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LFCC 2018: Highs and Lows


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6 minutes ago, Queen_Sindel said:

I think the general line is it may be done for the busy shoots. Emphasis 'may.' 

I've put it on my list. Looks like it's time to tighten the wording a bit.

Yeah it must remain manageable ofcource... 

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Highs:

Thought the queue system was excellent and never waited longer than half an hour for any guest (Albeit I never saw many of the bigger guests). The general entry line flowed seamlessly and we were inside within half hour of arriving.

A few movie props/vehicles to look at this year which was nice. 

Sarah Douglas, Jack Halloran , Paul Kaye and The Nasty Boys - Came away buzzing after meeting them, what lovely people.

 

Lows: I know its not Showmasters fault , but there is nothing more disappointing than a guest not meeting up to your expectations. Peter Weller! He was the main reason for me coming to the con this year as I've idolized him for 30 years. Talk about coming away upset. Nearly put a downer on my whole day. He couldn't even find the effort to look me in the eye for 20 seconds, let alone speak to me. He was only interested in charging me an extra fiver for a quote on my chosen print. He was clearly there for the business side of things and not to meet his adoring fans. So upsetting when this happens.

 

Anyway - Roll on March so I can meet Robert Englund. Heard only good things about him!

Edited by frazamataz1978
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28 minutes ago, Kurdamoni said:

They did it last year for John Cleese too and for Famke Janssen en Jeremy Renner the year before! 

From my experience, it does seem to be an exception, rather than the rule. I"ve had around 15 DPs so far, and it"s not happened to me once.

Oddly enough though, I did have Jeremy Renner's DP, and still didn't experience this. However, I did arrive super early for his AM photo (basically as soon as it opened). At that point, Diamonds were just queueing up as they arrived. Must have been something they did when it got a little busier.

I don't really mind either way though! As long as I get my photo :P

Edited by tenaciouspirit
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Just now, tenaciouspirit said:

From my experience, it does seem to be an exception rather than the rule (something that i'm perfectly fine with). I"ve had around 15 DPs so far, and it"s not happened to me once. Oddly enough though, I did have Jeremy Renner's DP. But then I did arrive super early for his photo first thing. At that point, Diamonds were just queueing up as they arrived. Must have been something they did when it got a little busier.

I think for the busiest diamond pass guests calling up photoshoots in diamond number order batches of 50 would help crowd control a lot. For autographs I think it should absolutely be the rule rather than the exception. Everyone seemed to be taking a different approach to the diamond queues. For Tennant and Duchovny there were just letting any diamond join when ever they wanted. Which as they were both in separate boxes with a clear queuing area (Duchovny on the Saturday anyway) was fine. However for Tom Baker and Matt Smith they were doing the same thing in an area which doesn't allow much space. Which meant I queued for ever to see them while people with much higher diamond passes were in front of me. I think there needs to be a consistent approach.

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20 minutes ago, Persephone1 said:

I think for the busiest diamond pass guests calling up photoshoots in diamond number order batches of 50 would help crowd control a lot. For autographs I think it should absolutely be the rule rather than the exception. Everyone seemed to be taking a different approach to the diamond queues. For Tennant and Duchovny there were just letting any diamond join when ever they wanted. Which as they were both in separate boxes with a clear queuing area (Duchovny on the Saturday anyway) was fine. However for Tom Baker and Matt Smith they were doing the same thing in an area which doesn't allow much space. Which meant I queued for ever to see them while people with much higher diamond passes were in front of me. I think there needs to be a consistent approach.

I mostly agree with this. For the photo, I personally don't mind waiting behind higher numbers, but if that"s the way LFCC decided to go, I can"t think of too many problems (other than just the extra time this would take to organise everyone). 

They did the autos thing for Chris' queue, and Matt's AM auto queue this year, and it worked out really well (not just beause I had early DPs I promise :P), it just made things a lot smoother.

I guess it's a bit trickier to pull off fairly for autos though, as people can arrive at any time, and often over multiple days. Maybe i'm just nitpicking, but if they start calling autos by number, you want to leave enough time to give all those numbers a chance to queue. Otherwise, when they arrive later, they'll probably complain about having to queue behind so many higher number people.

For example, if they started a Meat Loaf call of 1-50 on Saturday, then it might not get much attention, as most DPs may have got him on friday. In this case, how long do they then wait before moving on to 1-100? If they don't wait long enough, sods law means you'll have Mr diamond pass 001 who arrives 2 minutes later, complaining that he is now behind 100 people in the queue, instead of near the front. I know this also happens if all diamonds are called up at once. But at least in that case, you're not assigning any importance to the number, so there's not as much reason to feel hard done by. Does that make sense? I'm a bit rambley

Not saying it's not possible to do, but it can be hard to get right, at least compared to a photo. 

Edited by tenaciouspirit
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1 hour ago, frazamataz1978 said:

Highs:

Thought the queue system was excellent and never waited longer than half an hour for any guest (Albeit I never saw many of the bigger guests). The general entry line flowed seamlessly and we were inside within half hour of arriving.

A few movie props/vehicles to look at this year which was nice. 

Sarah Douglas, Jack Halloran , Paul Kaye and The Nasty Boys - Came away buzzing after meeting them, what lovely people.

 

Lows: I know its not Showmasters fault , but there is nothing more disappointing than a guest not meeting up to your expectations. Peter Weller! He was the main reason for me coming to the con this year as I've idolized him for 30 years. Talk about coming away upset. Nearly put a downer on my whole day. He couldn't even find the effort to look me in the eye for 20 seconds, let alone speak to me. He was only interested in charging me an extra fiver for a quote on my chosen print. He was clearly there for the business side of things and not to meet his adoring fans. So upsetting when this happens.

 

Anyway - Roll on March so I can meet Robert Englund. Heard only good things about him!

Obviously different guests can be on a spectrum of really engaging, friendly and chatty to some of the more negative experiences that fans have posted about in the past. It is really upsetting. Good manners and politeness are free. It's a shame that weren't used in this meeting. I feel bad for you. :)

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Highs. 

Aly Michalka. I am so incredibly happy she was at LFCC this past weekend because I've been waiting for so long to meet her and it was an amazing experience and my photo turned out great. So thank you Showmasters for inviting her! Also loved meeting Nathalie Emmanuel and Zachary Levi, they were so kind and just amazing in general.


Lows. 

I wish there were more Marvel guests and the queue on Saturday to get in was awful in my opinion. 

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Highs

Showmasters - you guys put on a hell of a weekend and deserve all of the plaudits you get

Guests - Another high quality lineup, let's keep it going

Seating area - great idea and much used by all

 

Lows

Gold Pass -  This used to be a great offer, but in the past few years the benefits have steadily declined meaning that we are paying £200 for a glorified queue jumper pass that has no benefit when there a large number of Diamond passes. This offer needs to be looked at again and either have proper early entry (5 min is a joke, by the time you get the crowd in, the main doors are open and are much closer to signing tables), re-instate the Gold Room (there are plenty empty rooms available in the building), give us a proper goody bag (you didn't even have one this year), think up some new exclusive benefits or seriously reduce the price.

Food/Drink - I know this has nothing to do with Showmasters but food and drink prices in the venue were extortionate

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32 minutes ago, sarzy2 said:

Obviously different guests can be on a spectrum of really engaging, friendly and chatty to some of the more negative experiences that fans have posted about in the past. It is really upsetting. Good manners and politeness are free. It's a shame that weren't used in this meeting. I feel bad for you. :)

Agreed. I was just so deflated when I walked away. Oh well, my first bad experience with a guest. The good experiences however always out-weighs the bad!

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2 hours ago, DoctorWhoFan1963 said:

I've wanted to send Peter something for a while now, may I ask where you are able to find an address from the agent, or something along those lines?

I just googled his fan mail address, it seems reliable and I think people are still getting successes out of it.

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Highs:

Ellie Kendrick and Isaac Hempstead-Wright taking the time to ask me where I'm from. They seemed so generally interested! They were so generally interested to find out more about who they were talking to! Really polite! :smile:

Regrets: 

There wasn't a low for me, just a couple of regrets. I wish I had said more to Isaac, but I was just so nervous. I also wish I had bought a photograph session with Isaac! Well, I'm sure there will always be next time...  

Edited by ChloeLou
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5 hours ago, manels1976 said:

Lows

Gold Pass -  This used to be a great offer, but in the past few years the benefits have steadily declined meaning that we are paying £200 for a glorified queue jumper pass that has no benefit when there a large number of Diamond passes. This offer needs to be looked at again and either have proper early entry (5 min is a joke, by the time you get the crowd in, the main doors are open and are much closer to signing tables), re-instate the Gold Room (there are plenty empty rooms available in the building), give us a proper goody bag (you didn't even have one this year), think up some new exclusive benefits or seriously reduce the price.

Food/Drink - I know this has nothing to do with Showmasters but food and drink prices in the venue were extortionate

Yeah, I agree with this. I didn't buy a gold pass this year for exactly this reason. I can honestly say that I barely noticed a difference. 

Most of my photos were batch 1 or 2, so little difference there. 

The autograph queuing was riotous at best, so it wouldn't have made any difference there. 

The only benefit would be getting in a few seconds before the main queue. This needs to be extended to 20 mins minimum, but even then, this was to give us an advantage for virtual queues tickets which were largely useless this year anyway. 

I won't be buying a gold pass again unless the price comes down or the benefits improve substantially. 

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Well this was a convention of highs and some lows for Me but the highs are far better.

1. The experience. Like last year I was happy with my photos and my experiences I got from getting autographs. I had a few diamond passes so that was handy in a sebse

2. The buzz - the place erupted when Tennant  was announced. I was in Ray Parks photo queue trying to get a ticket! 

3. The layout. Keeping it the same as years previous made it easier to know where photo shoots where.

4. The people - talking to people in queues was great and helped pass the time

5. Diamond pass pickups - quick as anything and just wished for a better lanyard. Who had trouble doing theirs? I helped a few out!

 

lows

1. Lateness - ray park was over 30 mins late for his shoot on Friday, I had to get mine on Saturday as I had to run for tom baker to get his photo. He seemed to want to hang around which is great but when you get stressed you just want things done! This was also something that happened with Aly’s shoot on Sunday. I missed it as I was waiting for Matt smith to come back as I had a diamond pass for him and lucky was seen to when he came back. I got my signature but couldn’t purchase extra because of the lateness and someone in front of me wasn’t happy!

2. Shoots delayed - I had planned to get James Caan on the Sunday morning but had it moved to the afternoon. He didn’t seem to do a single morning shoot.

3. Clashes - who planned the doctors clashing with each other? Big fandoms like that should have a bit of time between each other.

4. Lack of queue organisation - the queue for tennants tardis shoot was abysmal. There was no communication and people where flustered and had no idea what was going on. Again with James Caan it was moved to the same time and I near missed it. 

5. Queuing - to get in and the amount of snaking we needed to do was horrible. I feel last years queuing was far better than this years. 

I met all the doctors i could in one weekend and thank Showmasters for doing this. It was a fun weekend and nothing is perfect but have a look at what the attendees said and see how you can improve on something we all love and look forward to attending again!

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High points: The punters who came to my stall with a smile and chatted, even if they didn't want to purchase anything. It's long days standing behind a table so nice to see happy people all being sociable and talking about the love of their various shows.

Getting exhibitors through photoshoots fast so we can get back to our tables. I have Jason Mamoa, Duchovny and Tennant and only really queued for Tennant because his previous shoot overran slightly. Otherwise, I was in and out and back to my stool. This is nice. 

Mamoa and Tennant: even though we were told not to ask for poses with Tennant, or shake his hand, or talk to him by the woman running the line - he extended his hand for a handshake, he spoke and I watched him do some poses for people. He was a gent and Mamoa was happy enough to hug me - a request I made to annoy my wife when she saw the picture. 

Low Points: Duchovny seemed to be in a foul mood and just didn't want to be there. An unpleasant man. Can barely be bothered with a "hello" in a two second photoshoot. Hello costs nothing. 

Edited by Queen_Sindel
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High points :

- Great week-end ! THX Showmasters !!!

- I met Sam Neill, Jason Momoa, Lance Henriksen, Iwan Rheon, David Duchovny Aidan Turner, David Bradley (as the big guest).

- The queue on the entrance, going fast (first time I don't take a goldpass)

- Diamond Pass pick up is fast (on friday)

- Basically, this is a show who rules :-)

- I hope to come next year !!!

 

Low  points (and suggestions) :

- Friday (toooooooo HOT, especially in the hall of the guests)

- Not SM fault, but "district line" doesn't work on Friday to Olympia, the week end of the comic con ??!! (same past years)

- Saturday was over-crowded

- VQ tickets : it's a great system... but I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY (??!!) VQ tickets are not ready 10 minutes before the openings (!!??), that's a joke !!! Why we are queuing so early in the morning ? It's because we want low VQ tickets !!!

I have examples :

Daniel Naprous : NO VQ tickets !!! (I queue more than 30min)

William Hope : NO VQ tickets (at the opening, and he was not at his desk), so I walk to other guests. Then, 1 hour later, ... "Oh wait... William Hope will be busy, this is the moment we give VQ tickets", By hazard and I was lucky, I saw it (just at the beginning of the distribution, I was n° 50) ==> That's a joke for people who are queuing early in the morning.

- Guests who are coming late (many clashes happens because of that)

- On sunday, Blue shirt make a hole in my diamond pass (of Aidan Turner) in the line (to earn time ?), Ok... but Aidan is not there yet... so now I'm prisonner in the queue ! (if i leave, to come back at the PM shoot, what is the proof than I don't have already do my photoshoot ??!!).

- People who don't understand the rules for the photoshoot : "Diamond / GOLD / BATCH / tickets sold on the day". I saw a woman (who buy his ticket on the day) asking, and asking, and asking... to the redshirt "When it's my turn ? I've been here for 20min" ... Redshirt was so calm, congrats to him :-)

 

Suggestions for autographs :

- Diamond pass are great (when it's a first time LFCC), But if the guest come back (for example Benedict Cumberbach), I don't need the photo anymore, but I would like the autograph on my "Avengers infinity war poster" (who doesn't exist first time he comes).

So, I know you don't like the idea, but "Pre-sale Autograph pass" will be great for bigger guests.

"We don't know how many autos a guest can sign" ==> Yes you know, because you know how many diamond pass you can sell. So you're we be able to organise the day with autograph slot (like you did with Benedict Cumberbach).

"SM crew missunderstanding all the sort of passes" : Come one, put a redshirt on the BIG guests.

 

- Second point, and you will not like the idea too :

Diamond pass make that all activities of "Non-Diamond pass holders" are put in the afternoon, because Diamond have the priority (at autos and photos), that's a provoke many clashes in the afternoon.

Big guest have two photoshoots per day, yes, but for non-diamond pass holder, it's quite the same ==> it's always in the PM.

An basic attendee (Non-Diamond holders), who comes on saturday, will probably wants 3 big guests (Autos and photos).

3, it's not so much, but how can he do ? Even if he have LOW VQ tickets, VQ tickets will be call in the afternoon, but he will be call at all his 3 photoshoots too at the same time.

Maybe, you have to "re-think" the day, and put "Pre-sale Autgraphs SLOT" on the morning (Not Diamond-holder), to dispatch people better across the day.

 

==> Diamond pass : OK for the guarantee (of autos and photos),    but maybe "re-think" the priority, and organize slot (like you did for Benedict Cumberbach).

 

 

Seems a lot of "LOW", but SM have a great organisation. It's just suggestions to make the event better and less stress for attendee.

 

 

 

 

 

So.... Last point, you make a world record with 8 Dr Who... next year, I want a world record with 8 Avengers ! :P

 

 

THX SM AGAIN !!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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22 minutes ago, natedammit said:

So why would they sell less DPs in order to offer something half as expensive?

Diamond pass is :

the price of auto + photo + prime for guarantee

 

for an autograph presale :

the price of the auto + prime for guarantee

 

 

with this system, SM know better how many people want an auto for a big guest, and they can dispatch people better across the day + no rush in the morning to get VQ tickets

Edited by john.bttf
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5 minutes ago, john.bttf said:

Diamond pass is :

the price of auto + photo + prime for guarantee

 

for an autograph presale :

the price of the auto + prime for guarantee

 

 

with this system, SM know better how many people want an auto for a big guest, and they can dispatch people better across the day + no rush in the morning to get VQ tickets

If you do this, then it would only make sense that they would have to make a pass for the people who only want a photo too. The more different passes they make, the more complicated things become for SM both in the office and at the show. As it is some of the volunteers struggle to remember what passes allow what benefits and adding multiple types of passes for each guest would only make things harder. I can’t see SM doing this.

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1 hour ago, john.bttf said:

We don't know how many autos a guest can sign" ==> Yes you know, because you know how many diamond pass you can sell. So you're we be able to organise the day with autograph slot (like you did with Benedict Cumberbach).

They actually don’t know this. It must be one of the hardest thing to plan. They can have a fair idea if a guest has been invited before but if it is a first time guest then it is very near impossible. So many variables. How quick will they sign, are they a talker, how many people will want 1 signature how many will want the 5 signatures. This means that an interaction with 1 visitor could be anything from 10-15 seconds for those that want 1 signature and a quick handshake up to 3-5 minutes for those wanting a chat and 5 signatures. So impossible to say well he has x number of hours to sign so that’s x number of passes we can sell.

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12 hours ago, slim said:

High points: The punters who came to my stall with a smile and chatted, even if they didn't want to purchase anything. It's long days standing behind a table so nice to see happy people all being sociable and talking about the love of their various shows.

Getting exhibitors through photoshoots fast so we can get back to our tables. I have Jason Mamoa, Duchovny and Tennant and only really queued for Tennant because his previous shoot overran slightly. Otherwise, I was in and out and back to my stool. This is nice. 

Mamoa and Tennant: even though we were told not to ask for poses with Tennant, or shake his hand, or talk to him by the woman running the line - he extended his hand for a handshake, he spoke and I watched him do some poses for people. He was a gent and Mamoa was happy enough to hug me - a request I made to annoy my wife when she saw the picture. 

Low Points: Duchovny seemed to be in a foul mood and just didn't want to be there. An unpleasant man. Can barely be bothered with a "hello" in a two second photoshoot. Hello costs nothing. 

I wasn't aware of any instructions for David but they may have added them.  I asked for and got a hug no problems.

 

56 minutes ago, john.bttf said:

Diamond pass is :

the price of auto + photo + prime for guarantee

 

for an autograph presale :

the price of the auto + prime for guarantee

 

 

with this system, SM know better how many people want an auto for a big guest, and they can dispatch people better across the day + no rush in the morning to get VQ tickets

And making it impossible for anyone to get on the day at all, or change their mind and buy more if they want to.  As it currently stands either with a diamond or VQ I can decide up to the day how many auto's I want to get because I'm paying in the queue, with your system especially for the big guests you either buy early and are stuck if you decide you don't want as many as you bought or can't decide to get more because it's sold out.  It's not going to happen for very good reason I'm afraid.

 

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1 hour ago, Wrong Name said:

If you do this, then it would only make sense that they would have to make a pass for the people who only want a photo too. The more different passes they make, the more complicated things become for SM both in the office and at the show. As it is some of the volunteers struggle to remember what passes allow what benefits and adding multiple types of passes for each guest would only make things harder. I can’t see SM doing this.

For the photoshoot, it's already the case, your photo is guaranteed with a photoshoot ticket.

 

 

for the Autograph pass, i say it's a way to improve the dispatch of the people.

If SM sold 200 Pre-sale autograph ticket for saturday, SM know they have to put a slot for minimum 300 (to be sure fir the garantee)

if all the autograph pre-sale pass are done, they open the queue for VQ tickets holder.

 

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4 minutes ago, john.bttf said:

For the photoshoot, it's already the case, your photo is guaranteed with a photoshoot ticket.

 

 

for the Autograph pass, i say it's a way to improve the dispatch of the people.

If SM sold 200 Pre-sale autograph ticket for saturday, SM know they have to put a slot for minimum 300 (to be sure fir the garantee)

if all the autograph pre-sale pass are done, they open the queue for VQ tickets holder.

 

It doesn't work John, with photo shoots they know how long it takes to take each photo, you have no such way of measuring autos' - the guests sign at different speeds, people chat, too many factors to account for.  Yes they sell the diamonds so they do have some idea of how many people they can get through but it's impossible to be more accurate.  Also some guests don't make it beyond diamonds anyway.  Even for the non diamond guest, Pater Weller for example, he barely got beyond 100 people.  It's adding another layer of complication.

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23 minutes ago, Raylenth said:

It doesn't work John, with photo shoots they know how long it takes to take each photo, you have no such way of measuring autos' - the guests sign at different speeds, people chat, too many factors to account for.  Yes they sell the diamonds so they do have some idea of how many people they can get through but it's impossible to be more accurate.  Also some guests don't make it beyond diamonds anyway.  Even for the non diamond guest, Pater Weller for example, he barely got beyond 100 people.  It's adding another layer of complication.

It worked perfectly in 2017 with cumberbach.

there was a slot for signing, he does all the diamond pass, then SM opened the queue for VQ.

How ? Because it was a diamond pass per day.

So SM knew, +-, the time for the slot, and when the guarantee pass have finish, they open the queue.

 

I don't say we have to do that for all the guest. For the biggest.

they built boxes to organise the queue. Make it even better.

 

A pre-sale autograph is an autograph sold (+prime for guarantee).

there will be always a guy who come at the day at 1pm (without diamond or VQ) and be pissed because he ´ll wont be able to meet his guest... sorry but i really don't care about him.

people who hang around ont the forum fir a year, who booked early the passes and get early to get VQ must have the priority attention of SM.

and better dispatch of people during the day is the lowest point for me at this moment.

 

 

 

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21 minutes ago, john.bttf said:

there was a slot for signing, he does all the diamond pass, then SM opened the queue for VQ.

This suggests that every diamond pass holder goes straight for the autograph first thing day one and they all queue up together. Personally I bought the diamond pass for each guest (even the one day ones) to guarantee my autograph whatever time of day I wanted to go up (within reason). That’s the flaw. You cannot guarantee when the diamond pass holders will go up. If for whatever reason (probably other activities scheduled against it) they wanted to go get a signature later in the day they are entitled to do so, meaning the slot earlier is pointless and the slot you have now created after opening for these auto only passes also has 50 diamond pass holders who have now turned up. See how complicated it becomes very quickly?

Edited by Ravogd
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34 minutes ago, john.bttf said:

It worked perfectly in 2017 with cumberbach.

there was a slot for signing, he does all the diamond pass, then SM opened the queue for VQ.

How ? Because it was a diamond pass per day.

So SM knew, +-, the time for the slot, and when the guarantee pass have finish, they open the queue.

 

I don't say we have to do that for all the guest. For the biggest.

they built boxes to organise the queue. Make it even better.

 

A pre-sale autograph is an autograph sold (+prime for guarantee).

there will be always a guy who come at the day at 1pm (without diamond or VQ) and be pissed because he ´ll wont be able to meet his guest... sorry but i really don't care about him.

people who hang around ont the forum fir a year, who booked early the passes and get early to get VQ must have the priority attention of SM.

and better dispatch of people during the day is the lowest point for me at this moment.

 

 

 

You have made your suggestion, they have said repeatedly they won't pre sell auto's.

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