New York Comic Con

Revdex.com:At this time, I have not been contacted by New York Comic Con regarding complaint ID [redacted] .Sincerely, [redacted] ***

For approximately 4-years, NYCC has been enabling scalpers, despite their claims that they "hate them as much as the fans do"Yet, this year, their "fool proof" fan verification ticketing system was a complete bustNot even a half an hour after tickets had gone on sale, many people had sent screenshots of possibly HUNDREDS of tickets being sold at nearly four times their face valueI'm really bothered by the fact that not only scalping is still legal, but the fact that no one has investigated these matters with Comic Con's employeesPlease look into this

Revdex.com:At this time, my complaint, ID *** regarding New York Comic Con has been resolved
(By clicking "OK", your complaint will be closed as Resolved.)
Sincerely,*** ***

Revdex.com:At this time, my complaint, ID [redacted] regarding New York Comic Con has been resolved.
(By clicking "OK", your complaint will be closed as...

Resolved.)
Sincerely,[redacted]

I have been attending New York Comic Con since 2007. I am a librarian and have had the privilege of attending NYCC as a professional, something that I’ve always greatly appreciated. NYCC has helped me to better serve the teens and other comic fans in my library by providing me not only with great resources through panels and exhibiters but also by giving me a central place to network with other professionals. I am also a fan and a supporter of NYCC and have been for many years. Every year, I have a fantastic time because of the guests and panels and exhibiters and because of the great job that NYCC staff does. However, I am disgusted by how the NYCC staff has been trained to run NYCC this year. I’ve never had any issues with any of the staff in previous years. Sadly, I’ve personally come across several issues this year.
I realize that the majority of staff working NYCC are volunteers. It’s a great concept, not to mention economical, to utilize the voluntary services of fans to help run NYCC. But volunteers can only do so much. Perhaps, NYCC needs to invest in more full time staff not only to better train all the volunteers, but also to directly manage volunteers on the floor, particularly the Queue Hall.
On the first evening of NYCC 2015 – Thursday, October *, 2015 – I asked 4 different volunteers on what time the front doors would open in the morning. I didn’t ask when the Show Floor would open; I didn’t ask when the first panels would start, because these were questions that were already addressed in NYCC’s FAQs page. I specifically asked when the front doors would open to allow fans to enter the building to line up in Queue Hall either for Main Stage panels or to access the Show Floor. I asked 4 different volunteers and I received 4 different answers – 10AM, 7AM, 9AM, and “I don’t know.” Every staff should be able to answer something as simple as when the building will open.
On the third morning of NYCC 2015 – Saturday, October **, 2015 – I was standing on the Professional/Press line in front of Javitz at 8AM. At this point the non-prof/press line was already proceeding into Javitz to line up in Queue Hall. I understand that NYCC has a fans-first approach and I don’t mind that the Professionals and the Press were still waiting outside. What I do take exception to is being told by a staff that “this is how we did it last year,” – meaning that the non-professional/press badge holders were allowed into the building earlier than the professionals and the press in previous years. I take exception to this because this is false. I know this is false because I was on the professional/press line last year and both lines were allowed into the building simultaneously. I also find it insulting that when I told the staff otherwise, she blatantly told me that I was wrong on something I experienced first-hand.
Once I entered Javitz, I proceeded to line up for the first panel of the day – Firefly Reunion. I noticed that unlike other queues where the wristbands were given at the front of the line, the bands were being distributed at the back of the line as fans were entering the queue. I initially thought that I would be able to take advantage of this set-up and get the band for Firefly and go to another queue for a different panel. However, I was informed by a staff that I was not allowed to leave the Firefly queue once I entered it. By informed, I mean that a staff, who wasn’t even in charge of the Firefly queue, (she was manning the X-files queue) screamed into my face at 9AM on a Saturday. The NYCC’s Main Stage Clearing and Wristbanding page directly contradicts what this particular staff member so kindly “told” me. The following is taken directly from the NYCC page:
[redacted].
So, this staff not only gave the wrong information, but she also screamed into my face and tried to prevent me from leaving the queue, which in legal terms is unlawful restraint and is illegal.
The same morning, the queue for Marvel’s Daredevil/Jessica Jones panel filled up quickly and was capped. I asked the staff who capped the line whether everyone in the queue would be guaranteed a wristband. The staff affirmed that as long as we stayed in the queue that we would indeed be guaranteed a wristband for that particular panel. Not long after the queue was capped, the NYCC staff decided to open another queue for the same panel. I know that Main Stage is quite spacious and I assumed that the NYCC staff must know what they are doing by opening another queue so I was not overly concerned when NYCC staff started to distribute the wristbands not only to the first full queue but also to the second queue simultaneously. I am not upset that other fans who arrived later received wristbands far quicker than me just by being on the second queue. What is upsetting is then to be told that there were no more wristbands for several hundred fans who were in the first queue who were told that they were guaranteed wristbands. The issue does not stop here.
Instead of a manager being up-front and clear by addressing the fans who were no longer guaranteed wristbands, the NYCC staff initially said nothing. For 15-20 minutes, a couple of hundred fans were held in the queue and told nothing while other queues moved along and cleared out. If a staff had gotten a mic or a megaphone and calmly and truthfully addressed the fans from the start instead of having us wait in false expectations, the fans would not have been as upset. Yes, many fans still would have been upset, but NYCC exacerbated the situation by being secretive. Nothing was said for 15-20 minutes. Then a staff informed the front of the line that there were no additional wristbands. Because he told this to the front of the queue and without a mic, other than the 20 people in front, no one else heard this news.
This is an instance where NYCC should have used a customer service manager to calmly address the crowd, explain the situation and try to compensate the fans in some measure. The staff could have offered wristbands to other panels, even for the following day. They could have offered free T-shirts or other swags. They could have offered a meal voucher. And yes, I understand that even these measures would not have appeased every fan but something would have been better than what happened, which was nothing. A colleague of mine, along with members of the press, were escorted into a meeting room to explain the situation to a paid NYCC staff, and even this staff’s response summed up to nothing more than, “too bad.”
Then, the staff proceeded to tell the fans on this queue, and had been on this queue for the last hour that they needed to clear out because they were posing a fire hazard. The purpose of Queue Hall is specifically for people to line up in queues; not to mention the fact that fans were on this queue for the last hour and not a single NYCC staff mentioned fire hazard until they realized that they had messed up the wristband distribution and thought that they could rectify the situation by just getting fans away from Queue Hall.
What is upsetting is that this situation was in no way the fans’ faults. This situation was all on NYCC staff and was completely avoidable. Common sense dictates that “first come, first serve,” which is NYCC’s philosophy, means just that – first come, first served. The first queue should have been given the wristbands. Then the second queue should have been given theirs. Additionally, the staff should have informed fans lining up in the second queue, that not everyone in this queue would be guaranteed wristbands.
If NYCC does not want a riot in Queue Hall, then take a leaf out of [redacted] page and have online registrations for Main Stage panels (with a limited number for walk-ins on the day of the panel) so that fans can register for Main Stage panels ahead of time and be given a confirmation number that can be added to their RFID badges that can then be scanned at the time of the panels. Yes, this costs money. But investing now to avoid a potential riot in the future is something to consider. This is the closest that NYCC has ever had to having a riot occur. And with attendance rising every year, situations like this will be more likely to occur in future Cons if NYCC is not proactive.
I’m pointing out these issues not to get any one person in trouble. I didn’t ask staff for their names because I realize that the problem is not the volunteers personally, but in how they were trained and how much information was relayed to them prior to volunteering at NYCC. I’m pointing out these issues in the hopes that NYCC will be able to improve and be better for fans in future years.

Revdex.com:At this time, I have not been contacted by New York Comic Con regarding complaint ID [redacted].Sincerely,[redacted]

Revdex.com:At this time, I have not been contacted by New York Comic Con regarding complaint ID [redacted].Sincerely,[redacted]

For approximately 4-5 years, NYCC has been enabling scalpers, despite their claims that they "hate them as much as the fans do". Yet, this year, their "fool proof" fan verification ticketing system was a complete bust. Not even a half an hour after tickets had gone on sale, many people had sent screenshots of possibly HUNDREDS of tickets being sold at nearly four times their face value. I'm really bothered by the fact that not only scalping is still legal, but the fact that no one has investigated these matters with Comic Con's employees. Please look into this.

Review: Tickets were purchased for the New York Comic Con 2015 Event for October, 2015.

New York Comic Con's terms of service do not mention anything regarding resale of tickets, nor was it mentioned anywhere on their website until AFTER the ticket sales were complete.

Terms of service website:

I purchased tickets for myself and for my friends at work. My wife had booked a cruise without me knowing for the same exact booking period, then listed some of the tickets purchased on [redacted]. New York Comic Con went invasively into [redacted] and found the listing, got them to disclose my email address (personal information), and canceled all of my ticket orders.Desired Settlement: New York Comic Con should reinstate my orders so that my friends who asked for my assistance with buying tickets can attend.

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by New York Comic Con regarding complaint ID [redacted].Sincerely,[redacted]

Review: 2015 New York Comic Con tickets went on sale 05/**/15 at 12pm EST. Immediately upon loging into their website, customers were entered into a que that put them in line in the order they logged on. I was on at 12pm precisely and was in their que for 2.5 hrs before I was able to purchase tickets at that time but only a few options left available. Most of the tickets by that point were sold out. While logged on the their website during that 2.5 hr wait. I received multiple 408 error messages. During the 2.5 hours that I was logged online via my Ipad, I used my phone the call their customer service phone number to which I was placed on hold for 30 minutes and the at that point the phone call disconnected. Their website states that you would not lose you place in their que. After further investigation and thousands of other people logging complaints via there [redacted] page, I was aware that I was not the only one with this issue. The disturbing issue was that myself and other consumers noticed is that hundreds of tickets started appearing on [redacted] and sites like [redacted] minutes after they went on sale for more than 200% of their orginal ticket costs. While customers like myself were still waiting within there website que facing error messages. I feel that this needs to be further investigated because of how things took place.Desired Settlement: An explanation of what exactly happened to cause all those issues as well as an invesigation on why did these tickets go up almost immediately on ticket purchase and bidding websites.

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by New York Comic Con regarding complaint ID [redacted].Sincerely,[redacted]

Review: I ordered two tickets for comic con 2015, but I only got one in the mail, but I was charged for 2 tickets.Desired Settlement: The amount for the ticket that I didn't get amount refunded to my card.

Review: I ordered a badge and a sticker for Friday's Comic Con event in NYC. I received a shipping notice of the sticker, and received it shortly after. I never received a notice of shipping, nor the badge that would allow me to enter Comic Con on the day of the event. NYCC says this is not their fault, it is the Post Office, and that I should have gone to Will Call to have my number replaced. However, the badges are supposed to be activated 24 hours ahead of time and I could not afford to take an additional day off of work. Furthermore I don't believe my badge ever actually shipped, as the Customer Service rep refused to provide me with an actual shipping number, tracking number, or other identifying details and just told me to check my account on their website. I was told that they would be happy to honor my purchase, but could not give me a refund. At this point I said that would be fine and I'd just appreciate the badge, even if it was too late to attend the event. I was then told I could not be given any "merchandise," despite the fact this is the merchandise I had already paid for. In our interactions I felt as though the customer representative was rude, and intentionally being vague so as not to have to provide me with any actual assistance or solution. Additionally, at the end the rep added, rather snidely it seemed to me, that they hoped I had a better experience next time. All of the emails were short and without any help, and the fact that the company failed to get me my merchandise and is now refusing to resend it or refund my money is absurd and seems like theft.Desired Settlement: I would like my money refunded, and proof from the [redacted] that the company did actually make an attempt to ship my product, as well as an explanation of why a $2 sticker gets a tracking number and email, but the $50 badge received nothing. I do not want a refund for the sticker, as I did actually receive that.

Review: New York Comic Con has stated that they were having their tickets being sold on a site and since that time it seems that the STUBHUB site have the tickets before any of those using the sites are even able to purchase the tickets. I have been on the following site (since your system is convinced this is a SSN this is the event # [redacted] since 12pm 05/** since the time the sale has begun and have yet to purchase the tickets. I telephoned the company and they stated that the site had crashed and were working on the problem but had not given an ETA. This has been an issue and there are various customers trying to use their "queue" site but it doesn't appear that we are making progress to actually purchasing tickets. Since then I have emailed the company to complain and they only sent me the site (still on that line as well) and I have also placed my order with them in hopes that they will actually address the issue at hand. No comment from the company selling the tickets since this has begun. Have I also failed to mention that the site they put up wasn't made available until 43minutes before the actual sale?Desired Settlement: I would like to purchase my 4-day pass without a problem...

Consumer

Response:

At this time, my complaint, ID [redacted] regarding New York Comic Con has been resolved.

(By clicking "OK", your complaint will be closed as Resolved.)

Sincerely,[redacted]

I have been attending New York Comic Con since 2007. I am a librarian and have had the privilege of attending NYCC as a professional, something that I’ve always greatly appreciated. NYCC has helped me to better serve the teens and other comic fans in my library by providing me not only with great resources through panels and exhibiters but also by giving me a central place to network with other professionals. I am also a fan and a supporter of NYCC and have been for many years. Every year, I have a fantastic time because of the guests and panels and exhibiters and because of the great job that NYCC staff does. However, I am disgusted by how the NYCC staff has been trained to run NYCC this year. I’ve never had any issues with any of the staff in previous years. Sadly, I’ve personally come across several issues this year.

I realize that the majority of staff working NYCC are volunteers. It’s a great concept, not to mention economical, to utilize the voluntary services of fans to help run NYCC. But volunteers can only do so much. Perhaps, NYCC needs to invest in more full time staff not only to better train all the volunteers, but also to directly manage volunteers on the floor, particularly the Queue Hall.

On the first evening of NYCC 2015 – Thursday, October *, 2015 – I asked 4 different volunteers on what time the front doors would open in the morning. I didn’t ask when the Show Floor would open; I didn’t ask when the first panels would start, because these were questions that were already addressed in NYCC’s FAQs page. I specifically asked when the front doors would open to allow fans to enter the building to line up in Queue Hall either for Main Stage panels or to access the Show Floor. I asked 4 different volunteers and I received 4 different answers – 10AM, 7AM, 9AM, and “I don’t know.” Every staff should be able to answer something as simple as when the building will open.

On the third morning of NYCC 2015 – Saturday, October **, 2015 – I was standing on the Professional/Press line in front of Javitz at 8AM. At this point the non-prof/press line was already proceeding into Javitz to line up in Queue Hall. I understand that NYCC has a fans-first approach and I don’t mind that the Professionals and the Press were still waiting outside. What I do take exception to is being told by a staff that “this is how we did it last year,” – meaning that the non-professional/press badge holders were allowed into the building earlier than the professionals and the press in previous years. I take exception to this because this is false. I know this is false because I was on the professional/press line last year and both lines were allowed into the building simultaneously. I also find it insulting that when I told the staff otherwise, she blatantly told me that I was wrong on something I experienced first-hand.

Once I entered Javitz, I proceeded to line up for the first panel of the day – Firefly Reunion. I noticed that unlike other queues where the wristbands were given at the front of the line, the bands were being distributed at the back of the line as fans were entering the queue. I initially thought that I would be able to take advantage of this set-up and get the band for Firefly and go to another queue for a different panel. However, I was informed by a staff that I was not allowed to leave the Firefly queue once I entered it. By informed, I mean that a staff, who wasn’t even in charge of the Firefly queue, (she was manning the X-files queue) screamed into my face at 9AM on a Saturday. The NYCC’s Main Stage Clearing and Wristbanding page directly contradicts what this particular staff member so kindly “told” me. The following is taken directly from the NYCC page:

[redacted].

So, this staff not only gave the wrong information, but she also screamed into my face and tried to prevent me from leaving the queue, which in legal terms is unlawful restraint and is illegal.

The same morning, the queue for Marvel’s Daredevil/Jessica Jones panel filled up quickly and was capped. I asked the staff who capped the line whether everyone in the queue would be guaranteed a wristband. The staff affirmed that as long as we stayed in the queue that we would indeed be guaranteed a wristband for that particular panel. Not long after the queue was capped, the NYCC staff decided to open another queue for the same panel. I know that Main Stage is quite spacious and I assumed that the NYCC staff must know what they are doing by opening another queue so I was not overly concerned when NYCC staff started to distribute the wristbands not only to the first full queue but also to the second queue simultaneously. I am not upset that other fans who arrived later received wristbands far quicker than me just by being on the second queue. What is upsetting is then to be told that there were no more wristbands for several hundred fans who were in the first queue who were told that they were guaranteed wristbands. The issue does not stop here.

Instead of a manager being up-front and clear by addressing the fans who were no longer guaranteed wristbands, the NYCC staff initially said nothing. For 15-20 minutes, a couple of hundred fans were held in the queue and told nothing while other queues moved along and cleared out. If a staff had gotten a mic or a megaphone and calmly and truthfully addressed the fans from the start instead of having us wait in false expectations, the fans would not have been as upset. Yes, many fans still would have been upset, but NYCC exacerbated the situation by being secretive. Nothing was said for 15-20 minutes. Then a staff informed the front of the line that there were no additional wristbands. Because he told this to the front of the queue and without a mic, other than the 20 people in front, no one else heard this news.

This is an instance where NYCC should have used a customer service manager to calmly address the crowd, explain the situation and try to compensate the fans in some measure. The staff could have offered wristbands to other panels, even for the following day. They could have offered free T-shirts or other swags. They could have offered a meal voucher. And yes, I understand that even these measures would not have appeased every fan but something would have been better than what happened, which was nothing. A colleague of mine, along with members of the press, were escorted into a meeting room to explain the situation to a paid NYCC staff, and even this staff’s response summed up to nothing more than, “too bad.”

Then, the staff proceeded to tell the fans on this queue, and had been on this queue for the last hour that they needed to clear out because they were posing a fire hazard. The purpose of Queue Hall is specifically for people to line up in queues; not to mention the fact that fans were on this queue for the last hour and not a single NYCC staff mentioned fire hazard until they realized that they had messed up the wristband distribution and thought that they could rectify the situation by just getting fans away from Queue Hall.

What is upsetting is that this situation was in no way the fans’ faults. This situation was all on NYCC staff and was completely avoidable. Common sense dictates that “first come, first serve,” which is NYCC’s philosophy, means just that – first come, first served. The first queue should have been given the wristbands. Then the second queue should have been given theirs. Additionally, the staff should have informed fans lining up in the second queue, that not everyone in this queue would be guaranteed wristbands.

If NYCC does not want a riot in Queue Hall, then take a leaf out of [redacted] page and have online registrations for Main Stage panels (with a limited number for walk-ins on the day of the panel) so that fans can register for Main Stage panels ahead of time and be given a confirmation number that can be added to their RFID badges that can then be scanned at the time of the panels. Yes, this costs money. But investing now to avoid a potential riot in the future is something to consider. This is the closest that NYCC has ever had to having a riot occur. And with attendance rising every year, situations like this will be more likely to occur in future Cons if NYCC is not proactive.

I’m pointing out these issues not to get any one person in trouble. I didn’t ask staff for their names because I realize that the problem is not the volunteers personally, but in how they were trained and how much information was relayed to them prior to volunteering at NYCC. I’m pointing out these issues in the hopes that NYCC will be able to improve and be better for fans in future years.