Was it quiet or what?

[evmk71]

I was expecting the usual mad chaos and queues having decided to visit at 1pm and it was really quiet. The quests who were signing queues appeared dead. Having read about the treatment in the William Shartner area I was discusted by the bullying security people who were trying to convince us that the shopping centre was private property and trying to remove us from staning outside the window trying to glimse the man himself. This queue quickly vanished as people were in and out within a few seconds. Alot of people were saying how upset and angry they were from this treatment and I have a feeling the queue wasnt growing due to the negative word of mouth.

 

Who is this JCM person? Is she his manager? I hope someone had the nerve to say something about this treatment. If I had got at least 30 seconds and a few friendly words I might have paid the £25 but decided to boycott it. It looked like others were doing the same.

 

However guests like Robert Englund and the Buck Rogers guests who walked past were lovely, smiled and said hello to us. Its a shame some guests ruin the whole experience for people. I decided not to bother spending money and chatted to the wonderful friendly people dressed in costumes. I noticed the fans I spoke to were as annoyed as myself and alot appeared to be leaving because of it.

[zebredy]

I was expecting the usual mad chaos and queues having decided to visit at 1pm and it was really quiet. The quests who were signing queues appeared dead. Having read about the treatment in the William Shartner area I was discusted by the bullying security people who were trying to convince us that the shopping centre was private property and trying to remove us from staning outside the window trying to glimse the man himself. This queue quickly vanished as people were in and out within a few seconds. Alot of people were saying how upset and angry they were from this treatment and I have a feeling the queue wasnt growing due to the negative word of mouth.

 

Who is this JCM person? Is she his manager? I hope someone had the nerve to say something about this treatment. If I had got at least 30 seconds and a few friendly words I might have paid the £25 but decided to boycott it. It looked like others were doing the same.

 

However guests like Robert Englund and the Buck Rogers guests who walked past were lovely, smiled and said hello to us. Its a shame some guests ruin the whole experience for people. I decided not to bother spending money and chatted to the wonderful friendly people dressed in costumes. I noticed the fans I spoke to were as annoyed as myself and alot appeared to be leaving because of it.

874149[/snapback]

 

Im not going till tomorrow but its 'James T Kirk', what do you expect JCB is Jullie Catlin Brown (excuse spelling) she has appeared in Star Trek before and is (correct me if wrong) one of the main organisers of this event. As William Shatner is a high profile guest and knowing what the world has come to these days Im not suprised there would be lots of securty issuses concerning him.....

 

Look at the end of the day we all know that some, not all but some of the guests are only in it for the money..Granted he may have signed those autographs fast, but looking at it from his point of view, it could be that the more he signs is due to how much he is getting paid. You never know he might have thougt it would have been busier then it was and so thats why he rushed through it so quickly, so everyone who wanted one could get an auto from him. Or what I think is more likely (maybe not the man reason) is the people who are/were sitting with him pushing people through like there at a cattle market or something like they feel they have to, are told to do so by the people above. Either way I know that it's wrong and showmasters often end up getting people going on the forum saying how annoyed they are at how they feel they have been treated, but knowing these poeple and the amount of high profile guests they get, I don't see that, thats gona change any time soon.

 

And lastly actually you are wrong, the shopping centre IS privately owned. Because some1 owns it, it is therefore someones private property. So in most ways the security were right for telling you that......Remeber the security guys are probably just following orders from above. Interpritation is often the problem here

 

At the end of the day Im on your side mate, but Im gona be waiting till February to see the Shatner where I can meet him in a nicer enviroment. Hope to here back from you.

Edited October 1, 2005 by zebredy

[remote]

If the shopping centre is private property but lets people wander in without any display of any rules and regulations which would have to be detailed on prominent signs displaying the fact

 

then surely there are no rules in place other than normal expected behaviour

in a public place

 

therefore i would not think these "security" people or JCB have any power to tell anyone anything they only get away with it because the average fan does what they are told without questioning it

 

remote

[remote]

Is the poor experiences with main stars starting to catch up on the organisers and the business in general ?

 

perhaps they can only get away with it so long

 

negative publicity and general word of mouth about poor "experiences" with meeting Carrie Fisher, James Masters and now William Shatner and other big stars at other similar events gets around

 

it could affect the whole business in the future, the fact the two main organisers hate each other does not help either

 

i personally am now rather wary of big stars i've met, 4 so far and 4 have been poor, not very good odds is it, the William Shatner experience is probably about the worst, i queued nearly 2 hours for a 5 second experience

 

the first 2 i got 2 autographs off at £25 i now only get one autograph of big stars

thats already a £50 loss in business to the organisers

 

next time i might not bother at all

 

there is also the possible knock on affect on other aspects of the film industry

 

will we now buy the next box set of Star Trek the original series for example

after a poor experience meeting its main star

 

will that affect your decision ? personally at the moment yes it will

 

i was quite keen on going to autographica now i'm not so keen

 

negative critism on here about events should be listened to

 

in any Business the No 1 thing is the customer is always right whether the business owner likes it or not

 

remote

[Crow T. Robot]

it could affect the whole business in the future, the fact the two main organisers hate each other does not help either

 

Which two main organisers would they be, if you don't mind my asking?

 

Yes I understand. I've met a couple of "main" stars that have ruined an event for me, (Brent Spiner being one of them)but there have been a few they were good (Michael Biehn at LFACC was a dream for me, and he was nice). Besides, at the end of the day, it's the guests I want to meet, be them a big name or not.

 

I didn't see Shatner yesterday but knew from looking at people leaving his queue that they seemed less then thrilled.

 

Don't let a few bum experiences get to you.

[martine]

Is the poor experiences with main stars starting to catch up on the organisers and the business in general ?

 

perhaps they can only get away with it so long

 

why do you think the autograph queues where so empty?

 

for these reasons i decided not to go to the event this time (although i never skipped one in the past) due to some previous bad expierences. and i know quite a few people who are skipping this one for the same reason. it's a shame really.sometimes it's the guest who rushes through and not SM's fault but a lot can be said about the cattle market approach as well. like asking to put the camera's away instead of demanding it is one thing. with really busy guests you cannot take a three minute chat but let people at least hand over their own items.

 

 

but sinc i already knew this was gonna happen i choose not to go as did others and that cost SM a whole lot of money. prob. not going to c9 either and give the competition a chance.

[TommyT]

in any Business the No 1 thing is the customer is always right

874384[/snapback]

Absolute and utter rubbish.

Suppose that the customer feels that having queued for half an hour he is entitled to an extra autograph for free. Is that customer always right? How about if the customer wishes to be naked when they meet the guest? Perhaps the customer wishes to stand on the table and urinate on the guest. How "always right" is that?

[chsu]

Interesting to see the variety of comments, good & bad about guest signings. Living locally I have attended all the events in MK & have experienced the full spectrum of receptions when signing.

 

Given the number of people who queue for autographs there are inevitably going to be good & bad for all the guests - it is the ones who are consistently one or the other that stand out.

 

Our human nature is to remember the bad experiences first - they say it takes 4 good points to over come one bad - I still feel that overall the majority of guests are excellent & would urge anyone to highlight the good & not dwell on the bad.

[Moony]

I know alot of people who didn't attend this one purely because the guests didn't appeal to them.

 

As well after the comments on Friday about Shatner and JCB seems alot of people also rethought about seeing him.

[remote]

Tommy T

 

No need to be silly the customer is always right within reason

 

look at any business books its the No 1 thing they generally work to

 

i was just trying to point out that if customers demand at least a few seconds of chat, or a photo, which are not to unreasonable

 

a service which is offered by the majority of the other guests

 

I also met Karen Allen she is a proper film star she was chatty allowed photos and was busy as did Erin Gray, Nick Brendon , Tricia Helfer & Magel Barrett all busy when i saw them

 

there is an obvious lack of consistency across the guests

 

the result of not offering the customers a good service is they either go elsewhere (other conventions we are not allowed to mention) or seek alternative uses of their disposable income on items within the same area such as buying dvds , film posters , other film collectables

 

remote

[TommyT]

Tommy T

 

No need to be silly the customer is always right within reason

874454[/snapback]

Ah, but those last two words are so important. I lost count of the times back when I worked in retail when I wanted to throttle some irksome customer who was demanding something outrageously unreasonable whilst squawking "the customer is always right".

The trouble is that what is "within reason" is often open to debate (plus you'll always get a few people who either refuse to accept that their demands are unreasonable, or refuse to accept the existence of the "within reason" qualifier.)

 

I just get a bit touchy when people "misquote" the old "customer is always right" line without qualification, as they often (but not in your case) use it as an excuse to make stupid demands. No offence meant.

 

i was just trying to point out that if customers demand at least a few seconds of chat, or a photo, which are not to unreasonable

Sounds reasonable to me, but at the same time, the lack of such was not to be unexpected, given WS's reputation.

there is an obvious lack of consistency across the guests

True, but they all have different characters, different attitudes towards fans, and towards these sort of events, different agents, expectations, and moods. It's a shame that some people don't want to interact much with their fans, or think that all the fans want is just a signature so crank them out like a machine, but I guess that's life. And if it wasn't for the fact that he obviously still generates a lot of business, it would seem, one would question whether WS should do this sort of thing. I honestly don't know. After all, I've seen Bob Dylan play on numerous occasions, and I don't think he's ever even acknowledged the existence of the audience, let alone spoken to them; it doesn't bother me, but I know some people who feel tremendously disappointed or offended by it. (But again, it's no secret that Dylan's like this).

 

I appreciate your points about customer service, but I guess that there are those people like Shatner (and Dylan) whose popularity sort of puts them outside the normal considerations - they can do what they want, treat people in a sub-par manner and still have crowds queueing to see them. (I will allow that that does not give everybody else working with them licence to act like a rear-end though).

[Rev_Bem]

It was alot emptier than i imagined. I had never been to a collectormania before and have always heard that it was 'the worst of all cons' in terms of crowds, Imagine my surprise then when i was 5th in que to meet nick brendon this morning. My brother also met nick stahl (who since the beginning i assumed would be a definete no go)tricia helfer,summer glau,robert englaund and andy hallet with ease on firday, all guests i thought would be FAR to busy to even contemplate meeting and he got posed pics with all. good show!

[ciaraemarie]

Yeah it was the quiest Collectormania I've been too, the fact that i could actually walk though the passage between the Nick Stahl/Summer Glau etc signing bit and the small costa coffee seating area was an indication that the crowds wernt so big as before.

But of course it was nice that i didn't get squashed and I hey, its a bonus if the event is emptyer

 

KIWI