Belgrade with sportsfirst eu

[flash gunner]

to spinney who called me a scam and hasnt replied and is still trying to make people doubt us by telling people to look at arsenal.com/travel go pay 4 times as much with thomson we have had enough of this crap we going to tottenham

Dunno if the humour just completely passed me by (in which case ) but if not, bit of an odd & ott response. A couple of Gooners, on one site, questioned the legitimacy of your business. Fair enough you didn’t take kindly to that, I can totally understand that. But other Gooners, on the same site, either gave you the benefit of the doubt and/or stood up for your side of the argument. Some even took up your offer & did business with you. So why would a couple of people’s relatively meek comments about you stop you wanting to do business with the tens of thousands of other potential Gooner customers out there? Genuine question, not a criticism. Just seems a bit of a self-defeating way to do business. If a couple of tottingham fans suggest your prices are too good to be true will you have had enough of them & move on to Chelsea, and then on to West Ham, Fulham…?

I think sportfirst' responses have been unproffesional thoughout this thread and for that reason it would put me off dealing with them even if it is cheaper

[flash gunner]

looks like as usual i was right

christie came up trumps so it would appear.

yes he will get some business out of this and deservedly so.

he did not ask for offending posts to be removed cos he was confident he could deliver

the trip advisor story goes some way to prove my point.

defamation is defamation. there are no special rules for forums

those who stated his company was scam should be quick to post unreserved apoogy.

those who doubted me should do likewise but wont.

just remember i am always right which is why anyone using this forum should always use my services for legal advice because unlike vast majority of posters i know what i am talking about -always

I would like to apologise for ever doubting Roly

you would like to, but your not going to are you?

Damn i was waiting for Roly to respond before saying that

[Its Up 4 Grabs Now]

to spinney who called me a scam and hasnt replied and is still trying to make people doubt us by telling people to look at arsenal.com/travel go pay 4 times as much with thomson we have had enough of this crap we going to tottenham

Dunno if the humour just completely passed me by (in which case ) but if not, bit of an odd & ott response. A couple of Gooners, on one site, questioned the legitimacy of your business. Fair enough you didn’t take kindly to that, I can totally understand that. But other Gooners, on the same site, either gave you the benefit of the doubt and/or stood up for your side of the argument. Some even took up your offer & did business with you. So why would a couple of people’s relatively meek comments about you stop you wanting to do business with the tens of thousands of other potential Gooner customers out there? Genuine question, not a criticism. Just seems a bit of a self-defeating way to do business. If a couple of tottingham fans suggest your prices are too good to be true will you have had enough of them & move on to Chelsea, and then on to West Ham, Fulham…?

I think sportfirst' responses have been unproffesional thoughout this thread and for that reason it would put me off dealing with them even if it is cheaper

Yep, pretty much what I was getting at. I doubt he actually would refuse the custom of Arsenal fans altogether on the back of this thread (obviously), but to come on an Arsenal site talking about “we going to tottenhamâ€

[HashKads]

Like Flash said, it just sounds all too unprofessional. Imagine calling up Thomas Cook and saying your unhappy with their service and they turn around and say 'Oh forget this, we're taking our business to Germany' WTF?

I'd rather pay a bit more and have peace of mind.

[HashKads]

After the initial excitement of draw day had died down, the hunt for flights began! In this time of financial constraint our initial joy at the draw was dampened by the cost of travel to both Serbia and the Ukraine, but nevertheless we spent ages trying to find the cheapest route to these new places on Arsenals grand European tour 2010\11.



Partisan Fans – Loud and proud

We did manage a cheap flight to Porto for the Braga game from Gatwick, which means a free visit to the 1 lounge to sample more free beer! Gotta love it. Well it was before the Bolton game in the pub with no beer where I listened to Phil and Winno discussing there impending trip to Belgrade when my green envy button was pressed and so after crossing the Clock End bridge the flyer from Sport First advertising a cheap trip to Belgrade was thrust into my pocket and not thrown on the floor with so many others.

At half time we tried to google the company but got nowhere, so we decided to email them asking for details. The reply was almost instant with flight details on Swiss Air and a 3 star hotel on the outskirts of Belgrade all for the rather cheap price of £200 pounds. Now normally I go along with the adage that if it’s too cheap it’s a con but I thought I'd enquire if any fellow Gooners had heard of sport first, so posted my first thread onto the onlinegooner forum, and by general consensus it was agreed it was a con and even the club was quoted as investigating Sport First. Maybe this has something to do with Thomas Cook being the preferred travel agent of the club!

That was that I thought, no European tour for me till November, but suddenly I got a pm from a guy called Christy claiming to be the director of Sports First asking me to read his post on my original thread. He was offering to prove he wasn't a con by offering five people a trip to Belgrade, with no money changing hands un till the return to the UK and then only if satisfied! I thought this was an offer that was to good to pass up and contacted him by phone straight away.

After several emails the booking was made and I awaited my confirmations. With only days to go to the trip we contacted the ticket office at the club and explained to them our time constraints and they arranged for us to pick our match tickets up from the box office before the disaster against West Brom. Fair play to the ticket office for sorting this out with little fuss. Monday came and there was still no confirmation from the sports first and was beginning to feel that Christy had been blowing smoke the whole time, but after a phone call and a few emails, my confirmations for the next day’s travel were in my hand.

So we set off early Tuesday and headed for airport, where we managed to blag our way into a business lounge and kicked back with a few Bloody Marys and a bit of a munch. The flights were uneventful but the standard of service knocked Ryanair into a cocked hat. We arrived in Belgrade on a balmy afternoon and settled to the task of finding our hotel. The Elegance hotel lived up to its name and was everything you would expect from a modern hotel, the one problem though that it was a 600 dinar taxi ride from the city centre, so I would suggest that sport first look at the positioning of accommodation in regards to location of stadium etc, but nevertheless I couldn't really fault the standard of accommodation picked by for us. However there was no booking for us at the Elegance even though I had my confirmation. But after a few phone calls and emails the situation was put right and we where checked in.

We had a few beers at the hotel then headed off in a taxi to meet Phill and Wino. Our taxi was driven or should I say thrown through the streets of Belgrade by an ex-professional footballer from the former Yugoslavian lower leagues, a big Partizan fan. In between pointing out the sights, he sang at the top of his voice the Partizan football songs, a taste of things to come for the night. The noise and jumping about of the home fans led by a bloke on a microphone was amazing and even at 3-1 down was a sight to behold. In fact this carried on for 20 minutes after the final whistle, and the Belgrade team even came back out for a lap of honour. They must feel proud playing for a team with supporters like that!

Arsenal where pretty much on top from the start and the game should have been sewn up long before it was, but we did witness our keeper making a couple of good saves including a penalty! Maybe he has turned a corner and we should give him the benefit of the doubt, but maybe he would then drop that! The Arsenal support was great as usual with a large contingent of the Bulgarian Supporters Club a welcome addition to the same faces who I regularly see on European nights. We did try to out sing the home support, but microphone man made sure we were barely heard!

The match passed with no crowd trouble that we saw despite warnings from the club and we retired for some post-match refreshments in the city centre before heading back via another taxi to the hotel! After a quick tour of Belgrade on Wednesday we arrived at the airport to be told our booking had been cancelled and we had to pay £50 each to re-book. Sport First claim no knowledge of this cancellation and have agreed to compensate any expense incurred. All in all I have no real complaints about my first organised football trip, but I don't think the organised trip is for me as I like to be more in control of events and spend time exploring the places we visit. However Sport First did nearly deliver all they promised and for that I must thank Christy and his team. But this supporter will continue to fly solo!

This is Goonerchefs report. That is some crap service. No thanks.

[JMascis666]

to spinney who called me a scam and hasnt replied and is still trying to make people doubt us by telling people to look at arsenal.com/travel go pay 4 times as much with thomson we have had enough of this crap we going to tottenham

Dunno if the humour just completely passed me by (in which case ) but if not, bit of an odd & ott response. A couple of Gooners, on one site, questioned the legitimacy of your business. Fair enough you didn’t take kindly to that, I can totally understand that. But other Gooners, on the same site, either gave you the benefit of the doubt and/or stood up for your side of the argument. Some even took up your offer & did business with you. So why would a couple of people’s relatively meek comments about you stop you wanting to do business with the tens of thousands of other potential Gooner customers out there? Genuine question, not a criticism. Just seems a bit of a self-defeating way to do business. If a couple of tottingham fans suggest your prices are too good to be true will you have had enough of them & move on to Chelsea, and then on to West Ham, Fulham…?

West Ham in Europe!

[spinney12]

to spinney who called me a scam and hasnt replied and is still trying to make people doubt us by telling people to look at arsenal.com/travel go pay 4 times as much with thomson we have had enough of this crap we going to tottenham

I havnt called you a scam, it was the words used by the club when i asked for further information.

The link i put up was something i noticed and its not every day another company is mentioned like that on the travel page like that.

im not trying to give you a bad name if thats what you think

[marcengels]

More questions than answers.

Exactly how do they book these scheduled tickets so far in advance, what system do they use?

[MK Gould]

What constitutes a scam? Not this company as they do genuinely seem to have tried to deliver a decent trip for an undeniably cheap price.

However, strip the filler out of goonerchief's report and this is what you are left with:

- Monday came and there was still no confirmation from sports first and was beginning to feel that Christy had been blowing smoke the whole time, but after a phone call and a few emails, my confirmations for the next day’s travel were in my hand.

- The Elegance hotel......the one problem though that it was a 600 dinar taxi ride from the city centre......there was no booking for us.......even though I had my confirmation. But after a few phone calls and emails the situation was put right and we where checked in.

- We arrived at the airport to be told our booking had been cancelled and we had to pay £50 each to re-book.

Ok, so scam was unfair. But I think I've heard enough to know that I won't be tempted by this company in the future....

[marcengels]

What constitutes a scam? Not this company as they do genuinely seem to have tried to deliver a decent trip for an undeniably cheap price.

However, strip the filler out of goonerchief's report and this is what you are left with:

- Monday came and there was still no confirmation from sports first and was beginning to feel that Christy had been blowing smoke the whole time, but after a phone call and a few emails, my confirmations for the next day’s travel were in my hand.

- The Elegance hotel......the one problem though that it was a 600 dinar taxi ride from the city centre......there was no booking for us.......even though I had my confirmation. But after a few phone calls and emails the situation was put right and we where checked in.

- We arrived at the airport to be told our booking had been cancelled and we had to pay £50 each to re-book.

Ok, so scam was unfair. But I think I've heard enough to know that I won't be tempted by this company in the future....

That's it MKG - perhaps someone can explain these things, how and why they happened, why they booked this hotel, how they book scheduled tickets in advance....would help to get a clearer picture of things.