Tuesday - standard procedure to verify the number is correct - and could only get the voice mail of a athletic department staff member. Then they called me because it looked like I made a mistake and did I know the real number for how to order tickets.

I dialed the number and also just got the voice mail of a staff member. This was during business hours on a weekday.

No wonder that the Owls? attendance was the lowest in I-A last season if people that want to buy tickets get someone?s voice mail.

If FAU doesn?t want to give the appearance it has a real ticket department, I have no problem with that. But why go to the trouble of establishing a toll-free number with the nifty numbers ?FAU OWLS? and then plaster the number all over the advertising if the phone isn?t going to be manned by a team of people selling tickets. If only one person is selling the tickets, - and last I checked, FAU does have a ticket department staff - what happens when that person steps away from the desk, goes to lunch or, God forbid, be on the phone taking another order?

With modern phones systems, it easily could be programmed to have every phone in the Oxley Center ringing when someone calls to order tickets. I?ll bet Howard Schnellenberger wouldn?t mind taking in order if it meant more fans coming to see the Owls.

THEY?RE BACK: Owls fans would have been happy to see DE Josh Pinnick who was back on the field Tuesday with limited contact. Also, WR Chris Bonner was off a crutch and jogging around, but not going through offensive drills. And a great sight to see was WR Frantz Simeon practicing with the scout team. Simeon is academically ineligible this fall, but still has a year of eligibility of remaining but could return in 2008.



FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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1-866 FAU Owls problem


illinoisowl said

I agree with Marcus on this one. When I called to order my Kentucky tickets, I kept getting a recorded message telling me to leave a message. I wanted to buy tickets. I finaly got a human after calling a few times. Then it went well.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/faublog/

Unbelievable.

See, it's not just student apathy that makes it difficult to fill the stands.
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1-866 FAU Owls problem

To be fair, Shelly Binegar left for a new job and they may have just hired a new ticket person. This is NOT an excuse though. Not having someone answer the number you advertise for tickets at all times during business hours is unacceptable. Even if they caught that person at lunch or something, how hard is it to forward your calls to another desk for an hour? At least have a message directing people to FAUsports website to buy tickets. Especially on the week of your home opener. Hopefully the Athletic department learns from this mistake and doesn't let it happen again. I hope they read the blog and are embarassed by it. Good for Marcus calling them out on it.
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1-866 FAU Owls problem

This is a joke, right. Is it April 1?

Who at FAU is going to step up and fix these problems?
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1-866 FAU Owls problem

1-866 FAU Owls problem

I called earlier in the week and could not get through. When I got my season tickets in the mail, the parking pass for Dolphin Stadium was not in my packet so I called yesterday to inquire and had this conversation:

Me: I didn't receive the parking pass for Dolphin Stadium.
FAU Ticket office: We don't control the parking at Dolphin Stadium.
Me: But you advertise that the parking paid in advance includes a pass at Dolphin Stadium.
FAU ticket office: That could be a misprint on the website. Try using one of the passes from Lockhart and see if that works.
Me: …and what if it doesn't work, those are for Lockhart.
FAU ticket office: We don't control the parking lot at Dolphin Stadium.
Me: So you charge loyal season ticket holders more for buying advanced parking tickets because the website says $22 for all passes, and if I paid day of event parking for just Lockhart, and you are saying Dolphin Stadium parking passes are not included then I am paying more? That makes no sense. Whom can I speak to to get an answer?
FAU ticket office: We will call you back.

An hour later the same person called me back and said those that paid for Dolphin Stadium parking passes will be receiving them in the mail at some point.

I have no confidence I will ever see those passes. Not a big deal but the point is that you offer those extra things for convenience and now it is less convenient due to the calls and trouble.

The person on the phone had no direction and was clearly just making up answers instead of getting a real answer.

If I was a first-time caller looking for season tickets that could have been a turn off.
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1-866 FAU Owls problem

Yes I must add that I myself have called the Athletic Department and can never get a live person. once I did reach a young lady whom I?ll call Maureen, the person I needed to talk to was said to be unavailable (even though I had just got off the phone with that person) so I had to leave a message. Well I gave her my name Ed, she asked me how to spell it. I said E.D., then I said I was calling from Tampa, and that?s right I had to spell Tampa too. Then after almost three hours I called back as I never got a return call. I was concerned that they never received my message, but they had, they just made no effort to call me back in a timely fashion as they were awaiting my call. How can FAU, a university have someone answering the phones who can not spell a simple two letter name, as Ed, or know how to spell Tampa. Is there a day care at Fau, called the FAU Athletic Department ? Maybe someone has been able to cut into the phone lines and has had the calls rerouted to MTSU. Now that would make sense.

Nice job Marcus, maybe we can get this cleared up by next season. Talk about shooting one self in the leg guys, maybe they are better off letting the messages go to voice mail.

As Paul Harvey used to say, now you know the rest of the story !

Hope the Coach and his players are better prepared, they are, do not worry Owl Country. The Coach may be the only one who knows what he is doing !

Go Coach, Go OWLS !!

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1-866 FAU Owls problem


tampas1owl said

 Maybe someone has been able to cut into the phone lines and has had the calls rerouted to MTSU. Now that would make sense.


Nice!!

The whole thing is a mess. However, I must say that I ordered away game tickets for MTSU a few years back and I was able to talk to someone directly in the FAU ticket office and they were very helpful. That doesn't make up for the current situation, it just indicates that it wasn't always this bad which means that for some reason it has regressed.

GO OWLS!!!

2017 and 2019 Conference USA Champions
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1-866 FAU Owls problem

Thats bureaucracy at its best. There is no incentive to do better and no competition to want to raise the bar and stay competitive like in a business. I guess its good enough for government work.

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1-866 FAU Owls problem

It all depends on who you get, really, when you call the dept. You can get someone who knows what they're talking about, and then call back 5 mins later and get a complete moron.
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1-866 FAU Owls problem

Marcus must have gotten through to the right people....I called with a question a little while ago and got through on the first ring.....Hopefully, this continues.
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