Upgrading

[Shirl]

Can we upgrade a ticket say from a Standard to a Gold by paying the extra?

[DavidB]

Upgrades are not possible I'm afraid.

[timelord81r]

Upgrades are not possible I'm afraid.

 

 

really? why is that, I can understand on the day or close to the event, but 5 months out?

[etmuse]

I'd imagine at least some of it is the sheer hassle of sorting out ticket numbering when someone moves from one list to another, not to mention the money aspect of it.

[timelord81r]

I'd imagine at least some of it is the sheer hassle of sorting out ticket numbering when someone moves from one list to another, not to mention the money aspect of it.

 

I can understand the hassle but as long as there is a sutible cut off period and gold and silver tickets are still on sale then surely its more money for a little bit of hastle for the orgs?

set up upgrade options on the shop or cheque system, more work and hastle but same time more moeny coming in?

 

at the very least it should be an option for tickets that havnt been posted out or paid for yet?

Edited June 15, 2010 by timelord81r

[Queen_Sindel]

One problem I see is where to place the upgraded tickets in the numerical order.

 

As an example: Standard Ticket 1 decides to upgrade, bought at the event after 10 Gold Passes were already sold. But they decide to upgrade after 50 Gold Passes were sold.

 

Where would you put them numerically?

 

As Gold Pass 51? That could be seen as unfair because technically they bought their ticket on 11th position.

As Gold Pass 10A? Again that could be seen as unfair because tickets 11 to 50 put down the full money right way.

 

In fact generally allowing something like this could quite possibly lead to attendees buying Standard Passes just to secure their spot, and then ask for an upgrade if they like the guest list. That wouldn't exactly help with the guest budget in the first place.

 

I'm not even sure if I know of any other events allowing to upgrade.

But there's a re-sale policy in place for sold out events meanwhile (http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=53818&view=findpost&p=1445176). So maybe upgrades will be possible in the future. But if this will happen there will very likely be a fee like for the re-sale.

[TerraHawk]

In fact generally allowing something like this could quite possibly lead to attendees buying Standard Passes just to secure their spot, and then ask for an upgrade if they like the guest list. That wouldn't exactly help with the guest budget in the first place.

 

I'm not even sure if I know of any other events allowing to upgrade.

 

There's certainly one that allows it.

 

It's another catch 22 situtation. Sell most of the regular tickets you can afford a bigger guest that might warrent a better ticket. But its not worth getting a better ticket if you already have a basic one. As a result it's worth waiting to see. If everyone waited to see organiser might get cold feet about risking bigger guests.

 

Surely the sooner you have a confirmed sale, an idea of attendance, and the cash in the account that helps plan bigger and better?

[Queen_Sindel]

Thank you, looks like I missed that one then.

 

It's definitely another catch 22 situation, I agree.

Like I said, sometimes policies change. Maybe this one will get changed some day too.

[timelord81r]

one of the provisos could be if you upgrade you have go to last in the gold numbers as they are when you upgrade? not keep the position you had with standard

 

I think if there are conditions like cut off times and stating you go last in whatever the upgraded ticket to go to. it could work

[daniel.humes]

Surely Gold ticket 51 would be better than standard ticket 1 anyway.

 

It shoudn't matter what ticket number you were holding, if you upgrade to Silver or Gold you've instantly got a better ticket than you had previously so the original number shouldn't matter.

 

Does that make sense?

[Jola]

And it's still an administrative nightmare for lil ol' me

 

Just think I have to manually process each and every order that comes through the shop, I then have to manually add the ticket holder names to the list and to the order form and write out the envelope and then do the Registration Ticket Letter.

 

If everyone changed their minds once they purchased their original tickets, I then have to manually dig out the order form and change the number, I have to manually change the ticket holder listing, and re-do another registration ticket letter (if this has already been written out) and then I have to manually go back into the online shop to amend the stock levels for two sets of tickets as the online shop keeps a track of what's been sold. It's all very time consuming especially when I only do this part time.

 

So the general rule for everyone is that ticket sales are final and no upgrades/downgrades are allowed.

[TerraHawk]

If everyone changed their minds once they purchased their original tickets, I then have to manually dig out the order form and change the number, I have to manually change the ticket holder listing, and re-do another registration ticket letter (if this has already been written out) and then I have to manually go back into the online shop to amend the stock levels for two sets of tickets as the online shop keeps a track of what's been sold. It's all very time consuming especially when I only do this part time.

 

But surely those sold on the day don't go through the full procedure - there's no time for it. Could just have a first come first serve on the day for whats left. Take regular ticket off attendee, pay the difference, get a gold/silver pack.

[Queen_Sindel]

True, would limit the paperwork for Jola.

 

But Gold and Silver are limited in numbers, so they may sell out - even on the day. So that system can lead to a lot of potential unhappiness with attendees. "If I had known that I couldn't upgrade in the end I wouldn't have come." Kind of similar to the general question about buying tickets on the day, that's why we always put that little warning "as long as not sold out" when someone asks.

 

Please don't get me wrong, I am not generally dismissing the upgrade idea. It's just not as easy to allow it as it may look at first sight. There's a lot of things to consider, I think that's obvious from our discussion here.

 

Maybe an upgrade policy is going to be implemented in the future. There have been requests about this in the past, and the ticket transfer policy was implemented after repeated requests too. So Massive Events are aware that there would be interest in upgrades.

 

If it will be implemented I personally think it will be handled in a similar way like the sold out ticket policy: upgrade in advance, not on the day, and you'd quite possibly have to pay an administrative fee like for ticket transfers too.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Queen_Sindel

[timelord81r]

see another profit incentive, charge a handling fee for upgrading, Id happily pay it if I wanted to upgrade the ticket I bought.

[Queen_Sindel]

That fee would not profit - that fee would pay (respectively does pay in case of transfers) for the extra work involved.

 

Also if you check old posts in the Twilight sections that transfer fee was quite heavily discussed back then when it was announced. So not everyone will pay an upgrade fee as happy as you might do it.

 

Anyway, until SM/ME announce a policy change we can talk about possible solutions and why they may not be doable all we want. It's their decision to make in the end.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Queen_Sindel

[timelord81r]

That fee would not profit - that fee would pay (respectively does pay in case of transfers) for the extra work involved.

 

Also if you check old posts in the Twilight sections that transfer fee was quite heavily discussed back then when it was announced. So not everyone will pay an upgrade fee as happy as you might do it.

 

Anyway, until SM/ME announce a policy change we can talk about possible solutions and why they may not be doable all we want. It's their decision to make in the end.

 

only once visited teh twilight area to see alot of fighting going on, not my thing (twilight) think its total tosh but each to there own, not gonna go rummaging in the threads after seeing all the squabbling and childishness when I did visit. will take your word for it. but if there is a call for upgrades and a price is put with that then its better than not having the option. and put the price up to cover cost and make a profit? anyway SM choice. I doubt anything i or we say will affect it either way aside the amount of ppl calling for it. and to be honest Ive not been in that situation with a sm event, I usually go and plan to mostly go silver. but Im def in the camp of those who think it would be a good option in an attendees view.

[Shirl]

looks like its a no at the moment to the upgrade, shame, but thanks for all the replys and for trying to help me everyone!

 

Shirl

[mshute]

I'd luv to see an upgrade option available and personally would be happy to pay up to £10 to upgrade if I found I had more money nearer the time or better guests.

 

Definitely think a cut off time would be required, so about six weeks so can alter in time to get letters out etc...

 

As people have said, more likely to sell tickets earlier if people know they can upgrade later if better guests etc... so I think more standard tickets would sell sooner so SM would have money in the bank to know how much they have to spend on guests rather than not having a clue because people are waiting to see who's coming before deciding on ticket price.

 

I'm going to Warp 10 and have decided on silver as I wanted to get ticket booked so SM have money to book more guests - but if they had a great guest suddenly sign up like Leonard Nimoy or Patrick Stewart I'd be disappointed that I hadn't waited and got Gold - but if I'd done that SM might not have booked that guest as not enough money. Bit round in circles isn't it!

[jenab103]

Here's another thought...if you were Standard Ticket 27, and you were allowed to upgrade to Gold or Silver, then Standard Ticket 27 would be 'empty'. You couldn't resell it 'cos that wouldn't be fair to all the Standard Ticket buyers who waited in line, and it would be a nightmare to move everybody else up a number! And when the final groups were sorted, the group with S27 would be one short. Not a huge problem, admittedly, but hassle enough.

[mshute]

If the letters weren't done immediately and it all the ticket holders kept on spreadsheets it would be really easy to move everyone 'up' a list if someone upgraded and added someone to the bottom of the next.

 

The only fair way is if you upgrade you get added to the bottom of the list your upgrading too and everyone on the old list gets moved up a spot.

 

I've done events for the company I work for and various admin things and as long as you give a cut off date you can do everything on computer and it doesn't take long and the letters can be generated by the system and nothing needs to be handwritten.

 

Personally I'd love to see an upgrade option and it's a way to get people to buy tickets straight away and if there's an 'upgrade fee' of say £5 per ticket most people would pay it - I can only see benefits for everyone in this.

[malty]

Maybe with a fee attached to upgrading would be fair like the post above me said.

 

To be honest I don't think it seems very fair on the folks that have already paid for their gold/silver tickets and someone in standard wants to upgrade.