Running of the BullsReviews of festivalpros.com

Response from Running of the BullsOct 25, 2017

Hi Chris, Thanks for taking the time to submit the review. You are correct, if there are tickets available, you can buy them at face value at the kiosks. However, I would caution people that your experience wasn't typical. You only needed 1 ticket, in the upper deck, on the lowest demand day of the fiesta. There are only 1,000 tickets set aside each day for sale to the public, and on normal days, they are gone before 7:30am, sometimes earlier. I'll re-post the note that we post clearly on our bullfight ticket page, because it is important that everyone know they are paying for the certainty of a guaranteed ticket if they go through us: From our web site: "Please be aware that advance tickets are expensive and will cost more than the face value of the tickets. It is sometimes possible to purchase tickets on the day of the event from scalpers found in front of the Plaza de Toros, but this is never guaranteed and the price can vary wildly. If you are only visiting Pamplona for a day or two, we highly suggest paying the premium for certainty." I hope that helps explain the reason for the price difference.

Response from Running of the BullsOct 25, 2017

Thank you for letting us know about your experience. I'm sorry to hear about it... we always try to get to the bottom of misconnects like this so I did some investigating. You booked this balcony online on June 15th, and received a receipt. We personally emailed you later that day letting you know that we'd be sending your final balcony location soon. On June 23rd we sent your Festival Pros itinerary with the correct address and a map of the location. We actually didn't change the location, because the final manifest shows you at the same balcony we assigned back on June 23rd. It sounds like you may not have received the email on June 23rd, which would have been key to getting to the right location. You might check your spam filter to see if it got caught in there somehow. So sorry for the confusion, but I'm glad our staff found you on the street and helped you get to your assigned balcony. I'm glad you brought up the street cleaners, because that's an important thing for everyone to know. Fiesta is messy... and while we're very thankful for the street cleaners, they do come at a really inconvenient time, while we're all waiting to get onto the balconies. Just for everyone's future reference it is OK to cross the street to avoid them and then return to the balcony door after they have passed. Sorry you got hosed down by them! Thanks again for sharing your experience. It helps everyone know what to expect.

Response from Running of the BullsSep 30, 2017

Thanks for sharing your story, Dawn. We were so sorry to learn about your experiences when you emailed us after you got home. Most of the issue was your email spam filters which were set too strong, and prevented you from receiving your instructions for where to go. Even our apology emails didn't reach you, I think. Here's what happened. 1. On June 7, 2017 you booked a “generic” category balcony for the Santo Domingo section of the run. 2. On the same day, Lynnette emailed you to thank you for your booking and to let you know that we would email you as soon as you were assigned to a specific balcony. 3. On Jun 19, 2017 we sent you an email with a link to your detailed arrival instructions, including the address to which you were assigned, on San Saturnino street (with a view of Santo Domingo Street). From the sound of it, you didn’t see or didn’t receive the June 19th email, which would have been critical to finding the balcony. The other thing we learned is that our booking software added an address to your receipt, based on the location of the map pin in the shop. That’s how you got the wrong address, which wasn’t one of our balconies at all, just a representation of the section you were in. Due to the software error, we refunded your entire booking, and feel really bad you missed the opportunity to see the bull run from that balcony. We depend heavily on email communication, so spam filters can really inhibit communication. We try to make up for that with our phone, chat and SMS support before, during and after the fiesta. We also have our team on the ground in Pamplona to support you. We're so sorry that, despite our best efforts, it didn't work out for you to make it to the balcony.