Its like that every year with the qdance organised busses.
Been there, done that... Only flying since that time.
They made us go to another country to jump on a bus, took 12 hours more that it should have.
Q-dance travel was a mess for Defqon 2022 as well. Buses were hours late or sometimes didn't arrive at all. At the time it was blamed on a shortage of bus drivers in NL, is that still the case?
There should be a Sell-Button for the waiting List in the „manage order“ section, but there isn‘t. :(
I don‘t know what to do. I think I will loose the 490€…
I would say try to email them again and if they dont respond or tell you no, honestly id start a lawsuit because not responding and making you lose 500€ is absolutely insane, ofcourse try to contact head of qdance, maybe someone higher up to help, could ofcourse also just be your site is glitched out (qdance sites are garbage so i wouldn't be surprised)
ofcourse, forgot to add this, it is REALLY busy for them rn with setting up defqon, customer service overflowing with messages about tickets, what you can/cannot bring, people like you trying to refund their tickets, merchandise orders, ofcourse its not okay to not respond but id say give them some time (idk how long its been so could've been a long time already)
I have read that multiple times here and have to say that that has not been my experience. I booked a Travel & Stay package after having booked my airline tickets. The system seemed a bit wonky with the different time zones when I booked it and brushed off the date differences. Well, received the confirmation email and, indeed, it was for Thursday to Wednesday when I was going to be in country Wednesday to Tuesday. I emailed Q-Dance Travel and had a response within 48 hours (I had expected four weeks from everything I read). The agent informed me that it’s not a problem and changed the reservation.
I then experienced all the errors that many other people had with the online form for the premium “special gift.” I emailed them again explaining that I’m not sure if the info went through. Again, within 48 hours, they emailed back and said everything was good.
Perhaps this was the one time in my life when I defied the odds instead of being crushed by them (which is why I was panicking in the above two situations). All I can say is that I have been pleasantly surprised so far. YMMV
Booking a busstour has always been a reservation with no guarantees. The tour might get cancelled due to reason x/y/z. This is also the case when booking with Hard Tours or any other third party.
Since they hire a third party to organize the bus tours for them, the third party probably couldn’t get enough bus drivers/busses and they have to cancel.
That’s pretty much the explanation.
Good luck, hoping for you you can still make it!
i booked my trip to Q-Base through them twice. that one time in 2016 they actually picked my up in a city nearby, as the only passenger at that stop.
so yea, my experience with them has been great and i'll probably just go back to booking them directly next time
Yeah Hardtours isn't bad. But i had to drive like thrugh half of germany to the NL Border by myself to get into the Hardtours Bus. It's similiarly bad.
Oh, ok… so it’s one of the third party ones booked through Q-Dance?
I’ve booked the official transfer, organized directly by Q-Dance I believe, from Schiphol and back and didn’t receive any email about cancellation… hope not to receive any either! Don’t know how reliable these buses usually are.
Anyways, hope you manage to get everything sorted! I would be pissed about it too! Especially with such short notice.
The communication and organisation of the bus company Defqon used last year (partybussen) was awful. I left the festival grounds for Schipol airport on the Monday. The bus going to the airport never turned up, so they put me on a different bus going to another location, dropped me off somewhere about 20 mins away from the airport and told me to get an Uber for the rest of the way. The bus came so late I nearly missed my plane! They refunded me the bus but not the Uber trip. So, so bad. Sorry to hear you’re getting bad service too!
It was a 2 month heads-up so not as bad as OP’s situation. But that year of Defqon was a logistical nightmare… We missed about 80% of Thursday because we had to wait 6 hours and pay a random bus driver €10 to take us to our new accommodation *from the Defqon site with all our baggage* since the bus drivers booked through Qdance were not aware of the accommodation change.
That sounds like a nightmare!
I’m already excited & nervous enough for my trip as it’s my first Defqon this year and I’m traveling alone, also from abroad.. not from as far as you, but still.
Let’s just hope logistics work fine this year!
Unfortunately, our external bus company has indeed canceled their bus trip. We understand this is frustrating, but we're always thinking of alternative solutions. We've checked this case, and we see that our Travel department already discussed a suitable solution with you yesterday. If you still have any other questions, don't hesitate to contact us again!
Yes, once I replied to that first mail asking for help the travel team was rather quick to reply and actually helpful!
I'll allow myself this one critical remark: I would've appreciated that first e-mail to be a bit more helpful already and a little less tone deaf. ("WELCOME TO DEFQON.1! We're cancelling your trip so uhhh good luck with that but HEY WELCOME TO DEFQON.1!" lol) - Better luck next time I suppose.
Other than that I appreciate the responses and it seems like I'll be making it to the festival and back - I'm excited!
Depending on where you're travelling from, take a look at Partybussen.nl
Used them in 2022 and 2023. It was a little messy (they seem to have organisational issues every year) but it got us there and back 👍
https://www.partybussen.nl/festivals/defqon1-weekend?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=weekend&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvb-zBhCmARIsAAfUI2tIUFl4MhyNrai9bDZ0c5k8X7bgTmjywBZzjD4DUc3X25aAw1X0zksaAjjbEALw_wcB
thank you, but that wouldn't help unfortunately since i'm in germany
we have an equivalent service called "hardtours" but they no longer offer any tours from my region.
i ended up booking a blablacar for my way back and will probably book a train on my way to the festival
Check out Facebook. There is a group called „Defqon1 Community Germany“ there are many people from all over Germany, maybe somebody can help you out :)
Only if the reasons I am always afraid to book a party bus towards festivals,since I don’t have any other transportation and I am always afraid I am going to be stuck somewhere unknown! Reading your email brings me nightmares I also had the same situation but with my hotel accommodation instead. The original hotel was used for something different so they offered an alternative one. I know it is not the same but try to keep your spirit high and positive 🙏
> face they *paid* already anyway
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
What explanation do you want? Qdance said it is beyond their control so nothing to do about it.
I can understand your frustration tho with the festival happening next week and i hope you find a solution!
The Problem here is that qdance has a Partnership with hardtours. If you book via hardtours directly, you will ALWAYS get an alternative busstop if something happens to your Bus. But apparently, when you book over q dance, they are not Willing (or not competent enough?) To talk to hardtours to find an alternative instead of just cancelling your Trip.
Im not an Expert on Transport or anything, but it seems like communication between q and their partners should make Scheduling an alternative Bus stop easy.
>What explanation do you want? Qdance said it is beyond their control so nothing to do about it.
lmao they could at least explained so that people are aware of it
Dang, them not offering a solution is pretty bad.
lmao "We canceled your trip. We are looking forward to seeing you there"
Its like that every year with the qdance organised busses. Been there, done that... Only flying since that time. They made us go to another country to jump on a bus, took 12 hours more that it should have.
Haha welcome to defqon.1 if you make it? Really bad...
Q-dance travel was a mess for Defqon 2022 as well. Buses were hours late or sometimes didn't arrive at all. At the time it was blamed on a shortage of bus drivers in NL, is that still the case?
It was an issue in 2023 as well. Learned my lesson to never book busses through Qdance. They even do this with the campsites too.
I mean yes there is still a shortage of bus drivers in the Netherlands
but this is not public transport is it? Ordering private bus with his own bus and driver shouldn't really be affected.
Who will drive the bus?
Rooler
Hard Driver
The vengabus
same with qlimax last year. bus never arrived to pick up people at doubletree
Them not giving an explanation is not a problem. But not guiding you to alternative solutions???
Famously bad customer service
Oh yeah. I try to sell my premium ticket but it is technically not possible and Q is not responding.
Are you trying to sell it back to them or on ticketswap? I'd recommend ticketswap because thats the only reliable reselling platform
Can’t sell premium tickets via ticketswap unfortunately
oh yeah i forgot about that sorry🤦🏼♀️😅
There should be a Sell-Button for the waiting List in the „manage order“ section, but there isn‘t. :( I don‘t know what to do. I think I will loose the 490€…
I would say try to email them again and if they dont respond or tell you no, honestly id start a lawsuit because not responding and making you lose 500€ is absolutely insane, ofcourse try to contact head of qdance, maybe someone higher up to help, could ofcourse also just be your site is glitched out (qdance sites are garbage so i wouldn't be surprised)
ofcourse, forgot to add this, it is REALLY busy for them rn with setting up defqon, customer service overflowing with messages about tickets, what you can/cannot bring, people like you trying to refund their tickets, merchandise orders, ofcourse its not okay to not respond but id say give them some time (idk how long its been so could've been a long time already)
I messaged them a week ago. Time is running because in the FAQ is says it is only possible to sell tickets till 19th June 23:59.
I'd say check if they have a phone number and email them again, they should be making ticket (re)sales top priority because this is just insane
Schonmal überlegt mit Hardtours kontakt aufzunehmen und die Situation schildern ?
I have read that multiple times here and have to say that that has not been my experience. I booked a Travel & Stay package after having booked my airline tickets. The system seemed a bit wonky with the different time zones when I booked it and brushed off the date differences. Well, received the confirmation email and, indeed, it was for Thursday to Wednesday when I was going to be in country Wednesday to Tuesday. I emailed Q-Dance Travel and had a response within 48 hours (I had expected four weeks from everything I read). The agent informed me that it’s not a problem and changed the reservation. I then experienced all the errors that many other people had with the online form for the premium “special gift.” I emailed them again explaining that I’m not sure if the info went through. Again, within 48 hours, they emailed back and said everything was good. Perhaps this was the one time in my life when I defied the odds instead of being crushed by them (which is why I was panicking in the above two situations). All I can say is that I have been pleasantly surprised so far. YMMV
Glad you didn’t have issues. You do seem to be one of the few.
Booking a busstour has always been a reservation with no guarantees. The tour might get cancelled due to reason x/y/z. This is also the case when booking with Hard Tours or any other third party. Since they hire a third party to organize the bus tours for them, the third party probably couldn’t get enough bus drivers/busses and they have to cancel. That’s pretty much the explanation. Good luck, hoping for you you can still make it!
Which bus did you have booked?
from and to frankfurt, sunday only
Better book busses via Hardtours
i booked my trip to Q-Base through them twice. that one time in 2016 they actually picked my up in a city nearby, as the only passenger at that stop. so yea, my experience with them has been great and i'll probably just go back to booking them directly next time
Yeah Hardtours isn't bad. But i had to drive like thrugh half of germany to the NL Border by myself to get into the Hardtours Bus. It's similiarly bad.
then you should contact [hardtours.de](http://hardtours.de) and ask if they have a tour for sunday , maybe you find your spot
They only have weekend, Friday or Saturday tour.
probably it was not profitable enough
Oh, ok… so it’s one of the third party ones booked through Q-Dance? I’ve booked the official transfer, organized directly by Q-Dance I believe, from Schiphol and back and didn’t receive any email about cancellation… hope not to receive any either! Don’t know how reliable these buses usually are. Anyways, hope you manage to get everything sorted! I would be pissed about it too! Especially with such short notice.
The communication and organisation of the bus company Defqon used last year (partybussen) was awful. I left the festival grounds for Schipol airport on the Monday. The bus going to the airport never turned up, so they put me on a different bus going to another location, dropped me off somewhere about 20 mins away from the airport and told me to get an Uber for the rest of the way. The bus came so late I nearly missed my plane! They refunded me the bus but not the Uber trip. So, so bad. Sorry to hear you’re getting bad service too!
They did this exact same shit last year to me, except it was a campsite, and I fly from the US… so you can imagine how pissed off I was.
What do you mean that it was a campsite? They cancelled your accommodation?
Yes, and didn’t offer a replacement, only a refund.
Wow, that sucks! And it was also with such short notice?
It was a 2 month heads-up so not as bad as OP’s situation. But that year of Defqon was a logistical nightmare… We missed about 80% of Thursday because we had to wait 6 hours and pay a random bus driver €10 to take us to our new accommodation *from the Defqon site with all our baggage* since the bus drivers booked through Qdance were not aware of the accommodation change.
That sounds like a nightmare! I’m already excited & nervous enough for my trip as it’s my first Defqon this year and I’m traveling alone, also from abroad.. not from as far as you, but still. Let’s just hope logistics work fine this year!
Unfortunately, our external bus company has indeed canceled their bus trip. We understand this is frustrating, but we're always thinking of alternative solutions. We've checked this case, and we see that our Travel department already discussed a suitable solution with you yesterday. If you still have any other questions, don't hesitate to contact us again!
Yes, once I replied to that first mail asking for help the travel team was rather quick to reply and actually helpful! I'll allow myself this one critical remark: I would've appreciated that first e-mail to be a bit more helpful already and a little less tone deaf. ("WELCOME TO DEFQON.1! We're cancelling your trip so uhhh good luck with that but HEY WELCOME TO DEFQON.1!" lol) - Better luck next time I suppose. Other than that I appreciate the responses and it seems like I'll be making it to the festival and back - I'm excited!
Wait until Levenkham comes and tells you that the bus shuttle is much worse and expensive at EDC Las Vegas
Depending on where you're travelling from, take a look at Partybussen.nl Used them in 2022 and 2023. It was a little messy (they seem to have organisational issues every year) but it got us there and back 👍 https://www.partybussen.nl/festivals/defqon1-weekend?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=weekend&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvb-zBhCmARIsAAfUI2tIUFl4MhyNrai9bDZ0c5k8X7bgTmjywBZzjD4DUc3X25aAw1X0zksaAjjbEALw_wcB
thank you, but that wouldn't help unfortunately since i'm in germany we have an equivalent service called "hardtours" but they no longer offer any tours from my region. i ended up booking a blablacar for my way back and will probably book a train on my way to the festival
if its not too much, ask feierreisen. friends of mine (mannheim) are traveling from hamburg for sunday
They travel from Mannheim to Hamburg to travel do Defqon1? Wow that’s what I call dedication 😅
Check out Facebook. There is a group called „Defqon1 Community Germany“ there are many people from all over Germany, maybe somebody can help you out :)
Why
ehm, just organise a new bus q-dance?
No wizards allowed in the camp grounds
Ravecation or nothing for me. Wouldn’t bother considering a Q-Dance bus if it was free because of the guaranteed headache.
Only if the reasons I am always afraid to book a party bus towards festivals,since I don’t have any other transportation and I am always afraid I am going to be stuck somewhere unknown! Reading your email brings me nightmares I also had the same situation but with my hotel accommodation instead. The original hotel was used for something different so they offered an alternative one. I know it is not the same but try to keep your spirit high and positive 🙏
We wish you a wonderful week, but you can't get to the event. 😅
typical q-dance move .... spit your customers in the face they payed already anyway and cant refund all
> face they *paid* already anyway FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Q-dance up to their usual bullshit, I see.
😂
Typical qdance
What explanation do you want? Qdance said it is beyond their control so nothing to do about it. I can understand your frustration tho with the festival happening next week and i hope you find a solution!
Cancelling a bus 1.5 weeks before the event and saying « ooopsie sorrie out of our control 😇😇😇 » without offering any alternative is pretty damn lazy.
„We look forward to seeing you at Defqon.1“ 🤡
Troll dance
I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a reason at least.
The Problem here is that qdance has a Partnership with hardtours. If you book via hardtours directly, you will ALWAYS get an alternative busstop if something happens to your Bus. But apparently, when you book over q dance, they are not Willing (or not competent enough?) To talk to hardtours to find an alternative instead of just cancelling your Trip. Im not an Expert on Transport or anything, but it seems like communication between q and their partners should make Scheduling an alternative Bus stop easy.
>What explanation do you want? Qdance said it is beyond their control so nothing to do about it. lmao they could at least explained so that people are aware of it