Season ticket early bird date to be extended

[ClaretTony]

I'm told the season ticket early bird cut off date is to be extended - no details as yet but we can expect some news today.

[beddie]

Oh that's good news. I usually sort my sons ticket out, we decided rather than continue paying for it up front we'll change it to d/d - couldn't find a way to it on-line so emailed the club. They were soon back to us and sorted the link out and so it could be done, apparently the person who sorted it for us was working from home. Great service from them.

[Aclaret]

Good news I usually pay in cash so it's all done and dusted for the season. It's extended for the foreseeable future.

[ClaretTony]

No change for those on direct debit but extended early bird for the foreseeable future.

[wilks_bfc]

No change for those on direct debit but extended early bird for the foreseeable future.

No payment breaks but no cancellation charge if wish to cancel

However, we understand that supporters may have other priorities during the current climate and, as such, any supporters who wish to cancel their direct debit season ticket may do so, and the club will waive the cancellation charge.

[Burnley1989]

Very fare & sensible

[ClaretTony]

Not sure they could have done much more

[2 Bee Holed]

Very fare & sensible

Genuine question, is it fair and reasonable?

Am I interpreting this correctly?
If you pay by cash annually for your seat and you normally pay during the Early Bird Period, you don't have to pay yet,
because that period has been extended indefinitely.
So I assume you keep your seat and you can pay for it at some indeterminate point in the future,
when a decision is made as to when the Early Bird period is ending.

However, if you are like me and pay by DD's, you have to continue paying your normal monthly amount.
Furthermore, I am paying for a season which may or may not happen.

I am just about to email the club now and ask if I can now cancel my DD's, and offer to pay annually.
I will promise to pay for my seat during the indeterminate Early Bird period.
That way I can keep my seats and pay for them in the future.

Have I got this right?

[yosserhughes]

Very well done by the Club, and thank you for keeping us informed Tony.

[Darthlaw]

At least they have finally seen sense.

[uptheclarets]

No change for those on direct debit but extended early bird for the foreseeable future.

Disgusted they are not doing it for the direct holders.

Maybe they have had to extend because so many direct debits were cancelled on Friday along with our 3.

[paulatky]

Genuine question, is it fair and reasonable?

Am I interpreting this correctly?
If you pay by cash annually for your seat and you normally pay during the Early Bird Period, you don't have to pay yet,
because that period has been extended indefinitely.
So I assume you keep your seat and you can pay for it at some indeterminate point in the future,
when a decision is made as to when the Early Bird period is ending.

However, if you are like me and pay by DD's, you have to continue paying your normal monthly amount.
Furthermore, I am paying for a season which may or may not happen.

I am just about to email the club now and ask if I can now cancel my DD's, and offer to pay annually.
I will promise to pay for my seat during the indeterminate Early Bird period.
That way I can keep my seats and pay for them in the future.

Have I got this right?

Looks like you have got it right.

Said before club not handling this well.
Slap in the face to those that pay by direct debit.

[2 Bee Holed]

Looks like you have got it right.

Said before club not handling this well.
Slap in the face to those that pay by direct debit.

I have now emailed asking if I can cancel DD's, switch to annual payment during the Early Bird period and keep my seats.

I am surprised the vast majority are not doing likewise.
There is no guarantee the 20/21 season will happen or if it will be a full season.
I am a bit too old to be paying for imaginary things!

[alboclaret]

I have now emailed asking if I can cancel DD's, switch to annual payment during the Early Bird period and keep my seats.

I am surprised the vast majority are not doing likewise.
There is no guarantee the 20/21 season will happen or if it will be a full season.
I am a bit too old to be paying for imaginary things!

Refunds usually materialise if goods are not delivered

[ClaretTony]

Disgusted they are not doing it for the direct holders.

Maybe they have had to extend because so many direct debits were cancelled on Friday along with our 3.

They have no option with the direct debits. Not sure what else you expected them to do. I don’t benefit but it will help a lot of people who don’t do direct debit who can no longer commit in the next week.

[ClaretTony]

I have now emailed asking if I can cancel DD's, switch to annual payment during the Early Bird period and keep my seats.

I am surprised the vast majority are not doing likewise.
There is no guarantee the 20/21 season will happen or if it will be a full season.
I am a bit too old to be paying for imaginary things!

If you switch to annual payment you will need to pay for it won’t you? And if 2020/21 doesn’t happen then they would have to refund.

[Lowbankclaret]

Oh that's good news. I usually sort my sons ticket out, we decided rather than continue paying for it up front we'll change it to d/d - couldn't find a way to it on-line so emailed the club. They were soon back to us and sorted the link out and so it could be done, apparently the person who sorted it for us was working from home. Great service from them.

Which email did you use, I wanted to change to DD and sent an email but didn’t get a reply yet!

[beddie]

Lowbankclaret.

It was ticketoffice@burnleyfc.com

[wilks_bfc]

I have now emailed asking if I can cancel DD's, switch to annual payment during the Early Bird period and keep my seats.

I am surprised the vast majority are not doing likewise.
There is no guarantee the 20/21 season will happen or if it will be a full season.
I am a bit too old to be paying for imaginary things!

So rather than pay instalments of £x for something that might not happen, you want to pay a large lump sum full price for something that might not happen?

It might just be me but I don’t see any advantages in that

[Grumps]

So rather than pay instalments of £x for something that might not happen, you want to pay a large lump sum full price for something that might not happen?

It might just be me but I don’t see any advantages in that

Is he not saying that he will buy a ticket when we know the season is going ahead, therefore not paying dd for several months, hence saving money now?

[ChorltonCharlie]

Am I missing something here? Can't you sign up for DD whenever you buy your season ticket?

[steve1264b]

Just shows you can't please all the people.I pay cash up front. There club has had my £800 since they went on sale. Im not complaining and if they cancel the rest of the season i won't be asking for a refund.

Well done to the club doing what it can to help those who are struggling.

[steve1264b]

Just shows you can't please all the people.I pay cash up front. There club has had my £800 since they went on sale. Im not complaining and if they cancel the rest of the season i won't be asking for a refund.

Well done to the club doing what it can to help those who are struggling.

[2 Bee Holed]

They have no option with the direct debits. Not sure what else you expected them to do. I don’t benefit but it will help a lot of people who don’t do direct debit who can no longer commit in the next week.

CT.
The Ticket Office replied very quickly.
I can indeed cancel my DD's and change to annual payment in the Early Bird period.
My seats will also be held in reserve during the Early Bird period.
I admit that at some point I might have to find a large sum of cash but anything is worth it.
I don't think the 'employed' have grasped that for about 1/3rd of the workforce (self employed/zero hours/agency workers)
we don't know where our next meal is coming from, let alone paying for something that may or may not happen.

I can't see any option for me, other than to cancel my DD and move to early bird payment.
Perhaps this route should have been made clear in the announcement?

Who knows, at the time the Early Bird ends BFC might even say you can also pay for this at £x per month.

To me this is a bit like the Govt.
The Govt. have helped the 'employed' but not the other 1/3rd of the workforce.
Here we have BFC helping the cash payers but ignoring the plight of the Direct Debit payers.
We either all need help or none of us.
I know some are more complicated than others, but things need thinking through, not just jumping in and helping some
but not others.

[2 Bee Holed]

Just shows you can't please all the people.I pay cash up front. There club has had my £800 since they went on sale. Im not complaining and if they cancel the rest of the season i won't be asking for a refund.

Well done to the club doing what it can to help those who are struggling.

It must be nice to be rich.

[2 Bee Holed]

Finally,
Can there be some appreciation here that we are all in different financial positions?

The ticket office asked me for the 2 x clarets numbers so that they can cancel the direct debits.

I have replied saying can I have another 24/48hrs to see if the Chancellor announces some help for the
self employed/zero hours/agency workers.
It must be nice to know you are getting 80% of your salary.

[Devils_Advocate]

Finally,
Can there be some appreciation here that we are all in different financial positions?

The ticket office asked me for the 2 x clarets numbers so that they can cancel the direct debits.

I have replied saying can I have another 24/48hrs to see if the Chancellor announces some help for the
self employed/zero hours/agency workers.
It must be nice to know you are getting 80% of your salary.

Appreciate your situation and feel for you mate and if you currently cant spare the money then what else can you do. All I would say is just consider 3 months down the line and everything starting to clear and suddenly to renew and keep your seats you have to find a lump sum when you have been through months of financial difficulties.

I don't know your exact situation but trying to stretch to the monthly instalments now may work out far better than having to find a lump sum of money in a few months.

In sure you'll look at your options but it can sometimes be harder to look and assess your options rationally when you are in the middle of the problem and have a lot of worry and stress

[2 Bee Holed]

Appreciate your situation and feel for you mate and if you currently cant spare the money then what else can you do. All I would say is just consider 3 months down the line and everything starting to clear and suddenly to renew and keep your seats you have to find a lump sum when you have been through months of financial difficulties.

I don't know your exact situation but trying to stretch to the monthly instalments now may work out far better than having to find a lump sum of money in a few months.

In sure you'll look at your options but it can sometimes be harder to look and assess your options rationally when you are in the middle of the problem and have a lot of worry and stress

Wise words.
That's why I have asked the club to give me another 24/48 hrs to see if help is on the way from the Chancellor.
No money, son stuck in Thailand and now pressure from BFC.
Guess where my priorities are!

[2 Bee Holed]

Just shows you can't please all the people.I pay cash up front. There club has had my £800 since they went on sale. Im not complaining and if they cancel the rest of the season i won't be asking for a refund.

Well done to the club doing what it can to help those who are struggling.

I think you meant to say "some of those who are struggling".

I wonder if you have donated a similar sum to your local foodbank?
I believe the Queen is short of £800, chuck her some too.

[uptheclarets]

They have no option with the direct debits. Not sure what else you expected them to do. I don’t benefit but it will help a lot of people who don’t do direct debit who can no longer commit in the next week.

Why couldnt they do anything ?
Just cancel the direct debits until something definite is known.

Seems easy enough to me.

[ClaretTony]

Why couldnt they do anything ?
Just cancel the direct debits until something definite is known.

Seems easy enough to me.

if it's that easy then perhaps you should contact the club and let them know how. They said: "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the 12-month direct debit option this deadline cannot be extended for supporters purchasing via this method."

[TVC15]

if it's that easy then perhaps you should contact the club and let them know how. They said: "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the 12-month direct debit option this deadline cannot be extended for supporters purchasing via this method."

To be fair I’m not sure what they mean by the “nature of the 12 month direct debit”.....if this is some kind of financial / liability type issue they may have a case (I can’t think of why it would be).
But purely from a technical payments / banking point of view it is a straight forward process to suspend claiming direct debits on high volumes of customers for any given period - whether it be one month, 3 months etc. Having worked in banking for many years where my customers included 30% of local authorities in the UK with far higher volumes of customers / direct debits I am struggling to work out what the issue would be here with Burnley FC doing what is being suggested by some.
They can also if appropriate claim variable / higher amounts when the need to re-commence this arises (as long as the total is no more than the agreement they have with season ticket holders). All direct debits agreements are set up with variable dates and amounts as an option for the the company claiming the direct debits which is one of the main reasons why direct debits are now the vast majority of automated regular payments when 20 years ago it was standing orders which can only be changed in terms of dates or amounts by the person making the payment.

[claretdj]

if it's that easy then perhaps you should contact the club and let them know how. They said: "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the 12-month direct debit option this deadline cannot be extended for supporters purchasing via this method."

Err it could be extended seen as we paid for 19 games this season & we only played 15, so the club owe us, in which this could be deducted from next seasons ticket. What they owe us would cover the next 3 months payments on the dd scheme.

[ClaretTony]

Err it could be extended seen as we paid for 19 games this season & we only played 15, so the club owe us, in which this could be deducted from next seasons ticket. What they owe us would cover the next 3 months payments on the dd scheme.

No club is offering a return as yet for 2019/20. That will obviously change should either the games not be played or be played behind closed doors. The club owes nothing yet.

Interestingly, Brighton have made an offer to their direct debit season ticket holders although they cannot hold back the April payment. They are allowing fans to then freeze for May June, July and pay increased premiums for the remaining eight months. They’ve also confirmed that should their remaining five games not be played those payments will be reduced pro rata by 5/19ths of their 2019/20 ticket price.

[SalisburyClaret]

Can’t please all the people all the time - but this could certainly have been announced before the DD cut off date rather than after it

[beddie]

If the remainder of this season and the whole or part of next season doesn't go ahead will we be refunded regardless of how we've paid. We are all on d/d.

[uptheclarets]

if it's that easy then perhaps you should contact the club and let them know how. They said: "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the 12-month direct debit option this deadline cannot be extended for supporters purchasing via this method."

I did contact the club and cancelled 4 tickets

[uptheclarets]

No club is offering a return as yet for 2019/20. That will obviously change should either the games not be played or be played behind closed doors. The club owes nothing yet.

Interestingly, Brighton have made an offer to their direct debit season ticket holders although they cannot hold back the April payment. They are allowing fans to then freeze for May June, July and pay increased premiums for the remaining eight months. They’ve also confirmed that should their remaining five games not be played those payments will be reduced pro rata by 5/19ths of their 2019/20 ticket price.

Strange how Brighton can do but Burnley cant.

All it would need is for the person to cancel with their bank and then re-instate after 3 months.
No such thing as cant.

[ClaretTony]

I did contact the club and cancelled 4 tickets

And did you tell them how easy it was at the same time as you suggested?

[uptheclarets]

Yes I did and when they said there was nothing they could do I emailed to cancel our 4 on last Friday,
I feel as so many may have done the same maybe the reason they have extended the deadline.

Seems no sense to announce the extension today when the deadline for DD cancellation was Friday.

There is no chance football will start again in the next 3 months,certainly not with crowds as that would require medical backup which wont be available with the coronavirus still ongoing.

The club and PL are living in cloud cuckoo land if they think otherwise.

[Coeus]

Sorry but Can anyone clarify. Will the club give a full refund of all DD payments should you cancel before the 20/21 season start date is confirmed?

[TVC15]

Strange how Brighton can do but Burnley cant.

All it would need is for the person to cancel with their bank and then re-instate after 3 months.
No such thing as cant.

It’s not that simple the way you describe it as it’s not just a matter of re-instating it at your end. Burnley need to make a claim on your bank. If you cancel it and they don’t claim on your bank at a later date it can’t be paid just because you have told your Bank....if it was a standing order you could.

What is simple is if the club agreed to do this. They can tell their bank to not claim on some or all of the set of sort of sort codes and accounts they have for their season ticket holders...this file can be amended according to whatever they want to do - eg suspend everyone’s for 3 months or just those who have requested it etc.

The mortgage companies will be doing this right now with those people who have requested a 3 month holiday from their mortgage on the back of the government announcements.
And this is what Brighton are doing aswell.

Cannot understand what Burnley FC are saying.

[ClaretTony]

It’s not that simple the way you describe it as it’s not just a matter of re-instating it at your end. Burnley need to make a claim on your bank. If you cancel it and they don’t claim on your bank at a later date it can’t be paid just because you have told your Bank....if it was a standing order you could.

What is simple is if the club agreed to do this. They can tell their bank to not claim on some or all of the set of sort of sort codes and accounts they have for their season ticket holders...this file can be amended according to whatever they want to do - eg suspend everyone’s for 3 months or just those who have requested it etc.

The mortgage companies will be doing this right now with those people who have requested a 3 month holiday from their mortgage on the back of the government announcements.
And this is what Brighton are doing aswell.

Cannot understand what Burnley FC are saying.

I don’t understand why we can’t but interestingly Brighton are taking the first month out too.

[TVC15]

It maybe more of a case of Burnley not wanting to as technically it is not difficult at all.

[Quickenthetempo]

It’s not that simple the way you describe it as it’s not just a matter of re-instating it at your end. Burnley need to make a claim on your bank. If you cancel it and they don’t claim on your bank at a later date it can’t be paid just because you have told your Bank....if it was a standing order you could.

What is simple is if the club agreed to do this. They can tell their bank to not claim on some or all of the set of sort of sort codes and accounts they have for their season ticket holders...this file can be amended according to whatever they want to do - eg suspend everyone’s for 3 months or just those who have requested it etc.

The mortgage companies will be doing this right now with those people who have requested a 3 month holiday from their mortgage on the back of the government announcements.
And this is what Brighton are doing aswell.

Cannot understand what Burnley FC are saying.

The banks are going to make an absolute fortune out of the mortgage holidays with the amount of interest they will charge.
Profiteering scumbags they are.

[uptheclarets]

It’s not that simple the way you describe it as it’s not just a matter of re-instating it at your end. Burnley need to make a claim on your bank. If you cancel it and they don’t claim on your bank at a later date it can’t be paid just because you have told your Bank....if it was a standing order you could.

What is simple is if the club agreed to do this. They can tell their bank to not claim on some or all of the set of sort of sort codes and accounts they have for their season ticket holders...this file can be amended according to whatever they want to do - eg suspend everyone’s for 3 months or just those who have requested it etc.

The mortgage companies will be doing this right now with those people who have requested a 3 month holiday from their mortgage on the back of the government announcements.
And this is what Brighton are doing aswell.

Cannot understand what Burnley FC are saying.

As I said it can be done.
My bank said I could cancel and re-instate in 3 months.
As you say the club could also just not claim for 3 months. As I said above cloud cuckoo land thinking football can restart within 3 months.
If the delay is longer they just put off claiming the DD for longer.

[Goalposts]

thats great for me personally always just paid for it in one go , just gives me a bit more time before i renew

[uptheclarets]

It maybe more of a case of Burnley not wanting to as technically it is not difficult at all.

Thank you.

Tony does a great job running this site but sometimes states what he is told by the club as
fact when it isnt.

Bet if we were a League Two Club right now there would be more incentive to think of the fans.

[TVC15]

As I said it can be done.
My bank said I could cancel and re-instate in 3 months.
As you say the club could also just not claim for 3 months. As I said above cloud cuckoo land thinking football can restart within 3 months.
If the delay is longer they just put off claiming the DD for longer.

Your bank is wrong - if that is what they said. If the club do not claim on your sort code and account number it does not matter what you or the bank do at your end. That is how the whole direct debit system works.
The club could decide that because you have done this unilaterally that they want to cancel you as a season ticket - and remove you from their direct debit file.

[clarethomer]

I agree with TVC - it should be within the control of BFC to alter DD payments. Why they are refusing is because of a decision they have made internally rather than it being impossible under how the DD system works.

A standing order is you pushing a payment to another account, a DD is the reverse where someone pulls a payment from your account.

The DD process, as TVC has confirmed, is usually a data file sent to the clubs bank for them to request the payment from each account they have an agreement in place. There should be the ability to update the data file to reflect different payment amounts from different accounts.

I wonder if the reason for not doing it is because of - administrative challenges and no appetite to mess with a process that works - or whether they have other contractual obligations which are impacted if they mess with the DD scheme rules. I.E. they get advances on this money or have contracts in place which rely on the scheme to run in a certain way.