OK it started over a week ago! Still waiting for 4 of the progs I paid for! Anyone else?

On the plus side.........cracking weekend........loads of action...car parking where I went was faultless.Petter took the time to say hello, have pic and autographs....Brilliant!

hmmmm...... but still feel a little ripped off!

Yes finsefana!

Two programs are still expected at our house. After taking my recorded delivery money and sending the wrong tickets....the Ticketweb/cardiff Box office triangle have seen fit...to not bother with sending them - we still want £20 compensation from them. Adding insult to injury, they were handing out boxes of them at Margam Sat and Sun!!! images/smilies/mad.gif

PS- We've got four of the damn things here though....perhaps we could swap for something?!!!;)

I got three extra at Cardiff Town Hall.....sorry m8

:rolleyes::D

They sent me too many 4 instead of 2 and someone on e,bay seems to be trying to sell quite alot of programes.

I remeber when WHSmith used to sell the official rally pack with OS maps, programme, guides etc - now someone thinks they can organise it better - obviously not:rolleyes:

still 5 missing.........
what we doing about it.........
i want a refund of 37.50 please.......

Scoff - i'll try and get a name/number - as the ticket office said they would contact us re: a refund (that was last thursday)-so maybe it's time to start making a fuss by phoning regularly. Say all of us daily, until they respond:D

They couldn't organise a rally in a welsh valley;)

well i got 2 than another 3 turned up last week, lol

They sent me the 2 that they were supposed to, then sent me another 2 (why I don't know!), and then got another 2 when we went into walters arena on the friday - 2 tickets 6 programmes.

Unbelievable!

6 progs never arrived here and the tickets wouldnt have if we hadnt rung up about 10 days beofre the rally with our concerns booked way in advance this year.

good rally though

T

What idiot would try selling programmes especially at upto £7.50 each as a reserve price (ebay)?!? perhaps I should try selling my fully autographed ones, or, perhaps I'll keep them in fact!

When I met a kid giving them away I was rather p'd off. Why not make the tickets cheaper and make us buy the damn program separately? Seems logical to me. I ended up with 4.

Without even trying I ended up with six extras in addition to the two I was sent (a week before the rally) which are now fully signed (including McRae and Solberg) and probably collectors items!!!

Story of my life wrong place...........wrong time.....
mind what use are the programmes after the event! When we've had to share or not have at all!

Have written to request partial refund...well here's hoping.

cheer up finsefana!

I was passed by Tommi, Colin, seb and had Petter almost jump on my head - and still didn't have the opportunity to get autographs (Got F1's Nelson Piquet's the other month so can't complain i suppose:rolleyes:) I'm gonna start harrassing the box office via phone - don't contact ticketweb - they are an automated juggernaught - they collect the money....and that's yer lot.

good luck....keep us informed:D

i had my two programs with the two tickets i ordered. then when i was leaving the rhondda stage on sunday, i seen a pile of programs, i asked the marshalls if i could take some and i took 3!!!

I still haven't had my tickets yet!!! so had to buy on the day again just like last year

the ticket system seems a farce? did they change it at some point? i mean, i used to in the "good old days" get reminders through the post, from the msa i presume about all the events, now i get nothing, no offers no anything, and buying tickets for this (and other motorsports) events seems a damn site harder

last year they closed the booking office 2 weeks early, first they told me, they were sold out, second they told me they were not sold out but were not selling anymore, thirdly they told me the booking office was re opening, it didnt, and fourthly i had to drive all the way to cardiff (3 hours) to buy tickets from a little hut where the finnishing ramp usually is a week before the rally, what a farce that was

Lizilover: perhaps you have got my 6 missing progs (LOL) also someone gave me a tenner for one of last years spare progs (didn't ask for anything was just helping someone out who hadn't been able to go but he insisted on paying me) so maybe selling them on ebay not quite as mad as you thought!

Believe it or not - the tickets used to be handled by Silverstone ticket office, before they too went the way of total Octagon rip-off farce themselves. I often wonder that if my computer goes down (it has before) - whether I'd even KNOW about most of the events happening without being able to join emailing lists etc. I think it has to do with profit and overheads now - if it could all be automated, it would, and those who fell foul of computer error etc (unheard of!!!), would just have to go the looserimages/smilies/mad.gif images/smilies/mad.gif :rolleyes: images/smilies/mad.gif.

Sorry, rant over:)

yeah, your right there infact, as i always book my tickets to racing and rally events, i used to recieve all those offers from silverstone, also they ran rally radio, for quite a number of years, and used there company to make the programs, infact, oh yeah, the super special at silverstone was supurb as well for those first few years, cardiff is not a patch on that, esp after 2000... last time i went to the sss, its sad to see the silverstone stage overgrowen and unused (or it looks so, not sure on the situation of the british rally sprint champ now).I s this where the organisers are going wrong these days? replacing people with bucket loads of motorsport experience with no hopers from the welsh development authority? maybe? or maybe it was octagons fault, who knows

Did you go to the powerslide arena A_S.?
Tommi came round on oppositelock the last running of it so close that I almost photographed the whites of his eyes -the most incredible speccying experience i've ever had.....then the 206s machine gunning out through the lane......that was fantastic. The year before they drove roger clarke's escort mexico over the yump - and McCrae and others had to lap backmarkers....awesome. Only downside first year-it was the coldest day I ever remember - two pairs of gloves, two coats, fleeces, the lot -makes Rhondda seem warm in comparison:)

Those close up photos in the smarties album are from the 99 stage - must find the richard and tommi photos one day;)

Ooops sorry to go off topic -but for those who've only been to wales - you've missed a lot - and great organisation:)

sadly, i never got there :( would love to see the photos though, were can i find the smarties album?

Hi A_S

try this;
http://groups.msn.com/WRGBSmartiesCommunity/random.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=148

Sorry i've only three up at the moment - but it's a case of diggin out the prints - putting them on a chair and camcordering them first -coz i havent got a scanner on the laptop with the modem:rolleyes::)

Anyway, there's a lot more to come over the next week:)

wow, that juha one is great! where abouts were they taken?

Thanks a lot A_S! :)

If you know the bridge at Bridge - the main rout into the centre of the circuit. After crossing that there is a grassy area, with the normal paddock , and to the right is the airfield. The 180 powerslide arena was set up here. The cars entered from beckets/hangar straight direction (national circuit?), over a big yump, and around a 180degree gravel bend with tractor tyres placed at the apex then the had to do a right/left flick past a temporary (corporate:rolleyes: )grandstand (I took those from in front of it) towards the airfield, then sharp right into a tree lined access road. Watching them powerslide then set the car up by steering into the next corners completely the wrong direction to get the pendulum affect was amazing. All seemed absolutely inch perfect - far more demanding than the F1 race we'd seen earlier in the year:)

If they'd got it wrong I think there could have been speccie injuries though - there were only bales in front of the railings - with cars coming head on!!!! I nearly got hit on the head by a saucer size clump of stone and dirt thrown about 20feet high by the front runners-but the atmosphere - seeing huge crowds stretching right back to the bridge itself -absolutely fantastic:)

[Edited by OppositeLock - 11/15/2003 7:10:34 PM]

YEAH ANOTHER FANTASICALLY ORGANISED RALLY. I GOT MY PROGRAMMES THIS YEAR (STILL WAITING FOR LAST YEARS). NO TICKETS THOUGH. EVENTUALLY SPOKE TO SOMEONE WITH SOME SENSE WHO SAID SORRY THEYRE STILL HERE AT CARDIFF (THURSDAY BEFORE RALLY). SO INSTEAD OF GOING STRAIGHT TO CRYCHAN HAD TO DO 120 EXTRA MILES TO GET TO CARDIFF AND BACK TO FIND THEY DIDNT HAVE MY TICKETS WE HAD TO HAVE HALFWAY TICKETS INSTEAD. THEY STILL CHARGED £6 FOR RECORDED DELIVERY THOUGH!

Recorded delivery ISN'T £4.95 anyway- how much profit do u reckon they're making!!!;)

OppositeLock, i know exactly where you mean, i frequent silverstone quite a bit! :) i dont recall the layout being exactly as you say, it was quite a few years ago now! i remember once watching a megane come through bridge corner onto the access road and down to the bridge over the national circuit, with a hey bail through the co drivers window! and behind that national bridge was i think the section you mean, i was there only once taking photos, but i was always there, and the airfield hairpin between the hanger bridge, and becketts, just round the corner really :)

heres a picture of where i think your talking about, im sure this is 97 must be with that fog! it was a 90 right, double 90 right, coming from where you say the jump was, dont think that was there till later years though

http://members.lycos.co.uk/asracing/rally/mainpic.JPG