2013 USGP Tickets

[hairy_scotsman]

Re: the ticket situation, it's....not good. We're hearing some other very disturbing things, too, but I'm sure it all come out soon enough if true.

Y'all need to check out the COTA Facebook page. They are just getting hammered mercilessly.

https://www.facebook.com/CircuitofTheAmericas

It doesn't matter what kinda happy --- they post, people just throw it in their face & hammer away on the tickets, the Fedex Tracking charges for USPS service, etc. Same on our page. We've been posting a lot about the tickets, sure, but also other stuff about the race. No matter what we post, people are hammering away. One guys's telling people to do chargebacks on their credit cards over the Fedex/USPS thing. Vance found their Austin BBB rating. "F". Another guy posted this:

[hairy_scotsman]

Picking up USGP Will Call tickets? Go to COTA HQ at 301 Congress, FanFest at 4th & Lavaca Streets, or at COTA's Ticket Office:

Should any guest arrive in Austin for next week’s race without receiving their pre-purchased tickets and/or parking passes, we have a number of ways to assist them:

1. Visit Circuit of The Americas’ downtown office location at 301 Congress Avenue, Suite 275, Austin, TX 78701, and a member of our team will provide them with replacement tickets and parking passes.

2. The Circuit’s trackside Ticket Office will open Monday, Nov. 11 (Grand Plaza location on Circuit of The Americas Blvd.) Guests may pick up replacement tickets at Will Call throughout the week. The Circuit’s trackside Ticket Office will be open Monday, Nov. 11, through Sunday, Nov. 17 at these times:

Monday (Nov. 11) through Wednesday (Nov. 13): 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT
Thursday (Nov. 14): 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. CT
Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 15-17): 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Gates open at 7:30 a.m. CT race weekend)

3. Should guests arrive in Austin Friday, Nov. 15, without their pre-purchased tickets and parking passes, they can visit two (2) downtown locations for assistance:

Circuit of The Americas downtown office at 301 Congress Avenue, Suite 275, Austin, Texas 78701
Circuit of The Americas’ WELCOME CENTER located in Austin Fan Fest at the corner of Lavaca and 4th Streets.

This information is available online at Circuit of The Americas - Home of the Formula 1 US Grand Prix | Nov. 15-17 2013 | Austin TX.

[flynfrog]

I did read this on Jalopnik not sure if helpful for anybody.
http://jalopnik.com/what-the-hell-is-go ... 1460723650

[slimfitcasual]

Oh yeah, to get commemorative tickets I should have contacted COTA directly. They made no mention of this while directing web traffic to Ticketmaster...

The comments there mention non payments to their printer as a likely cause for the switch to cheap paper tickets and subsequent late mailings. What a cluster.

[hairy_scotsman]

Oh yeah, to get commemorative tickets I should have contacted COTA directly. They made no mention of this while directing web traffic to Ticketmaster...

That's what COTA's saying, but some people who ordered from them got the plain tickets, and some who ordered from TM got the commemorative tix. Weird.

The comments there mention non payments to their printer as a likely cause for the switch to cheap paper tickets and subsequent late mailings. What a cluster.

Where? On their Facebook page?

[slimfitcasual]

From the Jalopnik article above...

cubby74354
This fall's directly on the shoulders of the track. Weldon, Williams, and Lick printed the comemorative tickets sent some out and stopped. I got my parking pass on Oct 24 from Fort Smith Arkansas home of WW&L. I have still not received my race tickets. So it seems as Cota failed to pay the printer. Thus the excuses and lies as they try to clean up their tracks.
Friday 3:53pm

Stef Schrader
The Friends of Formula 1 Austin Texas guys tried to get a statement from Weldon, Williams & Lick only to get a "no comment" on the situation: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 0087614878
Friday 5:51pm

[hairy_scotsman]

Vance & I are teaming Facebook/FoF1ATX with the crew from Formula1Blog.com for a Tweetup this Saturday night at 830PM in the bar at the Hyatt Lost Pines. Come join us! F1B will be giving away a beautiful Lapizta watch, but you have to be there to win. We'll be joined at the Tweetup by F1B's Todd (@negativecamber_), Paul (@paulf1b), & Mark McArdle (@charlie_whiting aka- Fake Charlie Whiting). Hopefully some of y'all can make it out there too...

F1B in Austin with Shell...fancy a pint with us? | Formula 1 Blog

Also, the FOTA Fan Forum is tomorrow night at Cedar Street, 5:30-7:30.
Formula One Teams' Association | FOTA » Events

Thursday Night at Speakeasy is Will Buxton's party.
Buxton's Big Time Bash returns for F1 week | Formula Austin | http://www.statesman.com

Friday is the Joe Saward thing at Z-Tejas, 7-11Pm
https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/11 ... in-austin/

Saturday night of course is our casual Tweetup listed above.

[alpen]

Just got my tickets yesterday, good thing I'm only flying up on Friday...And they are the half-assed, movie theatre stock kind even though I was apparently dumb enough to by direct from COTA during the "presale" that only last years ticket holders could access. Combine this with their policy of not letting you pick your seats this year, the shipping cost fiasco, and the general price gouging mentality both for tickets, parking passes and their agreements with hotels means this is my last USGP, regardless of how good it is...Montreal it is instead next year

On top of it, I'm shocked by the photos showing that a year on from the inaugural GP they still don't have the walkways fixed or the landscaping even near complete...

[MOWOG]

Combine this with their policy of not letting you pick your seats this year, the shipping cost fiasco, and the general price gouging mentality both for tickets, parking passes and their agreements with hotels means this is my last USGP, regardless of how good it is...Montreal it is instead next year.

The PTB at COTA will never read your post, which is too bad. Because no matter how much the drivers and teams like the track or how high the viewing tower is, if you don't put asses in the seats, you've got nothing.

COTA needs to figure out who their customers are. If you alienate your customers, your business is in jeopardy, no matter what your press clippings say.

A word of caution about Montreal, though. It is a poor venue for fans. There is no walking around, parking is non-existent, it's a hot, dusty trek from the Metro station to the stands, the sanitary facilities are third world quality and the concessions are worthy only of a minor league ball park. I have been twice and I won't go back. Thank God for hdtv! =D>

[hairy_scotsman]

BTW, here are a few phone pics from yesterday morning out at COTA when the cold front was blowing in. Teams arriving, etc...

[hairy_scotsman]

Some more shots from yesterday in the paddock & along the pits:

[hairy_scotsman]

Combine this with their policy of not letting you pick your seats this year, the shipping cost fiasco, and the general price gouging mentality both for tickets, parking passes and their agreements with hotels means this is my last USGP, regardless of how good it is...Montreal it is instead next year.

The PTB at COTA will never read your post, which is too bad. Because no matter how much the drivers and teams like the track or how high the viewing tower is, if you don't put asses in the seats, you've got nothing.

COTA needs to figure out who their customers are. If you alienate your customers, your business is in jeopardy, no matter what your press clippings say.

A word of caution about Montreal, though. It is a poor venue for fans. There is no walking around, parking is non-existent, it's a hot, dusty trek from the Metro station to the stands, the sanitary facilities are third world quality and the concessions are worthy only of a minor league ball park. I have been twice and I won't go back. Thank God for hdtv! =D>

Agree with both of you. What's the PTB?

[hairy_scotsman]

I took my boys to the Hamilton signing before going downtown to the FOTA Fan Forum. Pics:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 878&type=1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 878&type=1

[MOWOG]

What's the PTB?

PTB = "powers that be".

Glad to see all this brouhaha at the margins is not spoiling your enjoyment of the weekend. It's great that you are able to share this experience with your kids. If one is going to a race, it's worth spending the extra dough for a paddock pass. That's where you can feel the excitement of a race weekend the best.

Thanks for the pixs and enjoy the show!

[slimfitcasual]

Really impressed with COTA, a very nice lady came up to me just now noticing my very sad looking printed turn 9 ticket. She offered me free commemorative GA passes, a golf towel and earplugs to make up for the sad state of tickets.

Classy.