Oh, I have much more to say, and apologise if it's too much here, but I was furious.
Yes, Jensen went to the first one in 2007 with Danneel, I'm told the first time she went to one with him, and they were mostly Smallville/Buffy guests, as the show had only just started here then.
Yes, it was the same organisers (two rather casual and unbusinesslike guys who very much remind me of the Ghostfacers in their attitude and business manner, sort of playing at it, and thinking they are doing a great job of this, excited but clueless, if you know what I mean), and two years on, they are still exactly the same, wandering around in scruffy track gear, and still totally unprofessional - all the admin staff from the previous convention had left, (friends said they hadn't been paid for the last one, so refused to do this one), so they had no experienced staff at all. I really hope the actors got their money up front.
They're still unable to receive non-local payment so had huge queues from everyone non-UK to pay in cash on the day. They tried to set up Paypal, a month before the event, when Jared booked, and they started selling J2, (nothing like forward planning eh?) but with no financial records, Paypal wouldn't let them withdraw the money until some weeks later, as guarantee against claims for refunds, so they cancelled that account, and payments for the photo-ops and extra tickets were then void and refunded. That caused some of the huge queue on Friday for the J2 photos.
They still used the same suspiciously secretive "raffle" for the exclusive coffee lounge tickets for Jared and Jensen chats, which of course the staff and their friends win most of. In 2007 they asked their friends what their raffle ticket number was, and then later on it read out in the winning numbers - this time, they didn't bother to pretend, just read out the registration pass numbers of people who'd "won." I really begrudged handing over money for that raffle, but hoped it would be more transparent this time, given the number of people attending, and many from abroad, but no. There was another raffle later to win a signed photo, which Jared drew and was fair.
All in all, they are the most unprofessional business I've ever seen.
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branchandroot
Re: Aptly-named Asylum
Date: 2009-06-06 06:30 pm (UTC)Yes, Jensen went to the first one in 2007 with Danneel, I'm told the first time she went to one with him, and they were mostly Smallville/Buffy guests, as the show had only just started here then.
Yes, it was the same organisers (two rather casual and unbusinesslike guys who very much remind me of the Ghostfacers in their attitude and business manner, sort of playing at it, and thinking they are doing a great job of this, excited but clueless, if you know what I mean), and two years on, they are still exactly the same, wandering around in scruffy track gear, and still totally unprofessional - all the admin staff from the previous convention had left, (friends said they hadn't been paid for the last one, so refused to do this one), so they had no experienced staff at all. I really hope the actors got their money up front.
They're still unable to receive non-local payment so had huge queues from everyone non-UK to pay in cash on the day. They tried to set up Paypal, a month before the event, when Jared booked, and they started selling J2, (nothing like forward planning eh?) but with no financial records, Paypal wouldn't let them withdraw the money until some weeks later, as guarantee against claims for refunds, so they cancelled that account, and payments for the photo-ops and extra tickets were then void and refunded. That caused some of the huge queue on Friday for the J2 photos.
They still used the same suspiciously secretive "raffle" for the exclusive coffee lounge tickets for Jared and Jensen chats, which of course the staff and their friends win most of. In 2007 they asked their friends what their raffle ticket number was, and then later on it read out in the winning numbers - this time, they didn't bother to pretend, just read out the registration pass numbers of people who'd "won." I really begrudged handing over money for that raffle, but hoped it would be more transparent this time, given the number of people attending, and many from abroad, but no. There was another raffle later to win a signed photo, which Jared drew and was fair.
All in all, they are the most unprofessional business I've ever seen.