78th Members Meeting
Discussion
I personally wouldn't go through the credit card companies as they are taking forever too, the one I'm claiming back (as the company went out of business very quickly) has been ongoing since March with no signs of a refund yet.
When did you send the last email as the official announcements were only made this week.
When did you send the last email as the official announcements were only made this week.
mk1coopers said:
Goodwood will be working hard to get refunds to the people that are requesting them, as with all companies things are difficult at the moment, it's taken me months to negotiate with some very large companies (way bigger than Goodwood) to get things in place to allow me the value of what I've paid for to be taken next year, I've done this to support those companies as best I can so I see no difference in this to letting my 2020 Goodwood tickets roll over, the people answering the phones and emails will have their own set of circumstances they are dealing with, so I've made sure I've always been polite (as I'm sure you all have) as there's no point in upsetting the person you are trying to get to help you 
They will get the refunds done and I'm sure the support people are giving them now will be recognised
The issue is that I am not convinced they are. They are definitely arranging horse racing ( I drove past last weekend and saw all the signs out, all the security and all the horse boxes); they are definitely working on the GSA as a way to get more money ( I suspect we have all received the letter ) but I’ve not seen one person yet say they have actually got their money back when they have, quite rightly, requested it.They will get the refunds done and I'm sure the support people are giving them now will be recognised
Its always good to be polite to the people on the phone or the people trying to do their job, this current situation is clearly not their fault. However, someone within Goodwood does need to be responsible for returning money to those who have requested it, and I am seeing no evidence at all that Goodwood is taking that part seriously.
You are completely at liberty to donate or roll-over your tickets/money. Nobody should have any issue with that, its your money and your choice. But equally those that want their money back are also at liberty to not only ask for it but, under law, expect it. Its also our money, a fact Goodwood seems to have forgotten.
mk1coopers said:
I personally wouldn't go through the credit card companies as they are taking forever too, the one I'm claiming back (as the company went out of business very quickly) has been ongoing since March with no signs of a refund yet.
When did you send the last email as the official announcements were only made this week.
The announcement for the Revival was this week, the announcement for the MM was about 5-6 weeks ago. Interestingly the notice changed slightly this week. Its now suggesting a different email address.When did you send the last email as the official announcements were only made this week.
Got the MM cancellation notice on the 13th May. See below:
Over the last few weeks, the team have been exploring a variety of new dates for the 78th Members’ Meeting, which was due to take place on 28-29 March.
After careful consideration and in light of the ongoing coronavirus situation and the UK Government’s latest advice on mass gatherings, we have taken the decision to postpone the 78th Members’ Meeting until 2021, with the provisional dates being 10-11 April 2021. Previous racing and demo announcements, like the exciting Rally Sprint, two-heat Gerry Marshall Trophy and the insane S.F. Edge Trophy are all planned to take place.
In the meantime, we are continuing to work on a range of options concerning both the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard and the Goodwood Revival for later this year, and will report back within the next few weeks with our plans.
If you have any further questions, please visit our coronavirus FAQs or contact the Ticket Office team at ticket.office@goodwood.com. Please bear in mind that in order to comply with Government guidelines, we have a reduced team who are dealing with a high number of enquiries and we will contact you as soon as we possibly can.
I’d like to thank you for your continued support, understanding and patience during what has been a challenging time for all of us.
Kindest regards,
The Duke of Richmond and Gordon
Over the last few weeks, the team have been exploring a variety of new dates for the 78th Members’ Meeting, which was due to take place on 28-29 March.
After careful consideration and in light of the ongoing coronavirus situation and the UK Government’s latest advice on mass gatherings, we have taken the decision to postpone the 78th Members’ Meeting until 2021, with the provisional dates being 10-11 April 2021. Previous racing and demo announcements, like the exciting Rally Sprint, two-heat Gerry Marshall Trophy and the insane S.F. Edge Trophy are all planned to take place.
In the meantime, we are continuing to work on a range of options concerning both the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard and the Goodwood Revival for later this year, and will report back within the next few weeks with our plans.
If you have any further questions, please visit our coronavirus FAQs or contact the Ticket Office team at ticket.office@goodwood.com. Please bear in mind that in order to comply with Government guidelines, we have a reduced team who are dealing with a high number of enquiries and we will contact you as soon as we possibly can.
I’d like to thank you for your continued support, understanding and patience during what has been a challenging time for all of us.
Kindest regards,
The Duke of Richmond and Gordon
Yes you are right, the MM was a while ago and as such I'd sort of put it out of my mind and was thinking more of the FOS and Revival, if the email address has changed slightly I'd give that a go, that would indicate they have a dedicated team looking at all refunds now everything is on hold, I know they have furloughed two thirds of their staff so that will have an impact.
Thanks. I have given both addresses a go. I’ll give it a little while longer ( I don’t have an awful lot of choice ). What worries me is if they still haven’t refunded the MM and now they need to add the FoS and the Revival to the list it will be even longer until they sort out refunds. If they had sorted out the MM before announcing the other cancellations, rather than pretending that the MM had been “rescheduled” by a year, then maybe everyone would be in a better shape.
Btw, Goodwood weren’t mandated to furlough their staff, they could have kept them on to sort out refunds. They furloughed them to save money, and in doing so, had no obvious concern for other peoples money.
Btw, Goodwood weren’t mandated to furlough their staff, they could have kept them on to sort out refunds. They furloughed them to save money, and in doing so, had no obvious concern for other peoples money.
All companies that have furloughed staff have done it to save money and protect their businesses, I've gone into work every (normal) working day since this started with a proportion of my colleagues away on furlough and thought myself lucky to have a job that I can still do that is hopefully having a positive effect on the people we provide the services for, there will be lots of people that lose jobs during this pandemic.
I really hope that you get the refund you want and it doesn't take too long, I think we've all got tickets and plans that are up in the air, personal circumstances for a lot of people will have changed very quickly, I don't think we will see the real effects of all this until later in the year when all of the assistance programmes come to an end, it's certainly not over yet, having something provisionally planned for next year is at least something positive to focus on.
I really hope that you get the refund you want and it doesn't take too long, I think we've all got tickets and plans that are up in the air, personal circumstances for a lot of people will have changed very quickly, I don't think we will see the real effects of all this until later in the year when all of the assistance programmes come to an end, it's certainly not over yet, having something provisionally planned for next year is at least something positive to focus on.
OmniCognate said:
Thanks. I have given both addresses a go. I’ll give it a little while longer ( I don’t have an awful lot of choice ). What worries me is if they still haven’t refunded the MM and now they need to add the FoS and the Revival to the list it will be even longer until they sort out refunds. If they had sorted out the MM before announcing the other cancellations, rather than pretending that the MM had been “rescheduled” by a year, then maybe everyone would be in a better shape.
Btw, Goodwood weren’t mandated to furlough their staff, they could have kept them on to sort out refunds. They furloughed them to save money, and in doing so, had no obvious concern for other peoples money.
This isn't meant to be a dig, genuinely curious - but I don't get your aversion to the 'phone? In the time it took you to compile the 10 messages on this thread, you'd have been able to get through to someone at Goodwood. Who would then have processed your refund. Surely? Or am I missing something?Btw, Goodwood weren’t mandated to furlough their staff, they could have kept them on to sort out refunds. They furloughed them to save money, and in doing so, had no obvious concern for other peoples money.
jmwalkeruk said:
This isn't meant to be a dig, genuinely curious - but I don't get your aversion to the 'phone? In the time it took you to compile the 10 messages on this thread, you'd have been able to get through to someone at Goodwood. Who would then have processed your refund. Surely? Or am I missing something?
I believe that they aren't taking calls due to the lack of staff, this has happened with a lot of companies and seems to be fairly standard practice at the moment, it would give the staff the time to go through the emails, the generic replies are also standard, all those that want refunds can do is sit tight and let those that are still at work get through processing them, I've still got a list (not Goodwood as I'm letting them roll over) of companies that I'm going through to organise either refunds / ticket suspensions or re-booking, hopefully for all of us this is a once in a lifetime situation All the points raised here are valid ( and its interesting to see the thoughtful and polite responses on here, unlike most of the rest of the internet ) but Its the way Goodwood are handling it that bothers me. Its the complete radio silence ( wont take calls, not responding to emails).
BA have already sent me an email offering a voucher and my flight hasn’t actually been cancelled yet, and i can do this all on line ( nb, I’m going to wait until the flight is actually cancelled because I want my money back ); The international Air Tatoo had an on-line refund option and returned my money within days; G-live in Guildford contacted me when a show i was supposed to go to got cancelled and returned my money within a couple of weeks; Tickemaster returned my money within days of a show i was supposed to be seeing getting cancelled; Disney have contacted me and offered me a full refund or the option to change dates; Universal Studios gave my money back the day after I cancelled ( on line ); even Cirque Du soliel sent me an email saying they would send me a refund within 4 weeks of the date of the show I was due to see and that’s not even been cancelled, its just that I can’t get there because of the international flight ban and, of course, the possibility of agonising death.
So unless you’ve got bored reading you’ll see a pattern here, everyone that owes me a refund has either done so quite quickly OR has offered me the option to chose on line what I want to do. Goodwood has just maintained radio silence on refunds, although they have emailed to everyone and written to them on how we can send them even more money. They are also extremely active on social media.
Don’t be fooled that Goodwood is some mom and pop tiny business, its really isn’t. Its doing a very good job at portraying that image though.
Everyone else i have dealt with seems to be at least making an effort to help out their customers. Goodwood seems to be making an effort to help itself and completely ignore its customers. As a member for nearly 21 years I find it extremely disappointing how they have handled this.
BA have already sent me an email offering a voucher and my flight hasn’t actually been cancelled yet, and i can do this all on line ( nb, I’m going to wait until the flight is actually cancelled because I want my money back ); The international Air Tatoo had an on-line refund option and returned my money within days; G-live in Guildford contacted me when a show i was supposed to go to got cancelled and returned my money within a couple of weeks; Tickemaster returned my money within days of a show i was supposed to be seeing getting cancelled; Disney have contacted me and offered me a full refund or the option to change dates; Universal Studios gave my money back the day after I cancelled ( on line ); even Cirque Du soliel sent me an email saying they would send me a refund within 4 weeks of the date of the show I was due to see and that’s not even been cancelled, its just that I can’t get there because of the international flight ban and, of course, the possibility of agonising death.
So unless you’ve got bored reading you’ll see a pattern here, everyone that owes me a refund has either done so quite quickly OR has offered me the option to chose on line what I want to do. Goodwood has just maintained radio silence on refunds, although they have emailed to everyone and written to them on how we can send them even more money. They are also extremely active on social media.
Don’t be fooled that Goodwood is some mom and pop tiny business, its really isn’t. Its doing a very good job at portraying that image though.
Everyone else i have dealt with seems to be at least making an effort to help out their customers. Goodwood seems to be making an effort to help itself and completely ignore its customers. As a member for nearly 21 years I find it extremely disappointing how they have handled this.
NickUSA said:
OmniCognate said:
...
Don’t be fooled that Goodwood is some mom and pop tiny business, its really isn’t. Its doing a very good job at portraying that image though.
...
and in 2018 GRRC alone his grace took a dividend of £6,000,000, and I would expect 2019 to be another bumper year.Don’t be fooled that Goodwood is some mom and pop tiny business, its really isn’t. Its doing a very good job at portraying that image though.
...
Which is oddly £1M more than the profit they made.
£48M of assets to fall back on though.
£48,001,000 including OmniCognate's tickets!
In the latest accounts (for 2018) I can see an Operating Profit of just under £5m and Profit After Tax of £2.7m which seems quite meagre to me on Annual Revenue of over £104m, particularly as the estate requires constant maintenance and investment.
Be that as it may, I'm keen to help ensure that the jobs of circa 700 people are secured going forward and that the events, which give me so much pleasure resume in 2021.
Be that as it may, I'm keen to help ensure that the jobs of circa 700 people are secured going forward and that the events, which give me so much pleasure resume in 2021.
OmniCognate it sounds like we are dealing with some of the same companies, it took a while of going round the houses with both Disney and Universal before they took on board the situation of not being able to travel from the UK and froze our Annual passes, Sea world haven't responded yet and after an hour on hold yesterday we got cut off.
Paul Leek said:
In the latest accounts (for 2018) I can see an Operating Profit of just under £5m and Profit After Tax of £2.7m which seems quite meagre to me on Annual Revenue of over £104m, particularly as the estate requires constant maintenance and investment.
Be that as it may, I'm keen to help ensure that the jobs of circa 700 people are secured going forward and that the events, which give me so much pleasure resume in 2021.
I think those figures are for the Estate Company... As with all these things, companies owning companies... The GRRC (that is the 'Company' not the 'Club') is owned by the Estate Company. GRRC - the circuit - should really be considered a stand-alone in this discussion. Members/ticket holders are not going to be interested in the farm or hotel business.Be that as it may, I'm keen to help ensure that the jobs of circa 700 people are secured going forward and that the events, which give me so much pleasure resume in 2021.
BUT, as you say, for right or wrong and whatever spin is put on it, I want to watch racing at Goodwood so I want them to survive. They have my membership fees for this year, and I won't be asking for a refund or discount.
If I had a substantial investment in the tickets, I would want that to roll over.
I don't have £5k to 'invest' in a spot to stand above the pits (I get to do that at the MM anyway - unless that benefit is about to be removed).
As said above, they want to project an image of a Mom & Pop club which is struggling - it is really an entertainment business. They should have some contingency in that £5M profit, and not taken it out of the GRRC (into Goodwood Estate) leaving themselves exposed.
Mk1coopers - Yes, sea world seem to be doing a particular bad job at the moment. Universal did everything via an only line chat with a very helpful person. Disney have handled the whole issue really badly ( although no issue with refunds ). I know this isn’t even remotely on topic but we were supposed to be staying at the Yacht Club, which it now seems they have filled-up with NBA players. My biggest issue was the cancelling of the dining plan, and park hoppers, and pretty much everything else if I’m honest. We’ll be going back to Disney in Tokyo next year. Florida is probably worth avoiding for quite a while.
Edited by OmniCognate on Friday 19th June 14:00
OmniCognate said:
Goodwood has just maintained radio silence on refunds, although they have emailed to everyone and written to them on how we can send them even more money.
Quite. They are taking the piss. There’s a lot of goodwill towards them, as can be seen from this thread and the Revival thread, but asking people to donate their ticket money from this year’s non-existent events for some nebulous benefits rather than roll it over or have a refund is pretty poor form.OmniCognate said:
Mk1coopers - Yes, sea world seem to be doing a particular bad job at the moment. Universal did everything via an only line chat with a very helpful person. Disney have handled the whole issue really badly ( although no issue with refunds ). I know this isn’t even remotely on topic but we were supposed to be staying at the Yacht Club, which it now seems they have filled-up with NBA players. My biggest issue was the cancelling of the dining plan, and park hoppers, and pretty much everything else if I’m honest. We’ll be going back to Disney in Tokyo next year. Florida is probably worth avoiding for quite a while.
Slightly off topic I agree, still relevant though as they are all much bigger than Goodwood (though that perhaps means they have many more customers to deal with) and we have effectively done the same thing where we can by leaving our money with them so that they exist when it's practical to return Edited by OmniCognate on Friday 19th June 14:00
I'd also heard that the were 2 on site hotels that had effectively been taken over, one by the NBA and one by the NFL Gassing Station | Goodwood Events | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff