Not impressed

[erpel9999]

I am an AFL member with Geelong club support and I also have a reserved seat at Kardinia Park.

I received my email notification that my membership payment would automatically rollover this week but the price had increased significantly. So I rang the club to ask about the increase.

It turns out that without any notification the club has added a $40 "surcharge" to the price of my reserved seat to cover what they say is the shortfall between the cost of a membership and what they receive from the AFL.

i could say I don't have a problem with this but I do actually, but that's not the point. What I am furious about is the club charging me 40 bucks without any notification or correspondence and putting it onto a direct debit. I have gone through the website looking for any mention of this "levy" but there is nothing. Any AFL member who has a Geelong reserved seat renewal on automatic debit this Friday is copping this levy without ever being informed that they are paying it. There is also no breakdown of the fees on the website this year so the only way you will know about this is if you ring the club and ask yourself.

Why should I have to pay an extra levy that hardly anyone else has to pay? I pay a lot of money for my AFL membership and I pay extra to GFC for a reserved seat. If I didn't have a reserved seat I wouldn't have to pay this levy. How does that work? Because I already pay extra for a reserved seat I have to pay even more?? If the AFL doesn't give Geelong enough money from my AFL membership, why should I have to pay more? More than likely I will just give up my reserved seat as I am hardly going to give up my AFL membership. So it will just cost the club even more money.

I have been a member for over 15 years and I have never been treated like this. I am really p*ssed off.

 

[Galaxy]

That's dog as.

 

[MelbCat]

ouch ..... you have every reason to be pissed off, i would be too!
I would go as far as handing my seat back in that case purely to say i wont stand up for that!
Just goes to show loyality stands for zero

 

[Teriyakicat]

I am an AFL member with Geelong club support and I also have a reserved seat at Kardinia Park.

I received my email notification that my membership payment would automatically rollover this week but the price had increased significantly. So I rang the club to ask about the increase.

It turns out that without any notification the club has added a $40 "surcharge" to the price of my reserved seat to cover what they say is the shortfall between the cost of a membership and what they receive from the AFL.

i could say I don't have a problem with this but I do actually, but that's not the point. What I am furious about is the club charging me 40 bucks without any notification or correspondence and putting it onto a direct debit. I have gone through the website looking for any mention of this "levy" but there is nothing. Any AFL member who has a Geelong reserved seat renewal on automatic debit this Friday is copping this levy without ever being informed that they are paying it. There is also no breakdown of the fees on the website this year so the only way you will know about this is if you ring the club and ask yourself.

Why should I have to pay an extra levy that hardly anyone else has to pay? I pay a lot of money for my AFL membership and I pay extra to GFC for a reserved seat. If I didn't have a reserved seat I wouldn't have to pay this levy. How does that work? Because I already pay extra for a reserved seat I have to pay even more?? If the AFL doesn't give Geelong enough money from my AFL membership, why should I have to pay more? More than likely I will just give up my reserved seat as I am hardly going to give up my AFL membership. So it will just cost the club even more money.

I have been a member for over 15 years and I have never been treated like this. I am really p*ssed off.

I would've assumed that all members would receive some sort of notification regarding price hikes, particularly those due to something a little unusual like you've described or, more importantly. Good on you for making a stand. Looks like the AFL is money-grabbing and stealing from the clubs, leaving them to make up a shortfall which, when the plan is presented to a lot of members, might actually be accepted by a large proportion of them.

Sorry- I do sympathise with you but you don't have a real lot of options open to you that you would find acceptable, do you? (i.e. Dropping the AFL membership and going for just a GFC one).

 

[Scottland2007]

So this is off to a good start; http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au...s/news-story/7d24b6e1d3adad1ffab11b656805fc9e

 

[Willo_]

So is this just an AFL members thing?

Your seat at Geelong wouldn't have changed price, I'm guessing if anything your AFL membership has increased.... yet you are getting slugged extra?

And the AFL wonder why people are walking away....

 

[thegerman]

Yep, it's like the AFL telling ADF veterans that aren't 100% incapacitated, they are not entitled to a concession.

Yet how much do they pump up their relationship at Anzac day.

 

[dazbroncos]

I thought Id read something earlier about the AFL changing the amount it paid to clubs for seats as the AFL increased the rates they took after the clubs had printed their membership detail. I wonder if that is the same issue?

Go Catters

 

[catempire]

I am an AFL member with Geelong club support and I also have a reserved seat at Kardinia Park.

I received my email notification that my membership payment would automatically rollover this week but the price had increased significantly. So I rang the club to ask about the increase.

It turns out that without any notification the club has added a $40 "surcharge" to the price of my reserved seat to cover what they say is the shortfall between the cost of a membership and what they receive from the AFL.

i could say I don't have a problem with this but I do actually, but that's not the point. What I am furious about is the club charging me 40 bucks without any notification or correspondence and putting it onto a direct debit. I have gone through the website looking for any mention of this "levy" but there is nothing. Any AFL member who has a Geelong reserved seat renewal on automatic debit this Friday is copping this levy without ever being informed that they are paying it. There is also no breakdown of the fees on the website this year so the only way you will know about this is if you ring the club and ask yourself.

Why should I have to pay an extra levy that hardly anyone else has to pay? I pay a lot of money for my AFL membership and I pay extra to GFC for a reserved seat. If I didn't have a reserved seat I wouldn't have to pay this levy. How does that work? Because I already pay extra for a reserved seat I have to pay even more?? If the AFL doesn't give Geelong enough money from my AFL membership, why should I have to pay more? More than likely I will just give up my reserved seat as I am hardly going to give up my AFL membership. So it will just cost the club even more money.

I have been a member for over 15 years and I have never been treated like this. I am really p*ssed off.

I can see from the club's perspective that they might need to take this approach. I believe other clubs also do similar.

However, not being explicit about the change and not informing members up front about what is driving it is terrible form. Particularly when most people are on rollover so won't even bother to check.

 

[candiehappy]

However, not being explicit about the change and not informing members up front about what is driving it is terrible form. Particularly when most people are on rollover so won't even bother to check.

that's where they have badly fallen down. That sort of negative PR can really hurt a club.

just going to see if my rollover email is still in the deleted bin ....

 

[Teriyakicat]

I can see from the club's perspective that they might need to take this approach. I believe other clubs also do similar.

However, not being explicit about the change and not informing members up front about what is driving it is terrible form. Particularly when most people are on rollover so won't even bother to check.

The problem is that you can't get out of rolling your membership over AND direct debiting unless you ring the club, which I did last year because I was expecting to move house.
I'll call them again this year to renew.
DD and rolling over should be "opt in" and not so difficult to opt out of.

 

[Willo_]

that's where they have badly fallen down. That sort of negative PR can really hurt a club.

just going to see if my rollover email is still in the deleted bin ....

I did the same thing haha, but it appears my amount hasn't changed

So it's just rorting the AFL members

 

[catempire]

The problem is that you can't get out of rolling your membership over AND direct debiting unless you ring the club, which I did last year because I was expecting to move house.
I'll call them again this year to renew.
DD and rolling over should be "opt in" and not so difficult to opt out of.

It needs to be opt out to work efficiently. There's no point if it's opt-in.

 

[Teriyakicat]

It needs to be opt out to work efficiently. There's no point if it's opt-in.

There is no opt in or opt out. It's a dictatorship, I tell yaz!!

 

[Willo_]

It needs to be opt out to work efficiently. There's no point if it's opt-in.

The auto roll over as far as Geelong club memberships works very effectively for the monthly deductions IMO, and I stopped it once before as I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing. Was just a simple email saying I wanted to opt out sent before the 1st payment, got a reply confirming and all was good
(Ended up starting it again a day later anyway haha)

 

[catempire]

The auto roll over as far as Geelong club memberships works very effectively for the monthly deductions IMO, and I stopped it once before as I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing. Was just a simple email saying I wanted to opt out sent before the 1st payment, got a reply confirming and all was good
(Ended up starting it again a day later anyway haha)

Same happened to me a couple of years back.

 

[vinum coupe]

The auto roll over as far as Geelong club memberships works very effectively for the monthly deductions IMO, and I stopped it once before as I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing. Was just a simple email saying I wanted to opt out sent before the 1st payment, got a reply confirming and all was good
(Ended up starting it again a day later anyway haha)

I heard someone on radio the other day.

They bought 2 memberships as a present last year.
It had just auto deducted again this year. Ha ha.

 

[Willo_]

I heard someone on radio the other day.

They bought 2 memberships as a present last year.
It had just auto deducted again this year. Ha ha.

In the defense of the club... they sent emails out 2 weeks ago (28 oct... i checked) that advise the cost, that it will roll over and with an email address to send to and the date to do it by (5pm today) to opt out.

That said people buying them as a once off wouldn't expect to just have it done automatically again, guess it's a lesson for checking emails?

 

[vinum coupe]

In the defense of the club... they sent emails out 2 weeks ago (28 oct... i checked) that advise the cost, that it will roll over and with an email address to send to and the date to do it by (5pm today) to opt out.

That said people buying them as a once off wouldn't expect to just have it done automatically again, guess it's a lesson for checking emails?

Look I haven't bought a membership in years.
But there should be a huge tick box for you to accept a roll over for the following year.

If people buying a present are dumb enough to opt in then that's their fault.
If there's no such box then it's the clubs fault.

Note, I don't know which clubs membership it was.

 

[candiehappy]

In the defense of the club... they sent emails out 2 weeks ago (28 oct... i checked) that advise the cost, that it will roll over and with an email address to send to and the date to do it by (5pm today) to opt out.

That said people buying them as a once off wouldn't expect to just have it done automatically again, guess it's a lesson for checking emails?

I think that's right. I did just read it and could have cancelled it if I had wanted to. If something had changed my bad for not reading it in the first place.

 

[Willo_]

Look I haven't bought a membership in years.
But there should be a huge tick box for you to accept a roll over for the following year.

If people buying a present are dumb enough to opt in then that's their fault.
If there's no such box then it's the clubs fault.

Note, I don't know which clubs membership it was.

Truth be told I can't even remember what is involved... mines just rolled over for a few years now.

I did add my son yesterday and all they asked was his name and DOB and my CC details... so I'm going to assume it will just roll over going forward as well

 

[candiehappy]

I did add my son yesterday and all they asked was his name and DOB and my CC details... so I'm going to assume it will just roll over going forward as well

I do my 8 year old daughters membership - I get the same email for her rollover

 

[Willo_]

I do my 8 year old daughters membership - I get the same email for her rollover

They didn't ask me an email... and I haven't had anything on mine.. but I'll just add my email when i get the pack and id number

 

[Seeds]

It's 40 dollars people. Who cares. Good to see the club is facing high demand for seats that it feels it can get away with unspecified surcharges. Means things are going well down at cat land.

 

[erpel9999]

It's not the 40 bucks, it's the taking it without asking.

The club was quite open about it on the phone but you wouldn't know about it unless you ask. It's only for AFL members

There was a renewal price on the email just not a breakdown.