Richard Dean Anderson's Friday queue.

[SilvaNemesis]

I purchased a photo-shoot ticket for Richard Dean Anderson on Friday, I try and base my tickets so they are spread out between the days I am attending. Initially I was not attending at all on Sunday.

 

But I think I have a valid complaint when I am turned away from the Friday queue in favour of people who have elected to attend the show ONLY on Friday and told to come back the following day if we are attending on the Saturday. Consequently I had no photo with him at all, and I think that's blatantly out of order.

 

I hardly see how that's MY problem if other people have elected to only attend on one day and that because of that, I, and no doubt others get pushed back. We choose our ticket days for a reason, I'm not spending £45 for a laugh! Then when I spoke to the woman on the refund desk about this, I was not ASKED if I could take the shoot on another day but TOLD in a very curt manner I could take the shoot on another day, which I could not as I was not in the venue for the full day on Sunday and I had umpteen other shoots on the Saturday, again the attitude only served to make me even angrier than I was in the first place.

 

Aside from that, I don't feel that it's anyone's business to dictate to me how I will arrange my weekend and when I will take my photo-sessions. As for the lack of refund due to genuine reasons which were not of my making, I think is a very poor show, I ended up with Showmasters vouchers to spend on autographs and photo-shoots which is fine if you've not gone past the point of caring but by that point it had been such a shambles, that frankly, I had.

 

And just to add, I'm not someone who moans and complains a lot or without cause, in fact to the contrary, I've enjoyed previous events and never had an issue and even shared my photos on here, and I've certainly never had to approach the refund desk. But the response I got will make me think carefully before committing my hard earned money to any future events.

[CelticRob]

A very valid point. Wiggle room should be in schedules. Imagine guests like noah and Emily etc didn't cancel...I've no idea how those guests would have been fitted into the schedule since it was already bursting at the seams!!

Edited July 22, 2015 by CelticRob

[giuseppe1969]

Sorry to hear that, SilvaNemesis.

I was in the same queue, on Friday, and it was really difficult to understand which tickets should go first - the good, old chronic lack of communication, I suppose. Anyway, I remember the lady shouting that only people with a Friday entry ticket could get the photoshoot and they asked to have the entry ticket ready to show together with the photoshoot ticket. I found this very odd as if I am inside the venue on Friday, it only means that I have the Friday entry ticket (unless I am a "convention crasher"). Also, I had a 'batch 2' ticket but at some point they let people in as they came. Then, how do they know if one purchased a ticket just for Friday or for the other days too and, in the end, what difference does it make? Also, I fail to see the logic in sending away and postponing people in your position: did they think that on Saturday and Sunday would have been less chaotic?

[cptpugwash]

same thing happened to me with my sigourney weaver diamond pass, one of the perks on it was to get a carrie henn photoshoot , they put me in the diamond queue for it with about 40 other diamond holders then they let in the people with e tickets for friday first, then all the diamond pass people got turned away and told to come back another day as they are only letting in the people with friday tickets.

[misskitten]

I purchased a photo-shoot ticket for Richard Dean Anderson on Friday, I try and base my tickets so they are spread out between the days I am attending. Initially I was not attending at all on Sunday.

 

But I think I have a valid complaint when I am turned away from the Friday queue in favour of people who have elected to attend the show ONLY on Friday and told to come back the following day if we are attending on the Saturday. Consequently I had no photo with him at all, and I think that's blatantly out of order.

 

I hardly see how that's MY problem if other people have elected to only attend on one day and that because of that, I, and no doubt others get pushed back. We choose our ticket days for a reason, I'm not spending £45 for a laugh! Then when I spoke to the woman on the refund desk about this, I was not ASKED if I could take the shoot on another day but TOLD in a very curt manner I could take the shoot on another day, which I could not as I was not in the venue for the full day on Sunday and I had umpteen other shoots on the Saturday, again the attitude only served to make me even angrier than I was in the first place.

 

Aside from that, I don't feel that it's anyone's business to dictate to me how I will arrange my weekend and when I will take my photo-sessions. As for the lack of refund due to genuine reasons which were not of my making, I think is a very poor show, I ended up with Showmasters vouchers to spend on autographs and photo-shoots which is fine if you've not gone past the point of caring but by that point it had been such a shambles, that frankly, I had.

 

And just to add, I'm not someone who moans and complains a lot or without cause, in fact to the contrary, I've enjoyed previous events and never had an issue and even shared my photos on here, and I've certainly never had to approach the refund desk. But the response I got will make me think carefully before committing my hard earned money to any future events.

 

I recognize you from your avatar, you were standing pretty close to me in the Friday huddle next to the queue. I had a weekend pass, but like you I had a ton of other photoshoots the other days and therefore couldn't go for his shoot another day. They reluctantly let me through when I pointed this out. I fully agree with you that they should have taken into consideration that even weekend pass holders cannot always make the other days due to clashes and honestly the shoot should have been extended since the first one had been 15 minutes short. This was not the attending people's fault, we showed up when the shoot was supposed to be on.

[Zahariel]

I do feel the photo shoots this year were a lot tighter then previous years and due to the some times extended distances guests had to travel to get to the shoots they often started late. knock-on, after knock-on, after knock-on and sold out shoots were being cut short by 10 mins. The crew do their very best but their hands were tied by the schedule and the massive number of guests squeezed into the weekend.

 

As Celtic said above, 'Wiggle room' is needed - 5 mins changeover time should be extended to 10 minutes in my opinion. This way late arriving guests, over sold or slow shoots could be more easily absorbed and unavoidable hiccups won't affect the shoots that follow. Yes 5 minutes extra per shoot mounts up, but when you're having to send people to later shoots, to shoots on other days and to refund shoots becuase time ran out... things might need to be looked at. RDA's and David BRadley's shoots on Fri and Sat started 15 minutes late - that's 100 people give or take who would have to be seen later in the weekend, in shoots that were almost if not already full!I missed a shoot even with a gold pass because two previous ones had started late, I managed to get it done later int he day but if not for the gold pass it would have been very disruptive.

[Too Tall]

I can only apologize this happened.

 

My understanding is there was an issue in the first shoot that proliferated into the afternoon shoot. It shouldn't have happened but at the time "asking" those with weekend tickets to come back on the weekend would have not been an unreasonable suggestion. But I agree it should have been a request.

[giuseppe1969]

I can only apologize this happened.

 

My understanding is there was an issue in the first shoot that proliferated into the afternoon shoot. It shouldn't have happened but at the time "asking" those with weekend tickets to come back on the weekend would have not been an unreasonable suggestion. But I agree it should have been a request.

That was probably due to the fact that when the first photoshoot started, most of the people (like myself) were still queuing outside; therefore, they all concentrated at the second chance.

[misskitten]

 

I can only apologize this happened.

 

My understanding is there was an issue in the first shoot that proliferated into the afternoon shoot. It shouldn't have happened but at the time "asking" those with weekend tickets to come back on the weekend would have not been an unreasonable suggestion. But I agree it should have been a request.

 

That was probably due to the fact that when the first photoshoot started, most of the people (like myself) were still queuing outside; therefore, they all concentrated at the second chance.

No, there were more people at the first shoot than the ones who was let through. I know this because they cut the queue right in front of me and said we had to come back later (fair enough, but then we should be able to expect being let through at the second shoot). The first shoot started roughly 15 minutes late, and that plus the chaos (sign didn't state which batches were currently being called, so it was absolutely no help, the crew were hard to reach as they were mostly in the middle of the queue) bled into the second shoot.

 

Like I said in my post above I barely got into it because I was a weekend pass holder, but no way was I going to queue the entirety of a third shoot of his when I had a ton of shoots to get through the other two days. Like the OP said, we plan our days by our shoots, spread them across the days we are attending, barring cancelations or guest day changes we should be able to expect to get through our shoots if we show up in time. A schedule needs enough wiggle room so any delays can be made up for without it being at the attendees' expense.

[fissijo]

 

 

I can only apologize this happened.

 

My understanding is there was an issue in the first shoot that proliferated into the afternoon shoot. It shouldn't have happened but at the time "asking" those with weekend tickets to come back on the weekend would have not been an unreasonable suggestion. But I agree it should have been a request.

That was probably due to the fact that when the first photoshoot started, most of the people (like myself) were still queuing outside; therefore, they all concentrated at the second chance.

No, there were more people at the first shoot than the ones who was let through. I know this because they cut the queue right in front of me and said we had to come back later (fair enough, but then we should be able to expect being let through at the second shoot). The first shoot started roughly 15 minutes late, and that plus the chaos (sign didn't state which batches were currently being called, so it was absolutely no help, the crew were hard to reach as they were mostly in the middle of the queue) bled into the second shoot.

 

Like I said in my post above I barely got into it because I was a weekend pass holder, but no way was I going to queue the entirety of a third shoot of his when I had a ton of shoots to get through the other two days. Like the OP said, we plan our days by our shoots, spread them across the days we are attending, barring cancelations or guest day changes we should be able to expect to get through our shoots if we show up in time. A schedule needs enough wiggle room so any delays can be made up for without it being at the attendees' expense.

 

We were in the morning queue, ahead of the initial cut off point and still got sent away to come back for the pm shoot. Well I say we got sent away, no one actually bothered to tell the back of the queue that the shoot was over. We got the message when Neve Campbell queue was being formed.

 

 

We were some of the friday only people who got called forward first (and are very grateful of that). Of course by that point in the day we were already an extra £26 out of pocket as were meant to be on a coach home when the second shoot started so had to get a train home instead.

 

 

I think it would help a little having the BIG shoots spread between different areas - if there had been a smaller shoot after the morning session it would be less disruptive if it had run late to get through those who were in the queue.

[eccheetham]

I eventualy managed to get an auto from RDA on the friday.

[M'ladyAthos]

Have to admit to seeing another side here...if you were only able to attend on one day i.e in this case and had prebooked ( or on day managed to) photo shoot with Guest you want i.e. RDA then I do think it's fair that those people have precedence as they are unable to come back over weekend , unlike those with weekend passes or able to attend all 3 days. Sometime people don't choose to one day just because they want to it could be down to work or family commitments so hence that is their only chance. I personally would have understood on the day - coming from your side I would say that if I then agreed to come back on the Sat/Sun then I would want a guarantee that I would get a photo.