Riga Gp Tickets 2014

[IanT]

Humphrey A is quite right here and that is exactly what I intend. Lets make a nuisance. Show BSI we will not be fobbed off with feeble excuses for their negligence. My point here is that an event was advertised to be held in Riga. Had it been advertised to be held in Daugavpils I doubt very much I would have gone. I'm sure there are several people in that category. It is a question of what was reasonable about the re-staging. Had it been Riga on the following day then there would be no foundation for any claims as it is reasonable, and well known, that GPs are staged on the Sunday afternoon following a rain off. That,s why I booked my flight back on the Monday. However to move the event 140 miles away, the next day, and offer no assistance whatsoever in getting there, and also involving a 7 hour round trip via train at our own expense is most definitely not reasonable. A key factor is also why the event was moved. If the track construction was properly supervised by BSI then it can be argued that the event could easily have been re-staged on the Sunday at the same venue. The point here will be to demonstrate that BSI have been negligent, which is why the event was moved, and not the weather! We have missed out on an event which we travelled and paid for due to negligence on someone else's part. If that can be proven then damages will flow. It is now a question of how much to claim. You cannot claim the whole cost of the holiday as it will be argued, quite correctly, that you actually had a break in Riga and therefore, speedway notwithstanding, you had a break. I have taken a company to the small claims court before, in similar circumstances, and won, you don't need a solicitor, you do however have to pay fees dependant on how much you are claiming. Herein lies the issue. I would guess that a claim of about £200 each would be the absolute maximum you could ask for in damages. the cost if it goes to a hearing will be around the £300 mark. If you win you get this back, if you lose it's gone. Before taking a company to the small claims you have to write to them, explain the issue, and ask them to make you an offer. A time scale of 14 days is usually best here. Explain that legal proceedings will follow should they ignore the letter or refuse to make a reasonable offer. From here it is the first to blink! Fortunately my sister works for Trading Standards so currently getting advice on this. It is quite a gamble and I am undecided on whether to pursue it. But we should all certainly write to BSI, as I have said before they have just walked away from this debacle without a single word of explanation.

[waiheke1]

Humphrey A is quite right here and that is exactly what I intend. Lets make a nuisance. Show BSI we will not be fobbed off with feeble excuses for their negligence. My point here is that an event was advertised to be held in Riga. Had it been advertised to be held in Daugavpils I doubt very much I would have gone. I'm sure there are several people in that category. It is a question of what was reasonable about the re-staging. Had it been Riga on the following day then there would be no foundation for any claims as it is reasonable, and well known, that GPs are staged on the Sunday afternoon following a rain off. That,s why I booked my flight back on the Monday. However to move the event 140 miles away, the next day, and offer no assistance whatsoever in getting there, and also involving a 7 hour round trip via train at our own expense is most definitely not reasonable. A key factor is also why the event was moved. If the track construction was properly supervised by BSI then it can be argued that the event could easily have been re-staged on the Sunday at the same venue. The point here will be to demonstrate that BSI have been negligent, which is why the event was moved, and not the weather! We have missed out on an event which we travelled and paid for due to negligence on someone else's part. If that can be proven then damages will flow. It is now a question of how much to claim. You cannot claim the whole cost of the holiday as it will be argued, quite correctly, that you actually had a break in Riga and therefore, speedway notwithstanding, you had a break. I have taken a company to the small claims court before, in similar circumstances, and won, you don't need a solicitor, you do however have to pay fees dependant on how much you are claiming. Herein lies the issue. I would guess that a claim of about £200 each would be the absolute maximum you could ask for in damages. the cost if it goes to a hearing will be around the £300 mark. If you win you get this back, if you lose it's gone. Before taking a company to the small claims you have to write to them, explain the issue, and ask them to make you an offer. A time scale of 14 days is usually best here. Explain that legal proceedings will follow should they ignore the letter or refuse to make a reasonable offer. From here it is the first to blink! Fortunately my sister works for Trading Standards so currently getting advice on this. It is quite a gamble and I am undecided on whether to pursue it. But we should all certainly write to BSI, as I have said before they have just walked away from this debacle without a single word of explanation.

Your claim I take it would be against the latvian promoters, not bsi, as I dont think you entered into s contract with bsi? And would presumably therefore be governed by latvian law, and therefore there may be no equivalent if small claims court and you may need to travel to latvia if it went to court?

[Humphrey Appleby]

Your claim I take it would be against the latvian promoters, not bsi, as I dont think you entered into s contract with bsi? And would presumably therefore be governed by latvian law, and therefore there may be no equivalent if small claims court and you may need to travel to latvia if it went to court?

BSI are incorporated in England and Wales so it's very easy to pursue a small claims case against them. It will cost a couple of hundred quid and the small print may allow them to wriggle out of responsibility on the grounds they weren't the actual organiser. However, they'll have to contest each claim and appoint legal representation to do do, so if enough do it then it'll piss them off at the very least.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Humphrey Appleby

[oleoleole]

Completely agree with IanT particularly about the quality of the track and the lack of responsibilty for its complete failure, very convenient for BSI to hide behind the weather. We are in the same boat regarding the refund and will give them until Monday before chasing.

 

Like IanT I am incensed by BSI's total lack of sympathy or help for fans that support their product. Topaz325 says that fans get fobbed off but always return.......well we are not returning to the GP's. We have attended many over the years, there have been some dodgy ones like Berlin and Tampere and cancellations in Gothenburg, Gelsenkirchen and Riga. We have experienced them all and finally have had enough. When we go to a GP we make a 4/5 day holiday of it so at least we have enjoyed the host cities but for those that just fly in for the meeting it must be awful.

 

BSI have proved many times now that they are incapable of overseeing or putting on a speedway event in a non speedway stadium except for Parken & Cardiff, however even these came perilously close to disaster in the last couple of years. Even Phil Rising said on this forum that Vojens is close to the new Horsens venue if there are any issues........and so it goes on.

 

For me the whole BSI/SGP/Monster thing has just become too unpalatable. According to the official SGP site there is no news at all about Darcy Ward, not even a reason for missing the last GP! How can you take it seriously? And don't get me started on Monster Joe!!

 

Anyway I don't think I'm brave enough for court action but letters and e-mails will be sent. Does anybody have a particularly good name or e-mail address, thanks.

[Humphrey Appleby]

Anyway I don't think I'm brave enough for court action but letters and e-mails will be sent. Does anybody have a particularly good name or e-mail address, thanks.

Maybe you could take it up with BSI's lords and masters at IMG Global. Not IMG(UK) which is responsible for these fiascos.

[arnieg]

I notice that aktuellspeedway.se is still advertising a trip to the Riga GP.

 

http://www.aktuellspeedway.se/ads/riga.pdf

 

And to make matters worse - if anyone did go on it - the boat for the return trip across the Baltic left Sunday 5.30pm!

[SCB]

I notice that aktuellspeedway.se is still advertising a trip to the Riga GP.

 

http://www.aktuellspeedway.se/ads/riga.pdf

 

And to make matters worse - if anyone did go on it - the boat for the return trip across the Baltic left Sunday 5.30pm!

There you go, once again, should have gone with Travel Plus Tours!

[oleoleole]

Has anybody received their refund yet?

 

Like IanT we completed the form (with all our bank details and passport info!) and handed it in to the Bilesu offices on the Monday after the GP and were told it would be 10 working days. Assuming they don't have August bank holidays in Latvia the 10 days are up.

 

Here we go.......

[shaggie]

I have chased my ticket money 3 times now,

Have been told there is a back log!!

 

16 days have gone past just not good enough someone at bsi needs to sort this shambles

[Mark]

How does a person get in touch with BSI ?

[racers and royals]

How does a person get in touch with BSI ?

Post 167 page 12

[Lioness]

Post 167 page 12

 

Direct link : http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=75622&page=12&p=2499723&do=findComment&comment=2499723

 

 

(If anyone wants to know you can direct link to a post by right clicking the post number and copying link location - its only taken me years to find that out lol)

[topaz325]

My comment about fans returning to tracks was open ended i know someone who complained about a promotion regarding monies being repaid after a rain off fell on deaf ears after many e mails to the promoters and the BSPA, even went to the trading standards who were next to useless.........finally gave up and is very dissillusioned with the sport in general.

The person in question has been attending many tracks and GP,s all over the country and introduced me to the sport thirty five years ago.

[mark.1]

Has anybody received their refund yet?

 

Like IanT we completed the form (with all our bank details and passport info!) and handed it in to the Bilesu offices on the Monday after the GP and were told it would be 10 working days. Assuming they don't have August bank holidays in Latvia the 10 days are up.

 

Here we go.......

Where did you get this form from i bought from these and need to fill one out to get a refund?

[Humphrey Appleby]

Usual whitewash in the Spar I see, with no real criticism of the GP organisation and at least two mentions of Travel Plus. Lazy and embarrassing journalism.

[Trees]

Looking after the hand that feeds them of course

[oleoleole]

Where did you get this form from i bought from these and need to fill one out to get a refund?

There was a post on this forum (thank you whoever it was) at the time saying that you had to return to where you collected or purchased the tickets and complete & submit the form. Of course there has been no help at all from the SGP website other than, "you need to contact the ticket agency for a refund". Why couldn't they help fans by having a link to, or pdf of, the form on their site?

 

As usual with the SGP's we are diverted to an obscure (to us) ticket agency. So obscure that Marks & Spencer's blocked the credit card transaction initially until they spoke to me! And as usual taking our money from a credit card is very quick and easy but they refused to refund against the card and we had to leave all our bank details and passport number on this form. We were told it would be in our bank within 10 working days, now on day 13.

 

Anyway I have e-mailed Paul Bellamy about the delay and to be fair he replied very quickly and I have now been copied in, in an e-mail from Vladimir Ribnikov, "SGP Latvia Organiser" confirming that there had been a delay but 90% of tickets had been credited and, "be sure all tickets will be refunded".

 

Another e-mail will be on the way to Paul Bellamy soon about the miss-management of this whole affair. From track prep right through to PR and customer support, but I want to get my refund first!

[Humphrey Appleby]

Another e-mail will be on the way to Paul Bellamy soon about the miss-management of this whole affair. From track prep right through to PR and customer support, but I want to get my refund first!

 

And yet the journal of record makes no critical analysis beyond quoting the organisers blaming the weather, saying how Travel Plus managed to re-organise travel, and alluding to scurrilous discussions on 'social media'. How dare the fans ask questions as to the track preparation or whether the organisation of the GP (at a new venue) was sufficiently supervised...

[oleoleole]

And yet the journal of record makes no critical analysis beyond quoting the organisers blaming the weather, saying how Travel Plus managed to re-organise travel, and alluding to scurrilous discussions on 'social media'. How dare the fans ask questions as to the track preparation or whether the organisation of the GP (at a new venue) was sufficiently supervised...

 

I look forward to reading the Star tomorrow then.

 

The basic questions still remain and are;

1) was the track prepared properly with sufficient drainage and suitable material?

2) if the answer is yes and assuming the weather was too bad on Saturday, why not run it in Riga on Sunday. The weather was fine on Sunday, we were paddling in the Baltic!

3) if the answer is no, then who is to blame for the poor track preparation?

 

We were there from Thursday. Yes there were some showers, some quite heavy, but nothing that should have completely ruined a suitable track. If that GP had been on a "normal-permanent" track it would have been fine for Sunday if Saturday proved to be too much.

[spanner47]

I'm not expecting a quick refund. I was at the Benfica V Sporting match on Feb 9th, the match was postponed due to high winds making the stadium unsafe. When I enquired why cant you just refund the money on to the card you took it from, I was met with loads of excuses. I had to send them my IBAN No and I eventually got my money refunded into my bank account 20th may.

Hopefully the Latvians will be a bit quicker. It appears to be a simple process to take the money, but a much more difficult exercise to refund it.