Gold Pass Issues

[Queen_Sindel]

The thing is Sindel, even red shirts don't know the rules! I've met many amazing people this weekend but I've been doing SM events for 8 years and this is the first time I've ever felt badly stressed out.

If that happens the Organisers Booth will be able to help.

 

Stuart and I have been forwarding those issues, but we are trying to get you guys help as soon as possible. The next direct approach for help is the Pit Boss.

[Zahariel]

Thank you QS and Stuart for that, I know you would both prefer to be here.

[Queen_Sindel]

Definitely. Being stuck in a hospital with this humidity here wouldn't be fun on any other weekend, but this weekend it is especially painful. I'm trying to be on here as much as I can, but I already got a few reminders that mobiles are not really allowed. And there's only so and so many times I can go and hide in the toilet.

 

I've heard from TooTall and the issues reported so far have been addressed, also with the Pit Bosses. I don't have an update on the staff on the door, but when there were issues last year Jason supervised everything the next day. So maybe this is what is happening now. It's definitely being addressed.

[Zahariel]

Fingers crossed for the gold entrance tomorrow then. You concentrate on getting better and see you next year.

[smithy270492]

Hey, honestly i do think this year the event is much better organised and layout really improved, but for the negative feedback i do have...

 

Gold queue didnt work. On first day door didnt open till 9am, and it was only then they started scanning tickets and checking bags. By time that slow process was done, we were actually in later than standard entry who had all their tickets and bags checked before they even got into the queue.

 

Second issue, 3 times today i had volunteers try and send me away from autograph queues, once being told to come back in 30-45 minutes.

 

All the moaning im going to do overall i do feel it has ran smoother this year, but has been a few issues with the gold pass which did make me feel loke i was being cheated a bit!

 

But as said... I have still had fun and overcame all obstacles

[scifisteve]

Would it not be simple to hand a print out like this to each Crew Member ?

 

AUTOGRAPHS

 

Diamond Pass Guest

 

Those with a Valid Diamond Pass for your Guest, no VQ ticket required

 

Gold Pass and Standard Entry, VQ Ticket required.

 

Standard Guest with VQ

 

Gold Pass, No VQ required

 

Diamond Pass and Standard Entry VQ Ticket required.

 

Standard Guest no VQ

 

Have at it. ( or something similar )

 

PHOTOSHOOTS

 

Diamond Guests

 

1ST: Those with a Valid Diamond Pass for your Guest, called in number order .

 

2ND: Gold Pass Holders

 

3RD: Standard Tickets in Batch Order

 

Standard Guests

 

1ST: Gold Pass Holders

 

2ND: Everyone Else in Batch Order

[StuartG2198]

Would someone please keep us posted on how entry is going please particularly in respect of gold passes?

 

Thanks

 

Stu

[Hayden Is My Hero]

Forgive me if this has already been posted but I was disappointed to find out the dredd bike isn't included on the free gold pass prop shoots.

[StuartG2198]

It was posted in an earlier thread that this didn't count as a prop shoot as the display is a separate entity to the normal prop shoots

[Queen_Sindel]

Regarding the being sent away thing: when a line is cut off because it is blocking a walk way or something like that generally everyone is asked to comes back later, including Gold Pass holders. It's a safety issue.

[Skyggebjerg]

Stu: I was in the building 8.45 - Through Security at 8.50 - Inside the main hall at 8.55 (roughly).

 

Definitely an improvement from friday :)

[smithy270492]

Gold pass entry has gotten better as the weekend has gone on -

 

I understand the queues can be shut for health and safety but i have seen crew over weekend literally making up the rules regarding closed queues. Some will ask gold to hold on a few mins then slot us on the end, others send away for half hour and today at donald sumpter the crew member was sending away gold pass users until a gold pass wheelchair attendee turned up and he changed his mind...

 

Which im glad he did, but if she hadnt turned up in her wheelchair i suspect we would have been refused for a lot longer.

 

Overall i have had a better year and i do believe it is smoother this year, so please take this feedback more as things that should be looking into with policy tightened perhaps, otherwise is frustrating where each queue treats you differently

[RoryMcGarrett]

The entry was ok. We had like 5 minutes advantage from standard entry tickets so it was much better

[Alric]

It's good that it was better today but that's a bit late that this only gets fixed by Sunday

[mrevil]

had a gold pass and lots of problems which shouldn't happened

bad points and good point

1 not being let in early friday or saturday but did get sorted out sunday

2 having to que outside with no cover but standard was inside in the dry

started raining saturday thank to security for letting us inside

3 loses of £10 pound photo shoot 1 day before the event got talk ticket for 2 diamond talks

was told you could have the photo shoot if you want with £10 pound guest

4 great to pick up passes for gold and diamond passes thursday but need more staff if you do the same next year as it took 4

hours to get 1 gold and 1 diamond pass

5 show master staff didn't know what gold passes would allowed to do it happens every year

6 lot of space to look at the stalls down stairs please keep for next year and having all the guest and photo shoots all in the same areas was great

7 the goodie bags was for children was no good for me please bring back the autograph packs

 

this year was a lot of problem i felt the gold pass holder was let down i remember when show master said if it wasn't for the people buying the gold pass the show could not attract the bigger guest please show master the gold pass need to be reviewed maybe having a 4 £10 POUND voucher for us to spend on autographs or photo shoots or talks

other wise it was great to have more room moving around the gold room down stair had air con it was great

meeting new guest and old guest again

[Wrong Name]

i remember when show master said if it wasn't for the people buying the gold pass the show could not attract the bigger guest

 

Actually, SM said that if it wasn't for the Diamond Passes they could not get the bigger guests, not the Gold.

 

I do agree with most of your other points though and think that the whole Gold Pass needs to be completely redesigned for next year as with all the changes SM have made in other areas, it's not really worth it anymore.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Wrong Name

[Murph]

The GP is still worth having if you actually want/need the priority for auto's/photo's. I think what needs to be looked at again is the price. I still think GP people should have a VQT for Diamond guests.

[Carlosreddevil]

As a first time GP user, I have to say it made my life so much easier than last year without. Literally the one negative point for me was the loss of the £10 photoshoots the day before that event which is totally unacceptable as far as I'm concerned, but that aside, the rest of the weekend was a relative breeze with that little gold band round my wrist!

[homerj]

had a gold pass and lots of problems which shouldn't happened

bad points and good point

1 not being let in early friday or saturday but did get sorted out sunday

2 having to que outside with no cover but standard was inside in the dry

started raining saturday thank to security for letting us inside

3 loses of £10 pound photo shoot 1 day before the event got talk ticket for 2 diamond talks

was told you could have the photo shoot if you want with £10 pound guest

4 great to pick up passes for gold and diamond passes thursday but need more staff if you do the same next year as it took 4

hours to get 1 gold and 1 diamond pass

5 show master staff didn't know what gold passes would allowed to do it happens every year

6 lot of space to look at the stalls down stairs please keep for next year and having all the guest and photo shoots all in the same areas was great

7 the goodie bags was for children was no good for me please bring back the autograph packs

 

this year was a lot of problem i felt the gold pass holder was let down i remember when show master said if it wasn't for the people buying the gold pass the show could not attract the bigger guest please show master the gold pass need to be reviewed maybe having a 4 £10 POUND voucher for us to spend on autographs or photo shoots or talks

other wise it was great to have more room moving around the gold room down stair had air con it was great

meeting new guest and old guest again

I have to agree with these points.

 

We were in after the Normal entry tickets for two out of three days. The last minute talk ticket / photo shoot replacement meant that I could nt use them having already bought diamond passes as well. Goody pack not good. There was slight excitement in the gold pass room when someone found they had a wolverine t shirt but apart from that it wasn't good.

 

Bring back the autograph packs which were brilliant.

 

Wonderful weekend all in all though.

Edited August 1, 2016 by homer

[casbyness]

Have to say I did feel sorry for Gold Pass holders on Saturday, as it was clear even the first of them barely got any head start on us standard entrants and later GP holders didn't get any head start at all. Quite a few were complaining, for good reason.

[minginmonkey]

Hi all. Just wondering if anybody else was disappointed with the Gold pass this year? This was our sixth year attending with gold passes and let me say that we still enjoyed the time we spent at LFCC this year and the incredible guests we met - the incredible Michael Emerson and lovely Sean Maher in particular, but I was left really quite disappointed with the gold pass overall.

 

First there was the issue of so many diamond talks and so few "paid" talks that gold could get free access to compared to previous years. I initially considered this quite ridiculous seeing as this has always been part of the appeal of a gold pass. I understand the argument of diamond passes mean bigger guests and subsidise these for other attendees, but dont all the £251 a pop for the gold passes do this as well? The number of these passes sold surely must be a large proportion of the income for LFCC? Thankfully to their credit this was changed last minute - to our advantage but it would seem not everybody's as many wanted the photos instead.

 

However this brings me to the subject of the photos and autographs and so few £10 guests for these. I cant be the only one who didn't use them. Allowing them to be used towards more expensive guests seems obvious to me as people will spend more money. I may be wrong.

 

Then there is entry - for me one of the main selling points. However as many have stated the normal entry tickets beat those with gold passes in and they didn't have to queue in the rain. This to me was unacceptable given the price of the pass.

Also there is the issue of the joining the back of any autograph queue. Time and time again we get turned away. This may be a communication issue between staff and volunteers but it happens so often that it really cannot be accepted as a simple miscommunication. It cant be that hard to tell them that golds can join the back of any queue (save diamond) without a VQ ticket.

 

Then I come to my biggest bugbear and the reason that has most disappointed me this year, the shockingly small gold pass chill out room. On Friday it was embarrassingly small. I felt for the lovely young lady staffing it who must have wondered what hit her when everybody saw it. Thankfully it was moved - to two tiny offices at the front of the building. I heard people saying it was better but I was gobsmacked. We didn't attend on Saturday because when we saw all the talks were paid for diamond we made other plans, but I cant imagine it went down well.

Last year's room was perfect, even in spite of the moving us for Michael J Fox's talk. What happened this year? Was it an error or miscommunication because if not, the chill out room is a big selling point and this year's was awful verging on insulting given the price of the ticket.

 

So, a gold pass offering entry into the arena first but then allowing others in first to buy the coveted VQ tickets first? Offering entry to the back of any autograph queue but then not allowing people to do this? Offering a chill out room that is simply a couple of tiny offices with too few chairs seating maybe 15 people when hundreds of passes were sold? A pass that despite the price makes you pay again for most of the talks then offers few you can access for free with the pass? A pass that offers free autographs and photos but only for the less famous guests and not on the busiest day? And a goody bag with some very old and out of date promotional material that Showmasters were given free?

 

Is this worth £251 and the roughly 10% rise each year despite getting much less each year? I'm sad to say I dont think so and I'd like to hear anybody say they think it is. I truly hope that Showmasters has a good hard look at these passes, because I personally feel we simply aren't getting what we paid for nor value for money.

 

I love this convention and am a regular guest and have spent lots of my hard earned cash at LFCC over the years, so I am very sad to feel the need to write this.

[MAGIC MONKEY]

Yes, I agree that the gold pass wasn't all that. It was my first year using it and I too feel a bit disappointed with it. Nevermind the 'goody bag' that has got a thread going on it already. The 'chill out' room could have been better signposted. I walked round the floor in vain searching for it. I did ask at the info desk for directions but it took ages to find the room. I couldn't agree more with what you've said. My only other gripe is the £5 prop shoot. It wasn't made clear that it was only for Showmasters prop shoots and not ALL prop shoots. Had this been made clear that it was only valid on certain prop shoots, it would've save embarrassment not to mention time wasted queuing for something I couldn't redeem it against. The £10 voucher really needs to be reviewed, I agree. You should be able to 'offset' it against the price of any guest you want. Not just the £10, otherwise it ends up being wasted if there's no £10 that you want.

[casbyness]

I remember on Saturday overhearing two Gold Pass holders joking that Friday's chill out room was so small that at the end of the day the staff simply threw it away into one of the bins at the venue :)

 

That was amusing. I just hope nobody was still inside at the time!

[Murph]

I think instead of 2 x £10 guests, they should just make it 1 x £15 guest. Now although you do lose a guest, if gives much better variety for choices on who you use it for.

[MAGIC MONKEY]

I think that's an excellent suggestion Murph. But they need to remove the day restriction as well. 'Can't be used on the Saturday'. Seems a bit too restrictive, especially given how much we're paying for the gold pass.