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Autograph staff giving conflicting information


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Hi

i've had a great time today and yesterday but am disappointed with how many staff don't seem to know the rules. 

Examples,

(1) Terrance Stamp

I made it to Terrance in time to get VQ 5. However, when the staff member seen my Gold pass he said "No VQ needed for you, you can join anytime today". I said this wasn't correct as on Fri I was there for Chris Lloyd and was told Gold wasn't enough. He got quite angry and said "I'm telling you that you don't need a VQ ticket so I'm not giving you one". 

Of course, when I came back I was told "No VQ, NO auto. Furious! 

(2) Tom Wilson/ Alan Tudyk

I had diamond passes for both. 

When I went to Tom, I was brought to the front of the others, at Alan's I was told to go to the Back To The queue. I protested and was told I was wrong. I was so annoyed I just told the guy I was going as he was wrong. He just shrugged and said ok. 

This type of thing happened with a lot of people I spoke to that were also upset. 

How does it happen that the staff don't know the basic rules for gold and diamond? 

Mother wise, loved the event and thanks for all the mods help in the lead up. 

 

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The difference between Gold and Diamond is reiterated at every staff meeting. Unfortunately the crew are all humans, so sometimes people get it wrong. If you know someone is wrong like with the Terrance queue please ask the Crew Member to get their Pit Boss. Don't walk away. The Pit Boss can solve this on the spot. Due to Terrance being one day only there's unfortunately not much more I can do right now than asking TooTall to mention it again.

When exactly did you try to join the lines for Tom and Alan? The way Diamond Passes are supposed to work is indeed that if they don't arrive when Diamond Pass holders only are called they get to join the back of the queue. Same thing as for a Gold Pass holder arriving at a queue. I am aware that this didn't happen some times last year (and apparently for Tom too), but that is the way it is supposed to work.

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Yes I had the same with extra help around the Benedict Cumberbatch queue. To protect the sanctity of the scheme I won't provide full details here but the first guy got VQ info completely wrong. I had a word with Samantha at the info desk, she confirmed I was right, went back and spoke to another chap at the queue who I think was the boss and he confirmed.

To be fair to the first guy, he totally redeemed himself later on by squeezing me in to the queue and I thanked him for his efforts as I was on my way out. Can't have been easy there at all with the volume of people they were trying to get through in such a short amount of time.

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I had a similar experience with Alan Tudyk on Friday.

I presented my Diamond Pass but was told that they need to reduce the queue length before being allowed to join and suggested I come back in half an hour.

This I did, only to find the queue the same length, but with others added.

The board only stated the VQ numbers but no Diamond numbers.

Fortunately, I did meet him eventually on that day.

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Both issues are put on my list.

Regarding the non joining of the line because it was too ling: that is standard practice, no matter what pass. You were not the only obe sent away for sure. If the new people in line came back earlier at a time when the line went down of course they would have bern allowed to join.

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I had a Diamond Pass for Mads and was placed at the back of the queue for his auto (which is normal, I presumed). Then 5 minutes later someone else with a DP marched to the front of the queue and was flashing his around, at which point me and another DP person responded we had them too, he just shrugged and carried on. I still got through the queue pretty quick though, can't have been waiting more than 10 minutes.

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Id like to say something about the bloke who done the christopher lloydd autographs i was the last in the queue as they shut it off as it was nearly closing time and some guy tried getting on the end but the crew member said to him politly that its closed but the man was putting a complaint in i would just like to vouch for the crew member he was very polite and use all done a great job had no problem what so ever i found this year alot easier getting autos compared to last year so a big thank you to use all and id like to pat use all on the back

Edited by posey1234
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5 hours ago, Lokinestro said:

I had a Diamond Pass for Mads and was placed at the back of the queue for his auto (which is normal, I presumed). Then 5 minutes later someone else with a DP marched to the front of the queue and was flashing his around, at which point me and another DP person responded we had them too, he just shrugged and carried on. I still got through the queue pretty quick though, can't have been waiting more than 10 minutes.

I admit I always assumed diamond just let you join the back of the queue-not queue jump everyone else. I had Mads diamond- I just joined behind those in line. That sort of queue jumping seems deeply rude 

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At Pamela's auto they queued all the diamonds up first regardless of when they arrived then lined the VQ tickets up in numerical order , even though I wasn't diamond super job!, 

Edited by paulo
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I had a Diamond pass for Mads... I turned up Saturday morning and joined the back of the queue. The guy looking after the queue line spotted my pass and told me he'd walk me to the front. I queried this with him as I was pretty sure this wasn't right. However I went with him as he was adamant this was correct; and he left me with one of the crew at the front, who then told me I needed to see the crew on the desk (where the photos are) to be fitted in the line. The desk referred me back to the end of the line who then proceeded to take me to the front again... who then spoke to the Asst working the desk with Mads. I was then told I needed to go somewhere in the middle of the line. I ended up behind 2 lovely ladies who pulled me in behind them... and would've been pretty much my place in the queue had I have stayed at the back where I originally was. 

However the worst bit was when I got to the front desk to meet the man himself, the Asst sitting next to him said to me you just can't push in front of everyone you know in a snotty tone and was quite off with me. I felt terrible and feebly replied that of course I knew that, but I was just following the instructions of the staff and all I wanted to be was in the right place in line. Fortunately Mads was still talking to the girls in front otherwise I would've been completely mortified. In retrospect I should have just stayed at the back of the queue and not listened to what the staff were telling me to do... thing is you do trust what they tell you is correct.

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34 minutes ago, RomeroSavini said:

A small card needs handing out to all staff with these simple rules on regarding Gold, Diamond and VS tickets. Then they can look at it. It is the only way!

Job done. No arguing then as you can say pull out your card.

That won't be a that small card then. Unless it comes with a magnifying glass. ;)

There is a crew handbook which is sent to all crew before the show.

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I take it as diamonds go first no matter  what but only for the diamond gusts they have, golds next and then vqs, or just vq for diamond guests as golds need them too. If the particular guest is on to vqs and a diamond attendee walks up for them they get to go ahead as there auto of garunteed. 

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This has been a big problem this year. One which I hope is rectified for the next one.

as gold passes, we have always been able to get in and go and get VQ s for Diamond guests. But with some guests we were refused them until general entry came in. 

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Just now, homerj said:

This has been a big problem this year. One which I hope is rectified for the next one.

as gold passes, we have always been able to get in and go and get VQ s for Diamond guests. But with some guests we were refused them until general entry came in. 

Also brought up a couple of times already, and I posted each time that it was on my list of things to be looked at.

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I'm a bit confused as well. I thought the way Diamond Passes work is that the date picked is for the photo only and that we can get the autograph over the three days. But when I asked if I could get Mads Mikkelsen's autograph on Sunday (when I had less other things on and generally quieter) the girl insisted I absolutely must get the autograph on Saturday as it says so on the pass. I told her there is only one kind of Diamond pass for Mads and how it works but she was having none of it.

For Richard Dean Anderson they started the autograph queue with VT holders on Sunday and even though it was obvious he wouldn't get though all the Diamond pass holders they made them wait in between VT holders. So they sort of prioritised VT holders while Diamond Pass holders ended up getting nothing. I was lucky but Richard ended up apologising for the whole mess on stage.

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2 minutes ago, itsnotaboutyou said:

I'm a bit confused as well. I thought the way Diamond Passes work is that the date picked is for the photo only and that we can get the autograph over the three days. But when I asked if I could get Mads Mikkelsen's autograph on Sunday (when I had less other things on and generally quieter) the girl insisted I absolutely must get the autograph on Saturday as it says so on the pass. I told her there is only one kind of Diamond pass for Mads and how it works but she was having none of it.

For Richard Dean Anderson they started the autograph queue with VT holders on Sunday and even though it was obvious he wouldn't get though all the Diamond pass holders they made them wait in between VT holders. So they sort of prioritised VT holders while Diamond Pass holders ended up getting nothing. I was lucky but Richard ended up apologising for the whole mess on stage.

No, the day on the pass is for the photo only. The only exception was Benedict Cumberbatch who had a Saturday and a Sunday pass. The way it is generally supposed to work is that the Diamond Passes are called by number. So you may not even get seen on the same day you are having your photo taken if the pass is for a slow signer like Christopher Lloyd.

The Diamond Pass issues are also on my list of things to be raised with the Office. A mixed line of Diamond Passes and VT is definitely not supposed to happen in a Situation you describe.

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An issue that I foresaw (and it sounded like it came up based on a previous post) was that this year the passes had a day printed on them (I saw some with stickers, but not many). This day obviously referred to the photo, but this was not made clear on the pass. It just read: Number 123 - Friday. Last year everyone I saw had passes with a sticker on that said 'photo on X day'. Just printing a day on the pass may lead to confusion amongst volunteers who don't know the DP rules that well, who thus may assume that it's a pass for that specific day. I didn't have this problem, but if some attendees are being told this, then it may be best to specify on the pass that the day refers to the photo day (perhaps through stickers like they had in 2016)

Edited by tenaciouspirit
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6 minutes ago, tenaciouspirit said:

An issue that I foresaw (and it sounded like it came up based on a previous post) was that this year the passes had a day printed on them (I saw some with stickers, but not many). This day obviously referred to the photo, but this was not made clear on the pass. It just read: Number 123 - Friday. Last year everyone I saw had passes with a sticker on that said 'photo on X day'. Just printing a day on the pass may lead to confusion amongst volunteers who don't know the DP rules that well, who thus may assume that it's a pass for that specific day. I didn't have this problem, but if some attendees are being told this, then it may be best to specify on the pass that the day refers to the photo day (perhaps through stickers like they had in 2016)

Nobody showed me the pass yet, so thank you for this info. This could have very well been the reason for some of the confusion. I will make sure to make a note of this.

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