[sohmer]

My mood is less than pleased right now, and I’m going to tell you why.

To start things off, Lar and I will NOT be attending DragonCon in Atlanta this coming summer. In order to understand that, we must go back to a time and place…say, around September of this year.

This was our second year in Atlanta, and it was one of the shows we were most looking forward to. There’s just something about the atmosphere of this show that’s so casual, that you really get a chance to hang out with a great deal of wonderful people.

As last year was so successful for us, we paid for a larger booth this year and intended to do some fun & unusual things with the space. Upon getting to the show, however, someone had setup in our space. Confused, we asked the hall attendants what was going on, and were rudely informed that our booth had been moved.

When I inquired as to where, I was shown the furthest and poorly lit section of the room, with a giant pillar intersecting the middle of the booth. I then proceeded to tell the attendants that this was unacceptable, not only because of the move but because of the new location.

Despite the fact that I had announced where we were setup weeks leading up to the show, I would’ve been fine if we were moved to a location similar to the one we lost. But this was unacceptable.

The attendants, once again, were rude and told our crew that we could take the new spot or we could go home. This wasn’t their problem. Still calm and polite, I asked if there was someone else we could speak to, because we did not deserve to be spoken to like that.

A couple hours later, we sat on the carpet waiting, a minor functionary came downstairs and repeated what the attendants had told us. Again, I asked if there was anyone else I could talk to.

An hour later, one of the board members of the show came down to talk with us.

He apologized for the situation, note that this was the first apology we had received thus far, and inquired what could to be done to make things right. In the end, he generously offered to repay us for the booth, but still allow us to use. It was a good solution, we shook hands and all was well.

At the end of the show, I again thanked him for taking care of the matter, and we signed up for the next show gladly.

Usually how this works, is at the end of a show, you sign for the next one, and a few weeks later you receive an invoice. A month passed, and we had yet to receive a single thing.

Wanting to make sure everything was fine, Randy began calling them. For 6 weeks Randy called, at least 3 times per week leaving messages for everyone. No one called us back.

Finally, we reached someone, and were told that we were not invited back to DragonCon because of the incident. I was, am shocked.

We are not allowed to exhibit because their staff was verbally abusive towards us, including profanity. We are not allowed because they moved our location without any warning or apology. We are not allowed because DragonCon shoved us in the dark corner of the show.

Let me be clear. Never did I, or any of my staff, raise their voice or even mutter a ‘shite’ under their breath. That’s not how we behave.

I don’t understand this decision, and no one was inclined to explain it to me, only referring to the ‘incident’.

I am saddened by this, but more so that we won’t be able to hang out with the folks who came out to Atlanta to see us. I felt you were owed an explanation, and there it is. We hope to be able to find a show nearby that we can attend.

As for DragonCon, I will do my best to ensure that this story gets out, so others don’t share our fate.

- Because I can.

[Steakonaplate]

That is horible, I work in a company where we help with the planning and registrations of events such as this and i've never heard of this, yet I am only in customer Service yet have never had an exhibitor say that has happened to them, even having their booth moved.

That is by far shady and disrespectful on may levels.

you should go to Baltimore and show there. As it is much closer to me then GA.

[NightLamor]

You guys were the only reason why within the first week after Dragon*Con of 2009 happened, I bought my airplane tickets for a week next year and my Dragon*Con tickets, as well as booked a hotel. Now that you're not going, I'm at a lost at what to do. I mean, the costumes planned between my best friend and I were LFG and LICD related. All of them are non-refundable, but I don't want to give my money to a Con that treated you guys this way.
I'm going to their website to complain, they might ignore it, or might not listen, but I do know a fair bit number of people going there just to see you guys. And once the general population finds out and the scream of outrage is heard, that's one backslash I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of.
Damn it, the way things are going I'm never going to meet you guys.

[Tania]

Incredible, people don't know what they loose with bad attitude, same history for me in my favorite Anime event :S

[Nilly]

What assholes! I'd call them with complaints, because that is just utter bullshit. You guys were verbally abused, and you and Lar were the ones kicked out after all that?

[Novalyyn]

That... makes no sense. Unless you guys were actively trashing things (which I'm sure you weren't, even if some of you had at some point gotten angry - you just seem too professional-ish for that), it's kinda retarded to bar out what is not only someone willing to pay for the extra-good stuff, but someone who is rather popular and will guaranteed make others come and pay them that much more.

I mean, I once had roommates make a false complaint about me, but that was silly personal crap. This is money out of their pockets, possibly more than they bothered to think about.

[Michael Leuchten...]

I hope that you'll make another news post if you get a response from D*C management. I'd be interested to hear it.

[Steakonaplate]

it is but i don't see the grounds for the ban, personaly i would call customer service, of whoever is assisting with the event, ask to speak with exhibitor services and then go and speak with their manager regarding it, because if they had a 3rd party help with the event then they are responcible to make sure the cilent (whoever runs dragoncon) is happy and if low numbers from a well known exhibitor is the reason, im sure they would be THRILLEd to know.

thats what i would do anyways, if you cant get through to one channel, go through another.

[Jonath]

Sounds strange to me. Usually people aren't that ridiculous so either Dragon Con is seriously fucked up or you did something to antagonize them that you aren't mentioning.

[Tao_Man]

It is an old story, a con starts off for and by the fans and as it grows somewhere along the line a "screw you we are bigtime" atitude kicsk in and they are just another soulless corparation trying to milk the public for as much money as they can.

[Phayron Visard]

wow....just wow...

I have may friends who have gone to dragon con and have spoken so well of it. I have yet to attend and after reading this I do not think that I will. After treating you guys so bad then haveing the gaul to say you are not welcome back after they screwed things up. All I can say is that Dragon con has lost another patron, I hope this dosent put you guys off from doing other cons thought it whould be fun to meet you all.

[Hexeter]

That is just hard to believe. To move a PAID Exhibitor without notification is just completely unacceptable but to move you to an inferior space on top of that is just ludicrous. In this day and age no company can afford to be turning away a paying Customer. Particularly not a venue where their bread and butter comes from selling space to bring in people to their event. I sincerely hope they are not fostering that attitude in their Staff because it will not go well for them.

Out of personal interest I checked with the Atlanta Better Business Bureau and found that they have only one complaint against them and that it was closed but NOT to the satisfaction of the Customer involved.

If nothing else comes of this through Official Channels I suggest you start a letter writing campaign for LFG/LICD about it. Show them just how many people they are alienating based on poor Customer Service practices.

[Steakonaplate]

note i don't beleve it was the conference that moved them, rather then whoever was hosting the event, the convention center is just the holding pen. they say "you have this much room to work with, just don't break anything"
its up to Dragon con to say they will go here, here,here and here...oh and we're gonig to move LFG, here behind a piller..

[Hexeter]

It is an old story, a con starts off for and by the fans and as it grows somewhere along the line a "screw you we are bigtime" atitude kicsk in and they are just another soulless corparation trying to milk the public for as much money as they can.

Too true Tao_Man I remember a Con that was set up by Booster once for Firefly that Booster completely bailed on after taking in a great deal of cash leaving the Fans and even the Stars of the show in the dark. Fortunately the folks from Firefly are kick ass people and some of the Fans managed to cobble together a fun little event on the fly that the Stars even showed up for because so many Fans had come out despite them receiving nothing for attending.

[Xairic]

Regardless of whether you did anything to 'upset' the Con people or not, their behavior is/was ridiculous and juvenile.
You deserve an explanation of WHY you are not invited back.

Having met you and your crew twice now I find it hard to believe you did anything to warrant not being invited back.
Even if you had gotten angry with any one of the functionaries you dealt with, you were not in the wrong and it is only
human. I have seen far worse behavior from vendors at shows than anything you have described.

As for the $$ aspect - when I've seen your booth I have to think that you draw a lot more attention than MANY booths from
non-fans. Even if you had no idea who Richard is, an evil necromancer plushie is going to draw attention. And in comparison
the items you have for sale(and I've bought quite a few), are better quality than many things put out by people with big companies backing them.

This just is an unprofessional reaction by the Con.

[Airship Alice]

Well. I was rather excited for DragonCon. A bit less so now.
It truly seems they have no right or reason to boot you. There were many things I was looking forward to, but seeing you guys was near the top. I also don't feel right giving money to them now.
My most sincere hopes that this gets resolved somehow.

[dracornin]

wow...thats just, rotten.

I've worked Owlcon and I cant imagine anyone acting in that fashion. It just doesnt compute; but i suppose there are all sorts out there, once they get big enough anyone can go over to the asshole side of things.

Its a pity though because I too have everything prepared for my trip to dragoncon too and now i'm honestly not so sure i want to go, if thats how they are treating artists. >.< wonder how they'd react if those of us who have got tickets and very much wanted to see the LfG crew asked for their monies back.

not...that i think we'd get it...

[Lordmanannan]

I was intending to attend Dragon*con this upcoming year and a big part of that was meeting you guys. Now I'm not sure if I care to. I'm going to their website and filing a complaint. I encourage all others to do so.

[Amy Mist]

That sucks. It's not right that they would treat you that way. None of you seem like the type to cause a problem. You shouldn't have been moved in the first place, and that their methods of "fixing things" led up to you being booted? It just doesn't fit.

[Steakonaplate]

you know you can probably get your money back, just go to the website and get customer service. unless they state" this is at no time refundable" normaly they have a "you can have your money back if you cancel before this date"

so if you did pay and don't want to go, i sugest you do it now.