Motor City ComicCon 2013

[rjs1162]

Originally Posted by greenjeans1978

Got my advance tickets for the show months ago. Was forced to stand outside in line for over an hour and a half in a line that wrapped around the building twice because the con organizers decided it would be a great idea to make advance ticket holders stand in the same line with people who hadn't even bought their tickets yet. (And for some people, they had to wait even longer than that to get into the building.) Some folks were so angry with the way the con screwed everyone over that they either gave their tickets away for free or tore them up in protest. Add to this zero parking space (to the point where even the celebrity guests were getting angry), a complete lack of anything resembling crowd control, and an overall lack of respect for their patrons, and you have an utter failure of a convention.

I've been a regular at MCCC since 2003. As of this, I'm done with them. I'm never going back.

Saturday was mess for sure. Almost a 3 hour drive from my house to the con. Took me 25 minutes the day before. I did manage to get a parking spot when I finally pulled in. Not sure why there was a line around the building? That may have been for the Stan meet and greet?. We were lucky and walked right in another entrance. I thing next year I will do a Friday only. Got all my good booty pretty much the first day anyhow!

More bad press for the Motor City!

[joefixit2]

wow, sounds like it was rough. Did they change venues this year or do something different?

[biglebowski9999]

Yesterday was a complete cluster f*ck. The con has gotten far too big for the management to be so inept. We got lucky and were able to sneak past the line or we would have waited two hours after buying tix ahead of time. For the size of the venue, it has SDCC type crowded-ness but it has the attractions of a small-town con and management that would have a tough time organizing a gradeschool carnival.

IF we ever go back, it will be on a Friday or Sunday.

[rjs1162]

Originally Posted by joefixit2

wow, sounds like it was rough. Did they change venues this year or do something different?

I think they did,although last year I did not attend. Used to be at the Novi Expo Center. Today was much more relaxed. It had to be Stan that brought them in for that nightmare yesterday. Norman Reedus had one heck of a line going today. Take away Saturday,and it was a pretty decent con.

[Simplyrob]

Sorry to hear your con was rough guys. I'm starting to notice this same kind of story from all over the country lately. I was really hoping that having a con basically every weekend somewhere in the US would eliviate the SDCC nonsense. Apparently not. We have a 4 day con this weekend but assuming I can get all my isht done preview night and Friday, I'll pass on the other two. Yikes.

[BOWEN NUT]

The Motor City Comic Con has been at the same location for quite a number of years now.

I went on Saturday. I had advance tickets (allowing me to get in 1/2 hour before the people who had not gotten tickets yet) and wanted to see Stan Lee. (The Stan Lee autograph pkg and VIP tickets were sold out) I was willing to get there early stand in line and pay for his autograph.

I got there at 8:00am and stood in line by the door about 20 people deep at this point already. Soon the line wrapped around the building. Then at about 9:30some a$$hole with a bullhorn goes to the back of the line and announces to the people that advance ticket holders need to get up to the doors. I hear a stampede of people suddenly rush past and now I'm about 150 people deep!! and get this... the guy with the bullhorn was supposed to be working the parking!! What's he doing saying anything to people in line?

Nobody at Motor City knew what they were doing. It was a complete cluster***.

After waiting an hour past the time I should have been let in with my advance ticket I go to get in line for Stan Lee when I'm told that only people with the VIP and Stan Lee autograph pkg would be allowed in line.

I had called the people at Motor City and asked them if I could still stand in the Stan Lee line BEFORE I purchased my advance tickets. They told me I could.

All I got was an "apology" for being misinformed.

The place was too crowded and they were only using about half of the space that the place has!

[greenjeans1978]

Making things worse was the fact that while the advance ticket holders were forced to stand outside in line for God knows how long, people who were showing up to buy their one-day tickets were being allowed in. I kid you not; people buying their tickets on the spot got preferential treatment over those who bought advanced tickets. I guess MCCC figured they already had the advanced ticket money, so why not squeeze some more cash out of the deal? And some of the advance ticket holders were turned away by the fire marshal because the building was overcrowded. So if you spent your $58 for the weekend and you got shut out for overcrowding, you were out the cash for nothing.

And MCCC's excuse? They "didn't anticipate" the numbers the con was going to bring. Really? They had no records of the advance ticket sales? They had no way to plan ahead for crowd control or parking control? (They were still charging $5 for parking when people had to park blocks away from the convention center!) They couldn't have divvied up the lines so advance ticket holders could get in properly instead of being left stuck outside for no good reason? Talk about a total scam.

How do they expect people to forgive and forget when they won't address or even apologize for the terrible way the customers were treated? Or, on their Facebook page, they use their employees and vendors to accuse their critics of being entitled whiners and trying to shame them into grateful silence? All they've accomplished is alienating a ton of patrons and earning bad press. There's no way these morons have learned anything from this experience.