VT TICKETS, Fairness needed

[loveamyadams]

In the future at showmasters events in the interest of fairness to other customers the desk helpers with guests or those taking cash payments before you reach the desks should take VT tickets from customers to prevent them being used again and again. I did notice throughout the 3 days VT tickets weren't being taken and as usual some of them got reused several times. Nobody took mine at any time, staff looked at them when i joined the back of the queue but never took them. My friend who had a very high number for David Bradley was given a low number by his mate which allowed him to jump into the queue when he only turned up at lunchtime. Another had a number of over 200 for Mark Williams but got handed one from another friend who had gone through in the first few minutes for something in the very low teens. which obviously meant he walked up into the autograph queue ahead of dozens of others who had got to his VT queue much later than him. Not really fair as some people missed out on getting things signed. Its no wonder some of the boards showing numbers being called hardly ever seem to change. I know of one group of people who used the same ticket 4 times throughout the day for Wil Wheaton !!! I know the staff have lots to do but it takes a second to just take the ticket when you go though. stops the reusing of the same ticket.

Edited August 1, 2017 by loveamyadams
spelling mistake

[Sydney]

They are supposed to be taken from you for exactly the reasons you state... I'm sure that this will be picked up and reinforced at crew briefing for the next event

[Dorgris]

Must say I do agree with this - in the main over the weekend most of my VQs were taken from me, but a couple weren't. I wasn't going to use them again personally but it's possibly open to abuse. Perhaps the VQ should be handed over with the cash when paying?

[englishjim]

The limit of 5 items should be strictly enforced. That would also help. David Bradley's queue was terrible.

[englishjim]

In Terence Stamp's queue the woman never even looked at them my ticket was 178 the guy in front of me was 546 and an hour before someone with 621 got seen all this when the sign post said 1-100. Something it said all day.

[Paul19802017]

It's still have my vq tickets in my wallet. It's a scrum down there so can't blame the guys for missing a few. 

if it's a diamond guest and you need a VQ ticket you should go there in hope not expectation 

[RomeroSavini]

I always have loads of VQ tickets by the end of each day. That says a lot sadly. 

 

Never once have I given my low one's away, even to friends. I just don't it's fair at all. If I get there at 5am, I worked for my ticket.

Edited August 1, 2017 by RomeroSavini

[natedammit]

I'm going to channel QS here:

If you see this kind of thing happening at the show please report it to the crew at the time. Remind the blue shirt manning the line that they should be collecting VQ tickets as people join the queue, and if that doesn't help please find a pit boss and tell them. There is nothing that can be done about this after the event.

[Murph]

It happens every year.

[Queen_Sindel]

12 minutes ago, natedammit said:

I'm going to channel QS here:

If you see this kind of thing happening at the show please report it to the crew at the time. Remind the blue shirt manning the line that they should be collecting VQ tickets as people join the queue, and if that doesn't help please find a pit boss and tell them. There is nothing that can be done about this after the event.

You're stealing my broken record!

But it's true. The "remember to collect the tickets" is in the Crew handbook. But especially if the Crew gets swamped - checking on tickets and giving out tickets while one to four People yell abuse as use can take ist toll - it can happen someone Forgets. If it happens constantly then it becomes an issue and that's where the Pit Boss Comes into Play.

I can certainly put that on my more or less famous list now to make sure it's being pointed out again at the next Show. But the more immediate fix would have been as explained above.

[loveamyadams]

2 hours ago, natedammit said:

I'm going to channel QS here:

If you see this kind of thing happening at the show please report it to the crew at the time. Remind the blue shirt manning the line that they should be collecting VQ tickets as people join the queue, and if that doesn't help please find a pit boss and tell them. There is nothing that can be done about this after the event.

i did tell one blue shirt about this as i saw it happen but she looked a bit sheepish and didn't seem to want any confrontation with anyone. there was no pit boss around in view. whole area was teeming with people. It needs to come from the top at every meeting. Hopefully QS can have a word that its just not being done enough.  

[Pennywise]

Mine were never even checked 

[Dent_1]

10 hours ago, RomeroSavini said:

I always have loads of VQ tickets by the end of each day. That says a lot sadly. 

 

Never once have I given my low one's away, even to friends. I just don't it's fair at all. If I get there at 5am, I worked for my ticket.

Pardon me for saying so but that seems a bit stingy.

Personally, I don't think anyone should have to queue up for these things at 5am. I have done 7am a couple of times and that is ridiculous enough.

With each passing year, Showmasters seem to make it ever more difficult for the 'average customer' to meet the bigger guests using the VT system. I do buy into the argument that certain guests would not attend without the use of Diamond Passes but some guests are made Diamond when they clearly do not need to be. Also too many guests are overloaded with photoshoots to the point that time at the autograph table seems like an afterthought. It is getting too hard to get autographs IMO.

And what about the great many 'normal' punters who go to these shows, traveling far and wide, with no idea how these events work? There is a part of me that shakes my head smugly because I know how they work, but there is part of me that feels sorry for these convention-noobs who will be gutted they missed out meeting an idol, simply through inexperience.

I think if I have a ticket, no longer intend to use it, why not maybe give it to someone and make their day? I know I would be grateful if the shoe were on the other foot.

My friend got in mega early on Saturday, he'd already bought a Diamond pass for Natalie Dormer and, unbeknownst to me, picked me up a VT so I could see her. I met my  friend late in the afternoon, and he surprised me with this ticket (VT number 8!) so I could basically just walk up. So I go to her auto table at 4pm, and I'm told she won't be back until 5:20. I only want to meet her to get an auto for a friend of my wife's, and given I was near enough done for the day, I couldn't  hang around when I needed to start the trip home (and my friend who gave me the VT could get me the auto I need on Sunday when he goes through with his Diamond anyway).

So I'm standing at her queue, the VT sign up to, 250 or whatever it was, and a man and his son were reeling from the news they will probably not get to meet her as their VT was 500+. So I gave them VT8 and they went from devastated to elated in the blink of an eye. He couldn't stop shaking my hand and couldn't thank me enough, said it was the best thing that had happened to him all day.

So why not pay a bit of karma forward and help someone out if you can? Lighten up.

 

[RomeroSavini]

Stingy isn't part of it at all :-)

I have been in lines where "friends" of others in front push in, not one or two but literally tonnes. I then have lost out on things because of that.

I have been in lines where "friends" come and hand out a lower VQ ticket they just used themselves to friends.

The people who waited in lines for countless hours then may never get a signature etc... how is that fair?

Yes it would be nice to pass things on, but I have lost out because of these things, if it happens to you then you may not feel the same. 

I wait for countless hours (even days for something), I put that effort into things, I do not have time to waste, but it is the only civil way. Then for someone to pass on a ticket/line jump etc... and cost me my entire day. Personally I think that is pretty awful.

I have seen people fight over these things, violently. Jumping lines does that to others.

It has nothing to do with lightening up :-) it is lining up and having manners. Line jumping is a horrific thing to see when it can cost others dearly.

It has cost me many times. I will end on that :-)

[andyfilm_1]

Some good points here and this is why I just don't do autos anymore at LFCC. Photoshoots just seem to be the only guaranteed way of meeting your favourite guests without a diamond pass!

 

Edited August 2, 2017 by andyfilm_1

[Swissangel4616]

19 hours ago, englishjim said:

In Terence Stamp's queue the woman never even looked at them my ticket was 178 the guy in front of me was 546 and an hour before someone with 621 got seen all this when the sign post said 1-100. Something it said all day.

lol... it wasn't only at Terence Stamp. There were others too.

[scifisteve]

Seems like a couple of you are getting confused here, One lot are talking about people passing VQ that they used but have not had collected from them to "Friends" so they can Jump the line, Which is wrong and hopefully l not be an issue next time, as I am sure it going to be brought up by QS, and others are talking about giving their low numbered Unused VQ ticket to some else when they decide they are not going to meet or haven't got time to meet the guest, and more power to them. I had two instances over the weekend one for an autograph and the other for a Photo Shoot where the person I was behind let me go in front because they knew I had to be somewhere else, Luckily for me this weekend I only experienced Kindness from other Attendees and managed to avoid the "Animal Element" 

[natedammit]

10 hours ago, Dent_1 said:

So why not pay a bit of karma forward and help someone out if you can? Lighten up.

I see your spiritual concept of karma and counter with a scientific one: Newton's Third Law.

[Iloveyouiknow]

Regarding virtual tickets. I know there is nothing which can be done but I did witness dealers purchasing low number virtual tickets from people who had a stack of tickets. 

[Raylenth]

7 minutes ago, Iloveyouiknow said:

Regarding virtual tickets. I know there is nothing which can be done but I did witness dealers purchasing low number virtual tickets from people who had a stack of tickets. 

If you mean from the crew that needs to be reported.  If you mean from the attendees there probably isn't much that can be done unfortunately.

[RomeroSavini]

And sadly things like this going on is why I lost out meeting a few guests this year. I may have been there early, but not early enough to beat VQ tickets being passed between people once used.

[Iloveyouiknow]

5 hours ago, Raylenth said:

If you mean from the crew that needs to be reported.  If you mean from the attendees there probably isn't much that can be done unfortunately.

Raylenth No it was just a member of the public. 

[Dent_1]

13 hours ago, natedammit said:

I see your spiritual concept of karma and counter with a scientific one: Newton's Third Law.

So what is the equal and opposite reaction to my action?

I could have met her, but wasn't desperate and had to go vs. someone who desperately wanted to meet her, got to.

If I had met her, I would have been taking time, and one less chance from away from someone else. I fail to see how giving tickets (that have not been used) to others is such a bad thing.

I'm not spiritual, I just think it is nice to surprise people sometimes with no expectation of anything in return.

[CrazyHorses]

On 01/08/2017 at 11:34 AM, loveamyadams said:

In the future at showmasters events in the interest of fairness to other customers the desk helpers with guests or those taking cash payments before you reach the desks should take VT tickets from customers to prevent them being used again and again. I did notice throughout the 3 days VT tickets weren't being taken and as usual some of them got reused several times. Nobody took mine at any time, staff looked at them when i joined the back of the queue but never took them. My friend who had a very high number for David Bradley was given a low number by his mate which allowed him to jump into the queue when he only turned up at lunchtime. Another had a number of over 200 for Mark Williams but got handed one from another friend who had gone through in the first few minutes for something in the very low teens. which obviously meant he walked up into the autograph queue ahead of dozens of others who had got to his VT queue much later than him. Not really fair as some people missed out on getting things signed. Its no wonder some of the boards showing numbers being called hardly ever seem to change. I know of one group of people who used the same ticket 4 times throughout the day for Wil Wheaton !!! I know the staff have lots to do but it takes a second to just take the ticket when you go though. stops the reusing of the same ticket.

i once gave away a John Hurt VQ, because I ran out of money, but by your rational " I re-used my VQ" when I never got an auto from John 

[Queen_Sindel]

Okay, closing here as this is becoming a "how to get around the rules easily" Topic. I have pointed this out to the Office and I am sure they are looking at it.