Feedback - Saturday problems and other things

[mschmidt]

As a first-time LFCC attendee, but someone who attends about 10 comic book shows in the US every year (including the 2 largest ones over there), I figured I'd post up what I liked & disliked about this years show.

The good:

- Thursday pickup was fairly easy - would have been nice to have been queuing inside due to the rain, but in general it was pretty smooth. 

- The guestlist was terrific - we made the trip to the UK primary because of Cumberbatch and Hannigan, but I was blown away by the depth of the guestlist in general; loads of people I've never seen at shows in the US and a great representation from both the current hot TV shows & movies and the old favorites. Very nice job on that, Showmasters!

- Every crew member I spoke to in red & blue shirts were friendly & helpful - didn't have a single bad experience during the show.

- Whilst the photo opp areas got fairly crowded, we never had a problem finding the area we were supposed to be in and the crew did a good job sorting out the lines for the photo opps we attended.

The bad:

- The Gold Pass was a complete waste of money. 

The "goodie bag" was terrible. The autograph vouchers were useless (because all the guests I wanted autographs from charged more than £10). Same thing with the prop photo voucher - my daughter wanted to use that for a shot with the Tardis, but couldn't because that shot cost £10. Either get rid of those useless vouchers (and decrease the price of the Gold Pass accordingly) or have them count towards higher-priced autographs & photo opps.

The #1 reason people buy the gold pass is for the early admittance - with the location of the Gold Pass entry on the opposite side from the celebrities, the screw-up with GA being let in early on Saturday and the second screw-up with crew members not handing out VQ tickets till exactly 9 am, it positively boggles the mind that Showmasters can think they actually provided the value the Gold Pass was supposed to give. 

- This has been mentioned several times in this thread already, but it's silly that there's no map showing where the celebrities are actually located. Yes, there are a lot of celebrities - and, yes, they get switched around from day to day. 

It's still not a valid excuse, though - I go to comic book shows with hundreds of creators present and those shows have no problem displaying huge maps that show where people are located. It's 2017 - please get this sorted out already.

- The Thursday pick-up for diamond passes should have included everything that was part of the Diamond pass package. We had 2 DP's for Cumberbatch and when we tried to pick up our prints Saturday morning, we were told that they were none left. That's just not acceptable - we paid for those prints, they should have been there.

- Was it just us or was Mark Williams very unfriendly? My daughter's a huge Harry Potter fan and was really excited to meet him - she went up there by himself, and he didn't even look up or say hello, just signed a photo and handed it to her. She was pretty disappointed.

In general, though, we had a very good time at the show - I managed to get my 30+ comic books signed, the wife & daughter did all their photo opps & talks, and we got a chance to meet a bunch of celebrities that we just never see in the US.

One last suggestion: please consider making the talk an optional part of the Diamond Pass. I have no interest in going to talks or panels, and didn't do so for any of the Diamond passes I had, which meant that that seat could have been sold to someone who actually wanted to be there instead.

[Vinto316]

I had three clashes on Saturday. Ian McDiarmid I went to first and got my photo. I then headed to Christopher lloyds queue which was in photo booth c...it was a complete mess and everyone was queuing up and there was no batch number calling or anything. This put me in a frantic mood as I had another clash coming up. I went and even got my Benedict Cumberbatch photo done (diamond pass) and headed to Christopher Lloyd again. I managed to get my photo done and had to head from c to e for William Regal who I was last in the queue. Christopher Lloyds photo started at around 9.30 and William Regal was at 10.50...I was a stressed mess after all the running around. This was my only complaint of the weekend was that Friday and Sunday seemed better organised than Saturday. 

[Raylenth]

23 minutes ago, mschmidt said:

 

One last suggestion: please consider making the talk an optional part of the Diamond Pass. I have no interest in going to talks or panels, and didn't do so for any of the Diamond passes I had, which meant that that seat could have been sold to someone who actually wanted to be there instead.

This has been discussed before and the conclusion was that customizable passes would create too much hassle.  Some people may want the auto and the talk but not the photo, or just the auto guarantee.  If the shop are having to alter and charge every pass according to the purchasers wants it will put a massive amount of work on them.  Also on the day of the show the crew will have to spend much more time checking to see what each person does and doesn't have included in each individual pass.

[natedammit]

26 minutes ago, mschmidt said:

The "goodie bag" was terrible. The autograph vouchers were useless (because all the guests I wanted autographs from charged more than £10). Same thing with the prop photo voucher - my daughter wanted to use that for a shot with the Tardis, but couldn't because that shot cost £10. Either get rid of those useless vouchers (and decrease the price of the Gold Pass accordingly) or have them count towards higher-priced autographs & photo opps.

The goody bag and vouchers are just extras. A little bonus for purchasing the gold pass. They could get rid of them and reduce the GP price accordingly, but the price would come down by approximately £0.00.

[Queen_Sindel]

It may be smarter to start a new topic, but I am still expecting Jason to do his usual after show topic. So I'll put the responses to some questions in here until I have to start going broken record again and need to copy them everywhere.

Gold Passes not receiving Diamond VQ tickets on Sunday before General Entry was in: 110 percent misunderstanding. Gold Pass holders should have received these tickets.

The rule is that the tickets are not given out before the attendees come in. Unfortunately somehow "attendees" became "all attendees" in some areas and the tickets were not given out until all ticket holders had started entering.

TooTall will make sure this is communicated out to everyone again and will not happen another time. Please accept our sincere apologies.

[mschmidt]

3 hours ago, Raylenth said:

This has been discussed before and the conclusion was that customizable passes would create too much hassle.  Some people may want the auto and the talk but not the photo, or just the auto guarantee.  If the shop are having to alter and charge every pass according to the purchasers wants it will put a massive amount of work on them.  Also on the day of the show the crew will have to spend much more time checking to see what each person does and doesn't have included in each individual pass.

They're already selling individual tickets for the diamond pass talks - how much extra effort is it truly to include one of those tickets with the diamond pass if you want the talk as well?

[mschmidt]

3 hours ago, natedammit said:

The goody bag and vouchers are just extras. A little bonus for purchasing the gold pass. They could get rid of them and reduce the GP price accordingly, but the price would come down by approximately £0.00.

Those things aren't being marketed as just "extras", though - they're being marketed as an integral part of the Gold pass package (eg. "Exclusive Gold Pass Goody Bag"). As such, they fall way short.

I'm pretty sure that limiting the autograph vouchers to only work with £10 guests means that a lot of these vouchers go unclaimed (just like they were for us) - which is smart from a business point of view, but not so nice for the people paying for the gold pass.

[MAGIC MONKEY]

mschmidt, put exactly right. The £10 vouchers should be either completely scrapped or allowed to be offset against higher priced guests. This has been mentioned by so many people, I don't see why it can't be implemented. The prop shoot wasn't clear either. I ended up having a prop shoot that I wasn't really interested in doing. I think the Gold Pass should be re-examined in the light of the comments made on here by people.

[MVronsky78]

I echo Barca's earlier point about the use of microphones at the busiest photoshoots.  I'm sure this would be a help to crew members and they wouldn't blow your head off as was rightly suggested when I raised an earlier point about loudhailers.

My final suggestion would be that perhaps the signs/boards at autograph queues could be a fraction larger, with clearer markings - being short-sighted I have to get pretty close to see the numbers and hence get in everyone else's way of course.  

[RSdynamicduo]

My partner and I had a fantastic weekend, all in all. 

We managed to meet BC on Sunday without a DP or a VQ. Got most of the big guests and we didn't have a single DP or a GP. 

Three gripes from this year: 

Ian McDiarmids line was a joke. The VQ number went from 1-15 to 1-16 in two hours...then back to 1-15. Couldn't get any sense out of the crew member on why it was like that. He needed a DP in my opinion. 

The Pit Boss for the Phelps Twins was extremely rude. 

Benedict Wongs photo que was formed in a really ridiculous way, the crew member just made everyone stand back and then let all the people on the sides move in. 

All in all a good year though, Friday and Sunday being the best days. Lots of the big ques became so easy to get into when it got quieter (Hence me and my partner getting an auto of BC Sunday Morning.) It's just about patience. 

Looking forward to next year! 

[Queen_Sindel]

13 hours ago, mschmidt said:

They're already selling individual tickets for the diamond pass talks - how much extra effort is it truly to include one of those tickets with the diamond pass if you want the talk as well?

Besides the administrative problems: You're basically creating another type of Pass then. Diamond Pass with full experience and let's call it Emerald Pass without talk. There's quite a number of complaints on here that there's been misunderstandings between Diamond and Gold Pass. If you add a third pass to the mix that will just get worse.

[Queen_Sindel]

13 hours ago, mschmidt said:

Those things aren't being marketed as just "extras", though - they're being marketed as an integral part of the Gold pass package (eg. "Exclusive Gold Pass Goody Bag"). As such, they fall way short.

I'm pretty sure that limiting the autograph vouchers to only work with £10 guests means that a lot of these vouchers go unclaimed (just like they were for us) - which is smart from a business point of view, but not so nice for the people paying for the gold pass.

The goodie bag is marked as part of the Gold Pass package just like anything else. A lot of People consider the goodie bags a "nice goodie", but not much more. I am not entirely sure why you consider them "integral", but of course everyone has different incentives for buying a Gold Pass.

[Queen_Sindel]

13 hours ago, MAGIC MONKEY said:

mschmidt, put exactly right. The £10 vouchers should be either completely scrapped or allowed to be offset against higher priced guests. This has been mentioned by so many people, I don't see why it can't be implemented. The prop shoot wasn't clear either. I ended up having a prop shoot that I wasn't really interested in doing. I think the Gold Pass should be re-examined in the light of the comments made on here by people.

What wasn't clear about the prop shoot if I may ask? That didn't come up before.

[john.bttf]

7 hours ago, Queen_Sindel said:

Besides the administrative problems: You're basically creating another type of Pass then. Diamond Pass with full experience and let's call it Emerald Pass without talk. There's quite a number of complaints on here that there's been misunderstandings between Diamond and Gold Pass. If you add a third pass to the mix that will just get worse.

Maybe the end of Goldpass must be considered (and the VQ too)

If on a 3 days week-end, I use for 4 guests (I mean Guest who is not a Diamond guest AND who have a VQ queue), Goldpass is not so good.

Ok, we can have a low VQ ticket (If we can enter before GA, and IF the crew gives the VQ before 9am...)

 

For me, the best way is :

- Diamond Pass (Full package guaranteed)

- Emerald Pass (Autograph guaranteed, working with batches, like the photoshoot)  (So SM know how many people want an autograh, and SM can organise the day)

==> When all "Diamond" and "Emerald" are done : Open the queue freely (probably in the end of the day ,It's already like this now, but not officially : VQ will pass on the end of the day for Diamond guest, IF they can join the queue)

- Photo (classic buying on the store, work very well with batches, and it's guaranteed too)

 

And if SM wants to maintain GOLDPASS for early entrance and "semi-priority" for the photoshoot. They can ! :-) I will probably buy it if the price is reduce.

 

 

With this, it's probably the end of frustration to miss the opportunity for an autograph.

The "VQ" will be on the "Emerald Pass", and when it's sold out, it's sold out. (then, the only chance, it's at the end of the day, and you know it, before coming to the show)

 

 

[Bhup]

15 hours ago, RSdynamicduo said:

My partner and I had a fantastic weekend, all in all. 

We managed to meet BC on Sunday without a DP or a VQ. Got most of the big guests and we didn't have a single DP or a GP. 

Three gripes from this year: 

Ian McDiarmids line was a joke. The VQ number went from 1-15 to 1-16 in two hours...then back to 1-15. Couldn't get any sense out of the crew member on why it was like that. He needed a DP in my opinion. 

The Pit Boss for the Phelps Twins was extremely rude. 

Benedict Wongs photo que was formed in a really ridiculous way, the crew member just made everyone stand back and then let all the people on the sides move in. 

All in all a good year though, Friday and Sunday being the best days. Lots of the big ques became so easy to get into when it got quieter (Hence me and my partner getting an auto of BC Sunday Morning.) It's just about patience. 

Looking forward to next year! 

The guy in charge of Ian infuriated people so much and was so rude and useless that he was removed for a bit to keep it going as tempers were really flaring due to him. He was in charge of the Bill Paxton and Christopher Llyod 2 years ago and was the same rude, power trip gone mad then.  A few people then as well as this year I heard say they wanted to punch him

[FWAIN]

I was in the GA queue and was a bit surprised it started letting in before 9, I even checked my phone to confirm the time. Overall it seemed better spaced out than last year. As this is my first post on the forum, I don't want to start off sounding like I am moaning, so before I throw a couple of suggestions, I had a really good time on the Saturday and was generally pleased with the overall experience.

So, now to the minor things

Diamond Pass pickup - It was the 1st time I'd bought one, so on the Thursday I had some spare time to pick it up that day. I picked up my pass but nothing else. So on the Saturday, I arrived with my pals at GA entrance and had to go and get the other bits. If it had just been the poster I would have left it till later, but I did need the lanyard. However, this meant I got split from my mates & wasn't allowed to join them in the queue. I understand why I wasn't allowed to but with having to go quickly to see about VQ tickets and then the photo shoot with Alan Tudyk, I didn't see them for nearly 2 hours. All I would suggest is that if possible, give the lanyards out on the Thursday if early collection happens again. (I will also try to remember to bring one myself if I get any next year as well!)

Photo Shoot - The lad who was trying to sort out the am photo shoot with Alan Tudyk deserves a medal. I thought the tape for the queue was a good idea, however it really needed barriers around the sides as people kept encroaching to ask him questions, delaying the organisation of the queue which would have cleared the area quicker which was busy.

Autograph Queues - I agree with the person who said there should be a central point with a map of who is where, and the current queue situation for every guest. It would involve a couple of runners updating the situation, but would make it easier as a customer. Was also a bit surprised that John Rhys-Davies was not a VQ situation, it was fairly obvious early on he was going to be a busy one, which with him and Pilou Asbaek close to each other, did cause a bit of a bottleneck there.

[PinkGlitch]

Despite an overall awesome event (we have been doing LFCC for many years, but skipped events since Stan Lee as the chaos was too much at that one) this was one of the better ones, but there were a few niggles we had over the weekend.

1) I got a diamond pass for my husband for Kevin Smith. I really wanted diamond for Alyson Hannigan too but it cost £40 more than just getting a photo and autograph separate and I had no interest in the talk. Some people in this thread have suggested customisable passes & I think this would be an excellent idea for future events. 

2) when I was checking the VQ numbers for Tom Skerritt on the friday, a gentleman with a diamond pass for him tried to join the queue and was told by the crew member that he was unable to do so. He got upset and said he thought diamond meant he could hop onto the end of the queue at any time to get his autograph and was told this was not the case. However, I know many people who had diamond passes for many guests and were able to get their autographs with no problem. There needs to be clear rules for crew members to follow to prevent incidents like this from occurring. if that guy is reading this, I hope he was eventually able to get his autograph and it didn't put him off from attending future events. I would have been upset too if that had been me. 

3) my husband had his photo op with Kevin Smith and Kevin asked the photographer to take the shot again at his request. When my husband went to pick up his photo he was told to choose which shot he wanted. When he asked why he couldn't take both, he was told he could if he paid for another photoshoot. Since when has this been the case? I have 3 separate shots with Jay Mewes from a few years back because the photographer took my photo 3 times and several other guests where more than one photo was taken and was allowed to take home all of the shots. I know digital copies will be available soon but it seems a bit unfair having to pay £40 for the other shot if they're printed anyway and are just going to be binned if nobody picks them up.

4) the sword/knife stalls, I think they're a tricky subject, especially in today's climate. When I was browsing i saw they were abiding by the law, asking for ID, sealing the product and telling people not to open the product until they were in their home, all well and good, yet an hour or so later I was very disturbed to see a young lad of around 11 wandering around the hall with an open flick knife in his hands. 1) if he brought it in himself, how did he get it past security? Or 2) if it was brought for him, where was the responsible parenting?

Yes, I did inform security. 

5) vouchers for autographs. I'd like to be able to pre buy autographs online and show them to the crew member at the desk. I'm not keen on carrying huge amounts of cash around with me and have a limit on how much I can take out daily, as most bank accounts do. That just makes you a target and I'm not comfortable with that. I know you can buy autograph vouchers at the desk (or you used to be able to) but that still means having to carry wads of cash around with you. Also, just  an idea, but as our weather is unpredictable, would it be possible to buy some of those disposable rain smocks you get at festivals at future events? I got soaked on the Saturday walking back to the station and have a rotten cold now! 

6) and just a personal gripe, but no tea/coffee van outside the venue? Those guys were a nice action to past events and often cheaper than the vendors inside, especially when it came to cuppas and bottled water. 

[HeartDT]

7 minutes ago, PinkGlitch said:

 

5) vouchers for autographs. I'd like to be able to pre buy autographs online and show them

I totally get the thing about carrying cash.. i feel that way too.. but I dont know how do-able pre sale auto vouchers would be.   as SM dont know how many a huest may get through etc what if you dont/cant use them all?   think of the issues there.  where as only paying once sure getting auto means no issues like that.

[Queen_Sindel]

20 hours ago, john.bttf said:

Maybe the end of Goldpass must be considered (and the VQ too)

 

End of VQ ticket is not going to happen, unless SM think it is the only option because people start behaving like animals. You'd rather spend 6 hours in an autograph line and only got one guest done per day, unless you have the money to buy full packages for everyone? That would be pricing out people for sure.

SM have stated repeatedly that autograph presales don't work. The only compromise is the Diamond Pass. I am pretty sure they won't add another type of package.

[Queen_Sindel]

18 minutes ago, HeartDT said:

I totally get the thing about carrying cash.. i feel that way too.. but I dont know how do-able pre sale auto vouchers would be.   as SM dont know how many a huest may get through etc what if you dont/cant use them all?   think of the issues there.  where as only paying once sure getting auto means no issues like that.

Autograph voucher presale not doable right now through Eventbrite I guess. The current tickets around Christmas are still being mailed out. That is not doable year round.

[Queen_Sindel]

31 minutes ago, PinkGlitch said:

2) when I was checking the VQ numbers for Tom Skerritt on the friday, a gentleman with a diamond pass for him tried to join the queue and was told by the crew member that he was unable to do so. He got upset and said he thought diamond meant he could hop onto the end of the queue at any time to get his autograph and was told this was not the case. However, I know many people who had diamond passes for many guests and were able to get their autographs with no problem. There needs to be clear rules for crew members to follow to prevent incidents like this from occurring. if that guy is reading this, I hope he was eventually able to get his autograph and it didn't put him off from attending future events. I would have been upset too if that had been me. 

3) my husband had his photo op with Kevin Smith and Kevin asked the photographer to take the shot again at his request. When my husband went to pick up his photo he was told to choose which shot he wanted. When he asked why he couldn't take both, he was told he could if he paid for another photoshoot. Since when has this been the case? I have 3 separate shots with Jay Mewes from a few years back because the photographer took my photo 3 times and several other guests where more than one photo was taken and was allowed to take home all of the shots. I know digital copies will be available soon but it seems a bit unfair having to pay £40 for the other shot if they're printed anyway and are just going to be binned if nobody picks them up.

 

Regarding 2), it's the same as for Gold Pass. They can join unless the line is closed. The line for Tom may have been cut because he was going for lunch/photoshoot/talk. Or it may have been cut for security reasons because it got too long. Neither Diamond nor Gold Pass do override this restriction.

This has come up a number of times now and I asked if  we can check the wording of the Pass because apparently people misunderstand.

3) That has always been the case. If it's a retake because the shoot was wrong you only get one photo. If for some reason more than obne photo was taken (maybe because the photographer wasn't sure himself) and you are lucky you get to take home all. Years ago the rule wasn't handled that strict until some people started "blinking on purpose" in an attempt to get extra pictures. 

[HeartDT]

1 hour ago, Queen_Sindel said:

Autograph voucher presale not doable right now through Eventbrite I guess. The current tickets around Christmas are still being mailed out. That is not doable year round.

i thought they meant vouchers they could pre buy to use for autos at LFCC rather than paying cash at the desk.

[Queen_Sindel]

27 minutes ago, HeartDT said:

i thought they meant vouchers they could pre buy to use for autos at LFCC rather than paying cash at the desk.

That's how I understood it too. But how do you want to handle e-ticket autograph vouchers? For starters, each and every guest table would need a scanner. That's a pricey venture.

For the Christmas sales the physical tickets like the one you can get at the show are still being mailed out.

[HeartDT]

7 minutes ago, Queen_Sindel said:

That's how I understood it too. But how do you want to handle e-ticket autograph vouchers? For starters, each and every guest table would need a scanner. That's a pricey venture.

For the Christmas sales the physical tickets like the one you can get at the show are still being mailed out.

Agreed.. thats why I was saying not likely to be do-able and I understand why its cash only.  :)

[PinkGlitch]

2 hours ago, HeartDT said:

I totally get the thing about carrying cash.. i feel that way too.. but I dont know how do-able pre sale auto vouchers would be.   as SM dont know how many a huest may get through etc what if you dont/cant use them all?   think of the issues there.  where as only paying once sure getting auto means no issues like that.

Maybe they could work like normal shop gift vouchers with a use by date (i think around 2 years is the standard) in values of £5s and £10s, you could buy a book of how much you think you might need and if you didn't use them at one event, you could use them at another within the use by date, or use them towards buying photoshoots. Just an idea

2 hours ago, Queen_Sindel said:

End of VQ ticket is not going to happen, unless SM think it is the only option because people start behaving like animals. You'd rather spend 6 hours in an autograph line and only got one guest done per day, unless you have the money to buy full packages for everyone? That would be pricing out people for sure.

SM have stated repeatedly that autograph presales don't work. The only compromise is the Diamond Pass. I am pretty sure they won't add another type of package.

I agree that ending VQ would be a bad idea. It works well, providing that people don't abuse the system, such as reusing tickets etc. Very disappointed to see in some other threads on here that this was the case with some queues. I wish I could say I was surprised but I worked in retail for 20 years and have seem people try all sorts of things to try and scam others. Play fair, guys! 

2 hours ago, Queen_Sindel said:

Autograph voucher presale not doable right now through Eventbrite I guess. The current tickets around Christmas are still being mailed out. That is not doable year round.

Fair enough, thanks for the response! PS, found the Eventbrite app very useful for this and can recommend it! :)

58 minutes ago, HeartDT said:

i thought they meant vouchers they could pre buy to use for autos at LFCC rather than paying cash at the desk.

Yeah that's what I meant :)