Hey all, I'm not happy that things turned out like this but I am tired of playing nice after more than a month with this issue so I am making it public. Besides me not getting refunded I will also give a few words on my issues with how this whole event was organized as it had a major role in my case.
Let's start from the beginning:
When the lan was announced I called together a bunch of friends who I've been to i69 with and some others I knew from the previous season or other places. From the first batch of tickets we were able to secure all but one (this will be important later).
Some time later, around late June- early July one of my players leaves the team for reasons that do not matter so we are looking to trial people but there are several problems:
- We do not know who has tickets
- We do not know how the sale of the 2nd batch will take place
- We preferred to trial people who played at our level (D2/1)
So we struggle to find players.
At this point the 2nd batch of ticket sales are approaching and here is where I made a mistake, although I do think this could have been prevented by the organizers too. I did not let the admins know that besides us, we had 1 player still without tickets so securing that was high priority. This said player was also going out there way to find a ticket through the exchange.
I am very critical of the process for the 2nd batch as many people likely were able to get tickets secured which led to them being sold out in hours leaving my one player with no tickets still without one. I should have let the organizers know directly (I did indirectly) that my team needed to secure a ticket to be on track. While I could have done better, why was there no official query about how many teams existed at the time?
Time goes on and we try to get the ticket while also looking out for trials and we end up finding a player for our team. An announcement comes from the organizers to let them know about teams missing tickets and so I do.
No response for 2 weeks, only acknowledgement. I ask for an update and I am being told the staff went on vacation. Now normally I would be understanding but at this point we are approaching October and we need to still finalize our travel costs, accommodation and other expenses that may come. I think this "understanding" part needs to go both ways, the lan was announced before the Summer had even started and we are still at a point where we could not finalize anything.
The uncertainty (and possibly other reasons) leads to one of my teammates quitting; starting trials again with 1 month before lan and nothing secured we decided to call it quits.
Throughout this whole lan there have been many complaints when it comes to organizing and not catering the event properly for the target audience; there have been many excuses given but I do not get the feeling that they are being taking into account and you might be able to see why I think so after the next part.
And now to my refund...
Date: 09/23/2024
All of my teammates have dealt with passing on their tickets their own way but I decided to ask for a refund if it was possible through the support ticket system on the lan's Discord. After a few days I've got confirmation that it will be processed and I gave my payment information and everything else required to start the process. I was told the process can be about 2 weeks-ish.
Date: 10/07/2024
More than 2 weeks pass, almost reaching 3. I ask for an update and I receive an apology with a defense and I was told it was urgently sent to BaseStack employees responsible.
"The original call was not fixed two weeks but "2 weeks ish" and that these refunds all have to be manually worked on by a person that did not anticipate so many refunds taking place."
I was almost enraged by this response since you do not need to be a genius to do the math that it's almost been 3 weeks by this point and i do not know about others but 2 weeks ish for me is 2 week +- 2 days. And the reasoning that it is being done by people does not make any difference since if you do not count weekends into the time that had passed by now it would make the situation look even worse.
A few days later I respond, asking to let me know if any of the information required is missing.
Date: 10/29/2024
Last week I asked for an update but this is the day I am writing this and I still haven't received any of my refund nor have I've been given any updates on the process and I feel I am being actively ghosted while the BaseStack admins are constantly active in other channels. I think it is due time I make this post, I have been patient enough, arguably way too patient.
Who do I blame for this? The staff and organizers from the side of BaseStack, as far as I know the tournament organizers have no responsibility.
What do I seek? To create awareness about my issue to put pressure on the organizers and obviously to get my 125 euros back which is more than some VIP stadium concert tickets...
What I do NOT want People outside of the organizers offering me ANYTHING to make up for what BaseStack is doing, any alternative from BaseStack as repayment.
I am not going to attend any event organized at a venue of Basestack be it Überfest or PoLANd. I have screenshots of everything being said here but unless people question me I wont be posting any, the dates should be enough proof.
Thank you!
Hey all, I'm not happy that things turned out like this but I am tired of playing nice after more than a month with this issue so I am making it public. Besides me not getting refunded I will also give a few words on my issues with how this whole event was organized as it had a major role in my case.
[b]
Let's start from the beginning:[/b]
When the lan was announced I called together a bunch of friends who I've been to i69 with and some others I knew from the previous season or other places. From the first batch of tickets we were able to secure all but one (this will be important later).
Some time later, around late June- early July one of my players leaves the team for reasons that do not matter so we are looking to trial people but there are several problems:
[list]
[*] We do not know who has tickets
[*] We do not know how the sale of the 2nd batch will take place
[*] We preferred to trial people who played at our level (D2/1)
[/list]
So we struggle to find players.
At this point the 2nd batch of ticket sales are approaching and here is where I made a mistake, although I do think this could have been prevented by the organizers too. I did not let the admins know that besides us, we had 1 player still without tickets so securing that was high priority. This said player was also going out there way to find a ticket through the exchange.
I am very critical of the process for the 2nd batch as many people likely were able to get tickets secured which led to them being sold out in hours leaving my one player with no tickets still without one.[b] I should have let the organizers know directly (I did indirectly) that my team needed to secure a ticket to be on track.[/b] While I could have done better, why was there no official query about how many teams existed at the time?
Time goes on and we try to get the ticket while also looking out for trials and we end up finding a player for our team. An announcement comes from the organizers to let them know about teams missing tickets and so I do.
No response for 2 weeks, only acknowledgement. I ask for an update and I am being told the staff went on vacation. Now normally I would be understanding but at this point [b]we are approaching October and we need to still finalize our travel costs, accommodation and other expenses that may come.[/b] I think this "understanding" part needs to go both ways, the lan was announced before the Summer had even started and we are still at a point where we could not finalize anything.
[b]The uncertainty (and possibly other reasons) leads to one of my teammates quitting; starting trials again with 1 month before lan and nothing secured we decided to call it quits. [/b]
Throughout this whole lan there have been many complaints when it comes to organizing and not catering the event properly for the target audience; there have been many excuses given but I do not get the feeling that they are being taking into account and you might be able to see why I think so after the next part.
[b]And now to my refund...[/b]
Date: 09/23/2024
All of my teammates have dealt with passing on their tickets their own way but I decided to ask for a refund if it was possible through the support ticket system on the lan's Discord. After a few days I've got confirmation that it will be processed and I gave my payment information and everything else required to start the process. I was told the process can be about 2 weeks-ish.
Date: 10/07/2024
More than 2 weeks pass, almost reaching 3. I ask for an update and I receive an apology with a defense and I was told it was urgently sent to BaseStack employees responsible.
"The original call was not fixed two weeks but "2 weeks ish" and that these refunds all have to be manually worked on by a person that did not anticipate so many refunds taking place."
I was almost enraged by this response since you do not need to be a genius to do the math that it's almost been 3 weeks by this point and i do not know about others but 2 weeks ish for me is 2 week +- 2 days. And the reasoning that it is being done by people does not make any difference since if you do not count weekends into the time that had passed by now it would make the situation look even worse.
A few days later I respond, asking to let me know if any of the information required is missing.
Date: 10/29/2024
Last week I asked for an update but this is the day I am writing this and I still haven't received any of my refund nor have I've been given any updates on the process and I feel I am being actively ghosted while the BaseStack admins are constantly active in other channels. I think it is due time I make this post, I have been patient enough, arguably way too patient.
[b]Who do I blame for this?[/b] [b]The staff and organizers from the side of BaseStack, as far as I know the tournament organizers have no responsibility.[/b]
[b]What do I seek?[/b] To create awareness about my issue to put pressure on the organizers and obviously to get my 125 euros back which is more than some VIP stadium concert tickets...
[b]What I do NOT want[/b] People outside of the organizers offering me ANYTHING to make up for what BaseStack is doing, any alternative from BaseStack as repayment.
I am not going to attend any event organized at a venue of Basestack be it Überfest or PoLANd. I have screenshots of everything being said here but unless people question me I wont be posting any, the dates should be enough proof.
Thank you!
https://youtu.be/YJAKnSvAs8Y?si=51QMladfJw6Ul7lD
which months are numbered 23 and 29?
which months are numbered 23 and 29?
Whilst there have been issues with regards to the initial allocation of tickets for this LAN I think the way the admins/tournament organisers/staff dealt with the second allocation was a very good solution and has led to quite a lot of high+ teams being able to attend, which is a good thing. To be fair to the organisers I don't think they realised that there would be such a high level of interest for people attending and they probably should have not allowed people to sign up without having a team sorted.
When my team was able to acquire a team ticket I asked for a refund on the two player tickets I had purchased. I think it took over a month for it to happen but I didn't really care, I wasn't paying too much attention to it.
The thing I'm left wondering is how do you "indirectly" let organisers know that you needed one ticket? They repeatedly posted on the discord to let them know if teams were missing a ticket and to get in touch ASAP, this seemed relatively simple to do and now you've tried to sort a refund.This honestly seems like bad organisation on your/your team's part. Some life advice: Admins/people in general do not tend to know what you want unless you directly tell them what you want from them.
Whilst there have been issues with regards to the initial allocation of tickets for this LAN I think the way the admins/tournament organisers/staff dealt with the second allocation was a very good solution and has led to quite a lot of high+ teams being able to attend, which is a good thing. To be fair to the organisers I don't think they realised that there would be such a high level of interest for people attending and they probably should have not allowed people to sign up without having a team sorted.
When my team was able to acquire a team ticket I asked for a refund on the two player tickets I had purchased. I think it took over a month for it to happen but I didn't really care, I wasn't paying too much attention to it.
The thing I'm left wondering is how do you "indirectly" let organisers know that you needed one ticket? They repeatedly posted on the discord to let them know if teams were missing a ticket and to get in touch ASAP, this seemed relatively simple to do and now you've tried to sort a refund.This honestly seems like bad organisation on your/your team's part. Some life advice: Admins/people in general do not tend to know what you want unless you directly tell them what you want from them.
yak404Whilst there have been issues with regards to the initial allocation of tickets for this LAN I think the way the admins/tournament organisers/staff dealt with the second allocation was a very good solution and has led to quite a lot of high+ teams being able to attend, which is a good thing. To be fair to the organisers I don't think they realised that there would be such a high level of interest for people attending and they probably should have not allowed people to sign up without having a team sorted.
When my team was able to acquire a team ticket I asked for a refund on the two player tickets I had purchased. I think it took over a month for it to happen but I didn't really care, I wasn't paying too much attention to it.
The thing I'm left wondering is how do you "indirectly" let organisers know that you needed one ticket? They repeatedly posted on the discord to let them know if teams were missing a ticket and to get in touch ASAP, this seemed relatively simple to do and now you've tried to sort a refund.This honestly seems like bad organisation on your/your team's part. Some life advice: Admins/people in general do not tend to know what you want unless you directly tell them what you want from them.
By indirectly, I meant that I only let them know during a conversion in a reply in one of the public channels where this very same problem was discussed instead of opening a ticket. I did not think it would be remembered, rather I was hoping for a measure to be announced since it was a concern of many. This was my mistake, I should have done the latter. Seeing your refund took as long as it did I am hopeful and I agree that with the rest of what you said. If this gets resolved I am deleting this thread.
[quote=yak404]Whilst there have been issues with regards to the initial allocation of tickets for this LAN I think the way the admins/tournament organisers/staff dealt with the second allocation was a very good solution and has led to quite a lot of high+ teams being able to attend, which is a good thing. To be fair to the organisers I don't think they realised that there would be such a high level of interest for people attending and they probably should have not allowed people to sign up without having a team sorted.
When my team was able to acquire a team ticket I asked for a refund on the two player tickets I had purchased. I think it took over a month for it to happen but I didn't really care, I wasn't paying too much attention to it.
The thing I'm left wondering is how do you "indirectly" let organisers know that you needed one ticket? They repeatedly posted on the discord to let them know if teams were missing a ticket and to get in touch ASAP, this seemed relatively simple to do and now you've tried to sort a refund.This honestly seems like bad organisation on your/your team's part. Some life advice: Admins/people in general do not tend to know what you want unless you directly tell them what you want from them.[/quote]
By indirectly, I meant that I only let them know during a conversion in a reply in one of the public channels where this very same problem was discussed instead of opening a ticket. I did not think it would be remembered, rather I was hoping for a measure to be announced since it was a concern of many. This was my mistake, I should have done the latter. Seeing your refund took as long as it did I am hopeful and I agree that with the rest of what you said. If this gets resolved I am deleting this thread.
I appreciate you highlighting your personal responsibility in the post, and hope you get your money back.
I think the uberfest organisers / backstack dortmund made one large mistake in under-estimating the level of demand for the lan, I think it was reasonable for them to expect a high level based on Poland.tf in the summer. Since this point I think they have done their best to rectify the situation.
I will say, if I remember hearing correctly, the Polish and German basestacks are very seperate businesses and generally poland.tf was very well organised and ran, so I wouldn't write off the Polish guys based on your experience with this.
I appreciate you highlighting your personal responsibility in the post, and hope you get your money back.
I think the uberfest organisers / backstack dortmund made one large mistake in under-estimating the level of demand for the lan, I think it was reasonable for them to expect a high level based on Poland.tf in the summer. Since this point I think they have done their best to rectify the situation.
I will say, if I remember hearing correctly, the Polish and German basestacks are very seperate businesses and generally poland.tf was very well organised and ran, so I wouldn't write off the Polish guys based on your experience with this.