Badges sold out?
Posted by roganca glory

glory wrote:
jclapham wrote:
This is insane, I have seven people who were expecting to go that were going to buy their badges on site, none of us received an email about not being able to purchase them there. We've been three times, this is the first year this has happened.
Guess we're not going. Great customer service.
I know this doesn't help now, but Gen Con did send out emails about the sell out. Many, many emails.
Many, many emails. Many warnings on the web page we are on right now. Much discussion in the facebook group. It sucks they didn't call you directly and leave a detailed message, then follow up to make sure you got it, but hey.

Posted by roganca

Only slightly less sympathetic would be a new topic today that was titled "Downtown Hotels Sold Out?" that ended with "Great customer service, Gen Con..."

Posted by alans

Yes, it's been on Facebook multiple times.  
People are definitely used to being able to just go to Gen Con on the day they want to attend / arrive, get in line, and buy badges.  Hopefully Gen Con will have some kind of pre-emptive customer service people there, bc, yes, there are going to be people that are upset about it.  
Anyone who isn't in the email loop and doesn't keep up with Facebook and/or look at their news feed (Twitter, also, I assume, but I am not on that) would and WILL certainly be surprised and unhappy to see that they can't get in.
But, I will say, the suggestions for volunteering are not meant to do anything but inform.  Right now, you can buy Thur/Fri/Sun individual day badges.  Sunday badges are good for up to 4 people, who don't have to be related.  Yes, it will cost more.  Those are the only options.  Volunteer, or pay more, and skip Saturday.  Next year will be interesting I think, because I'm guessing initial badge saies will be much more brisk!

Posted by austicke

Some folks are just not as plugged in following Gen Con news. I think there are going to be a whole bunch of locals that will be very disappointed when they show up expecting to buy badges onsite.

Hopefully the local news media gets the words out, but some folks will be in the dark no matter how many times it's repeated.

____________________________________________________
Alec Usticke, Unofficial Gen Con Indy Facebook Discussion Group

Posted by squirecam alans

alans wrote:
Yes, it's been on Facebook multiple times.  
People are definitely used to being able to just go to Gen Con on the day they want to attend / arrive, get in line, and buy badges.  Hopefully Gen Con will have some kind of pre-emptive customer service people there, bc, yes, there are going to be people that are upset about it.  
Anyone who isn't in the email loop and doesn't keep up with Facebook and/or look at their news feed (Twitter, also, I assume, but I am not on that) would and WILL certainly be surprised and unhappy to see that they can't get in.
But, I will say, the suggestions for volunteering are not meant to do anything but inform.  Right now, you can buy Thur/Fri/Sun individual day badges.  Sunday badges are good for up to 4 people, who don't have to be related.  Yes, it will cost more.  Those are the only options.  Volunteer, or pay more, and skip Saturday.  Next year will be interesting I think, because I'm guessing initial badge saies will be much more brisk!
I would buy the TH,F and Sunday badges. Try to work on Saturday, if one is allowed to work on a one day badge, or just play local games at the hotel on Saturday.

Better to miss one day then miss all of the convention.

Posted by jmsetzer austicke

austicke wrote:
Some folks are just not as plugged in following Gen Con news. I think there are going to be a whole bunch of locals that will be very disappointed when they show up expecting to buy badges onsite.
Hopefully the local news media gets the words out, but some folks will be in the dark no matter how many times it's repeated.
____________________________________________________
Alec Usticke, Unofficial Gen Con Indy Facebook Discussion Group
Totally agree, Alec. Not everyone gets GEN CON email, not everyone frequents the forums of Facebook group. Some people just "know they can buy a badge if the decide to go." Obviously, they will be very disappointed if they make the trek to Indy and find out they can't get a badge. I think it's going to be much more likely to be a local problem; I can't imagine someone driving from, say, Wisconsin without checking GEN CON's web site first. But I could be (and probably will be) wrong on that.

Posted by alans

<<I think it's going to be much more likely to be a local problem; I can't imagine someone driving from, say, Wisconsin without checking GEN CON's web site first. But I could be (and probably will be) wrong on that.>>
Well, it doesn't exactly leap out at you either, if you just pull up the website.
Even the "Badge Information" tab does not show a sell-out in a bold/obvious way, or say you can't buy them on-site.  That should be a 24-point banner on the main screen and Badge Info screen, I'd think.

Posted by aquabunny lord thrifty the cromulent

mstabosz wrote:
jclapham wrote:
mstabosz wrote:
[/forums/8-attendees-customers/topics/8089-badges-sold-out?page=1#33689ined] jclapham wrote:[/url]
This is insane, I have seven people who were expecting to go that were going to buy their badges on site, none of us received an email about not being able to purchase them there. We've been three times, this is the first year this has happened.
Guess we're not going. Great customer service.

I don't know what you want.  There was a limited number of badges because there's a limited amount of physical space to accommodate human beings.  If a popular movie sells out because there is a limited number of seats in the theater, what do you expect the theater management to do? You could have bought a badge ahead of time.  Why didn't you do that?  They've been on sale for 6 months.  I bought mine relatively recently, in mid-May.  Even just buying it 3 weeks ago would suffice.  I'm sorry you can't go, but poor planning on your part is not the fault of GenCon.
I'm not getting into a fight over this. Yes, I know I made a mistake, but it's frustrating that I never received any kind of warning from GenCon that this was a possibility. I can even prove I didn't get any mail from GenCon about the issue. It makes it doubly worse that you and andrewj feel the need to lecture me on my mistake.
The problem is that this happened unexpectedly and they wouldn't have been able to warn anyone about it.  Even if you were getting every E-Mail they sent out, by the time they sent notice of the badges selling out, it would already be too late.
what? No. In the last few weeks of pre-reg, they were super open about the fact that they expected 4-day badges to sell out. It wasn't like the first we heard about the possibility was after it had already happened. Plenty of warning was given before the sellout happened. I don't even get their emails and I knew about this.

you don't even have to have been a super early-bird like some; I bought my four-day badge as late as June 26 and they were still available for a few days after that. January was definitely not necessary this year.

Posted by cincinatas

Actually with locals they should not necessarily be totally caught unawares. I (as a local) actually found out about the potential for selling out and the sell out through the local news WISH-TV who reported it on their website before Gen Con did on their site.

Posted by garhkal alans

alans wrote:
Yes, it's been on Facebook multiple times. 

Like i chastized someone over from the ClassicBattleTech boards, not everyone is ON facebook though.

Posted by braewe

Amen. I avoid Facebook like the plague. At some point they instituted this thing where people who have you friended can see you connect and wham. It  like I was being stalked. I don't think I have logged in now for more than two seconds in ages. And even then not on my own page but somewhere else. I HATE Facebook.

That said surely other sites have mentioned the approaching sellout.

Posted by garhkal

True it could be mentioned else where.  I just get really irked that people 'assume cause it was mentioned on facebook, everyone must have heard'..

Posted by nikas zekeval roganca

roganca wrote:
Only slightly less sympathetic would be a new topic today that was titled "Downtown Hotels Sold Out?" that ended with "Great customer service, Gen Con..."

Maybe not, I've been haunting the IHG webpage (work sent me on enough trips, I'm looking to spend their points) the last couple weeks, and well it looks like rooms are opening up, if you are willing to shell out cash or customer points for out of block rooms.

Posted by rbree jclapham

Wait a minute... didn' you say the last time you heard from GenCon was when you got your exhibitor badge?  So you have a badge?

Posted by austicke rbree

rbree wrote:Wait a minute... didn' you say the last time you heard from GenCon was when you got your exhibitor badge?  So you have a badge?

If you read what he wrote, he's talking about friends missing out on badges.

____________________________________________________
Alec Usticke, Unofficial Gen Con Indy Facebook Discussion Group

Posted by rbree

So if he, s an exhibitor he can buy a certain number of badges for people to work the booth...  so doesn, t that kind of solve the problem?

Posted by rbree

he also so says... I guess we are not going in one of his first three posts...  that, s where I got the idea he didn't have a badge either.
 

Posted by lilyjade austicke

austicke wrote:
Some folks are just not as plugged in following Gen Con news. I think there are going to be a whole bunch of locals that will be very disappointed when they show up expecting to buy badges onsite.
Hopefully the local news media gets the words out, but some folks will be in the dark no matter how many times it's repeated.
____________________________________________________
Alec Usticke, Unofficial Gen Con Indy Facebook Discussion Group
They have had multiple news articles and reports on the fact they have sold out. The local media has been great about getting the information out.

Posted by mhayward1978 jclapham

jclapham wrote:
glory wrote:
jclapham wrote:
This is insane, I have seven people who were expecting to go that were going to buy their badges on site, none of us received an email about not being able to purchase them there. We've been three times, this is the first year this has happened.
Guess we're not going. Great customer service.
I know this doesn't help now, but Gen Con did send out emails about the sell out. Many, many emails.
  Yeah, but I didn't get any of those. I've even opened a ticket with customer service to see why that is. The last message I got from them was three months ago when I got my exhibitor's badge.

I was in a similar boat - Gen Con stopped sending me email randomly mid last year, through no out out of mine.  I noticed because there was some relatively big news I heard through other channels and wondered why I didn't get the newsletter.

Go here and see what mailing lists you are on / click "change" to sign up.  

https://www.gencon.com/profile

 

Posted by mhayward1978 roganca

roganca wrote:
glory wrote:
jclapham wrote:
This is insane, I have seven people who were expecting to go that were going to buy their badges on site, none of us received an email about not being able to purchase them there. We've been three times, this is the first year this has happened.
Guess we're not going. Great customer service.
I know this doesn't help now, but Gen Con did send out emails about the sell out. Many, many emails.
Many, many emails. Many warnings on the web page we are on right now. Much discussion in the facebook group. It sucks they didn't call you directly and leave a detailed message, then follow up to make sure you got it, but hey.

Before you unload your second sarcasm barrel - consider the possibility that they didn't receive emails due to a fault in Gen Con's forum or mail software, and through no fault of their own?  It wouldn't be the first time.

 

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