Jump to content

Sales Desk Queue Nightmare


 Share

Recommended Posts

I had a great day on Saturday but one thing really spoilt it.

I had a diamond pass for Tom Wilson and decided I wanted to buy another signature, but I didn't have any cash on me, so quite early in the morning I queued at the sales desk to buy an autograph voucher on my credit card.

There were 4 queues at the desk and they were all massive, I got in the queue and it hardly moved, I was still not at the front 90mins later and was about to miss my photoshoot with John Cleese so let the queue 90mins wasted and nothing to show for it.

There are a couple of reasons this happened, one there were lots of people in the queue that had never been to the event before and thought you had to buy vouchers even if you had cash, even when people were explaining to them they can queue upstairs and pay cash, they still didn't want to leave the queue as they thought it would be quicker to buy vouchers, there were SM crew walking the sales lines but they were not saying anything, they were just asking questions, if they had walked the lines telling people if they had cash they don't need vouchers the queue would have been a lot shorter.

Also when I last came in 2015, you could buy the autograph vouchers online and they were sent to you, why cant they still do this rather than making people queue up for over an hour just to buy one autograph?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, DavidB said:

There may have been gift vouchers on sale at some point, but 'autograph vouchers' have technically never been on sale online as far as I'm aware?

That makes two of us then.

Some other Posts in the other Review and Feedback Topics mentioned that the sales desk had Trouble with the Card machines that day. It does look like you got hit by that.

If People want to buy vouchers instead of paying cash - no matter what reason - they are of course free to do so. Maybe it didn't make sense to you, but I am sure for the People in line it made sense. And if they don't listen to other attendees trying to help I unfortunately Kind of doubt they would have listened to Crew Walking down the lines. Because only the Crew at the table does know for sure. ;) Sorry, that Response was given to me when I tried to do that once, with a very visible Crew badge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

Plus, unfortunately, as much as we try and put the information out there before the event for people to read.. there will always be people who think they can just turn up to a first event and wing it! :\

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

If Saturday was anything like Friday (I was working sales desk Friday am) then another thing that slows things down hugely is the surprisingly large number of people who get to the front of the queue and still don't actually know what they want to buy... 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There seems to be a couple of things that could be employed here to help the queue :-

1. Employ a snaking queue system, so the next person goes to the next available sales point. It stops 4 massive lines growing, and it's fairer to everyone waiting.

2. Perhaps there should be a Cash Sales only point, which would move alot quicker and those paying cash would not get held up by those paying with cards.

(Though I tried to get some more cash out at lunchtime and ATM I used at the event was already empty).   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

I'm always advising people to bring cash with them rather than rely on the cashpoints there. Obviously not always possible and people do have last minute spending plans, but I've always tried to suggest that anyone needs to be a bit organised pre-event if they can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, DavidB said:

There may have been gift vouchers on sale at some point, but 'autograph vouchers' have technically never been on sale online as far as I'm aware?

That what I meant the Gift Vouchers, that you could use at the Autograph Desks, I am sure to be honest you both must have known I meant to say?

I don't understand why they don't have these giftvouchers anymore that can be used at desks, it saved a lot if time when I got them before

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, DavidB said:

Plus, unfortunately, as much as we try and put the information out there before the event for people to read.. there will always be people who think they can just turn up to a first event and wing it! :\

But to be fair, what I said was there were people walking up and down the queues saying nothing unless they were asked a question, surely if they had gone down the queues reminding people that if they had they cash they didn't need to queue they would have made the queue a lot shorter, or why cant they have a queue just dedicated to selling autograph vouchers instead?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Boggle said:

That what I meant the Gift Vouchers, that you could use at the Autograph Desks, I am sure to be honest you both must have known I meant to say?

I don't understand why they don't have these giftvouchers anymore that can be used at desks, it saved a lot if time when I got them before

Seeing I had seen someone call the VQ tickets "autograph vouchers" this Weekend.... no, I didn't know. And after repeatedly being yelled at when I tried to guess I didn't really fancy trying. ;)

Sending the vouchers out was an administrative nightmare to start with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Boggle said:

But to be fair, what I said was there were people walking up and down the queues saying nothing unless they were asked a question, surely if they had gone down the queues reminding people that if they had they cash they didn't need to queue they would have made the queue a lot shorter, or why cant they have a queue just dedicated to selling autograph vouchers instead?

Because then the next Person will ask "why can't we separate the photoshoots?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators
11 minutes ago, Boggle said:

But to be fair, what I said was there were people walking up and down the queues saying nothing unless they were asked a question, surely if they had gone down the queues reminding people that if they had they cash they didn't need to queue they would have made the queue a lot shorter, or why cant they have a queue just dedicated to selling autograph vouchers instead?

But where does that stop? Are all crew meant to remind everyone of every rule and situation in all areas? We make the information clear and available online and I think it's fair to expect people to plan a little bit beforehand, or if they're not sure then to ask crew. I wouldn't expect crew to be reminding people of rules all the time etc.

9 minutes ago, Stassy said:

Would it not be easier to have card machines at the autograph stations? Mind you I probably would have spent a lot more if there were :lol:

The card machines are quite slow and would be a logistical nightmare to be running over in the autograph areas I'd suggest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was in that queue Friday and had a similar problems as i had clashes - as expected there would be a wait.  

 

30 mins got to the front and non of the 3 staff at the desk had the authority to change Saturdays clashes to on that day.  Only 1 out of the 4 had the authority so was sent to her queue.

There was a system fault or failure online which couldnt be helped i guess.

1 queue for problems / clashes to see the person who can actually deal with them and other for sales staff would of been handy and cut wait time down by half, luckily I didn't have anything booked until the afternoon. 

Just a bit frustrating queuing 30 mins to be told I cannot help you - you'll have to join that queue - not the staffs fault in anyway just the setup of it.

A few signs above staff would help solve the problem. Sales and enquires / clashes.

Edited by S.H.R.E.K
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, DavidB said:

The card machines are quite slow and would be a logistical nightmare to be running over in the autograph areas I'd suggest.

I have to disagree with the logistical aspect as a lot of the queues were going nowhere fast and even the shorter queues would have coped. However, as Queen said they are not cheap to hire and not everyone knows how to use them so probably not viable in that sense. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, S.H.R.E.K said:

I was in that queue Friday and had a similar problems as i had clashes - as expected there would be a wait.  

 

30 mins got to the front and non of the 3 staff at the desk had the authority to change Saturdays clashes to on that day.  Only 1 out of the 4 had the authority so was sent to her queue.

There was a system fault or failure online which couldnt be helped i guess.

1 queue for problems / clashes to see the person who can actually deal with them and other for sales staff would of been handy and cut wait time down by half, luckily I didn't have anything booked until the afternoon. 

Just a bit frustrating queuing 30 mins to be told I cannot help you - you'll have to join that queue.

If I can steal that Suggestion I will put that on my list. ;)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If people were to read up on these events beforehand then they could be aware that they should bring cash with them and avoid using cards (for autos/photos).  That would probably remove 60-70% of the queue in the first place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Queen_Sindel said:

If I can steal that Suggestion I will put that on my list. ;)

I think they did try to do that as when I was queuing on Sunday they were saying that one line was specific (can't remember the exact phrasing) and the other 3 were for sales but signage would help greatly with that.  Also the snaking queue with people going to the next available free sales person.  Whilst I understand tech issues can't be helped it's frustrating to just stand there knowing if you leave the queue to try another you are going to have to queue for ages again still even if it is moving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Queen_Sindel said:

I do admit I was surprised to hear the lines were that bad in the first place. The online store being kept open seemed to have put a lot of pressure off the sales desk. :/

I think it's a combination if things Queen.  Like you said people not knowing what they want when they get to the front, people with more complicated issues, people wanting multiple purchases and the tech being really temperamental.  As 1 queue was dedicated to a specific issue it only left 3 and 2 of them went down for a while because of tech problems.  It just means that unfortunately the transactions aren't necessarily quick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Queen_Sindel said:

I do admit I was surprised to hear the lines were that bad in the first place. The online store being kept open seemed to have put a lot of pressure off the sales desk. :/

I was there all weekend and they were insane. I was wondering if it would be an idea before the event to send an email to everyone with a link to the FAQ and in the body of the email highlight a few things main one being "Please bring cash as your life will be a thousand times simpler". I get that a percentage won't read or ignore but maybe it would help?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Persephone1 said:

I was there all weekend and they were insane. I was wondering if it would be an idea before the event to send an email to everyone with a link to the FAQ and in the body of the email highlight a few things main one being "Please bring cash as your life will be a thousand times simpler". I get that a percentage won't read or ignore but maybe it would help?

Most people simply won't read it.  Most people who attend conventions know it's mainly a cash business anyway.  For the majority it's people who don't go often or their first time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...