This weekend I was sorting through some old boxes and came across one of the very first complaint letters I’d ever written. It was such a moving experience, like finding an original Picasso or something. While the letter was rough round the edges, and lacked any real venom, you could see the formings of what would become MrDaz right there.
This letter was from 1997, eleven years ago, before the Internet became what it is today. Not being one to hold a grudge (;)), and someone who lets sleeping dogs lie, it’s time to dig this one up again as these bastards never replied to me!
So, for the guys at Event Travel, who ignored TWO complaint letters of mine, it’s your turn to worry. Before you had to deal, and ignore, Darren Jamieson, student… now you’ve got MrDaz on your ass, and he’s a right bastard when it comes to being ripped off.
In 1997 I attended the opening night of Michael Jackson’s History Tour in Prague, in the Czech Republic. The trip was booked by my girlfriend Lisa, using a company called Event Travel. This was her first mistake, an event with Event Travel is quite an ‘event’ indeed.
We went on the coach from Cardiff, driving through England, France, Belgium and Germany (which took hours) and then, at around 12 midnight, the coach we were travelling in blew a tire. The driver did well to slow down and pull over onto the hard shoulder of the German Autobarn, where we all got off on that freezing September night in Germany.
We waited… and we waited… and we waited.
Eventually, someone turned up to fix the tire and we got underway, at 7:30 am!!!
SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS, throughout the night, we all stood on the side of the road of the German Autobarn in September while very little happened.
What made matters worse is that we were actually travelling with two coaches in tandem, and the second coach stopped to see that everyone was OK, before driving on – arriving at the hotel some 8 hours before us.
So, why did it take 7 1/2 hours for someone to turn up and change the tire?
Why did the second coach drive off, when the services (we found out the next morning) were just a few miles up the road? It could have dropped off its passengers there and turned back for us, so we could have waited in the warmth, before it continued.
Why did Event Travel never, ever reply to me?
Maybe Event Travel will reply to me now? Perhaps Event Travel will explain why they bodged the trip so badly and never even said sorry for the disaster that befell the passengers?
I doubt it, but we’ll try. More importantly though, has anyone else had any experiences with Event Travel? Let me know here.
You could even visit their site and tell them direct.
Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.
