Cod Almighty | Article
by Tony Rogers
30 August 2008
On Friday morning, subscribers to the Grimsby Town Football Club official club text messaging service received a message informing them that young Manchester City player Javan Vidal has signed for the Mariners.
Later that day another text was sent informing subscribers that Vidal has decided to delay the move. A statement on the club's official website elaborated the situation: [the player] was expected to sign for the Mariners on a one-month loan deal today, has returned to City and delayed putting pen to paper for the time being..
While it remains that fans are disappointed that the move, with the club's efforts, has stalled, subscribers to the club's text messaging service were sent a message that was factually incorrect at the time of sending (Vidal hadn't signed for the club yet) and were charged for that (25p on Orange, other networks' charges comparable). Subscribers were then charged again for the second text message.
We agree that with the tax bill repayments, lower than expected season tickets and matchday attendances, Town aren't rolling in cash. However, we do believe that subscribers to a paying subscription service receive a service that justifies the cost. We therefore believe that we should not have to pay for the first factually incorrect message sent on Friday and should be refunded.
We the undersigned request we should be, at least, refunded by the club for the erroneous initial text.
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1. Simon Wilson
2. Mark Dillerstone
"It's bad enough having to pay £1.75 to find out your team are losing/have lost at Blackburn without then having to pay 50p to find out that nothing has happened. We've signed a player, oh no we haven't, equates to nothing.
"I signed up for this service the day of the infamous Hartlepool thrashing fortunately it was that bad that they didn't bother telling us the half time score, so it only cost me £2.50 to find out we'd been stuffed 8-1 and to be honest the service hasn't improved. It still costs me a fortune to find out we've been stuffed. It's the only way a series of poor results can actually benefit the club."
3. Roger Swindells
I don't subscribe to the text service but it's obviously rubbish.