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ItIsGee

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Posted
  • Location: Bamford, Rochdale
  • Weather Preferences: Summer - Storms Winter - Blizzards
  • Location: Bamford, Rochdale

I just wanted to create this thread as I am, like many others becoming concerned whether chasing in 2014 is actually going to happen at all! The lack of information on both Netweather and the Weather Holidays website does not fill us with much confidence that anything is happening as both sites still showing 2013's Tour Dates. Talking to others on Facebook and whatnot,  also confirms emails have been going unanswered and also stories of numerous people dropping out over the last few weeks. So just what is happening? My own story is probably like a most others, I booked myself and Sarah as did the now famous John finney, on the last day of the early bird off whilst out in the plains chasing.  I was told we would be contacted about what tour we would be on, that was in May of this year, since then absolutely zero contact, so with not even knowing what trip we are going on we cannot even start to look at flights and time is ticking by. I am hoping things can get sorted in the next few days/weeks and actual dates will get released/updated on the sites. Sorry for the rant but I feel this needs to get sorted out this side of Xmas or it could be left until 2014 or without the confirmation of a Tour Date, a possible cancellation myself.

 

Anyone else been in this situation?

 

 

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Posted
  • Location: Stone,Staffs
  • Location: Stone,Staffs

I  too am  concerned at the moment with regards to lack of communication etc. I have not booked my flights yet but want to do so soon. But not sure if I should. As it stands there is no guarantee that anything is going to happen and I feel that I could end up with flights but no tour. Considering I will be paying for 2 flights at a cost of around £1500 and an additional £3K+ cost of trip  I feel there is a lack of professionalism. Sorry also about rant but I could be shelling out a few quid.

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Posted
  • Location: Tiree
  • Location: Tiree

I am one of those who had to cancel. Down to the lack of communication and promises that where not kept. Its a vast amount of money to be spending when you earn very little money and takes the best part of 12 months to save. But its totally worth it cause I have made some great friends of the years. I really wanted to go next year. I love everything to do with the weather and have a real passion for learning more. I learnt so much from Paul and the team. I have memories from the past two trips that I have been on that I will never forget. But my frustration grew and grew. I am glad I am not alone in feeling this way. The only way I can realistically pay for a trips like this is with a payment plan which normally has been set up by July at the latest. It gives me piece of mind knowing that some of it has been paid for. 

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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

I've got the same worries, I'm not 100% sure if I can make it yet because of potentially losing my job, but it's hard to feel confident that it's actually going ahead anyway.

If I hadn't already been three times I would be worried I was being scammed.

The first year I went in 2009 it seemed relatively well organised with paperwork to sign and a info pack etc and dates and availability on here from about a year in advance. This year there's been nothing since I paid the deposit, only a "Welcome to Netweather Extra" email after I paid which in itself doesn't look good because I wasn't paying for Netweather Extra!

 

Anyway I hope things become clear soon and I hope I am able to go. As soon as I know about my job I will let Netweather know, just as I would hope they would let us know what's going on.

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

Sorry to hear people are having issues here - obviously we've got something wrong here and will make sure it's sorted. In terms of the booking confirmations, all those who booked on the early bird deal should have received emails during the summer with confirmed tour details as they all went out in a batch - if you've not got one of those please feel free to drop me an email - paul[at]netweather.tv.

 

In terms of the dates on the site, tbh we've been waiting on some confirmations in terms of group bookings which will affect availability of further space on the tours concerned and that's taken a lot longer than we hoped, but it has no bearing on those who have already booked. Beyond that, with the tours some way off there's not usually a great deal of information to share at this stage anyway, but we'll be in touch with everyone within the next few days with an update to hopefully allay any concerns and ensure everyone has all the info they need about their bookings.

Cheers

 

Paul

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Posted
  • Location: Evesham/ Tewkesbury
  • Weather Preferences: Enjoy the weather, you can't take it with you 😎
  • Location: Evesham/ Tewkesbury

Ive not seen Paul Sherman post anything for months!!!Hope he is ok,,,,Posted ImagePosted ImagePosted Image

Edited by ANYWEATHER
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Posted
  • Location: Dorking, Surrey
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Dorking, Surrey

Didn't realise others had issues with poor comms.Mine's a different problem, non refundable deposit that i didn't know about, i've had to cancel but not getting deposit back.Eventually found the statement in an attachment within an attachment on the original email for early birds.2011 comms were great for my first year, T shirts, banter, a who's who of all the chasers.Last year had none of that apart from what the chasers created themselves and this year even worse, with no reference to tour dates, had to ask Ian on Facebook,  and all last years info on both websites.Not exactly a great advert for newbies.

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

To be honest Jim the deposits were clearly marked as non refundable on the website, and the subsequent emails - as far as I've ever seen all holiday deposits are non-refundable and from year 1 the deposits for the storm chases have been non-refundable. When someone books the deposit holds the place and is a commitment to honour that booking, if they weren't non-refundable we may as well not take a deposit at all.

This is the wording from the email confirming the tour dates back in May and the wording of the refundable nature of the early bird deposit matches that on the website - ie everyone who booked prior to knowing the dates could cancel at that point should none of the dates work for them, and we would refund the deposit then.

Hi, thanks for your 'early-bird' booking on the stormchase.

We've now finalised the tour dates and can now allocate individual tour spaces to you, all the tours will be well subscribed and places can only be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis so please let me know asap which tour you'd like to join us on.

If you can be flexible with your dates, it would be very helpful if you could provide a second (or even third) choice of tour - we'll then let you know within the next week which tour we've added you to.

The first 3 tours will start and end in Dallas (Dallas Fort Worth airport), and 4th will start and end in Denver.

Tour 1

Arrive: 10th May

Depart: 21st May

Tour 2

Arrive: 21st May

Depart: 1st June

Tour 3

Arrive: 1st June

Depart: 12th June

Tour 4 (Denver)

Arrive: 14th June

Depart: 25th June

As part of the early-bird booking you can cancel now if none of these dates suit you. If you'd like to do this please let me by replying to this email or call on 0208 090 2490 within the next 7 days and we'll refund your deposit for you.

 

 

Regarding t-shirts, they've been done once I think, but have never been a core part of the package, and the community side of the chases have evolved in the last few years of their own accord really, so we didn't pursue the bio's etc in 2012 as we had in previous years. Posted Image

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Posted
  • Location: Dorking, Surrey
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Dorking, Surrey

To be honest Jim the deposits were clearly marked as non refundable on the website, and the subsequent emails - as far as I've ever seen all holiday deposits are non-refundable and from year 1 the deposits for the storm chases have been non-refundable. When someone books the deposit holds the place and is a commitment to honour that booking, if they weren't non-refundable we may as well not take a deposit at all.

This is the wording from the email confirming the tour dates back in May and the wording of the refundable nature of the early bird deposit matches that on the website - ie everyone who booked prior to knowing the dates could cancel at that point should none of the dates work for them, and we would refund the deposit then.

 

 

Regarding t-shirts, they've been done once I think, but have never been a core part of the package, and the community side of the chases have evolved in the last few years of their own accord really, so we didn't pursue the bio's etc in 2012 as we had in previous years. Posted Image

Thanks for the reply Paul, but this is the email above that nobody received. I knew i was on tour 2 but had assumed the dates based on previous years.

However last month, i needed to confirm dates, but no info on either website, so i asked Ian on FB and he gave me the dates, which wasn't what i was expecting and clashed with my wife's trip to Finland, so i had to cancel.

If i'd have known the dates back in June then i would have had to cancel and the wording in the email no-one received

As part of the early-bird booking you can cancel now if none of these dates suit you. If you'd like to do this please let me by replying to this email or call on 0208 090 2490 within the next 7 days and we'll refund your deposit for you.

should have applied. I hear Cookie and Kirsty have tried numerous times to get info and payment plans set up, but got no answers to emails, others are pulling out as communications have either been poor or non existent. People can't book flights as they haven't heard what tour they are on or what the dates are.

We, as regular storm chasers, would have appreciated refunds of our deposits as a goodwill gesture based on the lack of earlier communications, non existent payment plans and lack of detail on either website.

At the moment there are a lot of very pithed off and annoyed regular storm chasers out there as we are a close knit group who communicate regularly with each other.

Regards

Jimbo

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

Jim, I have replies to that particular email from you, and swapped a handful of different emails with you about your tour choice etc, so I think you may be mistaken on that front.

 

As far as commenting on others, tbh that's probably best to allow them to deal with things but as far as I'm aware no-one is awaiting a reply to emails so I'd ask anyone who is awaiting a response to something to get in touch again. As much as I obviously accept something has gone awry in terms of some of the details not getting out to people which we'll remedy asap, we're pretty accessible in terms of contact - for instance I think it was only a couple of months ago we spoke on the phone about the chase, and others have called / emailed / opened support tickets with questions etc and have been answered.

 

Regarding the websites, to be totally honest that's not really something which makes a difference to anyone's bookings, I totally understand that coupled with any communication issues it doesn't look great but it really has no bearing on any bookings that have already been made. 

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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Ive not seen Paul Sherman post anything for months!!!Hope he is ok,,,,Posted ImagePosted ImagePosted Image

 

Am still around Ian! Just not really been that much weather to talk about in the last few months, the US Outbreak the other day was not put on this part of the forum and I found it in the North America thread which was strange as we usually have a Virtual Chase set-up for these, was also out until 8pm on Sunday and the early start caught me out a little bit.

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Posted
  • Location: Billingshurst, West Sussex
  • Weather Preferences: The livelier the better!
  • Location: Billingshurst, West Sussex

My issue guys is, that after the initial rush for the early bird booking, communication dried up. The email confirmation I was expecting didn't materialise and in terms of the essential planning of our diary for next year, I had to contact NW myself to find out if I had a place. I have requested information on a payment plan which hasn't been responded to and now we have just 6 months to go. Websites are not updated and devoid of information and I have heard that there was potentially a film crew accompanying a tour - this is something which guests need to know about. It is an awful lot of money to spend and personally I was worried as I feel customer service and standard information was not being distributed. It should not be up to guests to initiate. Paying guests require more - they are paying for the whole service and need to feel valued. The tours are fantastic and I would recommend them to anyone, but my booking experience for 2014 has not met my expectations.

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Posted
  • Location: Dorking, Surrey
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Dorking, Surrey

Hi Paul, yep remember them now, in my vodka fuelled rants, must have lost the one with dates on.Wish the non refundable deposit was made clearer, maybe it was just me not reading all the small print, but that's how i roll.Shame, as has left me feeling bitter with myself & NW

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

My issue guys is, that after the initial rush for the early bird booking, communication dried up. The email confirmation I was expecting didn't materialise and in terms of the essential planning of our diary for next year, I had to contact NW myself to find out if I had a place. I have requested information on a payment plan which hasn't been responded to and now we have just 6 months to go. Websites are not updated and devoid of information and I have heard that there was potentially a film crew accompanying a tour - this is something which guests need to know about. It is an awful lot of money to spend and personally I was worried as I feel customer service and standard information was not being distributed. It should not be up to guests to initiate. Paying guests require more - they are paying for the whole service and need to feel valued. The tours are fantastic and I would recommend them to anyone, but my booking experience for 2014 has not met my expectations.

 Hi Kirsty, again I'm sorry about this - obviously some of the confirmations didn't find their way to people so we will be emailing everyone today.  In terms of your request for info on a payment plan - I can see the ticket you sent in August asking about your tour which Ian answered within a few minutes, but I'm not seeing anything else so I don't know where that went at all. I'll drop you an email about options in terms of payments shortly though.
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Posted
  • Location: Billingshurst, West Sussex
  • Weather Preferences: The livelier the better!
  • Location: Billingshurst, West Sussex

Thank you Paul - I sent this email with the payment plan request very soon after Ian's response.

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

Very weird, I can see your reply to Ian which was just a thanks type message, so I can only assume that any subsequent reply to it must not have been recorded on there. Sorry about that - we weren't ignoring you, just never got your message!!

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Posted
  • Location: Evesham/ Tewkesbury
  • Weather Preferences: Enjoy the weather, you can't take it with you 😎
  • Location: Evesham/ Tewkesbury

Glad youre Ok Paul!Posted ImagePosted ImagePosted Image

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Posted
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL

Glad things are getting sorted Posted Image Still gutted that I won't make next year finances won't allow at the moment. Will be out chasing again in the future. 

Cookie, gonna miss you,  not that our paths have crossed, but next year they could have done so.

Oh well there will be other years, I'm sure.Posted Image

And Jimbo, an opportunity to partake in a rain dance with you will be sorely missed.Posted Image

Edited by Dorsetbred
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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

So hopefully everyone now has received an email (some got lost in the pipework) and we can all look forward to seeing how much BA Reduce their flights in little over a months time and once Xmas is outta the way it goes really quickly.

 

A couple of things from me, firstly there will be no pre storm chase meet up in 2014, this was to be in Liverpool but Mr Cameron has not got the spare time to get this arranged for March 2014, if people do want to meet up in say April just for a few pints then I am sure locally people can attend for example.

 

Secondly we are now well on our way with regards to Staffing of the tours for next year, we will be having 2 Vehicles on Tour 1 next year, the usual 3 vehicles on Tour 2 (End of May) then back to 2 vehicles for Tour 3 and ending with 3 Vehicles for the Denver Tour middle to end of June. I will NOT Be driving in 2014 and a new approach sees me solely in the passenger seat for the tours concentrating on Radar and decision making more effectively.

 

I will update who the Staff are in a few weeks time.

 

Regards

 

Paul S

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Posted
  • Location: Bamford, Rochdale
  • Weather Preferences: Summer - Storms Winter - Blizzards
  • Location: Bamford, Rochdale

So hopefully everyone now has received an email (some got lost in the pipework) and we can all look forward to seeing how much BA Reduce their flights in little over a months time and once Xmas is outta the way it goes really quickly.

 

A couple of things from me, firstly there will be no pre storm chase meet up in 2014, this was to be in Liverpool but Mr Cameron has not got the spare time to get this arranged for March 2014, if people do want to meet up in say April just for a few pints then I am sure locally people can attend for example.

 

Secondly we are now well on our way with regards to Staffing of the tours for next year, we will be having 2 Vehicles on Tour 1 next year, the usual 3 vehicles on Tour 2 (End of May) then back to 2 vehicles for Tour 3 and ending with 3 Vehicles for the Denver Tour middle to end of June. I will NOT Be driving in 2014 and a new approach sees me solely in the passenger seat for the tours concentrating on Radar and decision making more effectively.

 

I will update who the Staff are in a few weeks time.

 

Regards

 

Paul S

 

 

I am sure that if we all want to meet up, (which i am pretty sure everyone does want to meet) someone else can arrange a meeting point! Trains from Euston to Scouse ville is only 2hr 7 mins, not exactly a 3 day epic!

 

can we get a show of hands on who would meet up in March? Shall i Start a new thread?

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Posted
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL

So hopefully everyone now has received an email (some got lost in the pipework) and we can all look forward to seeing how much BA Reduce their flights in little over a months time and once Xmas is outta the way it goes really quickly.

 

A couple of things from me, firstly there will be no pre storm chase meet up in 2014, this was to be in Liverpool but Mr Cameron has not got the spare time to get this arranged for March 2014, if people do want to meet up in say April just for a few pints then I am sure locally people can attend for example.

 

Secondly we are now well on our way with regards to Staffing of the tours for next year, we will be having 2 Vehicles on Tour 1 next year, the usual 3 vehicles on Tour 2 (End of May) then back to 2 vehicles for Tour 3 and ending with 3 Vehicles for the Denver Tour middle to end of June. I will NOT Be driving in 2014 and a new approach sees me solely in the passenger seat for the tours concentrating on Radar and decision making more effectively.

 

I will update who the Staff are in a few weeks time.

 

Regards

 

Paul S

Paul, I'm pleased to hear about your change of role, and to get things moving along, I've found this for you.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/?n=using-radar

Once you get through this I'm sure you'll be ready to take on your new role.

Regards A satisfied chaserPosted Image

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Posted
  • Location: Hilversum, Netherlands
  • Weather Preferences: Hot Sun, Deep Snow, Convective Goodness, Anvil Crawlers
  • Location: Hilversum, Netherlands

 

I will update who the Staff are in a few weeks time.

 

Does this include Kathryn and I as the hospitality/tequila administrators/walmart challenge hosts? :D

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