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Diamond Pass Collection


Ricksta
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I have had an amazing day at C24 today. The staff were great and all in all another fantastic SM event.

Pele being late to the venue created a few problems but this was clearly not SM fault and the staff clearly did the best they could in stressful circumstances. Big shout out to the guys looking after the Pele shoot. They did AMAZING under the circumstances. 

However, my only negative feedback would be collecting the Diamond Pass for Pele this morning, which wasn't straight forward. It took 1 hour to collect in a horrible queuing system, which wasn't well organised, all of which eats into time you should be spending doing other things at the con. I then had to join another (5 minutes) queue later in the day to pick up the Pele print, which should ideally have been handed out with the pass itself.

I know Diamond Passes have been posted out in the past for LFCC or there has been a separate, earlier day for collection. I think for future Collectormania events, where there are so many great high profile guests on a Diamond Pass, the 'collect on the day' strategy needs a bit of a re-think. When you have already been queuing from 7am to get into the venue, the last thing you need is another 1 hour queue!

Happy for others to comment and tell me if their experience was different and they picked up their Diamond Pass really quickly!!!

All in all, a very good day though! Thanks SM! I Roll on LFCC!

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My Diamond Pass pick up was very quick but I was one of the first few in . I can see how it may have been a problem for others. I used to like it when passes were sent out as it made the day a lot easier.

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It took me 40 minutes to collect my Diamond Pass for Ming Na Wen, and I waited until 10am before joining the queue (had photo shoots to get out of the way first).  There were three queues at that stage - one for Pele, one for other Diamonds and one for buying photo shoots.  The number of people in the wrong queue was high and people were getting frustrated.  I too wish they would post them out, but it seemed to me the only thing there was an issue with today.  Everything else was great :-D

 

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Picking up Diamond Passes wasn't great but I think there may have been a technical glitch at the start of the day.

I don't know if posting them out is the answer though. Call me cynical but they wouldn't be that difficult to replicate and once they've been sent SM wouldn't have control of them.

Personally I'd have an additional Early Bird entry point that handled only Diamond and Gold Passes.

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My only downside to the event really  - the queue for it.

I can only guess this is to stop ticket touts? Having to pick it up with id at the venue?  If so great idea but more staff on the desk needed please so the wait is not that long.

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I did appreciate that having queued ages to get my Pele diamond pass, the staff sorted out my Barrowman diamond pass whilst I was there which saved me having to join an even longer queue.  So the crew were trying to help.

I also love being able to buy photoshoot tickets online/ by phone & not having to queue to collect them.

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As per an early post,it too me 40 minutes to get my passes also. It was extra stress for the sales staff as well as wasted time.

LFACC nailed this last year. Collection booth/table in the entrance queue holding area. I thought that worked really well, enabling diamonds to be collected before entrance. This could work at the NEC as the holding area is huge also.

Not only did it add extra people at the sales desk after entrance time, but it meant those with diamond passes missed out on low number vq tickets for other guests unless they had friends or family with them.

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The LFCC format isn't perfect - it requires you to either leave the entry queue (which if you are on your own means you loose your place in the queue) or you have to wait until you have gone and gotten your VQ's and then come back and queue if you are on your own.

The diamond pass collection system certainly needs working on but I appreciate it's hard to come up with a good solution.

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Worst part of what was a fantastic day was the whole Diamond Pass experience, but it really sullied it for me. Paid early access, probably was one of the first 20-30 people who got in and was appalled by the organisation on an event that had literally just opened its doors. 

I thought the best thing was to pick up virtual tickets first, then collect the diamond pass as that was already paid for and guaranteed. 

So VQ tickets collected I hen started the arduous task of collecting my Diamond Pass, in which there were no signs explaing what was where. So naturally I asked for assistance and the first guy literally had no idea what was going on (he was even telling people to wait in the ticket sales queue to collect virtual tickets...which I thankfully corrected otherwise they would've wasted a lot of time in a queue which may have impacted their experience if they had a high VQ number). Failing that I asked a second guy who ushered me to a queue, which I queued up for for around 25 minutes only to find it was the wrong queue. 

Fantastic, so asking a third person I then joined the diamond pass queue, which half way through was told that there was actually separate queues for Pele and other guests - some of which had already had a photo shoot start). After about 30+ minutes of queuing...I finally got my pass, but I was told to collect my special diamond pass photo when I got my autograph, but alas it was the wrong information again. Personally I would've loved to get the print signed, but yet again wrong information really sullied my overall experience.

First time getting a diamond pass and was really excited, but the overall experience really left a foul taste in my mouth. I mean it wasn't actually cheap (which I'm sure the guest was the reason for that) but it didn't make me feel special and the fact I had to queue in a disorganised queue to pick it up considering it was already paid for just seemed ludicrous. 

Now I know it was busy, things can change mid event, but I was just flabbergasted that it was so poorly executed. Hopefully this doesn't sound like I'm moaning too much, but I just want to express my experience, so hopefully the feedback can be used to improve it next time.

Sending the passes out would've improved the experience immensely and would've meant I could've seen more of the con and spent more money at the stalls. 

The thing that gets me is asking the crew for help and just not getting the correct information, which should be crucial otherwise there is no point in them being there. 

A few extra crew would've really helped with distributing passes, if that's how you want to issue them.

Signs which clearly explain what queue is what would really go a long way too. 

Final point just to add, is that there were plenty of fine crew who were extremely helpful and courteous throughout the event, especially in some of the intense situations they were thrown into, so I do truly thank them all for the hard work and stress they had to endure during the weekend. I couldn't do it, so thank you.

And thank you SM for organising yet again a great event, which for the most part I did enjoy. :)

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