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Troubles at London Film and Comic Con- an open letter:


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Well That was an abomination.

 

I attended the London film and comic con at Earls court on Saturday ... Well no , that's not strictly true. I tried to. What I actually did was queue around the entirety of the perimeter of earls court in the baking 26 degrees direct sunshine for 4 hours with NOTHING but sunburn and sunstroke to show for it.

 

I imagine that you think that I'm just another complainer, and yet I have NEVER written a complaint email in my life, and as I sit here nursing my pasty British skin now with added 3rd degree burns, I fear having a British stiff upper lip about this would do me no good.

 

I'm also an events coordinator you see, for a large international events company so far from just whining let me tell you what a monumental mess up this was:

 

Now who stops selling tickets weeks before an event....when you still have tickets?!?! Whose stupid idea was that? Tickets cost £15 for early bird right? And £8 on the day... And you had enough left that you were declaring on your website that there was still "plenty" left that you could get them at the door. Are you kidding me? Not only did you turn down additional revenue by taking those tickets down early which makes no business sense at all, but you clearly didn't have enough tickets to ever say "plenty".

 

Now I concede that we would have been fine had we purchased early bird tickets in advance. Probably. I do. However, when you stop selling them online weeks before hand yet still actively advertise the event (for example at the comic con in Wales a short time previously!) that makes it very difficult to do!

 

You had a great line up. But that means nothing if the attendee experience is that appalling. I don't give a rats backside if Stan lee was there while I waited outside burning and seeing nothing , Thor could have graced us with his hammer swinging presence and I would still have been unswayed. On Stan lee though... If you are going to stop selling early bird tickets so ridiculously far before the event , perhaps don't continue to sell tickets for the internal events online. I met a lad in the war weary queue that had paid for a ticket to Stan lee that I can only assume you had no intention of honouring, because he was standing in the queue with us... Waiting to get inside, without a front door ticket!

 

I was advised by the ONE singular visible member of your venue staff that the queue time was 30 minutes. 4 hours later I gave up waiting for that 30 minutes to pass. Had they been briefed? Did they have any idea what was going on?

 

My guess is no. Especially as I at one point (and in a desperate search of a venue staff member) walked straight through the recently doors unimpeded, as so many other people seemed to be doing.

 

I could have walked straight in and carried on in.... But I didn't- for the sake of the queue camaraderie I did what I came to do - I sought out a staff member , and asked them what in the seven kingdoms was going on.

 

No tickets. No more tickets she told me. For any days. So what the hell was there a queue still circling the entirety of earls court for?! What had I waited four full, hot , painful hours for? Nothing. Why not a single member of staff was telling anyone in the queue this is utterly beyond me.

 

Not that I needed a ticket apparently. And if I had needed one by the way, the guys behind me in the queue for a time should just have got their friend inside to queue jump the patiently waiting attendees and get some extras as he did for them. (How was that allowed to happen?!)

 

However for the sake of your precious bottom line I should let you know - I left at this point. Not just the lobby, the venue. The event. With nothing to show for the hours of driving , the extortionate parking fees and the hours of my life that I will never get back...

 

... And the skin that i will be peeling from my extensive sunburn for days to come.

 

But for fun lets say I wouldn't be let in without a ticket, as most well functioning profitable events....how about implementing a ticket system that actually works? Apparently when challenged on why early bird tickets couldn't be sold nearer to the event it was due to the fear that people would not be receiving them in the post?!?

 

Heavens no!

 

Whilst I appreciate that Royal Mail is at best shoddy and at worst a chocolate teapot- what i cannot understand is why in this day and age you felt it necessary to post tickets at all! Have you not heard of e-tickets? It would certainly have saved the ONE ticket booth operator from his torment; running the gauntlet against thousands of angry people. Just a tip to save you some money in future as you turned away thousands pre event and even more at the door.

 

People wanted to attend you event- they really did! That's good! They couldn't though, and that's bad, maybe in future now they won't!- and that's worse.

 

And whilst we're on infrastructure- what about a functioning queuing system?! Not only did your staff fail to monitor queue jumping, and the enormous discontent brewing in the queue for the lack of information, signage, wait time indication and the rest... But you honestly expected thousands of hot, angry people who had been promised plenty of tickets were available and had been there since 07:00 in the morning queuing to obediently move around cones with no manner of barriers at all?! I watched at least 30 people cut in much further ahead than me. At least. Self policing doesn't work when everyone feels like being a jerk.

 

There was 3 sandwich board signs on the epic queue route telling me how I could buy a program for £5.00 , entirely redundant information for me and everyone else considering that we were never going to get in. How about some relevant queue time information? We were stood there dreaming of air con and shade not the programme telling us all we had missed!

 

On that....I also heard that the air con was broken inside... Brilliant.

 

Which is also why- by the way- you had a serious fire hazard at every door to the venue as people broke from the queue to crowd the doors - all of them. Shockingly the little A4 hand-drawn signs saying "re entry only" "exit only" "tickets" didn't mean a great deal to any of us. Especially when not one venue staff member was watching them at all.

 

Then there was the people selling tepid drinks to people in the queue for extortionate sums while people wilted- too afraid to leave the queue despite the sage advice from one of your staff when we went to see what was going on :"I'm sure someone will hold your place in the queue while you go buy a drink" - so naive.....

 

The whole thing was a shambles.

 

I've worked on congresses that are in the thousands and never seen a sight as sorry as this event.

 

I'm not trying to run anyone down, but I had to tell you what I experienced because I'm upset and worse...I'm truly disappointed. All of this could have been quite easily avoided.

 

And now I've said my piece I'm going to go and lie down and sleep off the sunstroke and put this sorry day behind me. If someone could be so kind as to get back to me and let me know why I should invest my time and money in this event at all next year I would be much obliged.

 

Or you could ignore it as I suspect will happen...and I will look for answers on Facebook and Twitter instead.

 

Many thanks,

 

A queue schmuck (Claire)

 

P.s : on the plus side I did make a lot of other equally angry friends...

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I'd certainly agree with eticketing. I've done some events myself and used a few vendors. The best one I've found is Eventbrite. Perhaps it's worth a look.

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Showmasters do say online when the shop will be closed so you are told when ticket sales finish. Don't think you can blame showmasters for a broken air con that is the venues fault and people selling drinks outside for high price that is the normal for any event in this country.

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Showmasters do say online when the shop will be closed so you are told when ticket sales finish. Don't think you can blame showmasters for a broken air con that is the venues fault and people selling drinks outside for high price that is the normal for any event in this country.

But I can blame them. They are the events organisers and I know what that means. It means you are responsible for the running of the event and the attendee experience. If they had been visible and monitoring the queue the touts wouldn't have been able to do that. If they had recced the venue appropriately they would have had a back up plan. Like. I said- I do their job.

 

Additionally I'm criticising their whole ticketing system which is outdated and clearly doesn't work. People don't know months in advance if they will be free that weekend in this day and age - weirdly people work Saturdays a lot now.

Edited by Xchasingtailsx
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The event is announced about a year in advance so plenty of time to see if you can make it and the shop closes about 2 weeks before the event. Plenty of time to know if you can make it. What ticket touts? Thats the first I've heard of that.

Edited by jediwarrior
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The ones walking down and trying to sell us their tickets - because that was happening too! Which they would also know... If they had had any presence in the queue.

 

For the record I checked before 2 weeks before and they wouldn't allow me to buy any. But I guess none of these problems matter to you as you were able to book them a long time in advance and would rather just cut down people who weren't as fortunate as you... Hmm.

 

I also never put all the blame at showmasters themselves and frequently mention the venue. However as the event organisers they are who complaints get channeled through so they can make the venue aware- that's how the system works.

Edited by Xchasingtailsx
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The event is announced about a year in advance so plenty of time to see if you can make it and the shop closes about 2 weeks before the event. Plenty of time to know if you can make it. What ticket touts? Thats the first I've heard of that.

 

 

I agree with this, While i do like the idea of E-Tickets i also like regular tickets as well, can be a memento of the occasion. While the organizer is responsible for a lot, they cant be held responsible for overpriced drinks outside, or a air-conditioner that stops working. As said in the Quote there was plenty of time to get tickets and i bet if they closed the store even closer more people would complain for not having received tickets.

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Unfortunately I also have to join the many people complaining. I had a silver pass and this is what the description said when I bought it:

 

"Silver Passes will give you the following:

Exclusive limited Comic Silver Pass
1) Entry for all 3 days of the London Film and Comic Con (6pm Friday, 9am Saturday and Sunday)
2) Access to, and seating behind the gold passes at, an evening event with major comic creators including Stan Lee (Saturday night, time and location to be confirmed. Guests appear subject to work commitments.)
3) A goody bag with some exclusive items.
4) Immediate access to the queues for all comic and media guests. No VQ ticket required. "

 

On Friday I arrived at 5pm, there were already many people waiting, so I had no chance to get close to the signs to check where is the queue I need, so I asked the staff outside, showing them my confirmation letter for the silver pass. They directed me to a queue which for me seemed to be way too long, but I asked another staff and the person standing in front of me in the queue, and they both said that's where I should be. Great. When we got to the door, the staff told me, no that was the queue for the online bought tickets, not for gold or silver passes, so they sent me to the queue to the ticket office, where people buying tickets on the day were already standing. I still waited patiently, when I got there, they checked my confirmation letter, and they told me to go inside with that, and queue at the sales desk. So to get my silver pass I paid a fair amount of money I had to queue 3 times, and my friend buying his ticket there was in before me.

 

On Saturday I went there early again, around 8pm, once again asked the staff where should I go if I have a silver pass and want to enter the hall where Stan Lee is signing. They sent me to a queue which ended up being the queue for silver and gold pass holders, but for EC2, and there was no access to the other building from inside. So by the time I could get out and get in to the other building, I got a VQ number 1040. I knew in that moment I had no chance to get my autograph. I just don't understand why did it say I don't need to get a VQ when I clearly had to. For the other guests I wanted to see, the queue was so short, that they didn't even give VQ tickets, or where they did it didn't matter if I got a VQ ticket or joined the end of the queue.

 

Never mind, I thought, I won't get an autograph, but there is still that evening event, so at least I can see Stan Lee. I asked at least four staff members (they were hard to find at this point around 3pm), but they either didn't know anything about that event, or said that only gold pass holders can meet Stan Lee.

 

I won't mention other problems, because others did before me, my only question is then, why did I pay 170 pounds for? Those autographs and photos I got, I could have gotten with a normal or early bird ticket, costing me much less, so I would have had more money to buy other things.

 

Sincerly,

a quite disappointed and confused silver pass holder.

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I felt awful for those who couldn't get in and waited in the incredibly hot weather. Just an idea though, how about getting staff outside to hand out free tap water or something in plastic cups? especially since there will be those who attend alone and can't actually leave the queue without losing their spot. The amount of time people were waiting, even if you took your own you will still have most likely finished it and needed more. Much like a gig.

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A problem is that the whole guest list isn't given all at once. I was swaying whether to come this year (given I have get a flight and accommodation), and it was only towards the end when more guests were announced that I decided it would be worthwhile.

 

As said, tickets need to be sold right up until the day before.

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There was a mum shouting for her kid as she obviously lost her but none of the crew could move away from their posts to help.

 

Also a disabled lady had to stand in the queue and was taken ill. I thought they would let disabled people skip the queue.

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Yeah I suppose, just remember sun cream next time haha

Sadly I had it and used it. But we were never out the sun and i think I just sweat it away!

 

Edit: I also don't think that anyone was anticipating 4 hours queuing time! Not when told 30 minutes. I was going to comic con not camping. Didn't bring a gazebo either and that woulda been helpful too at times ;) had I known the queue was that long I would have brought a guitar for a little queue sing song to pass the time...

Edited by Xchasingtailsx
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I find these SM apologists rather confusing.

 

People were treated shockingly yesterday. Queueing with no organisation and no information, with realistically no chance of getting in, is simply not right. It is no way to run an event.

 

And then, for those who got in, to find it dangerously overcrowded and unventilated, is again simply not right or fair.

 

The fault of all the problems lie clearly at the feet of SM management. They should have paid and trained many, many more staff. They are all too willing to invent countless different hierarchical tickets and wristbands in an effort to take as much money off of us nerds as possible, without ever seemingly thinking about logistics and customer experience.

 

For people on here to say to those with entirely legitimate complaints, that they should have brought a bottle of water with them or put some suncream on, is frankly disrespectful.

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While the organizer is responsible for a lot, they cant be held responsible for overpriced drinks outside, or a air-conditioner that stops working.

 

 

The organiser can anticipate that there would be a huge queue and have staff going round selling drinks at a fair price (they can even make a bit of profit on them and still sell at a fair price) and informing the queue about estimated wait times.

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I find these SM apologists rather confusing.

People were treated shockingly yesterday. Queueing with no organisation and no information, with realistically no chance of getting in, is simply not right. It is no way to run an event.

And then, for those who got in, to find it dangerously overcrowded and unventilated, is again simply not right or fair.

The fault of all the problems lie clearly at the feet of SM management. They should have paid and trained many, many more staff. They are all too willing to invent countless different hierarchical tickets and wristbands in an effort to take as much money off of us nerds as possible, without ever seemingly thinking about logistics and customer experience.

For people on here to say to those with entirely legitimate complaints, that they should have brought a bottle of water with them or put some suncream on, is frankly disrespectful.

Hear hear. If they were in our position at any point in the day I think they feel the same but it's people with the "well I got what I wanted so the rest of you should stop complaining " attitude- that's really raising my eyebrows. Especially as they are picking up on tiny little things I've said and not on the major health and safety implications or genuine issues, which I maintain are predominantly down to bad management and people movement and zero communication.

 

I've been at events where we've had to handle complaints but nothing of this magnitude and I'm not inexperienced, I think it's an insult to everyone when they were actively promoting people without tickets to come down to treat those people as if their complaints are invalid or over dramatised.

 

Someone handle this. Don't tell us it's not you fault- own up. Don't tell us your gonna learn from it , tell us what you are going to implement so that it never happens again and stop fobbing us off. If that's what you want from posts from us as detailed In the rules and regs, have the decency to do it back.

Edited by Xchasingtailsx
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Unfortunately I also have to join the many people complaining. I had a silver pass and this is what the description said when I bought it:

 

"Silver Passes will give you the following:

Exclusive limited Comic Silver Pass1) Entry for all 3 days of the London Film and Comic Con (6pm Friday, 9am Saturday and Sunday)2) Access to, and seating behind the gold passes at, an evening event with major comic creators including Stan Lee (Saturday night, time and location to be confirmed. Guests appear subject to work commitments.)3) A goody bag with some exclusive items.4) Immediate access to the queues for all comic and media guests. No VQ ticket required. "

 

On Friday I arrived at 5pm, there were already many people waiting, so I had no chance to get close to the signs to check where is the queue I need, so I asked the staff outside, showing them my confirmation letter for the silver pass. They directed me to a queue which for me seemed to be way too long, but I asked another staff and the person standing in front of me in the queue, and they both said that's where I should be. Great. When we got to the door, the staff told me, no that was the queue for the online bought tickets, not for gold or silver passes, so they sent me to the queue to the ticket office, where people buying tickets on the day were already standing. I still waited patiently, when I got there, they checked my confirmation letter, and they told me to go inside with that, and queue at the sales desk. So to get my silver pass I paid a fair amount of money I had to queue 3 times, and my friend buying his ticket there was in before me.

 

On Saturday I went there early again, around 8pm, once again asked the staff where should I go if I have a silver pass and want to enter the hall where Stan Lee is signing. They sent me to a queue which ended up being the queue for silver and gold pass holders, but for EC2, and there was no access to the other building from inside. So by the time I could get out and get in to the other building, I got a VQ number 1040. I knew in that moment I had no chance to get my autograph. I just don't understand why did it say I don't need to get a VQ when I clearly had to. For the other guests I wanted to see, the queue was so short, that they didn't even give VQ tickets, or where they did it didn't matter if I got a VQ ticket or joined the end of the queue.

 

Never mind, I thought, I won't get an autograph, but there is still that evening event, so at least I can see Stan Lee. I asked at least four staff members (they were hard to find at this point around 3pm), but they either didn't know anything about that event, or said that only gold pass holders can meet Stan Lee.

 

I won't mention other problems, because others did before me, my only question is then, why did I pay 170 pounds for? Those autographs and photos I got, I could have gotten with a normal or early bird ticket, costing me much less, so I would have had more money to buy other things.

 

Sincerly,

a quite disappointed and confused silver pass holder.

You, my friend, should really have read what ypu get better. VQ tickets for example: you did NOT need them with a silver pass! You could just have joined Stans que and get your autographs in front of everybody else! I got all i wanted and more. Chaotic yes, but if you had a silver pass you could have easilly done everything you wanted with little stress. I'm very happy with how this con turned out, great job SM, although i agree organisation can be improved.

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Don't think you can blame showmasters for a broken air con that is the venues fault and people selling drinks outside for high price that is the normal for any event in this country.

 

I doubt the aircon was actually broken on Saturday considering it is apparently working today.

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Someone should answer the question why the fire exits were chained up. Pretty sure that's illegal as it has a massive health and safety risk

 

If only someone had taken photographs of it as evidence.... did anyone? hint, hint?

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