Club Arnage

Brian from 1st tickets has posted the following on Beermountain, probably as useful to the users of this forum as well.........

We met with our contact at the ACO earlier today, who informed us that they have found an unplanned "feature" of the parking and camping passes.

The passes are printed on new style/type of thermal paper for 2012. The "feature" is that details of the pass, including bar code are likely to disappear if the pass is exposed to more than 30 mins of sunlight!!

They have asked us to let customers and BMers know of this problem and request that you only put the pass in your windscreen as you arrive at your campsite or parking area. Once parked, they recommend that you turn the pass round in its pouch (or put it somewhere safe) to avoid it going completely black and unusable.

This is a genuine request and will hopefully reduce issues during the week of race. If we are told anything more we will certaninly let you know.

Brian, 1st Tickets

Slash

Oh what fun this will add over the weekend ::)

Oh absolutly! My car ain't going anywhere during the week, but I'll keep an eye out for our shopping trolly.

FFS what a stupid technology error, not a problem for me though  >:(

Typical of the ACO - exactly two months late for the April Fool's scam   :-\

Del

Well what a kcuf up!

if my pass turns black that's the ACO problem.   (Though I do have Photo copies of the passes anyway).

But I had noticed the tickets have faded in the past.

t.

LOL  ;D
Only the Aco, or a British government department could cock things up like this.

I asked the question and got a reply that the classic tickets sent out before the problem was identified have the same issue

lets hope its cloudy and raining then!  ::)

I think that if you do a photocopy of the ticket, the heat of the copyer is enough to affect the print on the tickets.

If any of you have succes copying it please let us know.

Kenn

Probably best to scan the ticket, no heat there. Or take a photo with your phone.

>Martini...LB

Then put your phone on the dash i supose ? !

Awesome, love argueing with the jobsworths at the gate, can't wait until they try and scan my blackened pass as its their problem if they have messed up with the printing. Paid my money and done my bit by putting it inb the window, THEIR problem if they can't read it.

I've already printed 3,000 Houx annex tickets :o, and will be selling them on the black market ;D ;D ;D

Not being silly are you Max??? Quite obviously it is for visual proof for the guys at the gate!!! 

Now you have got me at it  >:( ;D

I hate to point out the obvious, but the fact that you have a picture of a pass on your phone proves exactly nothing other than the fact you've taken a picture of one!  Same with a photocopy.

RLM were reporting the same problem with the ones for the test day too.

A message received from them today says there will be extra staff about and booths by all the entrances to reprint damaged tickets as e-tickets on plain paper!  This will be fun.

...and here is the email I've received on the subject..

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest has found a quality problem on the thermal paper used for all the access tickets to the Le Mans 24-Hours test day.
 
The tickets become black when exposed to the heat or the sun for extended periods, so they cannot be checked (visual or scan).
 
This problem has arisen because our supplier has used defective paper.
 
All the tickets - pedestrians, car parks camp sites and traffic are concerned.

To be able to continue to use your tickets please respect the following instructions:
-  Do not expose your tickets to the light or heat.
- Do not use the plastic pouch that enables you to show the car park, welcome area or traffic circulation pass behind your windscreen.
- Only take out the ticket for checks. 
-  Do not leave them in your vehicle.

However, the print from the thermal printers is stronger so it is possible read the bar code numbers as well as the transaction numbers to find these tickets in the ticket computer programme and to reprint them if necessary.

Additional personnel will be entrusted with the job of replacing the tickets by E-tickets printed on ordinary paper. 
Seven places for reprinting the defective tickets will be available from Monday 11th June 2012 open from 08h00 to 18h00. They will stay open all week until Sunday 17th June at 14h00.
- The General Welcome (ticket office) at the Rotonde, in the Parc des Expositions,
- North entrance,
- South entrance,
- East entrance
- Annex entrance
- Beauséjour entrance
- The sporting module (main building in front of the pits)

Outside these times, a single withdrawal point will be available at the ‘Plis en attente’ in the Rotonde in the Le Mans Parc des Expositions.

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest would like to present its excuses to the spectators, partners, team members, suppliers and media representatives for this inconvenience that is outside its responsibility and caused by the use of unsuitable paper by one of its suppliers.

We remain at your disposal for further information on 33 (0) 2 43 40 2012 (between 09h00 and 18h00).

Loads of potential agro because of this.

Can see some chancers turning up sans ticket hoping bluff there way in.

I would imagine if your ticket goes go black then at least you have what's left of it and assuming your already on site you should be ok.

Maybe take a picture of it with your photo drivers lience may help.

But make a note of your plot number!

Hopefully the site will take a note of your reg and plot number when you arrive as well. That would be simple solution.

Is it only camping and parking that's affected?

Well, I guess only because you tend to leave these in your car.  But they say it's all the tickets so I guess that if it gets very hot and you left them in your glove box etc that any of the tickets could get damaged?  Personally, I'll bring my order letter with me just in case but my tickets from this weekend still look normal!

Typical ACO arrogance, they cock up and blame the supplier - easy cop out, more likely the Digital Thermo printing (so each ticket has unique detials) was CHEAPER to produce than other digital ink printing processes and a lower price tendered. I guess none of them ever left a cash Till reciept on their dash, it's OK though, they will just make the poor unfortunates go to the specific places to rectify the problem (and if it does manifest itself into a problem, there will be many, we at CA and maybe on PH are in the minority of people attending the majority simply will not know there is a problem) i.e. wait in line for a good while as they verify the validity of the ticket and rectify their problem. Great.

Well...that's the last straw.  Because of this ticket Fiasco, I am not attending Le-Mans this year..... >:D

OW f*ck *ff Brad. ;D

In fairness, if you pre ordered tickets and they have your email address then you will get an email to inform you of the issue.  So it's not just CA & PH that know about it.

They have taken steps to provide a number of places where you can exchange your ticket.
They have been using heat/light sensitive ink/paper for a while  I seen some of my tickets loose colour or go dark in the past.

Of course we won't know till the day how bad it will be but I recall the doubts we had about scanning the tickets on entry and exit but that all seemed to go well.


T

How very amusing of them. A little inconvenient but I am happy to say that having checked , my pants are still dry. I am sure we will manage. Monkey

An annual ACO cock up is all part of the events charm. The year they don't f**k something up will be the year you need to worry. I'm sure it will be fine.

Why bother then?  ::)

You just couldn't make this up could you......

MG Mark

i suppose as we opted to collect the Tickets instead of posting them (saves Money)
that these Tickets will be OK

Well I would ask when I picked the tickets up.  But I would never assume anything about the ACO.  After all one would assume that they would provide tickets capable of lasting the whole weekend. 

t.

Mine's gone a nice shade of black...
I made the mistake of doing what I do every year and putting it in the window as soon as it arrived...
That'll teach me not to follow tradition in future ;D ;D

No worries for us ........just printed off our GA e-tickets from the ACO website and JDS is kindly looking after our MB ticket until we arrive on Wednesday.

So hopefully when we arrive, the non english speaking ticket man will reprint our MB pass  :D

Note that the problem persists for the Classic.  Popped in today and apparently the stock was ordered for both races so don't leave 'em in the sun (of which there is a fair bit - on and off - at the mo'.)

I kept mine covered during the race etc, but when I come home as a test put it in the sun to see what happened.

So far it has not faded, mind you we have not had much sun either!

I had my GE ticket round my neck one evening during 1st quali and it certainly did go black but not enough to make it illegible before I realised what was happening and hid it!

None of my Tickets turned Black at the @4 Hours or at the Classic.

However on the ferry home I did see an Audi with a ticket that had gone very black at the 24 Hours.

t.

Must be due to all that soot from the diesel engine :-)

Put mine in the micro wave and it just went on fire, bloody French paper.

Agreed - the ACO have no understanding of what the British race fans want and need.

:)

In defence of the ACO, they are not just one monolithic entity but just people like us. Some of them understand the needs of British race fans, and others have no clue. The organization is split into the 'sporting' (the blazers) and the 'commercial' (the suits). The commercial and administrative part includes the ticketing department. They outsource the printing of tickets. All the tickets for LM are printed months ahead of time. The same supplier printed tickets for the Moto GP at Le Mans (held shortly before the 24 hours) and it was at the GP that the ACO realised the problem. With no time or means of recalling and reprinting tickets they had no option but to go with what they had, and issue a warning to ticket holders not to leave them in the sun.

Problems with Le Mans ticketing and campsites stem partly from the structure of the ACO organization, and partly from Anglo/French cultural differences. The public faces and voices of the ACO for race fans are the people on the ACO ticket phone lines and on the desk in the 'Rotonde'. Those folks do their best, but they are a long way from the decision makers of the ACO and we should remember that when voicing our complaints.

I've worked with the ACO for many years and all the people I have encountered have been well intentioned and really DO have the best interests of racers and race fans at heart. Over 200,000 people come through the turnstiles at Le Mans each year from all over Europe. The British contingent is large, but not in the majority. The organizers have to balance the needs of racegoers of all nationalities, with the the facilities and funds available. One thing is clear, they are never going to please everyone, and the potential for mistakes and misunderstandings is very high.

One more thing to bear in mind is that the permanent staff of the ACO is not as large as you might think. They have a large number of temporary workers drafted-in for June. No matter how well briefed, these folks also have potential for miscommunication and mess-up (they are mostly French after all).

Yes, I do curse the ACO organization regularly when the wheels of French bureaucracy grind very slowly, and the times when there is poor communication between departments. However, in general they do manage to get the job done (eventually) and they should be respected for having have kept the 24 hours of Le Mans alive (with short hiatus for war and national strike) for 89 years.

 
 



 

I have to agree with Dave,

However having to "pop" in to the Ticket office to collect my Grandstand ticket.  I had time to observe things.  There were desks with various functions.  Marshals, Press, Entrants and so on.  They had no queues the ticket desk were however overwhelmed with people. 

Obviously some people where there to purchase tickets and as such were clueless as to what they wanted and what they needed nor did they know where anything plus the language problem.  So things moved rather slowly.   IMHO they should have a desk for those collecting tickets.  My guess would be it need just one person you give them the invoice and they give you the tickets. 

I think that they did have something like that as one of the desks had an A4 size no tine that looked just like all of the others apart from the fact is had the word "WEB" the queue there was twice the length of the other queues and it seemed to move at half the speed too.   I noticed a guy in a distinctive shirt in the "WEB" queue near the back of the queue I went to the loo and came back and joined a regular queue.  By the time I had my tickets he was still only half way down the queue.

For sure everyone that was public facing did their best to help and to do a good job. 

I guess it's difficult to predict when people will be arriving to collect and purchase tickets.  So there will be queues.  in the past I've thought about not having the Tickets posted to me and save the €18 but now I'm starting to think it's money well spent.

As for the tickets turning black if exposed to sunlight or heat it's not really my problem that is a problem for the ACO.  I noticed on some camping tickets they had a "don't expose to sunlight or heat" message printed on them.  So I guess they didn't really fix the problem.

May be we'll they'll have the same issues next year.

t

They sacked the ticket supplier, and the blackening issue was a HUGE embarrassment to the ACO so probably not.

I would prefer those credit card style tickets that some people had instead of those huge things that drive me mad flapping about in the wind when you have your beer in one hand and your camera in the other.

I posted about the problem persisting after having a very pleasant conversation with the woman in the Museum ticket office.  Clearly, it was a far greater problem for her (a permanent fixture whom I know passingly well) and the staff than it ever was for us and probably cost the ACO a bit in terms of the staff needed to re-issue the offending tickets.  Especially so as they did not know exactly how many were going to be affected in this way as not everybody was aware or took any notice of what was printed on the tickets.

However, the fact that my friend in his DB came back to the club car park to find a large, printed, yellow notice on his car, remonstrating with him for not having his parking ticket in his windscreen was just laughable.

I love living here, I find the French much as I find the British - some I adore, some I'd rather never see again, thanks very much.  All in all, I'm glad the ACO puts the race on and keeps it going but I do wish I could work out how to get some of our feedback through to them.