[www.iorr.org]

BV has very kindly provided this link.

I picked up a few hardcopies from the AEG/BST customer services booth on Saturday 6th. In talking to one of the agents there, it soon became clear that a significant number of their own staff were very unhappy with various aspects of the company's behaviour, principally because they were hired at way too short notice and inadequately trained or briefed regarding a lot of the issues that they would ultimately be responsible for "resolving" for customers. In that respect, when I told the agent about my own experience in trying to get hold of my tickets and wristbands in good time, the agent thrust a handful of these forms at me and urged me to fill one out for myself and distribute the others and to "provide feedback" ..........

So for anyone that feels particularly aggrieved about the initial misdescription of the layout for tiers 1/2/3, the ticket despatch fiasco, the hugely disappointing Unwind Bar in which some of the facilities mentioned in the promotion simply did not materialise on the day, or anything else whatsoever ...... please do download this form and feed back to AEG.

Thanks

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-07-08 18:23 by paulywaul.

Thanks, I'll make sure to print one, fill it in, scan it and email it back to the email address on the form.

On top of what's already been written, my 30 minute trek with Stefan to go to the "restrooms" on the East side (courtesy of the West side toilets being closed) towards the end of the Vaccines set is not an experience I'd wish upon anyone!

That is actually very cool of them. Most companies do not want to hear from disgruntled customers.

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flacnvinyl
That is actually very cool of them. Most companies do not want to hear from disgruntled customers.

Perhaps so, but two things need to happen. Following all the outpourings of dissatisfaction on this board regarding their innumerable cock-ups, (a) people actually need to put their money where their mouths are and fill one of these in, (b) if AEG receive a worthwhile number of these forms - they then need to respond and react to them.

Human nature being what it is, I personally think the flood of complaints is regrettably going to turn into a trickle of feedback forms filled in and sent to them, and secondly - I can't really imagine that there'll be any particularly noteworthy response from AEG. Not that I'm sceptical of course ..............

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

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paulywaul
Human nature being what it is, I personally think the flood of complaints is regrettably going to turn into a trickle of feedback forms filled in and sent to them, and secondly - I can't really imagine that there'll be any particularly noteworthy response from AEG. Not that I'm sceptical of course ..............

Agree on both points.

Firstly because in the end we did get what we wanted in terms of positioning and that was the important bit. As far as I'm aware, nobody really wanted any fancy facilities. However given the prices we paid, the catering and toilet facilities fell far short of what we were entitled to expect.

Secondly, they don't care. I'll still be sending the form in though.

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nobodyimportant

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paulywaul
Human nature being what it is, I personally think the flood of complaints is regrettably going to turn into a trickle of feedback forms filled in and sent to them, and secondly - I can't really imagine that there'll be any particularly noteworthy response from AEG. Not that I'm sceptical of course ..............

Agree on both points.

Firstly because in the end we did get what we wanted in terms of positioning and that was the important bit. As far as I'm aware, nobody really wanted any fancy facilities. However given the prices we paid, the catering and toilet facilities fell far short of what we were entitled to expect.

Secondly, they don't care. I'll still be sending the form in though.

Yep, fully agree. The real sadness of the debacle though is the sheer amount of noise that we all collectively had to generate in order to end up with - as you say - decent positioning, especially for the amount of money they saw fit to charge us. The rest of it, the silly bar nonsense ........... who really gives a s**t in the overall context of the whole thing ?

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

Pauly- Reg has cancelled his friday Hyde Park show through illness.

Good look with getting a refund from these people!!

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Adrian-L
Pauly- Reg has cancelled his friday Hyde Park show through illness.

Good look with getting a refund from these people!!

Wah ............. WOT ? Are you kidding ? O shit, better start checking the BST/AEG websites, thank you for the heads up !!

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

Thanks, will definitely do that due to the ticket thing. It turned out well on the day though, so in the end it was just fine. But it is not the way one should treat paying customers and they need to hear this from us. Many (!!) did not even get an e-mail with information about change to COBO 8 days before like I did, I had to inform others on the FB page for BST regarding e-mail address they should use to get in touch with them.

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paulywaul

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Adrian-L
Pauly- Reg has cancelled his friday Hyde Park show through illness.

Good look with getting a refund from these people!!

Wah ............. WOT ? Are you kidding ? O shit, better start checking the BST/AEG websites, thank you for the heads up !!

Is Ray Davies now headlining? Who else could step in?

AEG have one purpose.

That's to maximise their profits.

If that means ripping you off beforehand then that's what they'll do.

If means forms and fake apologies afterwards they'll do that as well.

Capitalism red in tooth and claw.

They're laughing.

Feedback form? Do you mean the premium flushing toilets don't have paper? I can't see any other use for them!

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Manofwealthandtaste

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paulywaul

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Adrian-L
Pauly- Reg has cancelled his friday Hyde Park show through illness.

Good look with getting a refund from these people!!

Wah ............. WOT ? Are you kidding ? O shit, better start checking the BST/AEG websites, thank you for the heads up !!

Is Ray Davies now headlining? Who else could step in?

Good question ? I don't know, there's nothing in the way of up on the AEG/BST site yet, so f**k knows !!

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

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paulywaul

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Manofwealthandtaste

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paulywaul

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Adrian-L
Pauly- Reg has cancelled his friday Hyde Park show through illness.

Good look with getting a refund from these people!!

Wah ............. WOT ? Are you kidding ? O shit, better start checking the BST/AEG websites, thank you for the heads up !!

Is Ray Davies now headlining? Who else could step in?

Good question ? I don't know, there's nothing in the way of up on the AEG/BST site yet, so f**k knows !!

Update ..........

[www.bbc.co.uk]

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

Karma didn't wait long to bite AEG on the arse. Elton's appendix must have cost them a fortune.

Yeah right, appendix...

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nobodyimportant
Karma didn't wait long to bite AEG on the arse. Elton's appendix must have cost them a fortune.

Indeed, they are refunding all ticket purchases and Friday is now a free event.

[gentle bump]
Voicing our discontent might not change anything
but not voicing it for sure won't change anything.

Bump again, please use this form people - or perhaps BV can make it a sticky ?

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

Bump again - though I won't be using the form as I personally had no trouble at all - but that wasn't many people's experience, so please tell AEG the things they need to hear!

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Green Lady
Bump again - though I won't be using the form as I personally had no trouble at all - but that wasn't many people's experience, so please tell AEG the things they need to hear!

Thank you Green Lady, appreciated

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

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paulywaul
The real sadness of the debacle though is the sheer amount of noise that we all collectively had to generate in order to end up with - as you say - decent positioning, especially for the amount of money they saw fit to charge us. The rest of it, the silly bar nonsense ........... who really gives a s**t in the overall context of the whole thing ?

Glad to hear that you all got what you needed.

I really do hope you guys get some sort of compensation or satisfactory response from this fiasco with AEG.
Problem is it's like the police investigating the police.
They say sorry for what has happened,we wont do it again,and please stick with us when we promote the Rolling Stones again.

Here's my email to Rob Hallett, just sent

Dear Mr Hallett

It is just as well that the Rolling Stones turned in two outstanding performances on July 6th and (especially) on July 13th.

Because that is about the only thing that has worked about these gigs. Everything else I have experienced has been a combination of inefficient and deceitful. Considering the high prices charged for the tickets this is unacceptable and I would like some written answers to my questions. I have had to put in a lot of time to get my tickets in time to attend the gigs as direct result of inefficiency amongst the organising companies. There has already been press coverage of this debacle in the Daily Telegraph, I am very happy for there to be some more.

The problems started with the various ticket pre-sales where tickets that were unavailable on the BST site simultaneously appeared at vastly inflated prices on Seatwave, Stubhub, ViaGoGo, etc . Why is this?

After an hour of pressing refresh on my browser I managed to get a Tier 1 ticket for July 6th and thanked my angels for that. My delight lasted less than a day as it became apparent that the descriptions given to Tier 1,2 and 3 plus the maps as to where the different tiers were going to be had changed. To advertise tickets as being located in a particular place and then change that location after the tickets have been bought is surely fraudulent. I fail to understand why you could not have used the simple Diamond/Gold set up that Bon Jovi were using at their BST gigs and which are similar to the pen used by the Stones last time they played Wembley. Please explain

Bizzarely the final spatial arrangement of Tier1, 2 and 3 that was used for both gigs was different again from what you had told us to expect, even though you told us the layout was final and could not change! Tier 1 ended up working well both nights, and as long as you got to the gig early enough it was possible to have a great view (apart from all the cameras).

Despite the gigs having sold out in 6 minutes (or whatever the press hype said), I noticed that tickets continued to pop up on the BST website at random intervals. By spending hours stalking the site I was able to purchase a further 4 Tier 1 tickets ( 2 for July 6 and 2 for July 13) albeit with Barclaycard Unwind Bar Access at the cost of a further £100 per ticket. Incidentally I never managed to use this bar as when I really needed a drink ie after the gig had finished the Unwind bar was shut! Why ?

Now we enter the realms of massive incompetence. Ten days before the July 6th gig I had no tickets. The BST website said “your items will be shipped” (for all I know it still does). It got to a week before the gig and I was getting this same message and getting nervous. So I rang BST and was told that they were going from the same information as me and my bands would be shipped to me in time.

Thankfully someone on the invaluable iorr.org messageboard pointed out that if you had BarclayCard Unwind you needed to be chasing Barclaycard and not BST. By posting on the BarclayCard facebook page I got hold of a phone number for Joe Sale at BarclayCardpaybands. JOE AND HIS BOSS DOMINIC WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THIS WHOLE SORRY BUSINESS WHO KNEW WHAT THEY TALKING ABOUT AND DID WHAT THEY SAID THEY WOULD.

Joe told me had no idea what had happened to my paybands but said he would make sure they were resent t me on a signed-for service. I explained they needed to be sent to my office address, not my home address and these were the details I had filled out when I bought my tickets. Two days later I found a large jiffy bag in the hedge outside my house containing £1600 worth of paybands. Bad., It gets worse. It turns out that all 4 bands were blue, and thus only valid for July 6th whereas I had ordered 2 x July 6 and 2 x July 13. Joe suggested he had the chips in two of the bands re-assigned so that they would work on the 13th rather than the 6th. He would then have 2 replacement purple bands sent to my office. I emphasised that I did not want them sent to my house as there is no-one to sign for a parcel and I do not want them left in a hedge. 3 days later I came home to note from the postman saying he has tried to deliver a signed-for parcel...to my home address! So the same mistake was made twice! Yet more of my time was then spent going to the sorting office (now only open 0900 – 1300) to pick up the purple bands so I could switch chips. Despite my scepticism towards Joe’s suggestion it worked and I was able to thank Joe and Dominic in person at the Elvis Costello / Ray Davies gig on Friday.

Finally – what was the point of the Barclay payment wristbands? They didn’t work on July 6th when the internet connection went down so unless you had brought cash you couldn’t buy food or drink. And if you had bought cash why have a plastic band that cannot be recycled and will just sit in landfill? What is the problem to which paybands are the solution ? What is wrong with paper tickets, which can at least be reycled? Please advise

One positive note. Stewards were good both nights and handing out water throughout the gig was Great for those of us who stood down the front for several hours in heat and sun.

I fully expect you to say that not all the above is the responsibility of AEG. And that is another problem. Over the weeks I found myself dealing with AEG, Front Gate, BarclayCard and BST, none of whom seemed to talk to each other. Why were so many different entities involved in organising something so simple as a rock’n’roll gig?


Yours sincerely

Simon Wright

Bravo, johnnythunders! Please let us know the outcome. It must be said that the image of a jiffy bag left in the hedge with £1600 worth of items in it is just too farcical for words!

I mercifully didn't experience the endless catalogue of errors you and many others had, but I have asked AEG for a refund of the difference between the price of my ticket and the price of a GA ticket because the facilities I was supposedly paying a hefty extra premium for were not provided on the day. I am still awaiting a response and will chase them up if I don't get one, but it seems that the message may have got through because the promised facilities that were missing on 6 July were somehow magicked into place on 13 July.

Hey, I sent my lengthy feedback form yesterday morning and got a reply already in the evening:

"Thank you for your feedback regarding your recent visit to Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park. I apologise profusely for any inconvenience caused with the delivery of your tickets, but I am pleased that you were able to obtain them on the day and that your delivery fee has been refunded for you.

With regards to the sound levels, unfortunately we cannot have the sound any louder due to noise pollution for the local residents of Hyde Park; and our curfew time is again to ensure that we do not impact on the local environment and residents. The Rolling Stones have performed longer sets in other concerts, however they were happy to perform the length set that they did.

I have passed your comments and feedback onto our management team and hopefully any issues that you have raised will be rectified for next year. I am glad that you enjoyed the overall event though and thank you for your feedback."