23 replies to this topic

[Kingy68]

I went to the booth to order my Only Fools And Horses photoshoot and was charged £25.
Went and got some of the other autographs we wanted from various other guests and then headed for the photoshoot.
Got in the photoshoot and I thought theres only 3 from the cast wheres Paul Barber??
I asked one of the crew and they said 'Hes cancelled today'
Now I checked on the website this morning at 6am before I left for the stadium and again after this photoshoot on my phone and there was no notice on the forums of his cancellation.
I thought I would have been told when I was booking the photoshoot and handing over my £25 in the first place, at least it would have been a bit courteous to say Paul hasnt turned up would you still like a photo with the other 3 guests...

[The Big Nasty]

I totally agree....

I only traveled to meet Paul to get my full monty poster signed - a 260 mile round trip!!

I checked the website before i left home and when i got half way so that i wouldnt have a wasted journey.

Cant believe when i asked a staff member why the website hadnt been updated she said it was becasue

"It was short notice...but...the rest of the cast have turned up..You could still get their autographs"

...im sure Trigger, boycie and Micky Pierce werent in the Full Monty..unless there was a deleted scene i missed!!!

His cancelation is still not on the website now!!!!

I realise cancelations cannot be helped but surely showmasters should take some resposibility to inform people if guests have canceled...would have saved me a fortune in petrol costs.

What more can you do other than check the website before you leave.

Really disappointed!

[malc75]

attended the show on sat and saw that paul barber had cancelled on that small piece of paper on the wall!
i was tempted to go back today to meet the only fools chaps! is it a reunion with just 3???
we really should be given more notice of when guests cancel,i can understand that things occur but likes has been said people pay out a hell of a lot of money for trains,accomodation etc only to find out when they get there that they have cancelled!!!

[The Big Nasty]

Well the staff told me they only found out he had canceled this morning....gonna be gutted if they knew Saturday and didnt bother informing people

[Kingy68]

The Big Nasty, on May 29 2011, 07:15 PM, said:

Well the staff told me they only found out he had canceled this morning....gonna be gutted if they knew Saturday and didnt bother informing people

Same here m8... Me and the wife were at the show yesterday and we saw no confirmation that Paul had cancelled.
I asked the crew member while I was waiting for the photoshoot and she said that he had cancelled today...
They also said you should have checked the website, so I said I checked it at 6am this morning on my way to the stadium and checked again on my phone just after my shoot and it still showed no sign of a cancellation..
P**sed me right off especially when you were getting a photoshoot with all 4 cast members for £25 and then it goes down to 3 for the same money..
What made me mad the most was that the person selling the photoshoot didnt even have the decency to tell me that there were only 3 in the shoot and would i still like to purchase the shoot...

Edited by Kingy68, 29 May 2011 - 08:15 PM.

[The Big Nasty]

I'm going to put a formal complaint to showmasters

[Queen_Sindel]

I can only apologize, of course the cancellation should have been mentioned when you bought the photo shoot tickets.

When a guest who's taking part in a reunion cancels sometimes it's just automatically assumed that you were there because of the reunion, hence the answer "the others are still there."

Unfortunately I have no idea about that paper on the wall yesterday, but sometimes there's really cancellations last minute on the day. All it needs is the guest to get a stomach bug or something.

Often I at least get texts "can you put on the forum that this guest has cancelled", but I have no access to the website. So of course that only helps if you check the forum.

I'm hoping someone can reply to your concerns Monday night or Tuesday.

The Big Nasty, on May 29 2011, 08:38 PM, said:

I'm going to put a formal complaint to showmasters

Yes please, send an e-mail. I am sure Jason will come on here too once the show is over, but an e-mail is always the best way to point out a problem.

[malc75]

the paper on  the wall which exists is the list of all the guests who are there and what days etc.we were looking at it on saturday to see if elpidia carrillo was signing on sat,and we saw she had changed to sunday,it was at this time i saw that paul barber had cancelled,its a piece of paper attached to the wall about approx a2 in size

[Kingy68]

malc75, on May 29 2011, 07:47 PM, said:

the paper on  the wall which exists is the list of all the guests who are there and what days etc.we were looking at it on saturday to see if elpidia carrillo was signing on sat,and we saw she had changed to sunday,it was at this time i saw that paul barber had cancelled,its a piece of paper attached to the wall about approx a2 in size

I didnt even look at the wall to be honest, I looked at the list on the organisers table which showed the prices and times of the autographs.
Only fools and horses £25.
And as I said in a previous post I had no mention of Paul not being there by one single member of the crew selling the photoshoots.

[niceblokejohn]

There was also a post before today where someone referred to the Fools and Horses trio photoshoot - that prompted me to check for a cancellation notice on the forum but there wasn't one, so I assumed they'd got it wrong. Seems not.

The 3 there were great though - very nice guys!

[Fozziefuzz]

I know QS has apologised and there's not a lot else that can be done, but I have to add myself to the list of 'gutted and frustrated' attendees.  All other last-minute cancellations have been posted on the forum but this one hasn't at all.  I'd made the extra effort to make the 4-hour trek to attend again today for this reunion, and while I'm not saying that knowing of Paul's absence would have deterred me from attending, I had been eager to talk to him about some of his projects and get his autograph.  I even purchased an autograph voucher to spend on that...only to end up doing a lap of the stadium, not finding him, going back to the organiser's booth to ask where he was and flatly being told 'he cancelled last minute'.  I ended up having to spend the voucher on somebody I didn't mind meeting, but would have happily missed if Paul had been there.

I don't want to make a complaint because at the end of the day with these events cancellations for whatever reason at any time can happen and I appreciate that everyone's been very busy putting on a great show, but...I don't know...some sort of notification, besides his name absence from the guest map list - especially with regards to the 'Only Fools...' group shot - would have been nice.

[lovbug]

Fozziefuzz, on May 29 2011, 09:41 PM, said:

I even purchased an autograph voucher to spend on that...only to end up doing a lap of the stadium, not finding him, going back to the organiser's booth to ask where he was and flatly being told 'he cancelled last minute'.  I ended up having to spend the voucher on somebody I didn't mind meeting, but would have happily missed if Paul had been there.

I also bought a auto voucher at the booth for Paul, before I knew he had cancelled. I actually spent the voucher on another guest later on in the day. But it did say on the voucher that you can go back to the booth for a refund, if you hadn't spend it. Good to know.

[The Big Nasty]

Any event organisers have a duty  to inform people if cancellations occur.....a quick upload to the forum would have taken 2 minuets .

[Queen_Sindel]

Yes, of course updates should be done here. It has been done on Saturday morning with some of the changes, like Ray's cancellation. But those were all announcements that apparently got in (albeit last minute) before the event started.

It's a huge and busy show and it does look like this cancellation has happened while it was already on the way. It could have slipped someone's mind to put it on the forum because 1000 other things had to be taken care off, or for all I know right now they even have sent me a text message and that one went astray.

Not that a forum announcement would have helped much in your case, you said before you only checked the website. I truly understand you are disappointed, but again I can only apologize. We're all human and mistakes happen.

[mrslongman]

like others i was really gutted that paul barber wasn't there for the photo shoot and i bought my ticket on the saturday and nothing was mentioned   but i was happy to have 3 of the main characters   ,at least not all three of them cancelled   then i would have been gutted.

[enrohm1963]

Like many others, I knew nothing of Paul's cancellation until I saw the A2 list on the wall.  I too was gutted and only found out after I had purchased my ticket for the photoshoot.  Nothing was mentioned at time of purchase.  However, how many times are 3 (if not 4) of the cast of a show likely to be together with the opportunity to get the photo with them ?  

I missed out on the Being Human shoot in London last year despite driving from Wales where my family were on holiday (we all went so I did not abandon them !) early morning to be there in time to get tickets.  I was not going to miss out on this one.  I sympathise with the people who wanted the "Full Monty" cast member only.  I was gutted about Being Human but I used the cash "saved" to do something else - in my case I went to meet William Shatner.  

It is difficult particularly as this appears to have been such a late cancellation.  I guess you make the most of what you experience and I am so pleased to have met them all and been able to chat.  Yes it would have been even better if Paul had been there but £25 for 3 people is still good value when other shoots were £10+ per head.  

Plus the photos are always brilliant quality and think of the memories that go with them!!  Thanks Showmasters for arranging this even if all did not go according to the original plan.

[Kingy68]

Queen_Sindel, on May 30 2011, 01:52 PM, said:

Yes, of course updates should be done here. It has been done on Saturday morning with some of the changes, like Ray's cancellation. But those were all announcements that apparently got in (albeit last minute) before the event started.

It's a huge and busy show and it does look like this cancellation has happened while it was already on the way. It could have slipped someone's mind to put it on the forum because 1000 other things had to be taken care off, or for all I know right now they even have sent me a text message and that one went astray.

Not that a forum announcement would have helped much in your case, you said before you only checked the website. I truly understand you are disappointed, but again I can only apologize. We're all human and mistakes happen.

I checked the websites main page, the forum and then both again after the photshoot..

[glenn]

They could of made better use of the infomation stand and display a large white board with cancelled guests.

[TommyT]

Queen_Sindel, on May 30 2011, 01:52 PM, said:

Yes, of course updates should be done here....
...Not that a forum announcement would have helped much in your case, you said before you only checked the website.

Given that websites can be finicky to update, and things can get lost in forum posts, I thought efficient notification of last-minute cancellations was one of the raisons d'etre of http://twitter.com/#!/Showmasters

[devil_darla]

I don’t normally post but I feel I should speak up as I have technically been mentioned. I was crewing that day on the info desk and I didn’t no myself that the guest had cancelled until someone asked. I am a fan of shows myself and understand how it can feel when a guest cancels last min. But I found it a bit upsetting at the time and now that you blame the crew for this.

I only mentioned that the others guests from Only fools were here as a way of trying to help. Its very hard to say the right thing when crew are the messenger and I feel its not fair to shoot them.