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I don't think anybody is saying its a different ticket.

 

I think that if you used a box office type of ticket sales on the day, then whatever time you got there you would buy whichever ticket you wanted and then you would go and join the queue of other people who had the same ticket. I know this isn't always possible its just an example and you would need the ticket desk open before the doors were.

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well congratulations the forum has managed to bully someone into not using the forum to voice an opinion. I will instead just voice my concerns to the organisers. Why do you feel that defending Showmasters means that you have to completely invalidate anothers concern? Infact don't answer as I'm probably only adding fuel to your fire.

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Again I apologise - I and others have tried to clarify the situation to explain why your expectation of how things should have happened was wrong. That's all I was saying.

 

If you feel offended or bullied or anything then I apologise, but this is a discussion forum and people do talk things through reasonably, which I thought was what we were doing :)

 

Feel free to carry on. I've explained as much as I can, so there's no point in dragging this out.

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I think the fairest way for an event like this is to just say ALL people (paying and pre-paid) go in the same queue(s) and when entering the venue channel the pre-paids in seperately with people just checking tickets. This way the only reason you are taking slightly longer to get in is because of the financial transaction, NOT the queueing process.

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I'm not sure why people who have been queuing from 6am to buy their tickets should have to join a queue behind those who have just arrived at 9am. That seems wholly unfair to me. Short of opening the box office at 6am (something I doubt that Earls Court would allow and Showmasters would have difficulty getting volunteer crew to do). I don't see a way round this perceived unfairness.

Edited by Janeway72
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SM addressed this at a previous event (sorry I just can't locate the post currently). There is a reason that they don't use a box office system.

 

Unfortunately due to sheer numbers there will always be a point where pay on the day people will start to enter the event before the longer pre-paid queue. That point just varies for individual people based on where they are in the respective queues.

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This was only my second convention so any worries I had was just simple been down to me being a novice. I had a bit of a panic about potentially arriving late and then waiting in the queue to get in (which didnt bother me at all, i have queued alot longer for theme park rides) but sent a tweet on twitter for advice and pretty much got an instant reply which meant i could relax and look forward to the day. Thanks again for that.

 

Inside the convention was amazing I thought the layout and facilities were perfect for the setting and all the staff brilliant.

Guests were absolutley amazing Id wanted to meet Amanda Tapping for a very long time so I was overjoyed she was there.

 

I have a slight problem with a ticket issue. The amanda/shanks talk was cancelled so I still have the two tickets. The website I know says its an automatic refund but my debit card is different to the one i used to originally buy the tickets. The sales desk guys didnt know what to do so told me to email. I Sent an email and still waiting for a reply BUT its the day after the con so I assume they are very busy and I'll need to have some patience :)

 

Overall as long as my ticket refunding goes through smoothly (if we go by my recent experiences then im sure it will) I had an amazing time and cannot wait until next time.

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Whilst that sounds like a good idea it is physically impossible for the entrance area to hold that many people without being a fire hazard as people who need to pay would still have to join a shorter queue inside the main doors (box office area) whilst the other pre paid queue went in.

 

Otherwise can see the logic in that completly.

 

(This is in response to the 1 queue system in case it looks as though it makes no sense)

Edited by dazzlerjames
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This was only my second convention so any worries I had was just simple been down to me being a novice. I had a bit of a panic about potentially arriving late and then waiting in the queue to get in (which didnt bother me at all, i have queued alot longer for theme park rides) but sent a tweet on twitter for advice and pretty much got an instant reply which meant i could relax and look forward to the day. Thanks again for that.

Glad that I was of some use :) I have spent weeks trying to keep people calm on there haha

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This was only my second convention so any worries I had was just simple been down to me being a novice. I had a bit of a panic about potentially arriving late and then waiting in the queue to get in (which didnt bother me at all, i have queued alot longer for theme park rides) but sent a tweet on twitter for advice and pretty much got an instant reply which meant i could relax and look forward to the day. Thanks again for that.

 

Inside the convention was amazing I thought the layout and facilities were perfect for the setting and all the staff brilliant.

Guests were absolutley amazing Id wanted to meet Amanda Tapping for a very long time so I was overjoyed she was there.

 

I have a slight problem with a ticket issue. The amanda/shanks talk was cancelled so I still have the two tickets. The website I know says its an automatic refund but my debit card is different to the one i used to originally buy the tickets. The sales desk guys didnt know what to do so told me to email. I Sent an email and still waiting for a reply BUT its the day after the con so I assume they are very busy and I'll need to have some patience :)

 

Overall as long as my ticket refunding goes through smoothly (if we go by my recent experiences then im sure it will) I had an amazing time and cannot wait until next time.

 

Yeah I think what they were saying is that if it's not back on your card within two weeks of the end of the show to email them. The staff will be catching up on a zillion emails today.

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well congratulations the forum has managed to bully someone into not using the forum to voice an opinion. I will instead just voice my concerns to the organisers. Why do you feel that defending Showmasters means that you have to completely invalidate anothers concern? Infact don't answer as I'm probably only adding fuel to your fire.

I'm sorry if you feel bullied. This is a subject that rears its head after every LFACC (and EMS in the past) and some of us have had this discussion many times and so have the counter-argument to your points well practiced. We understand how annoying it must be to be queueing and then see people go straight in and yes, the box-office idea would prevent this and be fair, the single queue is also sound in theory but could cause congestion problems on entry unless it was managed extremely well. As DavidB says we were merely explaining that your expectations were sadly incorrect and that under the current system what happened was perfectly acceptable. Again, sorry if you took it that you were being attacked or bullied.

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I think the fairest way for an event like this is to just say ALL people (paying and pre-paid) go in the same queue(s) and when entering the venue channel the pre-paids in seperately with people just checking tickets. This way the only reason you are taking slightly longer to get in is because of the financial transaction, NOT the queueing process.

 

This seems to me to be the fairest option, is there a reason why this sort of system has not been done? I am sure it must have been considered in the past.

 

I know the first time I attended I was caught out by the pre-paid vs pay on the day issues and was as equally miffed as the original poster about it. I think that the common perception for a first time is that buying in advance does give priority over those buying on the day. I am not entirely sure how it could be re-phrased to make it clearer, and certainly once I had attended the first time I was well aware the second time that this was not the case.

 

As for my feedback (not photgraphs as I did that elsewhere!) I would have liked a programme, even if only a printed piece of A4 paper with the important talk and photoshoot times on it. Please consider re-instating that in future. It really doesn't need to be anything glossy.

 

The GOT live commentary screening was an excellent addition to the show. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope that more of that type of event will be considered in future. I am not entirely sure the ticket number = row in the auditorium worked though, as there were not enough seats left in the front for people that had the correct ticket numbers. But short of policing everone that sat down (which would be a logisitical nightmare) I am not really sure that anything else can be done. It relies on people being honest about where they sit and sadly some people weren't.

Edited by jcAngel
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Thinking about the single queue idea, another thought that may be against it is, can you imagine the length of it!! Given how long the prepaid queue was, add the pay on the day on top and it will be queued nearly twice round the complex which would make it very hard to supervise.

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I'm guessing that the talk area was blocked off at the back to stop people standing there for free which is fair enough.

 

In future could the talk actualy be enclosed by those boards instead. Doing it this way did make it more conguested on the Saturday and it didn't help as the toilets were the other side.

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I

I don't feel that saying we expect an entitlement is not a very nice way of reply, I'm not saying I have an "entitlement" because I bought online, but I bought an EARLY BIRD, which I believe is to let you in before 11am, there was a queue of people who had also been there for quite a while and people just waltzed up bought a ticket and walked straight in without waiting, if this happened in a store would you be happy?

I'm sorry if I'm coming across as rude - totally not my intention. It's just the fact that some seem to expect that those who pay on the day should be shoved on the end of the pre-paid queue.

 

I don't understand that mentality because it's not fair. They have every right to go in as Early Birds as much as anyone. It's simply not a different ticket.

 

Personally I think buy on the door is better. As normally I only attend one day and if last minute a number of guests change the day they attend it would be an absoloute waste of money for me.

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Why would one large queue be worse than two large queues?, most venues only have one queue. You could channel all pre-paids into one side of the entrance using stantions just outside. The reception area at EC2 was massive and there were many doors so I feel this would be possible. I understanfd what has ben said about fire regs, but I worked for First leisure for 12 years (Large scale nightclubs up to 3500 capacity venues) and we used this form of queuing regularly for paid/pre paid events in much smaller entrance areas. If you were organised enough it could be done. If you have stewards outside the venue channeling people in the two directions you wouldn't need to overfill the interior area.

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Having one queue would also increase the perception of fairness (which is in line with what is being said about there being no advantage to pre paying). Having two queues adds to the perception that having a pre paid ticket is an advantage. The reason I imagine they had two queues was to try and get the pre-paid people in faster, but for some reason this system didn't seem to work and just caused frustration because apart from anything, the seperate queue caused the pre-payers to think they had an advantage, which isn't in line with the 'same ticket' argument.

Edited by spookyuk
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i understand what everyone is saying I have been attending for some years and this is the FIRST time I have ever experienced this! I still feel it's an unfair system that people can bypass just because they paid on the day and had a smaller queue. Maybe having two doors open for early bird so it moves faster then it wouldn't be so much of an issue. In my defence I was not the only person waiting in a long queue who was unhappy with the situation. But it is now clear that if I'm going to queue I'm better off NOT buyig in advance, wait til I get there and avoid a massive queue. I once attended an event who had stewards walk the Early bird queue taking tickets and swapping them for wristbands, so when the door opened you showed your band and walked straight in. Saving time on the door.

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And if everyone decides to buy on the door instead of pre-pay then the pre-paid line will get in quicker.

 

I generally believe that online sales and those on the day should be treated exactly the same as it's the same ticket. That's my opinion. Everyone's paying the same price so why not :)

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In theory, there already IS a 'single queue' that is split into two sections to pay on the day or pre-pay... it's just that the split is done on arrival, not after doors have opened.

And if there was a point where the 'pay on the day' section had few enough people being filtered out of a single queue that using the two queue system means they could just walk in ahead of pre-pay people who had been waiting, all that leaves is door sales staff doing nothing for however long when they could be working to get people out of the queue and into the building... which actually lengthens queue times for the people at the back (both pre-paid and not)! The current system works best to get /everyone/ in the queues into the building as efficiently as possible.

Edited by etmuse
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I went on Sunday with my bro, we got there at 10 so upgraded tickets for an extra £6.00 each I got all my autos and my bro got his photos and we were done by 3.00

 

Merlin talk was fantastic and Eoin Macken and Tom Hopper genuinely were amazing people to meet

 

As for the q discussion I think pay on the day people should be allowed in after they get their tickets

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Yes Etmuse but it would still appear fairer to everyone rather than having what you have currently which is (effectively) a second queue with a percived advantage from pre-paying. I also think you are overestimating the time it would take staff to tear a ticket to get pre-paid in, surely it's never going to take as long as processing a payment (especially when so many people either don't have the right money or use cards). I can tell you from experience that if you are near the door without a ticket, you are almost certainly not going to be too upset about someone who already has a ticket near you entering ahead of you, especilly given that it would shorten your queuing time to boot. This is a different sitation to having a dirty great line of people across the way who can all supposedly stroll in quick time.

 

Alot of this is just about managing perception.

Edited by spookyuk
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