Below is a copy of my complaint letter to NASCAR and the Daytona Speedway to let them know what happened to us.
February 24, 2006
TO: Daytona International Speedway and NASCAR
RE: Travel Agent Scam
To whom it may concern,
I just wanted to send you a heads up about a travel agency that cheated us when we purchased a Daytona 500 package from them. Hopefully you wont allow them to cheat anymore NASCAR fans.
In April of 2005 we contacted All Seasons Travel of Patterson, CA to find us the best deal on a Daytona 500 package. We said we wanted to arrive on Feb. 17, and leave on Feb. 21, 2006. They found a package for $1978 which included 4 nights hotel at the Embassy Suites in Orlando, roundtrip transfers for Busch and Daytona races, and tickets in Keech or DePalma front stretch. The package was from Broadway Packages Inc. in New York. We gave our travel agent our credit card number on April 23, 2005. Broadway Packages charged us half for the deposit and the other half was to be paid by December 22, 2005. We were so excited. Then they deducted the second half from our account on October 27, 2005 without checking with us first. We thought it was odd but let it go. In December, our travel agent contacted us and asked how we wanted to pay for the remainder of the trip and I informed them that it had already been deducted. She thought that was odd also because Broadway Packages was asking her for the final payment. She got that dilemma cleared up and then at our request asked them if they had any pit passes left. We only wanted them for Daytona, not the Busch race. Dale at Broadway Packages said that they did have passes available but we had to purchase them for both races. We authorized another $378.00 to be charged to our account for pit passes. Our travel agent asked Broadway Packages when wed be receiving our travel packet. They assured us that theyd be sent out the second week of January. That time came and went. Our travel agent called them again and they said wed receive them the second week of February. The week before the race, Dale called me to offer me an upgrade on our package. He said wed be able to stay right in Daytona Beach and hed get us better tickets. We said ok. He said our package would be Fed Exed to us and would go out on Thursday the 9th. We still didnt receive anything and on the 16th (the day before we flew out) he called to say that our tickets would be at the hotel when we arrived and wed need to sign for them. He said that Frank Hirsch, the owner of Broadway Packages would be delivering them personally because hed be staying in the same hotel. It turned out that he never upgraded our hotel to Daytona Beach. Wed be staying in Orlando. When we arrived on Friday, the 17th, the hotel had no idea what we were talking about. They didnt know anything about race tickets, Frank Hirsch had cancelled the three rooms hed reserved for himself, and they said that other people had called for the same thing. The hotel manager called other hotels in the area and said that theyd had similar problems. Not only were our tickets not there, but our room had not been prepaid. Both my travel agent and myself called Broadway Packages and now were dealing with someone named Mitch Goetz who sounded exactly like Dale. He said not to panic, hed authorize payment of the hotel for one night and investigate why the hotel wasnt prepaid. He then informed me that wed pick our tickets up at the track on Saturday. Hed call me in the morning to let me know where to meet his messenger. I was hysterical but there was nothing I could do.
Busch race day. We called Mitch when we left our hotel. He said to call when we were closer to the track and that wed meet somewhere near the pedestrian walkway. After we arrived at the walkway we called him. He said to start walking up the street towards Hooters, then he said look for Seven Eleven, then he said look for Checkers, his guy would be at a table waiting for us wearing a red shirt. The guy was there, he sounded a lot like Mitch and Dale but he gave us our tickets so we didnt say anything other than, Where are the pit passes? He said he was just the messenger and didnt know anything about pit passes. I called Mitch when we got to the entrance gate of Daytona and he said the pit passes were only for the Daytona, not the Busch race. I asked why I hadnt received my Daytona tickets and he said Id get them the next day, same scenario but it might be at a different spot and it might be a different messenger. He also said that our tickets would be even better than they were for the Busch race because of the problems wed had. Then he said not to engage in conversation with the messenger. I called our travel agent back home and she said that wasnt correct, the pit passes were paid for both days. By now, Broadway Packages would not return her calls. The tickets we got were very good though. Petty Tower. We enjoyed the Busch race but worried about whether or not wed actually get to see the Daytona race.
I called Mitch after the race and asked if the hotel had been taken care of and he said not to worry about it. The next day we headed for the track and went through the same headache by cell phone of getting to a spot where a messenger would give us our tickets. The same guy was there, he gave us our tickets and of course, there were no pit passes again. The seats were also inferior. They were bleacher seats in Depalma and we could only see a small area of the track. I called Mitch to ask what happened to our pit passes and he never answered the phone or called back. When we checked out of our hotel on Feb. 21 to fly home, the rest of the bill went onto our credit card. Broadway Packages never came through so we ended up paying for our hotel twice. Broadway Packages does not respond to our calls, or our local travel agents calls.
What should have been an exciting, dream come true vacation for us, turned into a nightmare. The races were awesome and were glad we went, but well never book anything through a travel agent again.
Im sending you this letter in hopes that you will not do business with these people. I have the following addresses for them:
E-Mail broadwaynascar@yahoo.com
Mailing address: Broadway NASCAR Packages
118 Tinker St
Woodstock, NY
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